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The Letter to the Hebrews with Amy Peeler

To hear the podcast (20 min.) click here.

Amy Peeler has been with us before on The Stone Chapel Podcasts.  Her first podcast has two parts and she talked about her book Women and the Gender of God.

There is a link in the show notes below to find those two podcasts.  She joins David Capes today on the podcast to discuss her new commentary on the letter to the Hebrews.

Who Is Amy Peeler?

Amy Peeler is the Kenneth T. Wessner Chair of Biblical Studies at Wheaton College. The former holder of that chair was Dr. Doug Moo. 

She earned her PhD at Princeton Theological Seminary and today is ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church.  She serves as associate rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal church in Geneva, IL.

The Letter to the Hebrews

For all practical purposes the letter to the Hebrews is one of the most complicated and robust of biblical books. 

It has attracted Dr. Peeler’s attention since grad school.  She loves it, first, because of its heavy engagement with the Scriptures of Israel.  She also loves it as a historian because of the way you can see Greek influences in the book.

We call it a letter today.  It also has the overtones of a sermon and deep encouragement to a community under stress.

The commentary is part of a new series on Spiritual Formation.  For Dr. Peeler the essential questions are: (1) who is God as revealed in Hebrews? (2) how are we to live in the light of this revelation? (3) how does reading this book change your life? 

Joshua Jipp, professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago, said on social media that this is his all time favorite commentary.  High praise, indeed! 

So if you want to know more about the letter to the Hebrews, listen to this podcast first.  Then find Dr. Peeler’s book.

Resources

For a link to Part 1 of her earlier podcast click here.

Part 2 can be found by clicking here.

For a link to her book, Hebrews in the Series Commentary for Christian Formation (Eerdmans 2024), click here.

For a link to her book, Women and the Gender of God (Eerdmans 2022), click here.  

Want more Stone Chapel Podcasts on some great topics? Just click here.

You can get information on upcoming lectures at Lanier Theological Library by clicking here

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The Gender of God, Part 1, with Amy Peeler

To hear the podcast (18 min) click here. 

There is a lot of talk about gender today.  Some people introduce themselves along with their pronouns (in my case: he, him).  The pronouns give you a sense of how people understand their genders.  According to some websites, there are over fifty genders.

Well, what does this focus on gender have to do with God?  Does God have a gender too? 

In the Bible, the pronouns of God are rendered masculine because it does reflect the original languages of the Scriptures: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.  But does God really have a gender?

In this podcast we explore the concept of “The Gender of God.”  This is part one of the podcast.  Our special guest is Dr. Amy Peeler. 

Who Is Amy Peeler?

Amy Peeler is an Associate Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College.  She has been in that position twelve years.  Dr. Peeler is well known as a wonderful researcher and writer. 

Amy has spent a good deal of time writing about the book of Hebrews.  She is also a minister at an Episcopal Church near Wheaton, IL.  

Recently she wrote a book entitled Women and the Gender of God.  It has attracted a lot of attention.  She hopes to help women find a more meaningful place in the Church today.

The Gender of God

The audio for this podcast is taken from a radio show co-hosted by David Capes called A Show of Faith on AM 1070 The Answer Houston. 

On this show are David and two co-hosts Father Mario Arroyo, Catholic priest, at St. Cyril of Alexandria Catholic Church in Houston, and Rudy Kong, a millennial theology student who works in the space industry. 

This episode is focused on the book written by Dr. Peeler which deals with the question of gender as it relates to God. 

She dives deeply into the Christian tradition, across the ages, in order to construct a productive way toward thinking about God. 

Is God male or is God genderless?  Might God be beyond gender?  Is God the fullness of  both genders? 

In this podcast Father Mario mentions another book by Abigail Favale, The Genesis of Gender  Published by Ignatius Press, 2022.  It is written from the Catholic perspective.  Both books seem like marvelous studies of the topic. 

Stay tuned for Part Two next week!

More Resources

The weekly radio show A Show of Faith”has its own podcast on Spotify.  Click here to access it.  It presents the whole hour radio show, unedited, with commercials and “bump” music.

Want more Stone Chapel Podcasts on some great topics? Just click here.

You can get information on upcoming lectures at Lanier Theological Library by clicking here.

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Entering God’s Resting Place with Jon Laansma, Hebrews 4

Jon C. Laansma is the Gerald F. Hawthorne Professor of New Testament Greek and Exegesis in the Classical Languages program at Wheaton College, IL. Among other things he has authored I Will Give You Rest: The Rest Motif in the New Testament with Special Reference to Mt 11 and Heb 3-4 and The Letter to the Hebrews: A Commentary for Preaching, Teaching, and Bible Study. Today’s topic: What does the Greek wording of Heb. 4:1-11 tell us about the writer’s idea of God’s promise of entering into his resting place to celebrate the Sabbath?

To hear the podcast click here.

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Made Son with Amy Peeler (Hebrews 3: 1-6)

Dr. Amy Peeler, Associate Professor of New Testament, has authored You Are My Son: The Family of God in the Epistle to the Hebrews (T&T Clark, 2015) along with articles on a range of NT texts and topics, and her study, Women and the Gender of God (Eerdmans), is forthcoming. Jesus’ identity as a son is highlighted in the figurative comparison with Moses in Heb. 3:1-6, but close attention to the Greek wording appreciates that it is Jesus’ divinity that stands out as the key distinction.

To hear the podcast click here.

“Exegetically Speaking” is a weekly podcast of the friends and faculty of Wheaton College, IL and The Lanier Theological Library. Hosted by Dr. David Capes, it features language experts who discuss the importance of learning the biblical languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek—and show how reading the Bible in the original languages “pays off.” Each podcast lasts between seven and eleven minutes and covers a different topic for those who want to read the Bible for all it is worth.

If you’re interested in going deeper, learn more about Wheaton’s undergraduate degree in Classical Languages (Greek, Hebrew, and Latin) and our MA in Biblical Exegesis. 

You can hear Exegetically Speaking on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. If you have questions or comments, please contact us at exegetically.speaking@wheaton.edu. And keep listening. 

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The Assembly of the Firstborn . . . Ones

Rev. Dr. Amy Peeler, Wheaton College

Dr. Amy Peeler, Associate Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, directs our attention to Hebrew 12:23 to a phrase often misunderstood and mistranslated.  The redeemed make up an assembly of people who have a standing and status of firstborn in the family with all the rights and privileges appertaining thereunto.

To hear the podcast click here.

“Exegetically Speaking” is a weekly podcast of the friends and faculty of Wheaton College, IL and The Lanier Theological Library. Hosted by Dr. David Capes, it features language experts who discuss the importance of learning the biblical languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek—and show how reading the Bible in the original languages “pays off.” Each podcast lasts between seven and eleven minutes and covers a different topic for those who want to read the Bible for all it is worth.

If you’re interested in going deeper, learn more about Wheaton’s undergraduate degree in Classical Languages (Greek, Hebrew, and Latin) and our MA in Biblical Exegesis. 

You can hear Exegetically Speaking on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. If you have questions or comments, please contact us at exegetically.speaking@wheaton.edu.