Scriptural Works

Greg Camp and Patrick Spencer
  • 4,8 (5)
  • Christianisme
  • Toutes les 2 semaines

Hosted by two biblical scholars with diverse career backgrounds, Greg Camp (Sheffield University, Ph.D.) and Patrick Spencer (Durham University, Ph.D.), Scriptural Works focuses on a dynamic exploration of how to read and interpret scripture for greater meaning in today's postmodern world. Each episode unpacks the tools, methods, and insights that can be used to bring scripture alive, whether through their engaging dialogue or through conversations with guest scholars who bring specialized perspectives to particular texts or themes. From ancient contexts to contemporary application, from literary analysis to historical insights, Scriptural Works equips both lay readers and religious leaders with fresh approaches to biblical interpretation. Whether you're a curious reader, a minister seeking fresh perspectives, or anyone interested in developing a deeper grasp of scripture, Scriptural Works provides the intellectual tools and practical approaches to make biblical texts more accessible and meaningful.

  1. -3 j

    1, 2, 3 John and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Love and the Outside | Dr. Jamal-Dominique Hopkins

    1 John says God is love, but the letter spends most of its energy on who counts as a neighbor and what love actually requires of you. Dr. Jamal-Dominique Hopkins, a Dead Sea Scrolls specialist trained and author of the forthcoming commentary on 1-3 John in the Word and Spirit Commentary series, argues that Qumran's sectarian writings give this question its sharpest historical context. The Rule of the Community, the War Scroll, and 4QMMT all use language John's community would have recognized: a we group instructing a you group not to become a they group, sons of light against sons of darkness, a remnant marked by the spirit of truth rather than the spirit of deceit. Reading the epistles against that backdrop exposes how deliberately John's language of love and fellowship is drawing boundaries and crossing them at once. Hopkins traces that tension through all three letters together rather than in isolation: 1 John's insistence that love is action and righteous justice, not sentiment; 2 John's puzzling elect lady and its early hint of a leadership question the church still argues about; and 3 John's public rebuke of Gaius against the model hospitality of Demetrius, read as Gentile believers learning to welcome Jewish outsiders, a reversal of the usual Dead Sea Scrolls pattern. He connects that reconciling impulse to his own formation in the Church of God in Christ and the Azusa Street Revival, where the Holy Spirit dissolved racial lines few institutions of the era would touch. For pastors, priests, seminarians, lay leaders, and Bible teachers preparing to preach or teach the Johannine epistles, this conversation recovers 1, 2, and 3 John as neglected, urgent texts about hospitality, diversity, and community. Profile: https://truettseminary.baylor.edu/person/jamal-dominique-hopkins-phd

    1, 2, 3 John and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Love and the Outside | Dr. Jamal-Dominique Hopkins

  2. 3 août

    Why the Johannine Community Split: Identity and Moral Repair in 1–3 John | Dr. Rikard Roitto

    Why did the Johannine community divide, and how did the authors of 1–3 John seek to restore unity after a painful schism? Dr. Rikard Roitto explores the Johannine Epistles through the lenses of social identity, household churches, confession, forgiveness, and moral repair. Challenging traditional models of a single Johannine community, Roitto argues that these letters address a network of early Christian assemblies struggling with competing teachers, fractured relationships, and questions of authority. The conversation examines the famous schism described in 1 John, the roles of Diotrephes and the “elect lady” in 2 and 3 John, and how these short letters illuminate the social dynamics of the earliest Christian churches. Drawing on ritual theory, cognitive approaches, and historical analysis, Dr. Roitto explains how confession, intercession, and forgiveness functioned as practices of reconciliation that strengthened communal identity and restored trust after conflict. The discussion also considers discernment, hospitality, itinerant teachers, leadership, and the tension between preserving theological boundaries and maintaining Christian unity. Along the way, Roitto connects his groundbreaking research on the Johannine Epistles with his broader work on revenge, forgiveness, and moral repair in the ancient world, offering fresh historical and theological insights into early Christianity. Whether you are a pastor, seminarian, biblical scholar, or serious student of Scripture, this conversation provides a compelling new perspective on 1–3 John, the Johannine community, and the formation of Christian identity amid division and reconciliation. Ritual and Early Christianity: https://blogs.helsinki.fi/ritual-earlychristianity/research-team/

    Why the Johannine Community Split: Identity and Moral Repair in 1–3 John | Dr. Rikard Roitto

  3. 12 juil.

