The Death of Ezekiel's Wife

Claude Mariottini is starting what should be a helpful study on the death of Ezekiel's wife here. Today he addresses the topic of prophetic sign acts.

Bread of the Presence

Jennie Ebeling has a good discussion here of the bread of the presence (aka showbread or shewbread).

Four Areas of Disagreement over Baptism

Kirk Miller does a commendable job here explaining the four main areas where Christians disagree on the issue of baptism.

The Latest Issue of the Review of Biblical Literature

The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews can be accessed by clicking the links below but unfortunately you must be a SBL member to read them.

Susan Ackerman, Gods, Goddesses, and the Women Who Serve Them (Eerdmans)
Raz Kletter

Michael F. Bird and Scott Harrower, eds., The Cambridge Companion to the Apostolic Fathers (Cambridge University Press)
Carolyn Osiek

Austin Busch, Risen Indeed? Resurrection and Doubt in the Gospel of Mark (SBL Press)
Jarrett Knight

William Lane Craig, In Quest of the Historical Adam (Eerdmans)
Paul Korchin

Paul R. Hinlicky, Joshua (Brazos)
David G. Firth

Eric F. Mason and Mark F. Whitters, eds., “With Gentleness and Respect”: Pauline and Petrine Studies in Honor of Troy W. Martin (Peeters)
Sofanit T. Abebe

Matthias Müller and Sami Uljas, eds., Martyrs and Archangels: Coptic Literary Texts from the Pierpont Morgan Library (Mohr Siebeck)
Ivan Miroshnikov

Reinhard Müller and Juha Pakkala, Editorial Techniques in the Hebrew Bible: Toward a Refined Literary Criticism (SBL Press)
Thomas B. Dozeman

A Pastoral Warning

I recently read the following convicting words of Jim Scott Orrick to preachers. Let him who has ears to hear . . .

"My fear is not so much that you will end your ministry by plunging headlong into a sea of scandalous sin. You may. But it is far more likely that you will waste your life slowly dissolving in puddles of mediocrity when you might have been great in God’s kingdom. I fear that you will continue to fritter away precious, irretrievable hours watching inane videos on the Internet and playing video games. I fear that you will spend your lives creating and maintaining a pseudo-self on social media, and on your deathbed, you will realize that you have lived a pseudo-life. I fear that your marriages will be plagues and your views of women are being irreparably perverted because your mind is full of images that degrade women, and degrade intimacy, and degrade you—images that can continue to enthrall you only because you continue to think of yourself and of women as if you were no better than animals, and not sons and daughters of the kingdom. I fear that you will realize too late that the thing you settle for will crowd out the thing you might have done, and that the trivia movies you watch and the trivial music that you listen to will seep into the well of your soul until you become a trivial man. I fear that you will live your life in the fleshly, man-centered morning of Caesarea Philippi and you will never see the Mount of Transfiguration and hear the voice of God."

Jim Scott Orrick, Ryan Fullerton, and Brian Payne, Encountering God through Expository Preaching: Connecting God’s People to God’s Presence through God’s Word (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2017), 210.

Psalm 108

I am working on a commentary on the Psalms. I have decided to compile some helpful links that I discovered during my research. It includes a mix of exegetical and sermonic links. Here is what I have for Psalm 108 (in no particular order). Feel free to mention any that you find helpful in the comments section.

Analysis by C. J. Labuschagne: https://www.labuschagne.nl/ps108.pdf

William Barrick’s notes: https://drbarrick.org/files/studynotes/Psalms/Ps_108.pdf

Psalm 108 devotional: https://www.generations.org/devotionals/172