This story puzzles me. Maybe you have some ideas.

John 6:
“1 Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee…
3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish Passover Festival was near.”

In the previous chapter he WAS in Jerusalem at one of the Jewish festivals! Why did Jesus and the disciples walk 100km to the northern side of the Sea of Galilee when the Passover was near? They should have stayed in or near Jerusalem. (more…)

In my experience Christians often ask about the interpretation of 1Cor. 13:

1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

They often focus way too much on the spiritual gifts and miss Paul’s point that speaking in tongues is considered a childish thing that should vanish with adulthood. Doesn’t that mean that those who are so fond of speaking in tongues got stuck in childhood and never want to grow up? (more…)

In Matt. 15:21-28 a Canaanite woman approaches Jesus and asks him to heal her daughter.

21 Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon.

22 And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.”

23 But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.”

24 But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

25 But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!”

26 And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

27 But she said, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”

28 Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once.

It appears, after initially rejecting her request Jesus finally gave in to her nagging and granted her request. This may not be what happened.  To understand what took place, perhaps we should first consider the meaning of the term “sent”. (more…)

In Genesis 18 three men visits Abraham and promise that he would have a son through Sarah. Hearing this, standing at the tent door, Sarah laughs.

Gen 18:
13 And the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, when I am so old?’
14 “Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

Abraham appears to speak to only one of the men. Christianity believes that this was the pre-incarnate Christ. (more…)

Many Christians are curious about this mysterious figure called Melchizedek. What was the religion in Jerusalem before Abraham was called? How could he be the high Priest of the Most High when the office of the High Priest was only defined in the Law? Somehow this doesn’t fit into the picture, at least, of traditional theology.

Gen 14:18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High. (more…)