New Testament Scholarship through One Hundred Years of Harvard Theological Review

Several blogs are discussing the article written by Helmut Koester on "New Testament Scholarship through One Hundred Years of Harvard Theological Review." I have not yet had the chance to read the article. In any case, the article is available as a pdf here.

Missiology Gateway

Rob Bradshaw has announced an exciting new project, a missiology (the study of missions) gateway. This gateway will host various resources related to missiology. You can read the announcement here.

Micah 5:2-4

Claude Mariottini continues his series on preaching from the Old Testament with a post on Micah 5:2-4. You can read it here.

A Good Reminder for Bible Teachers

Peter Beck writes, "I heard it in the Army. I heard it in advertising. I heard it in seminary. That old adage just won’t go away. Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach." Go here to read why Beck rightly thinks this adage is wrong.

Getting Theologically Humiliated

C. Michael Patton has posted on getting theologically humiliated. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. Read Michael's post here.

Bandy on Seven Tips for Interpreting Symbols in the Apocalypse (Revelation)

Alan Bandy has posted seven tips for interpreting symbols in the Apocalypse, i.e. the book of Revelation. His seven tips are.

1. Recognize the symbolic imagery associated with the description of people and beings, colors, numbers, institutions, places, and events.

2. Look for interpretations of those symbols within the vision.

3. Determine if the symbol stems from an allusion to the Old Testament.

4. Compare it with other apocalyptic writings to see if it is a common symbol with a relatively standard meaning.

5. Look for any possible connections between the symbol and the cultural-historical

6. Consult scholarly treatments of the symbol in commentaries and other works.

7. Remain humble in your conclusions.

For a fuller explanation see the post here.

Sources for Biblically Related Art, Pictures, Music, and Video

Mark Hoffman has a helpful listing of sources for biblically related art, pictures, music, and video. You can access the list here.

Ph.D. in Spirituality

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary will become first Protestant school to offer Ph.D. in spirituality. You can read the article here.

Don Carson on Audio and Video

Mars Hill in Seattle has posted audio and video of Don Carson called "A Day with Dr. Don: It's All About Jesus." For links to the audio and video see Justin Taylor's blog here.

Baptist History and the Struggle to Find the New Testament Church

See this article by Ken Camp on Baptist History and its Struggle to find the New Testament Church.

Four Reasons to Preach Biblical Narrative

Peter Mead has posted four alliterated reasons for preaching biblical narratives:

1. Stories are plenteous

2. Stories are pervasive

3. Stories are powerful

4. Stories are preferred.

You can read the entire post here.

The Book of Revelation

The latest issue of the journal Interpretation focuses on the book of Revelation. You can access a pdf of the entire issue here.

How Often Should a Church Take the Lord’s Supper?

Jim Hamilton asks and answers the question above here. In the past I have basically agreed with the view expressed by Milliard Erickson that, "It should therefore be observed often enough to prevent long gaps between times of reflection on the truths it signifies, but not so frequently as to make it seem trivial or so commonplace that we go through the motions without really thinking about the meaning” (Christian Theology, rev. ed., p. 1134). But Jim makes a good point and I may have to rethink my position.

Jensen on the Ten Worst Habits of Preachers

Michael Jensen has posted on the "Ten Worst Habits of Preachers." According to Jenson the ten (or eleven see below) are:

1. Merely 'explaining/teaching the Bible' and not preaching the living Word of God. (I think we should ban the phrase 'we are now going to hear the Bible explained'. I don't need it explained. I need it preached.)

2. Introducing us to the text and not to the issue addressed by the text.

3. Providing overelaborate explanations of the biblical-theological background to no great end.

4. Moralising from the Old Testament.

5. Reading every OT text immediately in terms of Christology without regard to its own particular context and meaning and purpose.

6. Speaking down to the congregation; assuming we are simpletons and do not read or think for ourselves. That our questions just need better information in order to answer them.

7. Getting Penal Substitution (or whatever the hot-button issue is for your church!) from every single text.

8. Illustrations that confuse more than illuminate. That's...most of 'em.

9. Never referring to self and own Christian faith in sermon. (Of course, the opposite is worse: using the pulpit for autobiographical purposes. Yuck.)

10. Making ill-informed generalisations about culture/sociology from a knee-jerk conservative standpoint.

11. (sorry) Pop-psychologising.

You can read the entire post here.

Standing Stones

Bronwen Manning has an interesting post on standing stones (massebot). You can read it here.

Preaching the Superscriptions of the Psalms

Jim Hamilton suggests that we ought to preach the superscriptions of the Psalms as part of the text. He argues his point on primarily on text-critical grounds. In any case, Hamilton is right in that preachers/teachers/translators often pay too little attention to the superscriptions. Read the entire post here.

