Chirpings of the Bird

Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Here I share a summary of things I’ve been doing, presenting, and listening to at the international Society of Biblical Literature meeting in Adelaide. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelfbird.substack.com/subscribe

Hi everyone, here is a short video I recorded while traveling around Turkey. It is two-minutes of me talking about John’s Gospel in the beautiful Basilica of St. John in ancient Ephesus. Enjoy! When I get to John's gospel, I feel like I'm coming there not for the scholarly debate. I'm there for a spiritual retreat because there's just a deep spiritual texture to the Gospel of John that I think mak...

Thank you Patrick Jones , Jared Matthews , and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app in October! In this video, I talk about: * My recent research projects on Roman empire in third century, as well as 2 Peter/Jude. * Trips to New Zealand and Germany. * Forthcoming article on the ethics of defence spending. * Substack post on N.T. Wright and justificat...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelfbird.substack.com Worst Heretics Ever! Okay, my friends, this post is not for the squeamish or easily grossed-out among you. Let me tell you the sad and sordid tale of a heretical group called the Borborites. A group of baby-eating Gnostics who also consumed a concoction of menstrual blood and semen in their sordid eucharistic c...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelfbird.substack.com According to ancient sources, after the Great Fire of 64 AD ravaged Rome for six days, rumours started spreading that the emperor Nero had started the blaze himself. Nero, wanting to shut down the suspicions, blamed the Christians for the fire, had them arrested, tortured, and executed, turning them into infamo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelfbird.substack.com Finding authentic sayings of Jesus in the Gospels is a complex task. Jesus lived and conducted his ministry in the late 20s of the first century, likely being crucified around 30 AD. However, the first Gospel, Mark, is thought to have been written around 70 AD, creating a significant 40-year gap between Jesus'...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelfbird.substack.com Sometime around 111-13 AD, Pliny, the governor of Bithynia (north shore of modern-day Turkey) wrote a letter to the emperor Trajan about what to do with people denounced as “Christians.” Along the way, Pliny makes a fascinating statement about women church officers at one point. They asserted, however, that the...

The Pope is Dead! Was Pope Francis a good Pope? And Who will the next Pope be? That’s what the video above is about! Otherwise, see my review of the movie Conclave . Also, check out an article that I wrote back in 2015 titled Is Pope Francis our Pope? on how Protestants should think of the Pope. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus e...

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelfbird.substack.com/subscribe

What accounts for the triumph of Christianity over its pagan rivals? Around about AD 30, Jesus of Nazareth was put to death by a second-tier Roman administrator in the backwater province of Judea. But some two hundred years later, in 312, Constantine was going into battle at the Milvian bridge with the Chi-Rho symbol on the shields of his soldiers because he allegedly had a vision telling him, “In...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelfbird.substack.com The second century apologist Justin Martyr (d. ca. AD 165) was typical of proto-orthodox christology when he described Christ as “Lord and God the Son of God” who is “deserving to be worshipped as God and as Christ” ( Dial. 63.5; 128.1). Justin definitely had a “divine” Christology and even has a triadic Godhea...

When it comes to justification by faith, I have argued at length that if we connect justification to union with Christ, then it is better to speak of an incorporated righteousness rather than an imputed righteousness. This also enables us to see justification as tied to both the cross and resurrection, properly understand the forensic nature of justification, and better explain the language of rec...

From Syria all the way to Rome I am fighting with wild beasts, on land and sea, by night and day, chained amidst ten leopards (that is, a company of soldiers) who only get worse when they are well treated. Yet because of their mistreatment I am becoming more of a disciple; nevertheless “I am not thereby justified.” May I have the pleasure of the wild beasts that have been prepared for me; and I pr...

Should we pray to the Holy Spirit? We can pray for the Holy Spirit, but can we pray to the Holy Spirit? There is no example in the New Testament of anybody ever praying to the Holy Spirit! Yes, the Holy Spirit is a person. Yes, the Holy Spirit is divine. So the Holy Spirit is a divine person. But nobody in the New Testament ever prays to the Holy Spirit. There are also calls to “pray in the Spirit...

Should Christians pray to Jesus? Well of course, we should, because everyone does it! Catholics, Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, and Pentecostals. Maybe the only thing we do agree on is praying to Jesus. But then again, the overriding pattern of prayer in the New Testament is directed to God the Father and not towards Jesus! Jesus prayed to God the Father… This is a public episode. If you'd like...

The Gospel of John is the big book of faith. Although the noun pistis (“faith”) does not appear in the book, the verb pisteuō is ubiquitous. Consider how the Fourth Gospel opens and closes: “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God” (John 1:12). “But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God...

Above is a video of me giving a five-minute talk about Paul’s ministry in Thessalonica (Acts 17) and his letters to the Thessalonian believers (1-2 Thessalonians) filmed on-site in modern Thessaloniki with some ancient ruins in the background (albeit with a lot of city noise around me). What do these letters cover and what are my favourite books about them? See below! This is a public episode. If...

Thank you Ron Ford , Leonard Vander Zee , Beth , Kathryn , Jay McCabe , and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. In this video, I talk about: * US VP J.D. Vance’s claim that Americans should immigration policy through the lens of ordo amoris , an Augustian notion of an order of loves, which Rory Stewart called “pagan / tribal.” * What I’ve been up t...

Matthew V. Novenson Paul and Judaism at the End of History Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024. Okay, we are back into Novenson’s book on Paul and Judaism at the End of History , and this time we are into Novenson’s intriguing proposal in his essay “Paul versus the Gentiles.” We are accustomed to thinking of Paul’s opponents as either local Jews or a posse… This is a public episode. If you'd lik...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelfbird.substack.com What I am going to do now is show what Paul’s argument looks like if you connect it to Ephesus and the cult of Artemis in the first-century. Let me give some props to Rick Strelan’s book Paul, Artemis, and the Ephesians ; Sandra Glahn, Nobody’s Mother , Gary H. Hoag, Wealth in Ancient Ephesus and the First Lett...

Mike Winger is a US pastor with a YouTube channel called Learn to Think Biblically . While he covers a lot of topics, some of it is quite good, he is best known for his massive 80+ hours of videos on Complementarianism. Now Complementarianism, with many variations, is a view that authority and teaching roles in the church such as the offices of pastor and elder are exclusively the remit of men. I’...

During my time in Istanbul, I had the pleasure of visiting the Hagia Irene, the Church of the Holy Peace, which was where the Council of Constantinople was held, and the Nicene Creed was updated, affirmed, and approved as the orthodox creed of the churches of the east and west. In the video above is a short introduction and a brief walk through the Hagia… This is a public episode. If you'd like to...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelfbird.substack.com Matthew V. Novenson Paul and Judaism at the End of History Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024. A good follow-up to Matthew Thiessen’s book A Jewish Paul (reviewed here ), is Matthew Novenson’s latest book Paul and Judaism at the End of History , a volume that is rightly getting a lot of attention and stimula...

Hi everyone, for those who missed it, here is my preview of 2025, what is happening in writing, substacking, youtubing, and travel! Thank you James Menendez , Patrick Jones , Wes McAdams , Rev. Carmen D. Kampman, DMin , Drew Heurion , and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. I will try do at least one of these per month! This is a public episode. If...

Here’s one of my solo videos recording material on location in Tarsus about the significance of Tarsus for the life and ministry of Saul/Paul. Only 7:00 minutes long. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelfbird.substack.com/subscribe