Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Feb 2, 2012 in Blog | 46 comments
Thanks to those of you who were following my tweets from the debate. As promised, here are some further reflections on last night’s debate between Bart Ehrman and Dan Wallace. First of all, both men did a good job presenting their case and responding to each other’s questions. Bart Ehrman is a skilled debater and a very gifted communicator. He took charge of the debate from the very beginning, communicating clearly and directly. He also effectively anticipated many of Wallace’s arguments, especially regarding the number of Greek NT manuscripts.
When it was Wallace’s turn, he showed...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Dec 23, 2010 in Blog | 1 comment
In an earlier blog post, I wrote about the question of whether or not Jesus was born on December 25. To continue the conversation, here is what I continue to be the best article on the subject, by Paul Maier, Russell H. Seibert Professor of Ancient History at the University of Michigan. The piece appeared originally in Chronos, Karis, Christos: Nativity and Chronological Studies presented to Jack Fingan (ed. J. Vardaman; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1989), and appears here with permission of the author.
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Aug 11, 2010 in Something to Think About | 0 comments
In the ancient world, it was customary to open letters with some small talk—a well wish, or a reminder of good times had in the past. Most of Paul’s letters, correspondingly, open with a thanksgiving, or a prayer, for the recipients; but not his letter to the Galatians. This is a measure of the apostle’s exasperation. “I am amazed,” he jumps right into the heart of the matter, “that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ, and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another gospel!” (Gal 1:6–7)
In first-century Galatia, as...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Jul 24, 2010 in Blog | 1 comment
The Bauer-Ehrman thesis contends that “orthodoxy” is not a first-century phenomenon but only a later concept that allowed the Roman church to squelch alternate versions of Christianity. We have seen that Bauer virtually ignores the New Testament evidence while believing to find evidence for early heresy and late orthodoxy in various urban centers of the second century. Ehrman, likewise, makes much of second-century diversity and assigns the notion of orthodoxy to later church councils. The precursors of the orthodox, Ehrman calls “proto-orthodox,” even though it must,...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Jul 12, 2010 in Something to Think About | 0 comments
In the course of world history many have devised ways of salvation. Virtually all man-made religions have one thing in common: they are based on human self-effort. Among the major religions, Christianity is unique in that while typically the emphasis is on what a person must do to be saved, Christianity focuses on what one man has done for all humans—Jesus Christ—and what is now available for all on the basis of simple trust in Christ.
Thus Paul’s words ring out in his letter to the Romans: “But now, apart from law, God’s righteousness has been revealed—attested by the Law and the...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Jun 18, 2010 in Something to Think About | 1 comment
If the first generation of the Christian church proves anything, it is this: the power of God is infinitely greater than any human obstacles in its way. A humble Galilean craftsman, who suffered an untimely death and accumulated no earthly possessions, wrote no books, and left behind nothing but a small band of disheartened followers, spawned a movement so powerful that it took the Roman empire by storm.
How was this possible? There is only one satisfying answer: the same Jesus who was crucified on a hill outside of Jerusalem rose again from the dead three days later and was exalted to the...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on May 28, 2010 in Something to Think About | 3 comments
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned people against false prophets. With simple logic, Jesus pointed out that “every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit … So you’ll recognize them by their fruit” (Matt 7:17, 20). For not everyone who says to Jesus, “Lord, Lord!” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of his Father in heaven (Matt 7:21).
Later on toward the close of his ministry, Jesus challenged his followers with similar words. There earlier had been those who appeared to place their trust in Jesus, but Jesus was not...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on May 7, 2010 in Something to Think About | 0 comments
Jewish rabbis in Jesus’ day typically avoided women and stayed away from Samaritans. Thus the Samaritan woman who came to the well in Sychar had at least two strikes against her. Add to this her immoral lifestyle, and Jesus had every reason to evade contact with this woman. Even the woman herself was surprised that Jesus was talking to her: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (John 4:9). And the evangelist added, “For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.” Jesus’ disciples, too, upon their return from grocery shopping in town, “were amazed...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Apr 13, 2010 in Something to Think About | 0 comments
In his wisdom, God gave us, not one, but four inspired accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry. Without contradicting each other, each of the evangelists captured unique aspects of Jesus’ heart and mission. Matthew showed how Jesus fulfilled the scriptural predictions regarding the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. Mark presented Jesus as the powerful, miracle-working Son of God, recognized even by the Gentile world. John extolled Jesus as the pre-existent Word who was made flesh in Jesus and revealed God’s glory through an escalating series of messianic signs.
But what about Luke, Paul’s...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Mar 22, 2010 in Something to Think About | 3 comments
Few of Jesus’ miracles, attested in all four canonical Gospels, is as astounding as his walking on the water (e.g. Mark 6:45–52). Like his turning a large amount of water into wine, this nature miracle defies human explanation. Not that unbelievers have not tried to account for the event by supplying some naturalistic explanation. Just recently, for example, someone suggested that Jesus was simply skipping from rock to rock, hidden just barely beneath the surface of the water. This may get first prize for imaginativeness, but it is so transparent an attempt to explain the unexplainable...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Feb 3, 2010 in Blog | 0 comments
A while back, I contributed a chapter entitled “The Gospel for All Nations” to a book called Faith Comes by Hearing: A Response to Inclusivism (edited by Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson (InterVarsity). Here are my five concluding observations:
1. Divine, not human: The gospel is God’s saving message to a world living in darkness and a humanity lost in its sin. The gospel is not a human message, nor was its conception a function of human initiative, but its origin and its impetus derive solely from God. For this reason our role with regard to the gospel is not that of...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Jan 19, 2010 in Something to Think About | 1 comment
“All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth” (Matt 28:18). Who is the man who can claim to have been given all authority in heaven and on earth? Has a more amazing statement ever been made, a more startling claim ever been registered? In the climactic moment in Matthew’s entire Gospel, here is Jesus, with the Eleven, in Galilee, ascended onto the mountain, uttering what has become known as “the Great Commission”: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Aug 14, 2009 in Blog | 2 comments
In a Zondervan publication, John Oswalt, long-time Old Testament scholar and author of the two-volume commentary on Isaiah in the NICOT series, discusses The Bible among the Myths. In light of controversial books by writers such as Peter Enns or Kenton Sparks, Oswalt tackles an important question: How is the Bible (actually, the Old Testament) similar or different from other ancient (Near Eastern) literature? Is it, to quote the subtitle, “Unique Revelation or Just Ancient Literature”?
In essence, Oswalt argues that while there are doubtless numerous surface similarities between the Old...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Sep 13, 2008 in Blog | 9 comments
My findings regarding the syntax of 1 Timothy 2:12 in the first edition of Women in the Church were widely accepted even among feminist scholars (though, of course, they still don’t agree with the book’s overall thrust on other grounds). There has been a recent exception, though, in the case of Philip Payne, who recently published an article in the journal New Testament Studies. In my 1995 essay in the first edition, I provided a thorough critique of Payne’s earlier unpublished 1988 paper on the subject. Now Payne, in turn, has responded to my study, claiming that 9 of the 100...
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Posted by Andreas Köstenberger on Mar 20, 2008 in Blog | 4 comments
As the angels told the women at the empty tomb, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee?” (Luke 24:5–6). The four New Testament Gospels record at least eleven resurrection appearances to Jesus to hundreds of individuals over a period of several weeks. None of the Gospels have all the appearances, which requires that we reconstruct the probable sequence of these appearances. The following chart appeared in The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament (B...
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