Advanced Expository Preaching Workshop

  

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary will be hosting their annual Advanced Expository Preaching Workshop on Monday, September 26, 2011 in The Riley Center. This workshop is designed to assist pastors in mastering the techniques of preaching and will focus this year on Genesis 1-11. 

The speakers are Drs. Allen Ross, Paige Patterson, Matthew McKellar, and David Allen.

Registration for the conference is only $25 and even includes lunch. For more information, see this link. 

 

The Book of Jude

  

“The book of Jude is a tragedy of sorts. It reminds us that there will be times when those who are the closest to us will seek our demise. It reminds us that often in our own households, even in the church of Jesus Christ, we should ‘beware the ides of March’ because the day is not yet over. It reminds us that to encourage one another, as we see the Day drawing near (Hebrews 10:25). It reminds us that the faith is to be defended and commended even to and among the Lord’s people.”

K. Scott Oliphint, The Battle Belongs to the Lord: The Power of Scripture for Defending Our Faith, vol. P & R (Phillipsburg, NJ, 2011), 44.

  

Richard Hays on Reading Scripture alongside the Gospel Writers

  

George W. Truett Theological Seminary’s 2011 Winter Pastors’ School sponsored by the Kyle Lake Center for Effective Preaching featured Dr. Richard Hays who spoke on the theme “Reading Scripture alongside the Gospel Writers.”

Hays’ five lectures are:

“Can the Gospels Teach Us How to Read the Old Testament”

"Torah Reconfigured: Reading Scripture with Matthew"

"Turning the World Upside Down: Reading Scripture with Luke"

"The Temple of His Body: Reading Scripture with John"

"Opening Our Minds to Understand the Scriptures"

You can access free video or audio of the lectures here.

The Dangers of Preaching and Pride

  
Peter Mead provides a good reminder about the dangers of preaching and pride here.
  

Hurtado on Manuscripts

  
Larry Hurtado offers some balanced observations on New Testament manuscripts here.
 

New Continuum E-Book Store

  
Continuum has a new E-Book store here. The page for biblical studies can be found here. There are some interesting titles, but although some of the prices appear to be a bit less than hard cover editions, I did not find any real bargains in my cursory browsing.
 

The Future of Biblical Archaeology Conference

  

The Riley Center on the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is hosting The Future of Biblical Archaeology Conference on Friday, October 14 and Saturday, October 15, 2011. Scheduled speakers include William G. Dever, Steven Ortiz, Tom Davis, James Hardin, Dale W. Manor, Karen Borstad, Laura Mazow, Abby Limmer, Jennie Ebeling, Alysia Fischer, Elizabeth Willett, and Heather Reichstadt.

Registration is $25 for students who complete early registration by September 30, 2011. After September 30, the price for students is $50. Non-students can attend the conference for $50 if you register before September 30, 2011. After September 30, the cost for non-students is $75. 

Go here for more information. 
  

David Murray's Top 20

  
See this post on David Murray's twenty most influential books in his life.
 

The World of the Early Church

  

A package from Kregel arrived today containing Simon Jones' The World of the Early Church: A Social History. I have scanned through it and it looks interesting. The Publisher's description states:

Expand your understanding of the Bible by learning about the real life of the first Christians in the Roman Empire 

  The Roman world formed the social and cultural backdrop to the emergence of the Christian movement, which has in turn deeply influenced the world we live in today.
So what was life like for ordinary people of that time? Where did they live? What did they eat? What kinds of work did they do and what did they do in their time off? And what about social relationships? How did people understand their place in the world, and in relation to others and--very importantly--the gods?
And, significantly, how was it that a marginalized, oppressed, Jewish renewal group from rural Galilee became one of the fastest-growing urban movements through the first century and became the dominant social, intellectual, and cultural influence throughout the Empire within 300 years?
Perfect as an aid to individual Bible study, or as a topic for a group study, The World of the Early Church fills the gap between longer scholarly works and the short articles found in Bible guides and other general Bible study aids.

 You can read an excerpt here.
 

Wise and Unwise Teachers in James

Christopher Morgan commenting on James 3:13-18, which, he ties back to the topic of teachers addressed in 3:1-12, states,

"Teachers reveal by their tongues what kind of wisdom they possess. Not everyone who want to lead should, because not everyone possesses genuine wisdom. The church should resist those seeking to teach who lack such wisdom. In time, their selfish motives will only cause factions and disorder. They will deem it more important to feel important than to serve the body. Genuine Christian teachers, however though not perfect (3:2), are deeply concerned about truth and setting a good example (3:13). They humbly plant seeds of truth in peace and produce a harvest of practical righteousness in people's lives.In sum, wise teachers are consistent."

Christopher W. Morgan, A Theology of James; Wisdom for God's People, ed. Robert A. Peterson (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R, 2010), 54.
 

Teaching Old Testament Characters

  
See J. D. Greear's article on "How to Teach Old Testament Characters" here.
  

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.

