Another Quotation Related to Jeremiah

Maybe you will be encouraged by this as I was.

An evaluation of Jeremiah by most standards of success would brand him an abysmal failure. He preached for forty years without convincing the people that he was God’s prophet. He was threatened, ridiculed, and physically abused by his own people. Jerusalem was finally destroyed, and Judah ceased to exist as a nation because the people refused to accept Jeremiah’s remedy for deliverance—turn back to God and submit to the Babylonians. However, Jeremiah must not be judged by human standards. God has a different measuring stick by which he judges a person’s life. His is the test of obedience. God only required that Jeremiah obey him by proclaiming his message. Jeremiah was not responsible for a favorable response or lack of response. One who is an obedient servant of the Lord today is not held accountable for lack of response from those who hear his message. The great rulers of Jeremiah’s day—Ashurbanipal, Nebuchadnezzar, Neco, and Hophra—have largely been forgotten. Their influence is nil, whereas Jeremiah’s name and influence remain because of his obedience to God’s will for him.

F. B. Huey, Jr., Jeremiah, Lamentations, vol. 16, New American Commentary, ed. E. Ray Clendenen (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1993), 24.

1 Corithians 15 and Resurrection

Matthew Malcolm has an interesting discussion on 1 Corinthian 15, namely the problem that the Corinthians had with the resurrection. Malcolm suggests that,

Firstly, I suggest that the denial of resurrection was focused not primarily on the present or future experience of the deniers themselves, but on those who were presently the dead. Secondly, I suggest that this denial was not primarily driven by logical problems with postmortal existence or celestial physicality; but by political and existential issues of status and superiority. Thirdly, I wonder whether the Corinthian denial was implicit in certain claims and activities, rather than an explicit theological point of dispute.

In other words, the claim that “there is no resurrection of the dead” was one more example of spiritualistic Corinthian superiority, pouring disdain on those who were presumably going to miss out on the benefits of being personally present for Christ’s parousia because they had died. This proud, superior attitude toward the status of “the dead” is the climactic example of Corinthian cruci-phobia; and the Corinthians need to learn that the dead are not at a disadvantage - rather, the Corinthians themselves are called to embrace present death and look ahead to future resurrection.

You can read the entire post here.

Website for the Study of Hebrew

Animatedhebrew.com is a site created by Charles Grebe that appears to be full of various creative helps for studying biblical Hebrew. Check it out here.

Mounce on Pastors and Teachers in Ephesians 4:11

Bill Mounce has posted on the topic of pastors and teachers in Ephesians 4:11. The post is part exegesis and part pastoral philosophy. I would have preferred a more of the former since it serves as the basis for the latter. In any case, you can read it here.

Rahab through the Ages: A Study of Christian Interpretation of Rahab

The month's SBL Forum has an article by William Lyons entitled "Rahab through the Ages: A Study of Christian Interpretation of Rahab." The author identifies and discusses four different Christian approaches on the meaning and significance of Rahab. The four approaches are: (1) Allegorical Interpretation, (2) Tropological Interpretation, (3) Anagogical Interpretation, (4) Literal Interpretation.

Read the entire 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:

Edward Adams
The Stars Will Fall from Heaven: Cosmic Catastrophe in the New Testament and Its World
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6312
Reviewed by Lorenzo DiTommaso

William Sanger Campbell
The "We" Passages in the Acts of the Apostles: The Narrator as Narrative Character
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6149
Reviewed by Jean-Fran็ois Racine

Andrew D. Clarke
A Pauline Theology of Church Leadership
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6427
Reviewed by Stephan Joubert

Benjamin Fiore
The Pastoral Epistles: First Timothy, Second Timothy, and Titus
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6157
Reviewed by Korinna Zamfir

Daniel Hillel
The Natural History of the Bible: An Environmental Exploration of the Hebrew Scriptures
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6330
Reviewed by Norman Habel

Werner G. Jeanrond and Andrew D. H. Mayes, eds.
Recognising the Margins: Developments in Biblical and Theological Studies
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6231
Reviewed by Peter R. Rodgers

Matthew Levering
Ezra and Nehemiah
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6276
Reviewed by Ralph W. Klein

Graham S. Ogden
Qoheleth
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6358
Reviewed by Ludger Schwienhorst-Sch๖nberger

R. J. R. Plant
Good Figs, Bad Figs: Judicial Differentiation in the Book of Jeremiah
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6432
Reviewed by Mark Brummitt

Fernando F. Segovia and R. S. Sugirtharajah, eds.
A Postcolonial Commentary on the New Testament Writings
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6344
Reviewed by Jonathan A. Draper
Reviewed by Hans Leander

Stephen Westerholm
Understanding Matthew: The Early Christian Worldview of the First Gospel
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6121
Reviewed by David C. Sim

Quote on the Book of Jeremiah

"In the end, the book of Jeremiah does not belong to the scholarly guild. It belongs more properly to the synagogue and the church, who have, all through the centuries, attended to its preservation and reading. This does not mean that the book of Jeremiah is reduced to conventional religious expectations. It does mean, however, that the book's proper climate is a community that expects to be addressed in dangerous and unsettling ways by the holiness that sounds here."