    What 1 John Means by Faith, Love, and Belief | Dr. Chris Seglenieks

    1 John uses three different English words—faith, love, and belief—for ideas that trace back to a single Greek root: πίστις. Dr. Christopher Seglenieks argues that overlap isn't a translation problem to smooth over, it's the letter's argument. Across the entire Johannine corpus the noun form of that word appears exactly once, in 1 John 5:4's "our faith," and Seglenieks reads that single occurrence as bridging the verb's relational trust and the adjective's active faithfulness into one holistic term—belief that is embodied and cognitive at once. That matters because 1 John is often read as either a test of right doctrine or a call to love, when the letter is doing both together: it ties believing directly to loving your brother, treating conviction and practice as inseparable rather than as competing concerns. That reframing changes how several other questions in 1 John come into focus. The secessionists, those who "went out from us, but were not of us," turn out to be strikingly undertheorized in the text itself—the letter's real interest is in the people who stayed, not in refuting those who left. Seglenieks also pushes back on reading the Johannine community primarily through the gospel, arguing instead that 1 John's own concrete, pastoral address gives a clearer picture of what this early community actually believed and how they treated each other. And because 1 John lacks the standard opening and closing of a Greco-Roman letter, the conversation opens a live question about genre: is this an epistle at all, or something closer to a sermon meant to travel between related communities. For anyone who has ever wondered whether believing and loving are really asking two different things of you, this is a close look at a letter that never separated them in the first place. Website: https://cseglenieks.hcommons.org/

    What 1 John Means by Faith, Love, and Belief | Dr. Chris Seglenieks

  4. 27 juin

    Was 2 John Written to a Woman? The Story of Lady Eclecte | Dr. Lincoln Blumell | Ep. 29

    For nearly a hundred and fifty years, English Bibles have rendered the opening of 2 John as an address to the “elect lady,” a phrase most interpreters have taken as a poetic stand-in for a church rather than an actual person. Brigham Young University Papyrologist Lincoln Blumell argues that reading rests on a textual accident. In his new book, Lady Eclecte: The Lost Woman of the New Testament, Blumell traces how a common scribal error—two duplicated Greek letters dropped through haplography—erased a woman's name from the manuscript tradition. Working from his expertise in documentary papyri, he shows that the standard epistolary formula found in 3 John (“to Gaius, the beloved”) points toward a parallel structure in 2 John that the received text doesn't actually preserve. Clement of Alexandria's commentary, overlooked for generations, names her directly: Eclecte. This is more than a footnote in textual criticism. Restoring “Eclecte, the lady” changes who stands at the center of 2 John: not a metaphorical congregation, but a named woman exercising real authority over a house church, entrusted by the elder to guard its teaching and hospitality. Blumell walks through the manuscript evidence across papyri, uncials, and minuscules, and explains why this reading reshapes how interpreters should think about women's leadership in early Christian communities, alongside figures like Nympha and Phoebe. The episode offers a model of how grammar, papyrology, and patristic testimony combine to correct an inherited misreading—essential listening for anyone teaching 2 John, training in New Testament textual criticism, or rethinking the historical context of women's roles in the early church. BOOK: https://www.amazon.com/Lady-Eclecte-Lost-Woman-Testament/dp/B0DST8F9QG/ref=sr_1_1 WEBSITE: https://lincolnhblumell.com/

    Was 2 John Written to a Woman? The Story of Lady Eclecte | Dr. Lincoln Blumell | Ep. 29

  5. 30 mai

    First John: Abiding Love, Church Trauma, and How Divided Churches Heal | Dr. Janette H. Ok | Ep. 28

