The reading for Christmas 1, which is also the Feast of the Holy Innocents, is Matthew 2.13–18. This texts raises fascinating questions about history, how Matthew’s account here fits with the rest of ...

One of the problems about the development of traditions around Christmas is that people writing hymns or plays set Jesus' ...

This Sunday’s lectionary reading for Advent 4 in Year A is Matt 1.18–25. It is a short reading, but laden with significance as Matthew gives his distinctive account of Jesus’ origins. (The epistle is ...

The lectionary epistle reading for Advent 4 in Year A is Romans 1.1–7, which is a single sentence in Greek! Paul offers not ...

The fury over a Christmas carol event exposes the ideological gatekeeping hollowing out British Christianity. Jason Clark ...

Contrary to popular tradition, Jesus was not born in a stable! Why? Because the 'manger' where he was laid was at the bottom ...

When I first learnt New Testament Greek, the set text for our class was (slightly oddly!) 1 Peter. This has left me with an ...

The epistle for Advent 2 in this Year A is Rom 15.4–13. It follows on from Paul’s discussion about the ‘strong’ and the ‘weak’ in chapter 14, and in many ways summarises the themes of the whole of ...

I write a quarterly column for Preach magazine, in which I explore a significant word, phrase, or idea in the Bible, or a theme or section of Scripture, and the ideas that it expresses. At the end of ...

One of the (many) great paradoxes of the Book of Revelation is that, at one and the same time, it is experienced as both very difficult to interpret, yet also very easy. This explains the very ...

Twelve years ago I presented a paper at the international Society of Biblical Literature comparing the symbolism of Luke with that of John. There has been a widespread view that John is a ‘spiritual’ ...