Murray Harris Archives - exegetical.tools

Murray Harris’ Guide to Commentaries on John Based on their Various Strengths

December 16, 2015

The following is an excerpt (pp. 14-15, posted with permission) from Murray Harris’ Exegetical Guide to John’s Gospel, our Book of the Week for December 14, 2015.

RECOMMENDED COMMENTARIES

Throughout this Guide references are made to five commentaries that are written in English or translated into English and are based directly on the Greek text of John. They are:

C. K. Barrett, The Gospel according to St. John: An Introduction with Commentary and Notes on the Greek Text. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1978.

Your Guide to Three Greek Exegetical Problems in John

December 13, 2015

Todd Scacewater

You’re sitting at home enjoying a nice show when your doorbell rings: it’s a Jehovah’s witness who wants to share with you about how Jesus is a god. How do you respond? Do you tell him you’re busy and shut the door? Do you engage in a debate with him? Do you pull out your Greek New Testament to discuss the grammatical complexities of John 1:2? There are many reasons we as Christians and academics should know Greek grammar solid, and this is only one of them. Of course each Christological passages in the Bible require careful exegesis and close attention to the language used, otherwise how would we know whether our theology of Christ is actually grounded in what the biblical authors wrote?….

Weekly Roundup June 12, 2015

June 12, 2015

Todd Scacewater

Blogs

Tim Keller posted a review of Matthew Vines book God and the Gay Christian, including also Ken Wilson’s A Letter to My Congregation. He provides six types of errors that he finds in Vines’ and Wilson’s books, both historical, personal, and theological. Matthew Vines has responded on his blog, suggesting that Keller has made some historical errors and misrepresented his arguments on many points. This was quite the little back-and-forth and easy to follow since Keller made his critiques in 6 categories, to which Vines responded point by point.

Colossians and Philemon (EGGNT), by Murray Harris

May 18, 2015

Todd Scacewater

Harris’ introduction is brief, noting some brief arguments for Paul as the author of both Colossians and Philemon. Paul probably wrote the letters during his first Roman imprisonment (4, 207-209) in order to exhort them away from their relapse into paganism and to combat false teaching (5). Harris provides a bibliography for further reading on the occasion for the letters and the “Colossian heresy.” The purpose of the series is to deal extensively with grammatical and syntactical issues, while briefly explaining the implications of such issues for theological interpretation. Harris interacts heavily with secondary literature, showing that he has done the difficult job of wading through various grammatical analyses of the texts by others. He does a superb job of explaining the various grammatical and syntactical possibilities for each phrase….