The Christadelphian Ejournal is an online magazine published quarterly and intended to be a forum for articles written in an analytical style. It is a vehicle for exegetical and expositional articles, it engages in academic biblical studies that originate in other Christian confessions, it defends the Biblical principles summarised in the common Christadelphian statement of faith and subject published articles to peer review and amendment.
The book of Revelation is well known for the breadth and depth of its intertextual connections with other canonical books, most commonly those from the Old Testament. It is argued here that the use of Old Testament passages and …
A couple of years ago I was out on my bike and bumped into four Jehovah’s Witnesses giving out leaflets at the local train station. I stopped and asked them why it was that I had never come across Jehovah’s …
Just over 100 scholars assembled at Fitzwilliam College in mild weather for this conference on the 2nd-4th January. Prof. Eryl Davies of Bangor University opened the conference with a talk on post-modernism, objectivity and ideology as these have affected how …
The KJV renders Heb 9:12 as,
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
The expression ‘for us’ is in italics, …
The word ‘apostasy’ (, KJV, ‘falling away’) occurs once in the NT in 2 Thess 2:6,
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man …
New Testament texts can have multiple types embedded in them. In Heb 2:14, there is an obvious type centred on ‘Jacob and his Children meeting Esau’. Another strand of typology is based on the Exodus. This is shown by the …
“And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (KJV; similar in many versions)
The ‘Thief on the Cross’ is a hoary old chestnut. Jesus went to the grave after his …
In the late 19th century, critical scholar Julius Wellhausen claimed the Biblical chronology of the kings of Israel was a literary invention for religious purposes, which had been edited and revised several times from a variety of different sources, rather …
“…..the Waters of Shiloah that go softly…”
For the purposes of this column we will consider the incident of Jesus and the man born blind in John 9, and look into the intertextual background to this event, with all quotations …
The Creation Text is a set of 49 studies that sequentially explores the text and structure of Genesis 1 to 5. The studies vary in style: some are close textual exposition; some offer intertextual analysis; some consider broader compositional issues. …
The earliest extant list (or ‘canon’) of books considered to be authoritative is ‘The Muratorian Canon’ (late second century). The first part of this text is missing but given it enumerates Luke and John as ‘third’ and ‘fourth respectively, …
Isaiah refers to a ‘blind’ servant in Isa 42:19,
Who is blind, but my servant, or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord’s servant? Isa 42:19 …
Water has always been scarce in the Middle East and therefore a source of conflict. This article will examine the theology of water conflict in the Biblical narrative – particularly in the patriarchal accounts. Genesis 21:22-34 recounts the dispute …
It has often been said that “history is written by the victors”.[1] Given the ultimate victory of Trinitarian theology, it is unsurprising that the early Christian writings preserved by the Church were those that were at least …
To what does the expression ‘new heavens and a new earth’ refer in Isa 65:17? This is not a difficult question both in the terms of Isaiah’s day or in relation to the future kingdom of God. This article …
In 1 Corinthians 1:17-3:23, Paul ‘according to the wisdom given unto him’,[1] explains how he preached the gospel and taught the wisdom of God. For the next couple of ‘Analysis’ columns, the text of 1 Corinthians 1-2 will …
H. Blocher writes in regard to the creation of the first family unit in Genesis 2,
“The constitution of any real community requires that there be order; it cannot be done simply by joining together two people, but it must …
Story-cycles often display symmetry. We can distinguish two kinds of story-cycle in biblical narrative:
story-cycles based around individuals story-cycles based around events
All that we mean by talking of a ‘story-cycle’ is that this is a way of grouping …
Since the earliest Christian commentators, two main approaches have traditionally been taken to the problem of natural disasters: they are divine punishments for sin, or they are the product of a fallen world:
When such evils as disease or …
There are many wonderful characteristics of Yahweh, the God of Israel, and we would also readily agree that these can be seen in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. A disciple will immediately think of qualities such as compassion, …
I’m writing about Jonathan Burke’s helpful historical review of ‘The Two Books’ principle (J. Burke, “The Two Books: An Early Christadelphian Exegetical Principle”, EJBI (July 2012): 37-44). I believe this is an important contribution since it addresses areas that …
The question you pose is about reading: How do we read 1 Cor 11:5 and 14:34-35?
First, while we can say that sisters were praying and prophesying ‘in ecclesia’, this presupposition of v. 5 is not an expression of permission, …
This text is used to argue that Christians should obey the Law and in particular the Sabbath law. Is this a correct reading?
(1) The statement is positive, ‘I have not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets’ and …
The following table provides a non-exhaustive list of leading writers (referred to by their commonly used name), who comment frequently on archaeology as it relates to the Bible. The ‘minimalist’ view is that archaeology provides little or no support for …
There is no doubt that Psalm 68 presents a stern challenge for the would-be expositor; the exegete A. Clarke[1] was moved to state “I know not how to undertake a comment on this Psalm: it is the …
And the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone – I will make a help meet for him. Gen 2:18 (KJV)
Like other aspects of Genesis 2 relating to gender, the woman’s designation as …
In this column we will examine the key words used in 1 Cor 1:17-3:23, highlight how the preaching of the cross was received by the wise and foolish of the world (1 Cor 1:17-31) and consider why a quotation is …
Originally the book of Revelation contained no chapter or paragraph divisions or even verse markings; they were added by translators for ease of reference. Modern readers interpret texts in a linear fashion (A, B, C, D, E, F, G) however, …
Part II of Zarley’s book is entitled ‘Messianism in the Old Testament.’ Zarley begins by describing the departure of Christianity from Judaism. In some ways this was a natural and inevitable step, but the process by which it occurred was …