Walter Brueggemann, A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), xiii.

Paul as Letter Writer

Matthew Malcom has a nice post that offers annotations of some recent books that help to better understand Paul as a letter writer. Malcom offers the following:

Greek and Latin Letters: An Anthology with Translation, by Michael Trapp

This is a useful collection of ancient letters in the original greek & latin, along with a discussion of issues related to the production of the letters. For example, Trapp states, in relation to the use of secretaries: “[W]e can make at least some headway with the question of who did the writing: the presence of particularly skilful hands, and of changes of hand between the main body of the letter and the final salutation, suggest just how often the bulk of the work, or all of it, was done by secretaries (for the affluent) and (for the less well-off) professional letter-writers.” (p8)

Paul the Letter-Writer: His World, His Options, His Skills, by Jerome Murphy-O’Connor.

This book explores three areas: Practical issues related to writing a letter; Theoretical issues related to creating the content of a letter; and issues related to the collecting of ancient letters. Unfortunately his consideration of the ‘content’ of letters relies too much on Rhetorical Criticism, but this is a great little book. He notes, for example, that secretaries/professional letter-writers (as mentioned by Trapp above) would generally have been employed not only to write the letter to be dispatched, but also to write a copy for the sender to keep, “both for control and perhaps future use” or perhaps because one’s letters “were shared with friends” (p13)

Books and Readers in the Early Church, by Harry Y. Gamble

Gamble argues for the collection of Paul’s Epistles as canon, a canon sufficiently long that it needed to be kept together using the format of the Codex - explaining the early Christian preference for the codex over the roll. He covers a number of interesting issues along the way. For example, he applies the insight that ancient letter-writers kept copies of their letters (as mentioned by Murphy-O’Connor above) to Paul: “A dossier of Paul’s letters would surely have been useful to Paul and his coworkers: it can hardly be supposed that each letter immediately had its intended effect, required no further clarification, and generated no new issues. The letters themselves are proof to the contrary. The tangled correspondence of Paul with the Corinthians, if not typical, certainly indicates that Paul needed to and did keep track of what he had written.” (p101)

Paul and First-Century Letter Writing: Secretaries, Composition and Collection, by E. Randolph Richards

This is a great overview of the issues in the title. For example, Richards considers ancient letter writers’ use of secretarial copies of their letters (as mentioned by Gamble above), and writes: “From the evidence we can infer that material was recycled from one letter to another in two common scenarios. First, if a writer had written a lengthy account and then later wanted to send the information to another recipient…. A second common reason for reusing material in another letter was when the writer wanted to send a well-written passage to another.” (p160) Obviously, this sort of insight might be fruitfully examined in relation to the letters of Paul - perhaps in terms of a possible relationship between Ephesians and Colossians… perhaps in terms of a possible relationship between 1 Thessalonians & 1 Corinthians…

You can read the entire post here.

Top Five Commentaries on Esther

Ligonier Ministries has a list and discussion of their top five commentaries on Esther. I would replace Baldwin with Berlin. I would also add M. V. Fox (Character and Ideology), C. M. Bechtel (Int), F. B. Huey (EBC) to the runners-up list. In any case, the top five Keith Mathison has listed are:

1. Karen Jobes -- Esther (NIV Application Commentary, 1999).
2. Joyce Baldwin -- Esther (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, 1984).
3. Iain Duguid. -- Esther and Ruth (Reformed Expository Commentary, 2005).
4. Frederic Bush -- Ruth/Esther (Word Biblical Commentary, 1996).
5. Mervin Breneman -- Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (New American Commentary, 1993).

Giving Graders a Break

Kari Patterson has a nice post on grading and graders As one who has done a fair amount of grading myself, I can only say 'Amen." Among other things, Patterson notes,

Ways to Bless Your Grader

Consider thanking your grader. Consider letting him or her know that you appreciate the time they put into laboring over your work. Oh, and while you’re at it, consider these few things, they will certainly bless your grader, and might make a difference in your grade(!):

1. Please please please please please don’t tweak your margins or your font size to make your paper longer or shorter. After reading 25 papers, a tweaked margin/font size jumps out and screams, “I can’t follow directions! I refuse to make my paper meet the assignment requirements so I was just lazy and changed the parameters. Please grade me down!” Call me a stickler, but this just bugs me. If the paper is 10-12 pages double spaced in 12 pt. font, write a 10-12 page paper double spaced in 12 pt. font. No more, no less.

