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Doing Philosophy as a Christian, by Garrett DeWeese

April 30, 2015

If you are a Christian academic, pastor, or scholar, and you have always felt intimidated or daunted by philosophy (or the prospect of learning philosophy), look no further. Garrett DeWeese had you in mind. This is not a history of philosophy (on which, see W. T. Jones’ History of Philosophy), but an overview of the various realms within philosophy. Anyone wishing to become acquainted with philosophy must become acquainted with at least the main areas of metaphysics (the nature of reality), epistemology (the nature of knowledge), and ethics. One could do this by surveying histories of philosophy to see how each branch developed diachronically, but one would be better served to get the philosophical categories in mind before trodding through Plato’s dialogues….

Loads of New Books Published Today

April 28, 2015

Todd Scacewater

Today there were a good amount of new books published, including the Kindle version of two books from the Biblical Theology of the New Testament series. Check them all out here….

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)….

Sing and Learn New Testament Greek, by Kenneth Berding

April 16, 2015

Laura Guzman

This week’s Featured Resource is Ken Berding’s Sing and Learn New Testament Greek: The Easiest Way to Learn New Testament Grammar (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008). (CD Hardcopy) (Audio Download) Among those who have rigorously attempted to teach or study Koine Greek, many will agree that memorizing paradigms and how to parse are equally the most important and the most difficult part of learning the language. Since paradigms are the foundation for parsing and parsing is part of the foundation for translation,…

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…

History of New Testament Research Vol. 1: From Deism to Tübingen, by William Baird

April 9, 2015

Warren Campbell

For students and scholars in biblical studies, particularly in the field of New Testament, a robust comprehension of the history of interpretation of the New Testament is an inestimable resource for successful study and research. As per the various resources in this area, William Baird’s three volume History of New Testament Research (HNTR) is an unquestionable standard. The following review will concentrate on Volume 1, however many of the comments made here are indicative of the set as a whole….

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Doing Philosophy as a Christian, by Garrett DeWeese

Loads of New Books Published Today

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

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

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

Book Giveaway, Enter Now

Bloomsbury Companion to Discourse Analysis, ed. Hyland and Paltridge

Sing and Learn New Testament Greek, by Kenneth Berding

New Testament Theology Annotated Bibliography

History of New Testament Research Vol. 1: From Deism to Tübingen, by William Baird