a time to tear down | A Time to Build Up » NT use of the OT

Lecture on Paul at Nyack College

Pete Enns — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 18:19:39 +0000

I am lecturing at Nyack College in Manhattan on “Paul, His Bible, and Why He Reads it the Way He Does” on April 21 from 6-8 p.m.

Paul, Adam, and Evolution

Pete Enns — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 21:59:45 +0000

Here is the video of the Erasmus Lecture I gave at Westmont College on February 9, 2011. I haven’t watched it yet, so I am not sure of the quality but it seems to come across well enough.

My thanks to Westmont College and Tremper Longman III for inviting me to give this lecture.

Jesus and the Sea

Pete Enns — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:10:05 +0000

This week’s BioLogos post is up. Jesus calming the storm and waking on the water reflect the Old Testament theme of Yahweh taming the waters.

Gary Anderson on Augustine and the Fall

Pete Enns — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:56:51 +0000

Gary Anderson (if I have to explain you wouldn’t understand) has shared some thoughts on Augustine and Scripture at BioLogos. Specifically, Anderson’s post concerns Adam and how Augustine understood him with respect to Eve’s culpability in the fall. This post does not directly affect the kinds of scientific matters that normally occupy BioLogos, but there is value of this post for other reasons. Anderson is reminding us that interpreting the notion of the “fall” in the Garden episode has numerous dimensions of complexity and ambiguity, and that brilliant and capable minds have been trying to get their arms around it since before the Christian era.

Creating Adam

Pete Enns — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:14:40 +0000

My latest post about Adam is up at BioLogos. My point here is that any way of looking at Adam that does not accept Paul’s view of human descent from a first pair in recent history is “creating” an Adam beyond biblical parameters, and that such creative work is inevitable. My post today fits nicely with yesterday’s post on the genetic impossibility of a first pair from which all human life descended.

Paul’s Adam (Part 4)

Pete Enns — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 19:33:59 +0000

Here is my final post at BioLogos on issues surrounding Paul’s understanding of Adam. You might also want to look at today’s video by world-renown theologian Alister McGrath and his understanding of Adam and Eve as “stereotypical figures.” All of this follows upon Bruce Waltke’s video posted last week, challenging Evangelicals to come to terms with evolution.

Pauls’ Adam (Part 3)

Pete Enns — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:45:14 +0000

Here is my third post on BioLogos concerning Paul’s use of the Adam story. It is a continuation of a list of issues I began last week. These are matters that invariably arise when trying to understand this important but involved issue. The list will conclude next week.

Paul’s Adam (part 2)

Pete Enns — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:31:21 +0000

I am still at it over on BioLogos. This week I am beginning to list some of the issues that invariably arise when we try to understand how Paul was using Adam. The purpose of these posts is to lay issues out on the table for further reflection.

Paul’s Adam (part 1)

Pete Enns — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:38:15 +0000

My next post at BioLogos is about Paul’s Adam. The issue of the historical Adam is a very difficult one for many Christians. Scientific and archaeological evidence make a strictly literal/historical reading of the Adam story impossible. Many Christians realize this and so give considerable thought to what the significance of the Adam story is in the Old Testament.

At some point, however, Paul’s understanding of Adam comes front and center. Paul certainly seems to assume, as anyone living at that time did, that Adam was the very first human ever created a few thousand years earlier. For some, this settles the question of the historical Adam: “what Paul believes about human origins, I am bound to believe as well.”

This first post outlines the nature of the problem and the second part (next week) will focus more specifically on Paul. There I will outline several factors to be kept in mind when looking at what Paul said about Adam and why he said it.

There is no simple solution to this, but it is a topic worthy of considerable hermeneutical and theological attention.

My Review of Beale’s Erosion of Inerrancy

Pete Enns — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 02:11:55 +0000

With my permission as well as that of the Bulletin for Biblical Research, Art Boulet has posted my published response to Greg Beale’s The Erosion of Inerrancy in Evangelicalism.