2. Save the plastic binder/cover things for saving your children’s artwork. They don’t make the paper any better, they just mess up the stack and make them hard to tote around.

3.Use the appropriate citation form. If your professor says Turabian, use Turabian. This is a really easy way to make your grader happy. I have written “please see Turabian form for proper citation method” a thousand times.

4. Humility goes a long way. I’ll admit, a paper with a cocky author just begs for red slashes. Consider your voice. Better yet, consider your character.

5. Use quotations sparingly. Papers filled to the brim with quotations make you realize that author has no idea what they are talking about and is settling for sticking in other people’s thoughts. Quotations are meant to support your claims. When possible, incorporate material into your own words to demonstrate your comprehension.

6. Lastly, please realize that you have to use a source in order to include it in your bibliography. Listing 25 books is not impressive if you only used 3.

Read the entire post here.

Challenge to N. T. Wright's View of Exile in Second Temple Judaism

David Miller has written an interesting challenge to N. T. Wright's view of exile in Second Temple Judaism. You can read his post here.

Bock on Engaging the Culture Theologically

Listen to Darrell Bock's recent message at Denver Seminary's Chapel. The topic of his message is engaiging the culture theologically. You can download or listen here.

Walton on 'Olam

John Walton has a nice post on the Hebrew term 'olam. Read it here.

Writing and Publishing New Testament Articles

Nijay K. Gupta has posted some helpful advice on writing and publishing New Testament articles (although his advice would go for the OT as well) for theological journals. You can read it here.

New Bibleplaces Photo CD

Todd Bolen has recently announced the production of a new CD.

Views That Have Vanished: The Photographs of David Bivin is a collection of never-before-seen photographs taken in Israel and the surrounding areas in the 1960s. The CD is full of unique shots and beautiful views from a land that has changed dramatically in the last four decades. You can read more about the collection on BiblePlaces.com's companion site, LifeintheHolyLand.com, and see some "then and now" shots here. The featured photographs this month are from Views That Have Vanished as well.

A word about the price. The collection includes more than 700 photographs, yet we are selling the CD through October for only $20 (including free shipping in the U.S.). The CD is worth much more than this—we guarantee it. For less than 3 cents a photo, you get everything in high-resolution jpg format and PowerPoint files, with notes by David Bivin and me. Two "Then and Now" presentations were a late addition and a bonus to the collection. The CD is so packed that we had to put one of the "Then and Now" presentations online, because we did not want to leave out anything else (the link to that presentation is on the CD).

I got mine today. To order yours just click on the link above

Advice on How to Learn Hebrew

Charles Halton has posted a one page sheet of sound tips on how to learn Hebrew. Download the pdf here.

Is the Bible Sexist?

A story in the TimesOnline by Bess Twiston Davies states,

. . . new research into Biblical women shows that the majority receive positive or matter-of-fact write-ups. Words such as "blessed", "righteous" "outstanding" and - of course - "beautiful" crop up in descriptions of 60 of the Bible's 175 female characters, according to research from The Bible Society.

Read the entire article here. Thanks to Claude Mariottini for pointing this article out.

Witherington on Hermeneutics

See Ben Witherington's post entitled, "Hermeneutics-What is it, and why do Bible Readers need it?" here.

Is Your Preaching Helpful? - An Assessment Tool

Carey Nieuwhof has posted some interesting thoughts on ways to assess the helpfulness of sermons. He offers the following two criteria.

Content can be helpful if it:

• Brings a 'new' truth (didn't know that) or discarded truth to light.
• Brings a fresh angle to a truth and makes people see God in a fresh light.
• Reminds people of a truth they know, affirming or correcting their direction.
• Shows the relevance of truth in current culture and life.

Application is helpful if it:

• Provides a practical step or steps people can follow to put it into practice in the next 24 hours.
• Shifts thinking deeply enough that people can't think of things in the same way again (paradigm shifting).
• Shows how a particular truth will change how we live in our time and culture.

You can read his entire post here.

Free Downloads of ICC Commentaries

Charles Halton has provided a helpful link to free downloads of ICC commentaries and other commentaries. These volumes are the older ones that are now out of copyright. Check it out here.

Critique of the Deuteronomistic History Theory

The N.T. Wrong blog has an interesting critique of the Deuteronomistic History Theory. You can see it here.

City of David Website

See this interactive website on ancient Jerusalem. Thanks to Stephen Bramer for the link.

Mounce on Etymology

Bill Mounce has a nice discussion on etymology. Read it here.

A Second Temple Sarcophagus Discovered in Jerusalem

Second Temple Period inscribed with the words “the son of the high priest” has been discovered in Jerusalem. The story and a picture can be found here.

Review of Exum's Song of Songs

Claude Mariottini has a review of Cheryl Exum's recent commentary on Song of Songs. You can read it here.