Happy Birthday Pilgrim's Progress

  
John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress was published this day in 1678. You can read more about the book here. To access various formats of the book, with some for free, go here. 
 
  

Luke’s Use of Sources in Acts 15

 
"To some extent the decisions of the exegetes on the nature of the assembly or assemblies in Acts 15 depend on their view of the use of sources in the chapter. ‘Minimalists,’ like Dibelius and Haenchen, who credit virtually the whole story to Lukan composition, tend to the view that the author has here created one of those “großen lebendigen und eindrucksvollen Szenen’ that Luke regards as suited to his audience. Those, on the other hand, who view Luke less as a freewheeling author and more as a redactor of sources, try to find in the seams and cracks of the narrative signs of the weaving together of various documents and traditions."

Linda M. Maloney, “All that God had Done with them”: The Narration of the Works of God in the Early Christian Community as Described in the Acts of the Apostles, American University Studies 91 (New York: Peter Lang, 1991), 145.
   

Piper on the Future Conversion of Israel

  

See this post by John Piper: "Five Reasons I Believe Romans 11:26 Means a Future Conversion for Israel."

  

Latest Issue of Review of Biblical Literature

  

The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews can be accessed by clicking the links below.

Craig L. Blomberg, with Jennifer Foutz Markley
A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8106
Reviewed by Jan G. van der Watt
 
John Drane
Introducing the Old Testament
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8064
Reviewed by Jordan M. Scheetz
 
Gregg Gardner and Kevin L. Osterloh, eds.
Antiquity in Antiquity: Jewish and Christian Pasts in the Greco-Roman World
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7540
Reviewed by Douglas Estes
 
Joze Krasovec
The Transformation of Biblical Proper Names
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7481
Reviewed by Jeremy Hutton
 
Michael C. Legaspi
The Death of Scripture and the Rise of Biblical Studies
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7911
Reviewed by Teresa Okure
 
Kevin B. McCruden
Solidarity Perfected: Beneficent Christology in the Epistle to the Hebrews
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7407
Reviewed by Craig R. Koester
 
Daniel O'Hare
"Have You Seen, Son of Man?": A Study of the Translation and Vorlage of LXX Ezekiel 40-48
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7817
Reviewed by William Tooman
 
Gert J. Steyn and Dirk J. Human, eds.
Psalms and Hebrews: Studies in Reception
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7803
Reviewed by Scott D. Mackie
 
Anthony C. Swindell
Reworking the Bible: The Literary Reception-History of Fourteen Biblical Stories
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8011
Reviewed by Frank H. Polak
 
Naomi Tadmor
The Social Universe of the English Bible: Scripture, Society, and Culture in Early Modern England
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7907
Reviewed by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer

R. T. France (1938-2012)

  
Noted New Testament scholar R. T. France died last Friday, February 10. You can read more about his passing here.
 

Therapeutic Value of the Psalms

  
See David Murray's excellent post on the Psalms, in particular their therapeutic value. David brings out some of the reasons why the Psalms are often the favorite part of Scripture for many believers.
  

Not Sure How I Feel About This Sign

  
Read this story about an Anglican church in Australia that has created quite a stir by placing two signs with "OMG" on parts of its building. While such a move may generate discussion and interest in spiritual matters, I really wonder whether this panders to the baser aspects of our society and whether it truly glorifies God. The phrase has always seemed rather flippant to me and I often cringe when I hear people use it, especially Christians.
 

Building the Tabernacle

Having recently gone through a building program with my church, I found the following comments from Victor Hamilton's Exodus commentary to be interesting.

"It is also significant that Moses first asks for donations to fund the project before he talks to the people about the tabernacle’s design. One might expect that order to be reversed: first show them the plans, and then ask them to get behind it financially. Is that not how most religious communities wishing to construct a new building or expand and renovate an older building would go about it? Congregants tend to be more enthusiastic and generous when they can see, at least in blueprint, what their pledges and dollars are funding."

Victor P. Hamilton, Exodus: An Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker), 2011), 456.
    

Having a Canonical "Conversation"

  
"While a number of metaphors work well to express the Bible’s theological plurality coherently and constructively, my preference for the interpreter’s practical task is conversation. Naturally, there are different kinds of conversations. A canonical approach to the NT’s pluriform subject matter envisages a conversation that is more complementary than adversarial. In one sense, the intercanonical conversation is very much like an intramural debate over the precise meaning of things generally agreed to be true and substantial. The purpose or outcome of debate is not to resolve firmly fixed disagreements among members of the same community or panel as though a normative synthesis were possible; rather, more often it is the sort of debate that clarifies the contested content of their common ground. Likewise, the biblical canon stabilizes and bears continuing witness to the historic disagreements between the traditions of the church’s first apostles, which were often creative and instructive (cf. Acts 15:1-21; Gal 2:1-15). Not only do these controversies acquire a permanent value within Scripture, but Scripture in turn commends these same controversies to its current readers, who are invited to engage in similar acts of what Karl Popper calls ‘mutual criticism’ in order to provide more balance to parochial interests or supply instruction to clarify the theological confession of a particular faith tradition."

Robert W. Wall, "Reading the New Testament in Canonical Context," in Hearing the New Testament: Strategies for Interpretation, 2nd ed., ed. Joel B. Green (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010), 384.