Dramatis Personae In Luke's Prologue (Luke 1:1-4)

William Kurz has noted concerning Luke 1:1-4 that,

“The prologue singles out at least four differing individuals or groups: (1) "Many have tried to compile a narrative"; (2) "events fulfilled among us"; (3) "it seemed good to me also"l; (4) "to write to you." Among these four are a first-person narrator who presents himself as a histor (3), a second-person narratee named Theophilus (4), an earlier group of writers of similar Christian narratives (1), and a group of Christians in whose midst the recounted events took place (2). The histor narrator distinguishes himself from other narrative writers (1), but includes himself in the Christian community among which the events took place (2).”

William S. Kurz, Reading Luke-Acts: Dynamics of Biblical Narrative (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1993), 41.

McKnight Recommended Commentaries on Philippians

See this post for Scot McKnight's recommendations concerning commentaries on Philippians. McKnight lists:

Gordon Fee: Paul's Letter to the Philippians (New International Commentary on the New Testament).

Peter O’Brien: The Epistle to the Philippians: A Commentary on the Greek Text (New International Greek Testament Commentary)

G. F. Hawthorne: Philippians: Revised (Word Biblical Commentary)

John Reumann: Philippians (The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries)

Dean Fleming: NBBC, Philippians: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition (New Beacon Bible Commentary)

Ben Witherington III: Friendship and Finances in Philippi (New Testament in Context)

Mahaney on Tools for Teaching Proverbs

C. J. Mahaney has a nice post on tools for teaching Proverbs. Read it here.

HT: Justin Taylor

New Theological German Website

See here for a new theological German website by Andy Rowell.

HT: Mike Whitenton

Top Ten Signs that You are Spending Too Much Time Doing Greek

Mark Lightman has the following top ten signs (from the b-Greek discussion group).

Top Ten Signs that You are Spending Too Much Time Doing Greek:

10. The ring tone on your cell phone is the “Song of Seikilos.”

9. You are more excited about them making UBS 5 than Godfather 4.

8. While eating waffles with your kids, you say to them λεγωμαι εγω. LEGWMAI EGW.

7. Your cats are named “Erasmus” and “Buth.”

6. When you get a “Dear John” letter, instead of being upset, you begin diagramming the sentences.

5. You’ve tried to translate “Egg McMuffin” into Koine.

4. You wonder if the 7th edition of L.S.J., before Jones replaced Drisler, was called the L.S.D.

3. Two words: spurious diphthongs.

2. Your favorite T.V. program is “That LXX’s Show.”

And the number one sign that you are spending too much time doing Greek:

1. When people tell you to stop writing Top Ten lists and get a life, you wonder if they mean BIOS or ZWH.

Free Audio Download of Francis Chan's Crazy Love

Christianaudio.com is offering a free audio download of Francis Chan's Crazy Love. Go here and use the coupon code JUL2009.

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:

J. K. Aitken
The Semantics of Blessing and Cursing in Ancient Hebrew
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6817
Reviewed by Yael Avrahami

Rami Arav, ed.
Cities through the Looking Glass: Essays on the History and Archaeology of Biblical Urbanism
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6727
Reviewed by Aren Maeir

Donald T. Ariel, Hava Katz, Shelley Sadeh, and Michael Segal
The Dead Sea Scrolls Catalogue
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6482
Reviewed by George J. Brooke

Carl Cosaert
The Text of the Gospels in Clement of Alexandria
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6784
Reviewed by J. K. Elliott

Audrey Dawson
Healing, Weakness and Power: Perspectives on Healing in the Writings of Mark, Luke and Paul
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7025
Reviewed by Kobus Kok

Stephen Finlan
The Apostle Paul and the Pauline Tradition
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6724
Reviewed by Korinna Zamfir

John T. Fitzgerald, ed.
Passions and Moral Progress in Greco-Roman Thought
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6860
Reviewed by Wayne A. Meeks

Richard A. Horsley
Wisdom and Spiritual Transcendence at Corinth: Studies in First Corinthians
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6812
Reviewed by Anthony C. Thiselton

Darin H. Land
The Diffusion of Ecclesiastical Authority: Sociological Dimensions of Leadership in the Book of Acts
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6718
Reviewed by Steve Walton

AnneMarie Luijendijk
Greetings in the Lord: Early Christians and the Oxyrhynchus Papyri
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7050
Reviewed by J. K. Elliott

Kevin McGeough
Exchange Relationships at Ugarit
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6818
Reviewed by Roger S. Nam

Charles B. Puskas and David Crump
An Introduction to the Gospels and Acts
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6804
Reviewed by Peter J. Judge

Kenneth Gangel (1935-2009)

This is a bit late, but I just learned that Kenneth O. Gangel went to be with the Lord last Thursday, June 18 at the age of 74. Dr. Gangel was a prolific writer and although I did not know him personally, I have benefited from his writings particularly in the area of Christian education and leadership. You can see a more extensive write up of Dr. Gangel here.

Syntactical Diagram of 1 Peter 2 and 3:1-12

For those who have facility with Greek, Daniel Doleys has now posted his syntactical diagram of 1 Peter 2 and 1 Peter 3:1-12, here and here respectively.