9Marks Audio

Mark Dever's 9Marks website has free access to some nice audio interviews on interesting topics with some major players in Evangelicalism today. The interviewees include J. I. Packer, John MacArthur, Simon Garthercole, D. A. Carson, Kent Hughes, etc. You can access these interviews here.

Sermon Specs

Enough said. Click on the image to get a better look.


















HT: The Sacred Sandwich

The Israelites,the Pharaoh, the Exodus, Oh My: Test Case for Libertarian Free Will?

Denny Burk has an interesting discussion on the implications or contributions of Exodus 3 to the issue of divine sovereignty and human freedom. Make sure to read the post carefully and the subsequent comments should be lively as well.

New Testament Biblical Theology Bibliography

Rodney Decker has posted a rather extensive New Testament biblical theology bibliography You can access the pdf here.

Missionaries Find E-mails Risky‏

There is an article in Christianity Today about some of the inherent dangers for missionaries who use e-mail. You can read the article here.

Latest Issue of Review of Biblical Literature

The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews that may be of interest from a Bible Exposition perspective include:

Bill T. Arnold and Bryan E. Beyer
Encountering the Old Testament: A Christian Survey
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6473
Reviewed by Elmer A. Martens

Gabriele Boccaccini, ed.
Enoch and the Messiah Son of Man: Revisiting the Book of Parables
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6135
Reviewed by Thomas J. Kraus

Mark J. Boda, Daniel K. Falk, and Rodney A. Werline, eds.
Seeking the Favor of God, Volume 2: The Development of Penitential Prayer in Second Temple Judaism
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6148
Reviewed by Carla Sulzbach

Victor A. Copan
Saint Paul as Spiritual Director: An Analysis of the Concept of the Imitation of Paul with Implications and Applications to the Practice of Spiritual Direction
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6243
Reviewed by V. Henry T. Nguyen

Sidnie White Crawford
Rewriting Scripture in Second Temple Times
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6524
Reviewed by Stephen A. Reed

David G. Horrell
1 Peter
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6662
Reviewed by Peter H. Davids

Martin Illert, ed.
Doctrina Addai; De imagine Edessena = Die Abgarlegende; Das Christusbild von Edessa
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6797
Reviewed by Ilaria L. E. Ramelli

Temba L. J. Mafico
Yahweh's Emergence as "Judge" among the Gods: A Study of the Hebrew Root Spt
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6798
Reviewed by Robert Wafawanaka

Daniel Marguerat
Les Actes des Apôtres (1-12)
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6249
Reviewed by Stephan Witetschek

Herman J. Selderhuis
Calvin's Theology of the Psalms
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6513
Reviewed by Mark Elliott

Ekkehard W. Stegemann; Christina Tuor-Kurth and Peter Wick, eds.
Paulus und die Welt
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6239
Reviewed by Jens Herzer

Graham H. Twelftree
In the Name of Jesus: Exorcism among Early Christians
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6407
Reviewed by David Frankfurter

Top Seven Scholarly Books (Not Commentaries) on James

Craig Blomberg, who has recently coauthored a commentary on James, has provided an annotated list of his top seven scholarly books (but not Commentaries) on James.

7. Luke L. Cheung, The Genre, Composition and Hermeneutics of James (Carlisle, UK and Waynesboro, GA: Paternoster, 2003).

6. Robert L. Webb and John S. Kloppenborg, eds., Reading James with New Eyes: Methodological Reassessments of the Letter of James (London and New York: T & T Clark, 2007).

5. Lockett’s published version of that thesis, Purity and Worldview in the Epistle of James (LondonNew York: T & T Clark, 2008). and

4. David H. Edgar, Has God Not Chosen the Poor? The Social Setting of the Epistle of JamesSheffield Academic Press, 2001). (Sheffield:

3. Mark E. Taylor’s A Text-Linguistic Investigation into the Discourse Structure of James (LondonNew York: T & T Clark, 2006). and

2. Hershel Shanks and Ben Witherington III, The Brother of Jesus: The Dramatic Story and Meaning of the First Archaeological Link to Jesus and His Family (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2003).

1. Elsa Tamez, The Scandalous Message of James: Faith Without Works is Dead (New York: Crossroad, 2002),

Read the entire post with the annotations here.

The Argument of 1 Corinthians 8-10

Matthew Malcolm has a nice interaction with David Garland's view of the argument of 1 Corinthinas 8-10 (or perhaps 8:1-11:1). I have a lot of sympathy for Garland's view and although Malcom does not quite buy it all, he does a nice job of presenting it and interacting with it. You can read his post and my response here.

Mounce: Does Ephesians 4:29 apply to blogs?

Bill Mounce has provided a helpful reminder about the problems associated with speech using Ephesians 4:29. Read it here.

How Did the Rabbis Learn Hebrew?

See this interesting post on how the ancient rabbis learned Hebrew.

Malcolm asks, "Is Colossians also among the Hauptbriefe?"

Matthew Malcolm asks, "Is Colossians also among the Hauptbriefe?" in a recent post. For those that may not be quite up on their theological German, Hauptbriefe is German for "main letters" and is used in biblical studies to refer to Galatians, Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, both for their importance and for the fact that these epistles are genuinely Pauline. Malcolm for his part, and rightly so in my opinion, makes the case for Pauline authorship of Colossians, a book that critical scholars routinely reject as authentic. In any case, you can read Malcom's post here.

Commentaries on Jeremiah

Keith Mathison Ligonier Ministries has a list and discussion of his top five commentaries on Jeremiah at the Ligonier Ministries blog. The list is okay, but I would place Mackay and Kidner in the Runners Up category, replacing them with Holladay’s two volumes in the Hermeneia series and F. B. Huey in the New American Commentary series. I would also add commentaries by Brueggemann, McKane (ICC) and Feinberg (EBC) to the runners-up. In any case, the top five Mathison listed are:

1. J.A. Thompson -- The Book of Jeremiah (New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 1980).
2. Jack R. Lundbom -- Jeremiah 1-20, Jeremiah 21-36, Jeremiah 37-52 (The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries, 1999, 2004, 2004).
3. John L. Mackay -- Jeremiah 1-20, Jeremiah 21-52 (Mentor Commentary, 2004).
4. Tremper Longman -- Jeremiah, Lamentations (New International Biblical Commentary, 2008).
5. Derek Kidner -- The Message of Jeremiah (The Bible Speaks Today, 1987).