The Importance of Probability in Exegesis
This Westminster Theological Seminary Ph.D. Candidate is uncovering the literary background of Luke-Acts, and mathematical probability is helping. Don’t worry — no calculator needed!
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Tool Talk | Two Common Errors in Bible Study
Resources mentioned in this episode: Todd’s custom layout for BibleWorks software
Isaiah for Everyone, by John Goldingay
John Goldingay is no slouch in Isaianic studies. In 2005, he published The Message of Isaiah 40-55: A Literary-Theological Commentary. Last year, he replaced the old International Critical Commentary volumes on Isaiah by publishing the volumes on Isaiah 40-55 and Isaiah 56-66, and also published Theology of the Book of Isaiah.
In this small book, Goldingay tries to make Isaiah accessible for everyone….
The Letter to the Romans: A Linguistic and Literary Commentary, by Stanley Porter
I have worked through enough of this volume to offer a positive recommendation. Porter has complained that most commentaries are composed of comments on other commentaries. This is an observation that I echo as well. He has succeeded, in my opinion, in avoiding that pitfall. As would be expected, Porter is very familiar with the literature….
The Interpretation of the New Testament 1861-1968 – Stephen Neill & Tom Wright
If you are a student of the New Testament, then you should be familiar with the history of interpretation (the helpfulness of which could comprise a post in and of itself). Although we have featured Baird’s volume on the history of research,…
Tom Schreiner Helps You Bring Biblical Theology to the Pulpit
The major contribution of each volume, however, is a thorough discussion of the most important themes of the biblical book in relation to the canon as a whole. This format allows each contributor to ground biblical theology, as is proper, in an appropriate appraisal of the relevant historical and literary features of a particular book….
A Guide to Every Greek Phrase in Philippians: A Huge Time-Saver for Students and Pastors
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….
Philippians (Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament), by Joseph Hellerman
This handbook on the Greek text of Philippians is part of B&H Academic’s EGGNT series, several volumes of which we have reviewed. Each volume is aimed at intermediate Greek readers and focuses on syntax, vocabulary, and grammar. But each volume is also slightly distinctive, given an author’s chosen emphases.
Hellerman begins with a brief commentary introduction, concluding that Paul wrote the letter from Rome. He writes one long paragraph on aspect and Aktionsart….
Weekly Roundup August 7, 2015
Blogs
Brian Davidson at the Center for Ancient Christian Studies interviewed Ken Penner on his forthcoming book, The Verbal System of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which discusses how the Hebrew language evolved between the Bible and the Mishnah.
Larry Hurtado discusses the issue of the history of the emergence of orthodoxy….
Review of Bibleworks 10, Part 1: Interface and Design
This is part 1 of our review of BibleWorks 10. This post will discuss the interface and design of BibleWorks, which I have always appreciated the most about the program because of its simplicity and down-to-business look. One friend says it looks like it was built for MS-DOS, which was a humorous exaggeration, but it truly is a simple, text-based design for serious exegetes. Moreoever, it’s lightweight and loads and operates far quicker than Logos, which is a beast even on my brand new, high quality Lenovo Yoga Pro 2. Searches on BW are nearly instantaneous and can be quite complex, as I’ll demonstrate in future posts. For now, let’s look at this simple, yet elegant design….