Saul’s change of name to Paul

10 April 2023 by Steve Walton
6 comments
The lovely people at the Logos Academic blog kindly commissioned and published a piece from me on what Saul of Tarsus’ name changed to Paul. This is an issue I had to think about in the light of this shift in Acts, and the fact that he’s always ‘Paul’ in his letters. Enjoy! Comments are most welcome.

Sermon on John 1:1-18

14 March 2023 by Steve Walton
No comments
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

19 December 2022 by Steve Walton
No comments
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 →

Slides for my talks on Matthew

15 October 2022 by Steve Walton
2 comments
I’ve had a fun day with lay ministers and clergy from Blackburn (Anglican) diocese today, organised by my friend Amy White. Here, here and here are the three sets of slides from my input to the day, covering (i) an introduction to Matthew and how he orgnises his Gospel; (ii) listening to Matthew using Tom Wright’s four ‘louspeakers’ from his excellent book How God Became King on the Gospels; and (iii) walking through Matthew 8–9. Above is one of the books I recommended, by my Continue reading →

My commentary on Acts 2:42-47

31 August 2022 by Steve Walton
No comments
As many of my readers will know, I’m working on the Word Biblical Commentary (WBC) on Acts. My friend Andrew Roberts recently asked me to contribute to his Holy Habits blog on Acts 2:42-47, and I gave him the ‘Explanation’ section of my commentary on that passage—that’s the part of the WBC which focuses on pulling the threads of a passage together to give an overall interpretation of it. Here’s a link to that blog—you’ll find lots of other good stuff there too! Comments and Continue reading →