    Professor Janette H. Ok brings First John out of the realm of familiar church phrases and back into the pressure of a community trying to hold together after rupture. Her reading treats the Johannine Epistles not as abstract doctrine or devotional language, but as pastoral formation for churches marked by division, doubt, loss, and contested belonging. First John’s repeated language of abiding, confession, children of God, antichrist, and love works like a musical fugue: the same themes return again and again, each time drawing the community more deeply into a shared way of life. Identity comes before performance. Readers do not love in order to become God’s children; they learn to love because that identity has already been given. The conversation moves from Greek exegesis to church life with unusual clarity. Ok shows why “God is love” cannot be reduced to sentiment, why confession of Jesus must take material form, and why 1 John 3 turns Christ’s self-giving death toward economic care for brothers and sisters in need. Love is not only feeling, belief, or private spirituality; it is the refusal to close one’s compassion when another member of the household lacks food, shelter, or support. The discussion also explores church trauma, quiet leaving, intergenerational faith, and the challenge of speaking to people caught in the middle of divided congregations. For pastors, teachers, students, and engaged readers, this Johannine Epistles podcast offers a sharp reading of First, Second, and Third John as community formation under pressure, where confession, love, and belonging are practiced until they become a way of life. Fuller Profile: https://fuller.edu/faculty/janette-ok/

    First John: Abiding Love, Church Trauma, and How Divided Churches Heal | Dr. Janette H. Ok | Ep. 28

  6. 23 mai

    Rethinking the Johannine Epistles: Community, Rhetoric, and Hospitality | Dr. Warren Carter | Ep. 27

    Dr. Warren Carter rethinks the Johannine Epistles as formation documents rather than polemical tracts. This episode moves beyond the older “Johannine community crisis” model associated with Raymond Brown and asks what 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John do for believing audiences. Carter explains why mirror-reading is risky when interpreters reconstruct opponents too confidently from heated passages about antichrists, deceivers, and those who “went out.” The conversation locates his reading within debate over the Johannine community, from Hugo Méndez’s challenge to the hypothesis to Paul Anderson’s modified defense and the cautious middle position many scholars now adopt. The result is a reading of the Johannine Epistles as writings that build communal identity, ethical discernment, and practice across Christian networks. The discussion clarifies the distinctive shape of each writing. 1 John is not a conventional letter but a literary-theological discourse whose repetition, contrasts, and family language train communities to recognize what it means to abide in God. The “children of God” language in 1 John 3:1 grounds ethics in gift before task: identity is received before it is performed. Love is also economic. In 1 John 3:16–18, material sharing becomes a test of communal love in a stratified Greco-Roman setting. By contrast, 2 and 3 John are occasional letters addressing disputes over teachers, travel, authority, and welcome. Hospitality is theological, not merely polite. To receive or refuse traveling teachers shaped doctrine, legitimacy, money, and authority across assemblies. Carter helps readers see why the Johannine Epistles remain vital for thinking about identity conflict, discernment, and community life under pressure. BOOK 1, 2, and 3 John: An Introduction and Study Guide: Multiple Readings, Deconstructing Constructions, https://www.amazon.com/John-Introduction-Deconstructing-Constructions-Testament/dp/0567704203/ref=sr_1_1

    Rethinking the Johannine Epistles: Community, Rhetoric, and Hospitality | Dr. Warren Carter | Ep. 27

  7. 9 mai

    Micah 3 and Corrupt Leaders: Survival Literature, Trauma, and Hope | Dr. Dan Epp-Tiessen | Ep. 26

