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Sermon on John 1:1-18

I had the fun of opening a series of sermons on John’s Gospel for St Mary’s, Sileby last Sunday, 5 March, and they’ve made the sermon available on their Youtube channel. So I thought I’d share it with my blog readers. I begin by looking at John’s purpose in writing, focusing on John 20:30-31, and then turn to look at how John opens his Gospel in a way which prepares for an anticipates what he will say in the whole book. Comments most welcome.

Isaiah 7:10-17: slides and video from a sermon

I learned a great deal by working on a sermon on Isaiah 7:10-17 with the quotation of Isaiah 7:14 in Matthew 1:22-23 for our church, Emmanuel, Loughborough, yesterday (Advent 4, 18 December). I’m particularly grateful to my friend Dan Gurtner, who is working on the revised Word Biblical Commentary on Matthew, for helping me think about how Matthew ‘reads’ Isaiah, although he should not, of course, be held responsible for my conclusions. Here are the video (just over 21 mins) and the slides from my Continue reading →

Reflecting on SBL Denver 2022

I greatly enjoyed being in Denver a couple of weeks ago for the annual SBL meeting. It was a lovely opportunity to reconnect with people, many of whom I’d not seen in person for three years because of covid—I cannot recall a day when I have hugged so many people as the Friday! In particular, it was great to see current and former doctoral students in person again. I went to a bunch of papers, although I found myself generally selecting individual papers in a Continue reading →