Was Peter Really the Rock? Did Mary Stay a Virgin?

Ask NT Wright Anything

Premier Unbelievable

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity, History

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 November 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of Ask NT Wright Anything, Mike Bird and Tom Wright take on three big questions:First, a listener from Ohio asks how precise our beliefs must be to be “saved”. Tom reframes salvation away from “going to heaven when you die” towards God’s new creation and the defeat of death. They unpack Romans 10, baptism, assurance, and why faith is fundamentally entrusting yourself to Jesus rather than having a perfect theology.Next, they explore whether in Matthew 16 Peter himself is “the rock” or whether it’s his confession that Jesus is the Christ.Finally, they tackle why the virgin birth matters: Jewish expectations, Isaiah 7:14, pagan “divine birth” stories, and why the virgin birth points to God’s sheer grace, the initiative of the Trinity and Jesus’ true humanity shared with Mary.Support us: https://www.premierunbelievable.com/geolink/donateStart going deeper in the Bible with a free trial at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠logos.com/NT⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠👉 Refer a friend to become a subscriber like you - they can get 10% off by clicking here (Embed URL: https://askntwright.supportingcast.fm?sc_promo=ASK10) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to another episode of the Ask Ante-Rite Anything podcast, the show where we try to answer your questions about Jesus, the Bible and the life of faith.
0:14.8	I'm Mike Bird from Ridley College and I'm of course with Tom Wright from Oxford.
0:20.3	Now Tom, we have a question this week from someone in Ohio.
0:25.6	Now, I don't know whether you know this about me, Tom, but I have a rare medical condition
0:30.4	that means I can't visit Ohio.
0:33.6	I have a rare medical condition called folio.
0:37.1	Have you heard of it?
0:38.2	No.
0:39.3	It stands for fear of living in Ohio.
0:43.8	I keep having this recurring dream that I'm playing in the Cincinnati Open and my left
0:49.8	arm doesn't work.
0:50.6	It's a recurring nightmare.
0:52.9	No, I've never been to Ohio. I'm sure it's a
0:56.1	lovely place, but I do have another condition called FOLIB, which is Fear of Living in Birmingham.
1:01.8	Well, I can understand that too. That's the British Birmingham, not the Alabama one.
1:06.7	Well, anyway, well, this week we've got some great questions about the nature of faith,
1:11.3	Peter the Rock, and the Virgin Birth.
1:14.2	So let's get into our first question from Kenny Leathers from Mason, Ohio.
1:19.9	And he asked this.
1:21.0	It's about precision in the faith.
1:23.0	He says, Tom, thank you so much for this podcast.
1:26.2	It seems in the US that many reform thinkers are very
	...

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