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The law of Moses decreed that when grain and vineyards were harvested, part of the produce should be left for the poor and foreigners to gather for themselves (Leviticus 19:9-10; 23:22; Deuteronomy 24:19-22). Ruth knows of this law, and now she proposes to take advantage of the... Read More →

“The days when the judges ruled” (Ruth 1:1) were the approximately three centuries between Israel’s entrance into Canaan and the anointing of their first king. Judges 17:6 sums up the period: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit” or “every man did that... Read More →

Paul, unusually for a Jew, was a seasoned sea traveler. He would have been under no illusions about what might await him on the long voyage to get to Rome from one of its farthest outposts. He had lived much of the last few years in that in-between stage, knowing that the sea was... Read More →

At this point in Paul’s life, he has been promised by God through his sense of vocation (Acts 19:21) and has been promised by Jesus through a vision (Acts 23:11) that he will get to Rome. Now Paul himself has to take responsibility, at one level, for making this happen. Read More →

Luke now comes to a turning point in his story. Here we are at the start of an extraordinary triple journey which will take Paul across Turkey and Greece and back again, then again once more, and finally off to Rome itself. We would much prefer the story to be one of gentle... Read More →

Having inserted Saul with appropriate and violent suddenness into the narrative of the Jerusalem apostles, Luke brings us back into Peter’s story. Having found his way down to Joppa, Peter will be called from there on another and more widely significant errand. But there is no... Read More →

If the death and resurrection of Jesus is the hinge on which the great door of history swung open at last, the conversion of Saul of Tarsus was the moment when all the ancient promises of God gathered themselves up, rolled themselves into a ball and came hurtling through that... Read More →

Pentecost is significant in both the Old and New Testaments. “Pentecost” is actually the Greek name for a festival known in the Old Testament as the Feast of Weeks (Leviticus 23:15; Deuteronomy 16:9). The Greek word means “fifty” and refers to the fifty days that have elapsed... Read More →

As we turn to this chapter, this is what we find Joshua doing. He is giving his parting words. However, where someone’s final words might be given to his or her immediate family, that is not what Joshua is doing here. Rather, he addresses the people of Israel. Like Moses, Joshua... Read More →