I’ve just made the following video inviting people to send me any questions that they might have. If you have any biblical theological questions, you can leave them in the comments of the video, in the comments here, send me an email, or leave a question on my Curious Cat account.
See the rest of my videos (and subscribe) here.
Alastair's Adversaria 
How would you go about evangelizing Jordan Peterson (or someone with his beliefs)?
There’s a fascinating article, entitled “Are there different loves in John 21?” on Ian Paul’s site, in the exchange between resurrected Jesus and Peter. The fascination is perhaps more over the comments the article stimulated. Preachers seem to have been a little unsettled, as the answer went against what has frequently been preached, and CS Lewis, Four Loves.
So in the context of John as a whole and chapter 21 in particular, it would be good to have your view(s). Are there different loves in John 21?
BTW can’t seem to use the Curious Cat link to put this question.
Hey Alastair! Thanks for your willingness to take questions.
I’m interested in the Prophet, Priest, King paradigm and the value it may have for Christian discipleship and sanctification in the Christian life. Any thoughts on this? Should we seek to grow in prophet, priestly, and/or kingly capacities in our own lives? And how does their fulfillment in Christ bring relevance to this question, if any?
In Genesis 2, why is it the man who leaves his father and mother to cleave to his wife? The dynamic we see Scripture (in various marriage narratives, as well as something like Psalm 45) seems to focus on women leaving their parents (and fathers in particular), not vice versa. We see this continued in many cultures today, and our traditions in the west certainly focus on this – the groom asking for the bride’s hand, the father-of-the-bride giving his daughter away etc. So what’s the significance of it, how does it play out throughout the rest of Scripture, and what is its continuing relevance in humanity, households, and the church?
Hoping your work on gender and theology of the sexes makes for a stimulating biblical-theological answer!
Just to help understand the type of questions you’re inviting, or most likely to welcome, perhaps in one of the first ones you could introduce yourself, and summarise how you see your calling???
Plenty of people put YouTube videos out (eg end time obsessives, creation science proponents, prophetic revivalists) and most of them are rubbish! Help us to be able to tell other people why they should bother listening to you and trusting your answers!
Cheers!
Thanks for being willing to field questions!
I have a question for you about figural reading. Richard Hays’ justification of this isn’t entirely convincing to me; he utilises ideas from literary studies, including arguments that border on (postmodern) reader-response theory. Can you elaborate more on your grounds/justification/methodology for figural reading? In particular, how would you respond to post-evangelicals like Greg Boyd and (very differently) Peter Enns? Both of those figures also claim to be doing figural reading, especially of the Old Testament, attempting to be Christocentric (or Christotelic) in their exegesis. I don’t feel it’s enough to dismiss them as Marcionite because they have both written vast amounts on Old Testament Scripture (including commentaries), which is a long way from arguing that the Old Testament is non-canonical.
How does your approach differ and how would you argue against their approaches?
Would be interested to hear your take on the following biblical characters and how to read their stories:
–Jephthah. Did he sacrifice his daughter or devote her to temple service? I can’t seem to find evidence that there would have been female celibates serving in the temple at that time. Also, the reading that suggests the daughter wasn’t killed seems to have begun in the 1200s as well, which doesn’t lend it much credibility in my eyes. But, I can’t see a leader in Israel profaning the altar to such an extreme in sacrificing a human being to YHWH without a much bigger reaction on the part of the other tribes, especially given that the other tribes were ready to go to war over the treatment of the Levite’s concubine.
–Samson. I haven’t been able to find your read of the Samson story. What’s your general take? Also, do you see Samson or the Lord as the one seeking an opportunity against the Philistines in Judges 14:4?
–Elihu. How do you understand his speeches to function in the book of Job?
I second all of these! Great questions.
I am also very interested in Elihu’s role in Job, since God seems to completely ignore him in His rebuke of the 3 friends, and Job does not intercede for Elihu as he does for the other 3 friends. I don’t see any hint on how to interpret that part of Job based on the rest of the book.
Evening! In what sense, if any, can women and men be said to be complementary?
Hi Dr Roberts
Do you think that there is a connection between the Jubilee and Pentecost? Both are celebrated after 7×7 units of time have elapsed – respectively on the 50th year and 50th day – and I think this has to be significant. Is this right? Further, I wonder if there are multiple echoes of Jubilee through Scripture as there is with the Exodus, the final and eternal Jubilee being the bringing in of the New Heaven and Earth?
Many thanks
Rob
Here I have briefly outlined some potential connections between Peter and Jonah in Acts 9:32–11:18: https://claytonhutchins.wordpress.com/2017/10/09/simon-bar-jonah/. Do you think this is a valid connection? If so, I’d love to see you explore it further.
Hi Alastair, I am enjoying watching your video responses to questions.
My question is : who were ‘righteous’ Jesus mentioned when he said ‘ I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance’ ? I would really appreciate hearing your thoughts on this.
A friend asked this question many years ago, and I am still mulling over it. My friend said that she found it difficult to believe that there were people at that time who were not, in some way or other, in need of repentance, and I also find it difficult to believe that such people existed!
Thank you.
Christine
‘…*the* righteous’, not ‘righteous’
OK this one might be more ‘biblical theology’ 😀
Do you hold to the Hebrew canonical division of the OT into the Law, the Prophets and the Writings?
If not, how do you deal with Jesus’ beliefs in it, and the intertextual links (meditation on the Torah being the gateway to the Prophets in Josh 1:8 and the Writings in Ps 1:2.
BUT, if you do (and this is my real question) how does the (Jordan-esque) biblical theological rubric of priest, prophet, king fit with this rubric? By placing the kingly Writings at the end it seems to upend it, no? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Got another one I’ve been mulling over for some time.
In your biblical theology, you point out the regular use of deception/cunning by God’s people (often women) to get one up over the serpent/enemies. This often challenges typical evangelical readings of the patriarchal narratives, for example.
What application does this have today do you think, in view of such passages as Matt 10:16, in the areas of ‘white lies’? When the Nazis knock on your door, is it OK to deny there are Jews in the loft?
You might argue that verse shows the NT continuation of this theme; others might argue that the ‘innocent as doves’ element requires no deception or lying (as prophets we have matured from the more childlike patriarchs and so the Lord’s standards w.r.t. deception are higher for us just as they are w.r.t. divorce).