Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on May 26, 2006 in Blog | 5 comments
In a previous post, I have tried to make a case (thoroughly unoriginal) for the apostle John as the author of the Gospel that bears his name. Assuming John wrote the Gospel, why did he write it? The best place to start is with his own purpose statement in John 20:30–31: “But these [signs] are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John selected several startling signs of Jesus (seven, I believe; see my BBR article cited below) to convince his readers that Jesus was in fact the promised Messiah (or, as...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on May 17, 2006 in Blog | 1 comment
In a recent survey, LifeWay researchers solicited responses as to the “Top 10 Issues Facing Today’s Family.” More than 2,000 people from around the country were part of this project. What are these top 10 issues facing today’s family? Here are the results:
Anti-Christian culture
Divorce
Busyness
Absent father figure
Lack of discipline
Financial pressures
Lack of communication
Negative media influences
Balance of work and family
Materialism
What are we to make of this list? Immediately, we are struck by the superficiality of responses. What does it mean for “anti-Christian...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on May 12, 2006 in Blog | 6 comments
In my public appearances on The Da Vinci Code, I routinely make the point that the release of the movie presents the church with a golden opportunity for witness. In this I am joined by many others who have prepared helpful resources for dealing with the central claims of The Da Vinci Code.
Yet not everyone agrees that the church ought to use the release of the movie as a witnessing opportunity. In a recent column posted at http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/commentaries/othercott.html entitled “Let’s ‘Othercott’ Da Vinci,” Barbara Nicolosi (founder and director of Act One, an...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on May 11, 2006 in Blog | 5 comments
Who is setting the agenda for evangelical scholarship? Too often, it is non-evangelical scholars. Recent examples include Bart Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus and his other writings on early Christianity as well as the ubiquitous Da Vinci Code, which have generated a whole swath of evangelical responses. But are evangelicals forever doomed to take their cue from those outside their movement and to busy themselves with responding to the works of others?
I recently had the opportunity to reflect on issues such as these when I was asked to represent the field of New Testament in a panel discussion...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on May 5, 2006 in Blog | 1 comment
The authenticity of Paul’s correspondence with Timothy and Titus went unchallenged until the nineteenth century. Since then, more and more commentators have alleged that the Pastoral Epistles are an instance of pseudonymous writing (pseudo = false; -nymous = name) in which a later follower attributes his own work to his revered teacher in order to perpetuate that person’s teaching and influence.
Richard Bauckham, for example, one of the major biblical scholars and historians of our day, believes that the author of the Pastorals “has thought himself into situations in Paul’s ministry...
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