    Dr. Dan Epp-Tiessen (Canadian Mennonite University) offers a close reading of Micah 3 as survival literature for communities enduring political collapse, military invasion, and generational trauma. Drawing on his Believer's Church Bible Commentary on Joel, Obadiah, and Micah, Epp-Tiessen situates the prophet within the brutal Assyrian and Babylonian campaigns against Judah, arguing that the prophetic books were intentionally shaped to help traumatized communities name their pain and survive faithfully. The episode unpacks Micah's searing cannibalism metaphor against corrupt rulers—leaders who flay the flesh of their people through land seizure, economic exploitation, and unjust governance—and the prophet's equally sharp critique of the false prophets who provided divine legitimation for the regime. The conversation explores Robert Wilson's distinction between central prophets (on the king's payroll) and peripheral prophets (rooted in marginalized communities), the dynamics of true versus false prophecy, and the remarkable intertextual moment in Jeremiah 26 where Micah 3:12 is quoted to defend Jeremiah from a lynch mob. Epp-Tiessen then traces Micah's rhythm of indictment and hope across the book's three judgment-deliverance cycles, culminating in the swords-into-plowshares vision of Micah 4, the vine-and-fig-tree promise of peasant security, and the gracious, merciful God of Micah 7. The result is a trauma-informed, peace-theology reading that holds together rigorous scholarship and ecclesial relevance—offering pastors, students, and serious readers a framework for hearing Micah's voice in contexts of contemporary injustice, polarization, and the urgent question of faithful leadership today. Joel, Obadiah, Micah (Belivers Church Bible Commentary Series): https://www.amazon.com/Obadiah-Micah-Believers-Church-Commentary-ebook/dp/B09RQG3PQH/? Concerning the Prophets: True and False Prophesy in Jeremiah 23:9-29:32: https://www.amazon.com/Concerning-Prophets-Daniel-Epp-Tiessen/dp/149825991X/ref=sr_1_1

    Micah 3 and Corrupt Leaders: Survival Literature, Trauma, and Hope | Dr. Dan Epp-Tiessen | Ep. 26

  8. 26 avr.

    Amos: The Prophet Who Set a Rhetorical Trap | Rabbi Yitzchak Etshalom | Ep. 25

    Amos wasn't just preaching judgment—he was setting a rhetorical trap. And his audience walked right into it. Rabbi Yitzchak Etshalom unpacks the prophetic genius behind one of the Bible's most confrontational books. Amos stands before a northern Israelite audience and begins condemning their enemies one by one—Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab—circling the map while his listeners grow more self-satisfied with every oracle. Then he hits Judah, which raises an eyebrow. But seven nations have been condemned, and seven is a complete number. He should be done. He's not. Israel is number eight—the bullseye at the center of the geographic box he's drawn—and it's condemned not for one sin but seven, while every neighbor got just one. Rabbi Etshalom brings something rare to this conversation: a synthesis of traditional Jewish scholarship with modern literary and rhetorical analysis. He reads Amos as oral performance, not just written text—attending to wordplay, alliteration, and audience psychology that disappear in translation. His take on Amos's justice message is equally sharp. This isn't liberation theology retrofitted onto an ancient text. Amos targets individuals abusing power, not systemic institutions. And his famous call to "seek me and live" isn't generic spiritual advice—it's a specific summons back to Jerusalem and the Deuteronomic covenant. Rabbi Etshalom also makes the case that Amos established the template every literary prophet after him followed: end with hope. The final verses of restoration aren't a later addition—they're the rhetorical move of a prophet who understood that an audience has to leave with something worth carrying. Commentary on Amos: Amos: The Genius of Prophetic Rhetoric, https://www.amazon.com/Amos-Prophetic-Rhetoric-Yitzchak-Etshalom/dp/1592646336/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0

    Amos: The Prophet Who Set a Rhetorical Trap | Rabbi Yitzchak Etshalom | Ep. 25
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À propos

Hosted by two biblical scholars with diverse career backgrounds, Greg Camp (Sheffield University, Ph.D.) and Patrick Spencer (Durham University, Ph.D.), Scriptural Works focuses on a dynamic exploration of how to read and interpret scripture for greater meaning in today's postmodern world. Each episode unpacks the tools, methods, and insights that can be used to bring scripture alive, whether through their engaging dialogue or through conversations with guest scholars who bring specialized perspectives to particular texts or themes. From ancient contexts to contemporary application, from literary analysis to historical insights, Scriptural Works equips both lay readers and religious leaders with fresh approaches to biblical interpretation. Whether you're a curious reader, a minister seeking fresh perspectives, or anyone interested in developing a deeper grasp of scripture, Scriptural Works provides the intellectual tools and practical approaches to make biblical texts more accessible and meaningful.

Informations

  • Création
    Greg Camp and Patrick Spencer
  • Années d’activité
    2025 - 2026
  • Épisodes
    32
  • Classification
    Tous publics
  • Site web de l’émission
    Scriptural Works