Todd Scacewater

Todd (PhD, Hermeneutics) serves with Wycliffe Bible Translators as a professor of international studies at Dallas International University.

The Book of Psalms (NICOT), by DeClaissé-Walford, Jacobson, and Tanner

April 27, 2015

Todd Scacewater

This new one-volume, multi-author commentary on the psalms focuses on the shape and shaping of the Psalter. Brevard Childs first introduced the concept in his Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture in his chapter on the psalms. His initial exploration was fleshed out in his student Gerald Wilson’s dissertation, The Editing of the Hebrew Psalter. This “canonical” reading of the Psalter looks for the editorial purpose in the arrangement of the psalms, looking especially at pre-existing collections (e.g., the Psalms of Asaph, Enthronement Psalms, Elohistic Psalter, etc.) as well as editorial indicators (either explicit or implicit). Most in this field agree that the Psalter tells the story of Israel from the reign of David (Books 1-2) to the return from exile (Book 5).

Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (2nd ed.), ed. Green, Brown, and Perrin

April 23, 2015

Todd Scacewater

Imagine that you are about to preach on the Sermon on the Mount. You have no interest in form or redaction criticism; you don’t care about Q. But you are also aware of the benefits of studies that compare Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount with Luke’s Sermon on the Plain, and you realize critical literary studies can be helpful for understanding the Sermon as a whole. You have a couple options available: Carson has published a book with a 110-page exposition of the Sermon, but there is little discussion of the critical research; it focuses on expositing the text. On the other hand, there is the ICC commentary by Davies and Allison on Matthew 1-7, which would contain all the critical data you need, but would probably not be much help with expositing the text as a coherent message from Jesus (not to mention its enormous length)….

History, Ideology, and Bible Interpretation in the Dead Sea Scrolls, by Devorah Dimant

April 22, 2015

Todd Scacewater

This New Book is a collection of essays from Devorah Dimant, who has spent the last forty five years studying the Qumran texts. The first essay is an invaluable history of research from the 1950’s until today. The essays then fall into three parts: “The Qumran Library,” focusing on collections in the community; “The History of the Qumran Community,” which consists of one 30pp essay; “Themes in the Qumran Literature,” which touches on various ideas such as resurrection and restoration, the temple,…

Book Giveaway, Enter Now

April 21, 2015

Todd Scacewater

To celebrate a successful month this March, we’ve decided to create a book giveaway contest. We’re giving away one free, new copy of Paul Glenn’s Introduction to Philosophy (Catholic Way, 2014). We here at Exegetical Tools want to bring you the latest resources for biblical studies, but we’re also bringing on another contributor (to be announced soon) to help educate about basic resources in different areas of philosophy. Many biblical scholars, pastors, and students feel daunted by the thought of learning…

Bloomsbury Companion to Discourse Analysis, ed. Hyland and Paltridge

April 20, 2015

Todd Scacewater

This collection of essays aims to “provide a way into this complex and wide-ranging field [of analyzing discourse] for beginning researchers in the area of applied linguistics” (15). They hope to provide “teachers, students, and researchers with a way of theorizing and investigating both spoken and written discourse.”

The first part of the book contains essays on various methods of discourse analysis. These methods may be executed on written or oral discourses and may stem from various methodological schools of thought. There are essays on narrative analysis, genre analysis, corpus approaches to discourse analysis, and more that are someone less relevant to biblical studies (although see below for a couple that are quite relevant)….

New Testament Theology Annotated Bibliography

April 13, 2015

Todd Scacewater

In 1787, J. P. Gabler delivered his oration on the distinction between biblical and systematic theology. Since then, NT theology has developed into a wide field of its own. The following bibliography provides the major works of the field along with annotations on the methodology and importance of the works. If you would want to enter into the field of NT theology, you should probably start with Hasel, then read Ladd. Beyond these two, which give a basic (and admittedly conservative) grasp of NT theology, you may move into the other works with different methodologies and various viewpoints…

Book Deals Starting at $1.99! Nine Kindle Books on The Gospel, Preaching, and Evangelism

April 8, 2015

Todd Scacewater

This book sale extends through April 12. Don’t miss any of these amazing deals to build your digital library….

Discourse Analysis Annotated Bibliography

April 6, 2015

Todd Scacewater

Discourse analysis is a sub-discipline within linguistics that is used to analyze discourse at a level larger than the sentence. Before discourse analysis evolved, linguists were concerned primarily with morphemes, words, phrases, and at most, sentences. But linguists in the latter half of the twentieth century began developing tools and theories for analyzing paragraphs, sections, and entire discourses. These discourses may be oral or written, and discourse analysis is intended to handle both mediums of communication….

Book Deal: A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life, $5 on Kindle

March 31, 2015

Todd Scacewater

Get this work now from WTS Bookstore for only $5 on Kindle. Compare this cost with $41 for hardcover on Amazon and $30 for Kindle.

This is a massive, 1,055 page book that “offers a groundbreaking treatment of the Puritans’ teaching on most major Reformed doctrines, particularly those doctrines in which the Puritans made significant contributions. Since the late 1950s, nearly 150 Puritan authors and 700 Puritan titles have been reprinted and catalogued by Joel Beeke and Randall Pederson in their 2006 collection of mini-biographies and book reviews, titled, Meet the Puritans. However, no work until now has gathered together the threads of their teaching into a unified tapestry of systematic….

Your Go-To Online Summer GERMAN Course

March 24, 2015

Todd Scacewater

Need to learn German for graduate programs? I highly recommend Erasmus Academy’s online seminar course in German. I took this course in the summer of 2012 and it was one of the best language courses I’ve taken. This year in runs May 18-July 8 (8 weeks total). The deadline to sign up is May 1. If you do take the course, please remember to tell the professor that Todd Scacewater referred you….