Among the philosophers, only Plato has made as large an impact as Aristotle. The latter a student of the former, Aristotle moved in slightly different directions and was not awarded the ownership of Plato’s academy. These two therefore made their own unique contributions, but they are inextricably tied together. In the Christian tradition, the two ancient giants, Augustine and Aquinas….
Preparing a sermon on difficult texts can be extremely time-consuming. In Philippians 1, what does Paul mean when he says “I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my salvation” (1:19)? How should the difficult Greek phrase τοῦτο φρονεῖτε ἐν ὑμῖν ὃ καὶ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ (2:5) be understood? What does the word ἁρπαγμὸν mean in 2:6? To give one more example, what about everyone’s favorite word in Philippians, σκύβαλα – just exactly how strong is that word? For each of these exegetical problems, and the many more you would find in almost every paragraph of Philippians, you might need to consult a few commentaries and a couple lexicons, assuming you’re working from the Greek….
2015 was a good year. We added many contributors, created 19 basic Greek videos (more to come), launched our first Greek reading series on Colossians (more to come), gained hundreds for our Basic Greek for the Week email, reviewed and highlighted tons of books, and connected with lots of new friends.
The best thing about 2015 is that we’ve found many people–students, pastors, and scholars–who are serious about the biblical languages and exegesis….
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In 1977, E. P. Sanders wrote his landmark Paul and Palestinian Judaism, which argued that second temple Jews did not believe in meriting salvation by works, but believed Jews were included in the covenant by grace and kept in by works. Thus, Judaism, like Christianity, was a religion of grace. Since Sanders’ work, Pauline studies has not been the same. Some followed Sanders’ view of Judaism, including James Dunn who applied these results to a re-reading of Paul, dubbed the “New Perspective on Paul.” Paul did not rail against Jews trying to merit salvation, but against those who tried to use boundary markers or separation from Gentiles to prove (or vindicate?) their right inclusion in the covenant….
When I first started learning New Testament Greek during my early grad-school days, my second-hand copy of Bill Mounce’s classic grammar textbook was a constant companion. I deeply resonated with his morphological approach to learning Greek grammar in those early years, in large part because I recognized the wisdom of learning principles and patterns of word formation instead of memorizing paradigm after paradigm after paradigm. (For non-language nerds, “morphology” refers to how words are formed, often in relation to the way they are used in a particular sentence.)….
Lots of NIV Bibles on sale and some great looking kids Bibles. The Kid’s Storybook Bible is probably the best one out there right now, although for ages 2 or 3 and up. The three ministry books are all worth having, and if you’ve never read a book on hermeneutics, Fee and Stuart’s How to Read the Bible for All its Worth is often the place to start. Enjoy, and share with others!….
Moses and Paul: these two would likely be considered the two most prominent and influential biblical authors who have shaped world civilization through Christianity. (Jesus, of course, did not write anything.) As Westerholm’s Perspectives Old and New on Paul showed us, Paul shaped the Christian theological giants theologically more than any other biblical writer. It is therefore no surprise that Pauline studies continues to be (perhaps) the most active and saturated field in biblical studies today (I’ve never heard of any seminary short on Pauline scholars)….
Most of the Holman commentaries are only $2.99 each. Click below to browse them all.
Other deals:
Vern Poythress’ Chance and the Sovereignty of God, $2.99. Poythress has a PhD in math from Harvard alongside his PhD in New Testament and thorough knowledge of philosophy and Logic….
Each year many of us start afresh on our Bible reading plans. Sometimes we choose a new one and sometimes we choose the excitement of a new plan. There are lots of different plans, and each one has its benefits and drawbacks.
But one of the challenges to a plan that goes through the entire Bible is that the Old Testament is so foreign and inaccessible to those without formal theological training (and even then, of course, who has the Old Testament mastered?). This problem becomes especially discouraging when you hit Leviticus and it begins describing in repetitive detail the various kinds of sacrifices….