Quotes from Ben Witherington III

Humans do not die simply because of Adam's sin, but because of Adam's and their own sin.

It would appear, then, that Jesus' praxis was to relate to all people, even the least, last, and lost, even notorious sinners, and allow them to be healed or helped by him without prior change of life or behavior.

It may be debated as to whether the antichrist is seen as a superhuman figure (in Revelation "Mr. 666" is seen as having divine pretensions but actually being quite human, being the emperor), but it is quite clear in 2 John that the antichrists are false teachers who are contemporaries of our author.

There is, in short, something terribly wrong with claiming to be a devout Christian while hating one or another of the fellow believers.

The exegetical foundations would appear to be weak, and one shouldn't build huge theological edifices, no matter how splendid or consistent, on weak foundations.

Testing of the spirits, then, amounts to critically evaluating the utterances of various human spirits to see if they are prompted by the Holy Spirit or by some other spirit.

The 'factious person' ... is the one who insists on such divisive debates even when their consequences become obvious. Such a person would rather be right than righteous, would rather maintain theoretical integrity than the health of the community. ,264

At the ninth hour, under a pitch-black sky, the women stood as close to the cross of Jesus as the soldiers would allow. Jesus' mother had arrived, and when Jesus saw her with the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, "Woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." Thus Jesus honored and provided for his mother with nearly his last breath. From that time on, Lazarus took her into his home.

What is meant by the deposit? That which is committed to you, not that which is invented by you; that which you have received, not that which you have devised; a thing not of wit but of learning; not of private assumption but of public tradition; a thing brought to you, not brought forth from you; thus you must not be an author, but an authorized keeper; not a leader but a follower. Keep the deposit."509

It is also the Greek term for joint ownership or partnership in some venture.49 Stephen Smalley puts it this way: "Christian fellowship is not the sentimental and superficial attachment of a random collection of individuals, but the profoundly mutual relationship of those who remain `in Christ' and therefore belong to each other.

Sin unto death" therefore, is not any act of sin however heinous, but a state or habit of sin wilfully chosen and persisted in: it is the constant and consummate opposition to God. In the phraseology of this Epistle we might say that it is the deliberate and persistent preference of darkness to light, of falsehood to truth, of sin to righteousness, of the world to the Father, of spiritual death to eternal life.i97

if err we must, and assume that "where there is life, there is hope" for any sinner.

inspiration is no guarantee of truth, any more than a profound religious experience is a guarantee that it comes from a good source.

Our author warns us that inspiration, enthusiasm, earnestness, even honesty about what one believes is no guarantee of truth.

Faith is not the opposite of knowledge... Indeed, the mind is a gift from God, just as faith is.

The verb "cleanse" is in the present continual tense, referring to an ongoing activity. It is worth pondering whether our author is saying that cleansing happens in the course of body life, in the context of our communing with one another. Clearly, he does not see it as a purely private matter between the individual and Jesus: it is "we" who have communion and are cleansed by the blood.

There is no hint here that preaching is thought of primarily as self-expression of subjective experience or feeling-disclosure or autobiography or `telling one's story' so as to neglect Scripture."275 It is the Word that is to be preached.

For when a king drives into a city, those who are honorable go out to meet him; but the condemned await the judge within.And upon the coming of an affectionate father, his children indeed, and those who are worthy to be his children, are taken out in a chariot, that they may see him and kiss him; but the housekeepers who have offended him remain within. (Hom. 1 Thess. 8)

Christ did not exalt himself in a world full of self-promotion; rather he stepped down and served others, which most, especially the elite, in the Greco-Roman world would have seen as despicable, not admirable.

Loving talk is cheap when costly deeds are required.

C. H. Dodd puts it this way: "To over-spiritualize religion is to weaken it ethically. ,286

It required an understanding of theology, and ethics, and ancient religions and philosophies. You had to have a working knowledge in a plethora of fields just to have the background to be able to deal with a book as rich and complex as the Bible.

It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention. It might be better to say that experience is the mother of invention. It was the experience of seeing the risen Lord that created the inner circle of Jesus, and the coming of the Spirit that birthed the church. In other words, naturalistic historical explanations alone will never adequately explain the crucial events that led to the rise of the inner-circle leaders within the Christian movement and the rise of the movement itself.