Aug 1, 2015

Free Logos Book for August: Acts by Mikeal Parsons

The free Logos Book for August is Mikeal Parson’s commentary on Acts in the Paideia Commentary series. You can also purchase Ephesians and Colossians by Charles Talbert in the same series for $1.99. You can also enter to win the entire twelve-volume Paideia Commentary series. Go the Logos' Free Book of Month page here to enter and download your free book today!

Jul 31, 2015

Free Online Course on 1 Corinthians

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is offering a free flexible-access class on the book of 1 Corinthians with Dr. Paige Patterson this fall. You can find more information here.

Jul 30, 2015

Audio Interview with Craig Keener

You can access a sixteen minute interview by Shawn Wilhite and Trey Moss with Craig Keener here.

Jul 29, 2015

Baking Like the Ancient Israelites

Bible Archaeology Review's website has an interesting article entitled, "Biblical Bread: Baking Like the Ancient Israelites" here.

Jul 28, 2015

The True Meaning of the Text Versus Your Ingenuity

David Allen has been posting excerpts from Marvin R. Vincent's 1884 volume, The Expositor in the Pulpit. This has been particularly valuable since this volume appears to be very difficult to find. And if you haven't been following along you would miss some great quotes like this one for the thirteenth post.
Your own ingenuity will often suggest tempting interpretations; but your invariable answer to this seductive Balak must be: “I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more.” Far on in your ministry you will know what it is to have a chapter or a text suggest a novel and striking line of thought, and to feel that the sermon is as good as made, only to see your pet fancy dissolved under the touch of sound exegesis. Never try to rebuild it.

Sometimes it will seem as though the true meaning of your text yields you baser ore than your own thought about it; but work your shaft resolutely on the line of the Word, and you will soon be undeceived. God’s thought is always richer than man’s. You may groan over a vanished sermon, but your people will rejoice in a better one.

Jul 27, 2015

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.

Robert L. Cole
Psalms 1–2: Gateway to the Psalter
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9054
Reviewed by W. Dennis Tucker Jr.

Paba Nidhani De Andrado
The Akedah Servant Complex: The Soteriological Linkage of Genesis 22 and Isaiah 53 in Ancient Jewish and Christian Writings
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9459
Reviewed by John W. Fadden

David A. Lamb
Text, Context and the Johannine Community: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of the Johannine Writings
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9873
Reviewed by Wendy E. S. North

Jennifer Houston McNeel
Paul as Infant and Nursing Mother: Metaphor, Rhetoric, and Identity in 1 Thessalonians 2:5-8
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9921
Reviewed by Thomas R. Blanton IV

Gregory Mobley
The Return of the Chaos Monsters—and Other Backstories of the Bible
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8515
Reviewed by Bernard F. Batto

Dietmar Neufeld
Mockery and Secretism in the Social World of Mark’s Gospel
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9869
Reviewed by Joshua D. Garroway

Thomas Römer
Dark God: Cruelty, Sex, and Violence in the Old Testament
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9266
Reviewed by Juan Miguel Betancourt

Laura C. Sweat
The Theological Role of Paradox in the Gospel of Mark
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9726
Reviewed by M. Geert van Oyen

Arthur P. Urbano
The Philosophical Life: Biography and the Crafting of Intellectual Identity in Late Antiquity
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9543
Reviewed by Edmund P. Cueva

H. H. Drake Williams III
Jesus Tried and True: Why the Four Canonical Gospels Provide the Best Picture of Jesus
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9626
Reviewed by Richard A. Burridge