Mounce on 2 Timothy 3:17

Bill Mounce has a nice discussion concerning translation and gender, in particular as it relates to 2 Timothy 3:17. Read it here.

Quote of the Day

Richard Pervo, commenting on Acts 1:6-8 notes:

“In place of an answer [to the question in1:6], the apostles receive a promise that functions as the indicative and imperative. The indicative resides in the promise of power, which will enable the hearers to fulfill the implicit imperative of world mission. The ends of the earth rather than the end of the world will be the subject of the book.”

Richard I Pervo, Acts: A Commentary, Hermeneia, ed. Helmut Koester (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2009), 41.

Review of The Lord's Supper: Five Views

Michael Thompson has reviewed The Lord's Supper: Five Views, ed. by Gordon T. Smith here. Although I have not purchased or read this book, I find such works helpful. As many of my readers know, the meaning and significance of the Lord's Supper continues to be debated.

Allen on the Authorship of Hebrews

Dr. David Allen, Professor of Preaching, Director of the Southwestern Center for Expository Preaching, George W. Truett Chair of Ministry, and Dean of the School of Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has spent much of his academic career pursuing the issue of the authorship of Hebrews. The topic was the focus of his doctoral dissertation, a much expanded version of which is due to be published in the Fall of 2009 by Broadman/Holman (The Authorship of Hebrews: The Case for Luke). He also has the commentary on Hebrews in the New American Commentary series due for publication this year. Having done some editorial work in both of these volumes I can testify to the careful and exhaustive nature of the content in both of these works.

The long and short of it is that Allen believes that Luke is the author of Hebrews. Although I still remain a bit of an agnostic on the issue, the arguments presented for Lukan authorship are substantive. In fact I believe the argument for Lukan authorship is the strongest of the arguments for any candidate (e.g., Paul, Apollos, Barnabas, etc,). In any case, a helpful summary of Dr. Allen’s view can be listened to or watched here. Scroll down to the 8.28.08 date and the message entitled “Jesus, Scripture and Sermon as Word of God.”

My Reading Report

I was interested to read this article on President Bush’s reading habits. For the last twelve years I have kept a record of the books that I have read cover-to-cover as it were. I also read the newspaper almost every day and the Bible through every year (except one year in the last twelve). I do not keep track of the reading that I do in commentaries (unless I read the whole commentary), theologies, monographs, journals, magazines, blogs, etc. Altogether, I estimate that what I don’t keep track of actually accounts to more than what I do keep track of. But I digress.

For the year 2008 I read sixteen books (a number which pales in comparison to the forty read by the president this year). My goals for each year are to read in three broad categories. One category is biblical studies. This year I read eight books in this category: Poetics and Biblical Interpretation (Adele Berlin), The Heart of the Old Testament (Ronald Youngblood), Religion and Culture in Ancient Israel (J. Andrew Dearman), Acts (J. Bradley Chance), Jesus’ Promise to the Nations (Joachim Jeremias), The Blue Parakeet (Scot McKnight), An Introduction to the Gospels and Acts (Charles Puskas and David Crump), Paul and the New Perspective (Seyoon Kim). You might have noticed that I try to read books related to both Testaments.

I also read books related to ministry. Here I read Preaching and Preachers (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones), Inspired Preaching (C. Richard Wells and Boyd Luter), and Telling God’s Story (John Wright).

A third category that I try to read in every year relates to the biblical languages. In 2008 I read Basics of Verbal Aspect in New Testament Greek (Constantine Campbell) and Philippians: A Greek Student’s Intermediate Reader (Jerry Sumney). Alas there was not a Hebrew book this year.

Other than these categories I read Blue Like Jazz (Donald Miller), Assaulted by Joy (Stephen Simpson), and as I have already noted above, the Bible.

I already have at least two books on tap for 2009 for which I have committed to reviewing and I know that there will be a great deal of reading pertaining to the dissertation I will be writing.

Feel free to let me know what you have been reading.

Free Downloadable Hebrew Resources

DailyHebrew.com has a helpful list of downloadable Hebrew resources including grammars, lexicons, and special studies. You can access the list here.

Free Audio Download of Oswald Chambers Biography

Christianaudio.com is currently offering a free download of David MacCasland's biography of Oswald Chambers: Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God. Go here and add the download format of Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God to your cart and then enter the coupon code JAN2009 when prompted during checkout.

Decker on the Genitive Absolute

Rodney Decker has a nice explanation of the Greek genitive absolute. Read it here.

Keller on Preaching Hell in a Tolerant Age

Tim Keller has posted an interesting article on preaching hell in a tolerant age. You can read it here.