Perrydox.com is devoted to the pursuit of truth, whether plain or paradoxical, whether simple or sublime, or simply absurd yet absolute.
PHall | April 27, 2020
I imagine Peter feeling quite generous of heart, by doubling the times the rabbis had said to forgive based on Amos 1:6, and adding an extra for good measure. Peter asks, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times?” Can you picture the […]
PHall | April 23, 2020
“If you think the Law of Moses was tough, wait until you hear what I got to say!” I used to read the Sermon on the Mount with that trepidation. “If you even think something wrong, then you’re going to hell!” I soon learned Jesus is doing what Pharisees didn’t. He is teaching how not […]
PHall | April 22, 2020
The Golden Rule is known more than applied (Mt.7:12). That’s as much a self-judgment as observation. I would like to take a different angle which might help.Instead doing to others as you would have them do to you, try this: Do to others what you already do for yourself. That is taught elsewhere such as […]
PHall | February 27, 2020
Matthew’s biography of Jesus has the end meet the beginning, bookends if you please. These are aimed at the shame of the recipients. Matthew 1 famously has the genealogy of Jesus showing his regal credentials as the King of the Jews. But notice these two divergent aims: 1) Matthew 2 we have the “king of […]
PHall | December 21, 2019
The story, or stories, are true and familiar; one is an echo of the other.1. Each narrative comes at the beginning (Genesis 1-2; Matthew 1-2).2. Each is a story about a genealogy (Genesis 2:4; Matthew1:1).3. At the beginning there is a focus on a light that was not the sun (Genesis 1:3; Matthew 2:2,7-10; Luke […]
PHall | November 18, 2019
Matthew begins in a most boring way:“An account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:” (CSB’17 Matthew 1:1) followed by mind-numbing names.Boring if you are not a Jew. Hidden to Gentiles in plain sight are:• 4 of the most important promises made.• 3 promises made to one man.• […]
PHall | November 9, 2019
Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do good things happen to bad people? “Free will” is one very good answer; but that is an answer which has God backing away, necessarily, in order for free will to exist. God is not Deistic, because He is both immanent and transcendent. Free will hinges […]
PHall | October 7, 2019
If we can – join the church of our choice, choose which worship style fits us, and all that matters is we are sincere – then we have become our own God.This is one of the temptations within all three Jesus faced in the Wilderness:1. Turn the stones to bread instead of relying on God […]
PHall | October 7, 2019
Don’t read this if you think chiasms are Perry’s imaginary friend. What they can do is lead us to see both surface truths and the deeper meanings; along with seeing things as we are meant to see (and maybe miss because of our Western eyes). I will present two chiasms on the same […]