Scripture Blogs

PAUL’S FIRST STOP IN EUROPE:  PHILIPPI Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, OP Sometime during the summer of AD 48 Paul sailed from Troas. This would have been his first journey by sea. Like all his contemporaries he would have faced it with trepidation. This time, however, he was lucky. They made the crossing to Neapolis, the port of …

PAUL’S FIRST INDEPENDENT MISSION Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, OP After they returned to Antioch-on-the-Orontes Barnabas and Paul had a disagreement, after which they went their separate ways. It cannot have been a major issue, because several years later they worked harmoniously together. Paul recruited Silas (or Silvanus), and set off for Antioch-in-Pisidia. Clearly he intended to use …

PAUL’S APPRENTICESHIP Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, OP Paul’s intense fortnight’s reflection on the historical Jesus with Peter in Jerusalem must have filled him with fervour to tell the story of this extraordinary man. We should have expected Paul to rush into an intense missionary campaign. If so, it took place in Syria and Cilicia, but it has …

JESUS THE DEAD MESSIAH Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, OP Peter must have been deeply touched by Paul’s insatiable curiosity about Jesus. It is likely that Paul’s detailed inquiries brought to the surface of his mind incidents and impressions that he had fogotten. To this extent they delighted in a common quest. There was one important issue, however, …

With Peter in Jerusalem -

April 29th, 2011

WITH PETER IN JERUSALEM Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, OP Paul’s departure from Damascus involved both high drama and farce. Probably in the autumn of AD 37 the Roman emperor Gaius (Caligula) gave Damascus to the Nabataeans as part of his reoganization of the eastern frontier of the empire. For some reason Paul felt that this put him …

Three Years in Damascus -

April 22nd, 2011

THREE YEARS IN DAMASCUS Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, OP When Paul rushed off to Arabia immediately after his conversion, he did not know what he was getting into. He acted impulsively without doing his homework on the situation there. A few questions in Damascus would have alerted him to a serious problem. Just at this moment the …

THE CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, OP We do not know how long Paul’s persecution of Christians lasted. We can be sure, however, that in the process he must have learned something about the founder of the movement. We know from contemporary non-Christian sources something of what the Pharisees knew about Jeus. The Jewish …

PERSECUTOR OF CHRISTIANS Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, OP Paul arrived in Jerusalem about AD 15. His conversion can be dated to AD 33. Since Pharisees ventured outside Jerusalem for only brief periods, we can safely assume that Paul spent these 18 years in the Holy City. This means Paul and Jesus were in Jerusalem at the same …

A PHARISEE IN JERUSALEM Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, OP As a teenager in Tarsus Paul was pulled in two directions. On one hand there were all the attractions of a Roman provincial capital, which, moreover, lay on one of the great trade-routes of antiquity linking Syria and points east with Asia Minor and the Aegean. Paul’s secular …

THE YEARS IN TARSUS Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, OP Saint Paul just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Herod the Great died in the Spring of 4 BC. He had been king of the Jews for 33 years, and his rule had been severe and oppressive. His secret police were everywhere, and …

Jesus was not about himself but about the Kingdom of God/Reign of God.  What is this Reign of God that was the meaning of the life of Jesus and for that matter the whole meaning of the Synoptics?  Some would say that this theme is the central one for the whole New Testament or Christian …

I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Much of the centuries-old debate on “faith versus good works” is based on the writings of St. Paul, such as that found in Galatians: “We know that a person is justified not by the works of the …

Mortimer J. Adler, in his essay, How to Mark a Book, from the essayist, Harper and Row, 1985, contended that “marking up a book is not an act of mutilation but of love.” He said that “the marked book is usually the thought-through book” and added that “a great book, rich in ideas and beauty, …

We are proud to launch our new website. You will find many new resources here please look around. If you hold down shift (which causes your browser to ignore it’s disk cache) and reload the home page you will notice we have added a very nice bible quote Flash piece. If you want to continue …

When my wife and I attend church we are always amazed at how few of our own peers are attending church. Look around you next time you are at church and you will notice there are very few 30 to 40 year olds around you. Then look again you’ll notice a even bigger group that …

In this special year, we are happy to offer you the latest version of The Word is Life, filled (as always) with articles reflecting on the Bible from a wide range of perspectives. Father David Neuhaus, an Israeli Jesuit and Scripture scholar based in Jerusalem, reflects for us what “The Holy Land” really means. Oblate …

“The earth has grown old with its burden of care, but at Christmas it always is young. The heart of the jewel burns lustrous and fair, and its soul full of music bursts forth on the air, when the song of angels is sung.” These words, by poet Phillips Brooks, sum up for me a …

WASHINGTON—Reading the Bible should begin with a prayer to open our hearts and minds to the Word of God and end with “a prayer that this Word will bear fruit in our lives, helping us to become holier and more faithful people.”

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