Download discussion questions: John 8_58-9_18a man born blind
Circumstances prevented me from attending the group for several weeks. The blog entries for these weeks are minimal to non-existent. Since the inductive method used in the group is simple, reproducible, and transferable the group continued to have lively discussions. The handout and discussion questions are available for those weeks and can be downloaded from the link above.
Download discussion questions: John 8_42-59 before Abraham (email, no text)
Download passage text: John 8_42-59 before Abraham
It has taken us several weeks (since August 9 or so) but this passage brings us to a climactic moment in the ongoing (and escalating) controversy between Jesus and various groups. Throughout the eight-day celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, or Booths (John 7:2), Jesus had what appears to be a continual encounter with various groups. Continue reading
Download discussion questions: John 8_28-47 Freedom
Perhaps the most important key to good inductive Bible study is the question. Often the first time someone is introduced to the idea of seriously studying the Bible on their own, they read a passage and then don’t know where to start. Start with questions – when you read the passage, don’t focus on the knowledge you already have. Instead, start with what questions the passage raises in your mind. Then begin the process of seeing what kind of answers you are able to find in the passage.
That was the starting point of our discussion this week. After spending ten minutes or so quietly looking at the text individually, we began responding to, “What question from your reading would you most like answered?” Continue reading
Download discussion questions: John 8_12-30 know Me, know My Father
In this passage we resume the interaction between Jesus and the Pharisees (from John 7:52). As our group discussed last week, the familiar “woman taken in adultery” passage (John 7:53 – 8:11) was almost certainly not part of John’s original text. The opening of the present passage highlights the discontinuity between the questionable passage and the flow of John’s narrative. Continue reading
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Download discussion questions: John 7_50 – 8_18 judging
Download essay: John 7_53 – 8_11 woman caught in adultery
Download essay: John 1_34 – Textual Variants
Our discussion this week included a significant digression from the content of John’s Gospel. What makes Scripture to be Scripture? Does authorship matter? Does textual evidence matter? How do we decide (or do we)? Continue reading
Download discussion questions: John 7_30 – 52 speaking of the Spirit
Confusion – that seemed to be the dominant impression among our discussion group about what was happening in this passage. One group wants to arrest Jesus. Others think He might be the Christ, or at least The Prophet, a second Moses promised near the end of Moses’ life (Deuteronomy 18:15-18). A few days earlier during this visit to Jerusalem some in the crowd accused Him of having a demon. His teaching without formal training mystified those who had the training. The crowd was unclear about whether or not the leaders really wanted to kill Him. The religious police are sent to arrest Jesus and come back empty-handed. All this in the context of a huge and presumably noisy crowd. Confusion. Continue reading
Download discussion questions: John 7_15-31 teaching and signs
Jesus’ teaching astonishes and puzzles the Jews, the religious leaders who are keeping a careful eye on Him. Learned teaching takes preparation, and He had none. Jesus uses the opportunity to point back to His mission from the Father, the One who sent Him (at least four times just in this passage). Once again we (looking back from our twenty-first century perspective) hear hints of the Trinity, the Father sending the Son. Continue reading
Download discussion questions: John 6_53 – 7_1 many withdraw
Jesus has been saying things that are “difficult to listen to” (John 6:60) and even more difficult to understand. The comfortable metaphor about bread from heaven confused the crowd when Jesus said He was the bread, then it became very uncomfortable when He talked of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Jesus kept stretching their thinking with something He considered even more of a difficulty for them. Continue reading
Download discussion handout: John 6_37 – 60 hard sayings
One of the first comments in our Sunday morning discussion group was the public nature of Jesus’ teaching. He was speaking openly even knowing that there was considerable “grumbling” among the crowd. He was in a place where people normally gathered, the synagogue in Capernaum. The free and unrestricted way Jesus taught was in contrast to the sermon we had just heard on Paul’s warnings to the church at Colossae about the danger of Gnosticism and their secret “special” teaching. Nothing like that in Jesus’ ministry. Continue reading