Author Archives: jonmkiwi

He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” Matthew 13.52, NIV Whenever I have passed this saying in the street (as it were), IContinue reading “You are throwing out WHAT?”

“The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for,“WhoContinue reading “Wrangle wrangle wrangle”

Καὶ εἶπαν οἱ ἀπόστολοι τῷ κυρίῳ· Πρόσθες ἡμῖν πίστιν. εἶπεν δὲ ὁ κύριος· Εἰ ἔχετε πίστιν ὡς κόκκον σινάπεως, ἐλέγετε ἂν τῇ συκαμίνῳ ταύτῃ· Ἐκριζώθητι καὶ φυτεύθητι ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ· καὶ ὑπήκουσεν ἂν ὑμῖν. Luke 17:5-6 SBL Greek Testament The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”He replied, “If you have faith as smallContinue reading “Round the mulberry tree…”

Just a short one this time. Paul writes some long and involved Greek sentences sometimes. This one is 6 verses long (obviously breaking his letters into verses happened much later, but you get my point: it is a long sentence. In their efforts to allow modern readers to make sense, translators ( not unreasonably )Continue reading “Ephesians 3:14-19”

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us… Ephesians 3.20, NIV Τῷ δὲ δυναμένῳ ὑπὲρ πάντα ποιῆσαι ὑπερεκπερισσοῦ ὧν αἰτούμεθα ἢ νοοῦμεν κατὰ τὴν δύναμιν τὴν ἐνεργουμένην ἐν ἡμῖν… Ephesians 3.20, SBL Greek NT Always a shockContinue reading “Lose that religious mindset”

καὶ περιβλεψάμενος πάντας αὐτοὺς εἶπεν αὐτῷ· Ἔκτεινον τὴν χεῖρά σου· ὁ δὲ ἐποίησεν, καὶ ἀπεκατεστάθη ἡ χεὶρ αὐτοῦ. αὐτοὶ δὲ ἐπλήσθησαν ἀνοίας, καὶ διελάλουν πρὸς ἀλλήλους τί ἂν ποιήσαιεν τῷ Ἰησοῦ. Luke 6:10-11, SBL Greek NT And looking around at them all, He said to him [the man with the withered right hand], “stretch outContinue reading “Who healed on the Sabbath?”

Ἐδόθη μοι πᾶσα ἐξουσία ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς· πορευθέντες οὖν μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, βαπτίζοντες αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος, διδάσκοντες αὐτοὺς τηρεῖν πάντα ὅσα ἐνετειλάμην ὑμῖν· καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ μεθ’ ὑμῶν εἰμι πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος. Matt 28:18b-20, SBL GreekContinue reading “The Great Invitation”

If Mark 4 is a familiar chapter for you, you should be doing a double take at my title above; or saying, poor old bloke, his memory is starting to go. I’m clearly getting the Parable of the Sower, which ends with verse 20, mixed up with the saying about the lamp, which begins atContinue reading “The seed isn’t hidden except to be revealed”

καὶ ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς· Βλέπετε τί ἀκούετε. ἐν ᾧ μέτρῳ μετρεῖτε μετρηθήσεται ὑμῖν καὶ προστεθήσεται ὑμῖν. Mark 4.24 SBL Greek New Testament Heard a really great talk on vv21-23 this morning, particularly focusing on the connection between bringing the lamp of the word into the room, and seeing things that were hidden in order to beContinue reading “See what you Hear”

He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernelContinue reading “Sharpen your picture – and your Scythe”