John Mark Hicks

Paul began his “foolish” boasting by identifying how, as a minister of Christ, he endured hardships, dangers, threats, and loss for the sake of the ministry of reconciliation. In effect, he boasted in his endurance, and through this endurance he suffered “more” (hyper) than the “super (hyper) apostles.” Instead of listing his credentials, he preferred […]

The first section of Amos startles us. The editorial heading prepared us to hear a word from Yahweh to Israel. Instead, the first six of eight proverbial sayings are addressed to regional nations. How does a Yahwehist prophet speak to the nations, on what basis, and about what? To be sure, he does finally get to […]

When the Central Christian Church in Cincinnaiti, Ohio, completed its $140,000, 2000-seat French Gothic building in 1872, many–especially Benjamin Franklin and David Lipscomb–thought it was an outrage.  By 1892 there were rumors that the church needed to sell the building since many of its members had moved to the suburbs. The downtown, urban church could not […]

Leaving Perea and nearing Jericho, Jesus led the way towards Jerusalem. This is a determined, focused step in Mark’s description; Jesus is headed to Jerusalem. The disciples are alarmed (amazed) and others accompanying them are afraid. Apparently, they were astonished and concerned that Jesus was headed to Jerusalem where his enemies were numerous and powerful. […]

Just as Zechariah lifted up his eyes to see the flying scroll in the last vision (Zechariah 5:1-4), his angelic guide throughout these visions tells him to lift them up again to see something else. The angel turns his attention away from the scroll to the appearance of a basket (ephah) which might hold anywhere […]

Following the feeding of the 4,000 in the Decapolis on the eastern side of the Galilean Sea, Jesus and his disciples crossed over to the other side on the western shore, probably near Magdala. Jesus is now back among the Jewish villages of Galilee and immediately he faces opposition. Some Pharisees continue their argument with […]