Cyber-Chapel Blog

These three verses suddenly switch from the third person of the context to the first person, and the commentaries are rife with proposals for who is speaking at this point. There is not even agreement that all of the “I”‘s are spoken by the same person. Some commentators hear two different voices here (Targum, Calvin, Alexander, Young), or even three (Gill, Motyer). Candidates for the speaker include the Lord, Isaiah, or the Messiah.
Continue reading Who is speaking in Isa 8:16-18?…

How many women are standing by the cross in John 19:25? “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.” Is “Mary the wife of Cleophas” the sister of “his mother,” or are the two distinct women? Because it is unlikely that two sisters would both be named “Mary,” most commentators prefer the latter reading. But “sister” could refer to a sister in law or a cousin. It would help if we knew how often omission of the conjunction in a list in John is simply asyndeton as opposed to apposition. Continue reading How Many Women?…