Feb 19, 2011

Learning Greek: Expectations and Reality

  
"First year students of New Testament Greek often imagine that they will quickly discover all kids of hidden secrets of Scripture that few in their churches know. They think they will be able to solve the major doctrinal and exegetical controversies of the faith, or at least know which of the existing options is 'right.' More careful reflection on these issues, however, should suggest to them that, if all it took to attain such depths of insight were a year or two of Greek, then the tens of thousands of students who had traversed this path before them, with the identical resources, would all have come to agreement on most every important exegetical question."

Craig L. Blomberg with Jennifer Foutz Markley, A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2010), 37. 
  

Feb 18, 2011

House on Preaching Christ from the Old Testament

  
See Paul House's article, "Christ-Centered Zeal: Some Concerns from an OT Scholar" posted at The Gospel Coalition website here. The Gospel Coalitions has also set up a site on preaching Christ in the Old Testament which looks to have some excellent resources 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:

John J. Collins
Beyond the Qumran Community: The Sectarian Movement of the Dead Sea Scrolls
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7404
Reviewed by Philip R. Davies
 
David Lyle Jeffrey and C. Stephen Evans, eds.
The Bible and the University
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6773
Reviewed by Jeffrey L. Morrow
 
Timothy Jay Johnson
Now My Eye Sees You: Unveiling an Apocalyptic Job
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7514
Reviewed by Scott C. Jones
 
Jason Kalman and Jaqueline S. du Toit
Canada's Big Biblical Bargain: How McGill University Bought the Dead Sea Scrolls
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7649
Reviewed by Matthew A. Collins
 
Edward W. Klink III
The Audience of the Gospels: The Origin and Function of the Gospels in Early Christianity
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7491
Reviewed by Theodore J. Weeden Sr.
 
Daniel A. Machiela
The Dead Sea Genesis Apocryphon: A New Text and Translation with Introduction and Special Treatment of Columns 13-17
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7425
Reviewed by Benjamin Ziemer
 
Lawrence H. Schiffman
Qumran and Jerusalem: Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the History of Judaism
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7591
Reviewed by Sidnie White Crawford
 
Michael E. Stone, Aryeh Amihay, and Vered Hillel, eds.
Noah and His Book(s)
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7661
Reviewed by Emma England
Reviewed by Anthony Swindell

Feb 16, 2011

Hurtado on Scribes vs. Copyists

   
See this interesting post by Larry Hurtado on some possible distinctions of scribes versus copyists and the possible implications for textual criticism.
  

Feb 15, 2011

Excavations Began at Qumran on this Day in 1949

  
See this brief article on the anniversary of the excavations at Qumran.

 

Feb 14, 2011

Textual Stability of the New Testament Manuscripts

  
See Larry Hurtado's interesting post which interacts with K. Martin Heide's forthcoming essay entitled “Assessing the Stability of the Transmitted Texts of the New Testament and the Shepherd of Hermas."
 

Feb 13, 2011

"The Rise and Fall of the Bible"

  
See this article in Salon magazine about how "American Christians buy millions of Bibles they seldom read and don't understand." You don't have to agree with all the conclusions in the article to know that this is a real problem.