In the previous article in this series, we explored the use of the word “aion” in Matthew in some depth, especially in the phrase “consummation/end of the lifetime/age” or “synteleia of the aion”. Here we will pull together a shorter analysis and reflection on the prior phrase from Matthew 24:3…

Climbing the Mount of Olives II: Matthew 24 After forty years, I’m finally here. If you don’t know how we got here, welcome. You might want to get caught up with this outline of Matthew. And then you’ll probably want to visit the Temple here in Matthew 23 before you descend to the East and then start to…

In this series I’m going to reflect on, exegete and analyze Matthew 23–25 in detail. This is the first of the series, focused on Matthew 23. Climbing this mountain is a project I’ve been working towards for about 40 years, which seems like the appropriate amount of time. You can…

For some strange reason you have found my journal, from a time when I was preparing to scale the Mount of Olives Not long after 1/6/2022, the anniversary of the attack on the US Capitol, I started to get ready to finally climb the Mount of Olives. The goal is to summarize, in a detailed way, how we might read the Mount of Olives discourse well today. My preparations were interrupted but…

I think that we are, reasonably clearly, living through revolutionary times. In a lot of ways, the 1960’s in the United States played at revolution, but like the European revolutions of 1848, it was more play than real. My best guess is that the revolutions of my daughter’s lifetime will…

This essay is here to prepare me to scale the Mount of Olives. By that, I mean that I’m getting ready to do a close reading of the Mount Olivet discourse and its introductory chapter, which can be found in Matthew 23–25. Here, I’ll outline Matthew’s Gospel as a whole…

What does it mean to be a family? The question can seem trivial, but it is one of the least trivial questions we can ask. One of the hardest ones we can ask. One of the most profound and far-reaching and powerful questions we can ask. It matters enormously in…

I’m on a long and slow trip up the Mount of Olives, by which I mean Matthew 24–25: the Mount Olivet Discourse in its most expanded form. You can find the first half, more or less, in Luke 21 and in Mark 13. …

Do scales exist? Over the last several years, I’ve been astonished to realize that although we are about 2,000 years into the project of Christian theology, the state of our theological thinking and discourse remains incredibly rudimentary. I’m not just talking about the situation among non-academics, but also the quality of thought in…