This is a strange story, because it seems to show Jesus treating harshly someone who comes to him in desperate need ...

Jesus' ministry had been going well. There were lots of healings, crowds flocked to hear him and he hadn't yet been faced with much significant opposition. For him to start talking about crucifixion must have struck his disciples as unneces...

This is a deeply moving story. It portrays a man who has lost his independence with his sight, who has evidently lost any family he had (otherwise they would have cared for him and he would not have needed to beg), and who is so desperate for a solut...

The cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the temple are linked not only in time, but in what they symbolise. Jesus is hungry, but there's no fruit to eat because it's not the right season. He enters the temple, where spiritual hunge...

The Parable of the Tenants is, on the face of it, quite straightforward if you know your Bible reasonably well. The man who plants the vineyard and rents it out is God; the messengers he sends to collect the rent are the Old Testament prophets; the s...

Job 10 makes interesting reading alongside Psalm 139. There’s a striking similarity in what the writers say about the God who ‘knit [them] together’ in their mothers’ wombs – he is all powerful, all knowing and present everywhere – but a ...

Job has lamented his suffering, protested his innocence and complained to God, but now Zophar the Naamathite (one of Job’s friends) has had enough. He believes Job’s words are empty and dishonest, amounting to the mockery of God.

How do you feel when people refuse to listen to and believe you, no matter the arguments or evidence supplied in your defence? In today’s chapter, Job – feeling misjudged and patronised – lets his frustration show and delivers a withering asses...

Job’s friends supposedly came to comfort him but they haven’t done anything to ease his pain. They seem to have lost sight of his suffering in their desire to win the theological argument at hand. Whether they can’t or won’t help, Job brands ...

Job seems overwhelmed as he ends his speech. Life is short and full of trouble; it withers like a flower; it’s as fleeting as a shadow (verses 1–2). Why does God bother to notice him when his life seems so insignificant (verse 3)?

Eliphaz the Temanite has heard Job’s words, but it’s clear he hasn’t accepted them. When it comes to understanding God’s ways, he thinks he’s got it nailed and no matter what evidence Job puts forward, he’s not about to let it get in the ...

Will Job’s faithfulness to God survive terrible suffering? Satan doesn’t think so. Surely Job only worships God because of the blessings of family, wealth and health he’s received? It’s not just an accusation against the genuineness of Job’...

Corinth had a reputation throughout the Roman Empire for being a particularly immoral city, prone to all kinds of sexual licence. In Paul's day it may have been no worse than any other seaport, but mud sticks. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul picks on s...

Paul was writing at a time when the idea that people's bodies were in any way sacrosanct had very little traction. Slavery was normal. People's physical appetites were there to be satisfied – 'Food is for the stomach and the stomach ...

This chapter is sometimes mined for its teaching about marriage. But step back from the details, and what strikes us is its common-sense approach not just to marriage, but to living faithfully in the world as it is. Perhaps Paul is dealing with peopl...

At first glance, a passage about food sacrificed to idols might not have much to say to twenty-first century readers. In Paul's time, animals would routinely have been dedicated to a particular god or goddess when they were slaughtered and the m...

In this chapter, Paul is stressing his absolute focus on fulfilling the mission God has given him. It would be perfectly reasonable and right, he says, for him to be supported in his work by the churches and to live a normal family life. But he'...

At the beginning of this chapter, Paul goes back into Israelite history to make a point about responsibility. As the people wandered in the wilderness after leaving Egypt, they repeatedly sinned against God, and suffered accordingly. So, says Paul, C...

The Lord's Supper, or Communion, Eucharist or Mass, is meant to be the point at which the whole Church comes together. The number of names for it indicate that it's often the point at which we're most divided, as different traditions a...

Sometimes Paul writes very dense theology that we puzzle over and decide is too hard for us. At other times, like this, he is luminously clear. The Spirit gives us all different gifts, he says. Underlying his teaching to the Corinthian church is the ...