Reinhard Achenbach and Martin Arneth, eds.
»Gerechtigkeit und Recht zu üben« (Gen 18,19): Studien zur altorientalischen und biblischen Rechtsgeschichte, zur Religionsgeschichte Israels und zur Religionssoziologie: Festschrift für Eckart Otto zum 65. Geburtstag
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7468
Reviewed by Klaus Grünwaldt
 
Jan Assmann
Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6870
Reviewed by James K. Hoffmeier
 
Roger S. Bagnall
Early Christian Books in Egypt
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7755
Reviewed by Stephan Witetschek
 
Assnat Bartor
Reading Law as Narrative: A Study in the Casuistic Laws of the Pentateuch
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7580
Reviewed by Thomas B. Dozeman
 
Christopher L. Carter
The Great Sermon Tradition as a Fiscal Framework in 1 Corinthians: Towards a Pauline Theology of Material Possessions
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7489
Reviewed by Philip F. Esler
 
Sandra Gambetti
The Alexandrian Riots of 38 C.E. and the Persecution of the Jews: A Historical Reconstruction
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7665
Reviewed by Magnus Zetterholm
 
Robert H. Gundry
Commentary on the New Testament: Verse-by-Verse Explanations with a Literal Translation
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7741
Reviewed by Peter J. Judge
 
Martin Karrer and Wolfgang Kraus, eds.
Die Septuaginta-Texte, Kontexte, Lebenswelten: Internationale Fachtagung veranstaltet von Septuaginta Deutsch (LXX.D), Wuppertal 20.-23. Juli 2006
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7380
Reviewed by J. Cornelis De Vos
 
Jeffrey L. Rubenstein
Stories of the Babylonian Talmud
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7680
Reviewed by Joshua Schwartz

Gospel of John Resources

  
Nijay Gupta has a nice discussion of the best Gospel of John resources here.
 

New Studies in Biblical Theology on Sale

  

Although I have not read or used every volume in the New Studies in Biblical Theology series edited by D. A. Carson, I have found some of the volumes helpful. The Westminster Seminary Bookstore is now offering a sale on individual volumes and on the whole series.

40% off a single volumes

50% off five or more volumes

52% off all 26 volumes 

Go here.
  

McKnight on James

  
Michael Bird has a nice interview with Scot McKnight concerning James. Read it here.
  

Biblical Scholars and Archaeological Digs

   
See John Byron's post "Why Biblical Scholars Should Participate in at Least One Dig."
  

The Need to Preach Christ

See this article.

  

Good Advice

“The key to good exegesis, and therefore to a more intelligent reading of the Bible, is to learn to read the text carefully and to ask the right questions of the text. One of the best things one could do in that regard would be to read Mortimer J. Adler’s How to Read a Book (1940, revised edition) with Charles Van Doren [New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972]).”

Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids: Academie Books, 2003), 26.

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.

Henry Hanoch Abramovitch
The First Father Abraham: The Psychology and Culture of a Spiritual Revolutionary
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7758
Reviewed by D. Andrew Kille
 
Faith Cimok
The Hittites and Hattusa
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7663
Reviewed by Michael S. Moore
 
Andreas Dettwiler and Uta Poplutz, eds.
Studien zu Matthäus und Johannes/Études sur Matthieu et Jean: Festschrift für Jean Zumstein zu seinem 65. Geburtstag/Mélanges offerts à Jean Zumstein pour son 65e anniversaire
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7770 Editor(s):
Reviewed by Boris Paschke
 
Toshikazu S. Foley
Biblical Translation in Chinese and Greek: Verbal Aspect in Theory and Practice
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7678
Reviewed by Ken Chan
 
Paul Hoffman
Jesus von Nazaret und Die Kirche: Spurensicherung im Neuen Testament
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7593
Reviewed by Stephan Witetschek
 
Jae Hyun Lee
Paul's Gospel in Romans: A Discourse Analysis of Rom 1:16-8:39
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7677
Reviewed by Eve-Marie Becker
 
Mark Leuchter and Klaus-Peter Adam, eds.
Soundings in Kings: Perspectives and Methods in Contemporary Scholarship
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7613
Reviewed by Frank H. Polak
 
J. Ramsey Michaels
The Gospel of John
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7781
Reviewed by D. A. Carson
 
G. Sujin Pak
Judaizing Calvin: Sixteenth-Century Debates over the Messianic Psalms
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7429
Reviewed by Susan Gillingham
 
Begonya Palau
Les aparicions de Jesús Ressuscitat a les dones (Mt 28, 8-10) i also Onze (Mt 28, 16-20) com a textos complementaris
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5866
Reviewed by Sylvie Raquel

    

Fee on the Hermeneutics of Acts

   
Gordon Fee in discussing the hermeneutics of Acts notes,

“The crucial hermeneutical question here is whether biblical narratives that describe what happened in the early church also function as norms intended to delineate what must happen in the ongoing church. Are there instances from Acts of which one may appropriately say, ‘We must do this,' or should one merely say, ‘We may do this'?

“Our assumption, shared by many others, is this: Unless scripture explicitly tells us we must do something, what is only narrated or described does not function in a normative (i.e. obligatory) way—unless it can be demonstrated on other grounds that the author intended it to function in this way. There are good reasons for making this assumption.”

Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), 118–19.

  

Absence of Evidence

   

"Those who discount the Bible stories because of archaeological data are working in outdated "prove the Bible mode," along the lines of correspondence theories. They likewise have not realized that archaeology and the Bible provide different information, which is largely incapable of being compared and, most often, elusive. Information from the Bible and archaeology is parallel, not perpendicular; it supplements/complements, but rarely intersects. For true understanding to emerge, we must look beyond a "prove the Bible" (or "disprove") synthesis and draw on a coherence theory model.

"In the end, the relationship between the Bible and archaeology is fluid, not static. Both can help us better understand the other, but neither can, nor should, be used as a critique of the other. They must live separately and be blended and amended together cautiously."
  

David Merling, "The Relationship between Archaeology and the Bible Expectations and Reality," in The Future of Biblical Archaeology, ed. James K. Hoffmeier and Alan Millard (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 33.

  

Why Did Moses Go up Mount Sinai Twice?

  
See this article by Alexander Zvielli in the Jerusalem Post. I am not sure that there is much new here for those who are aware of ancient Near Eastern covenant practices, but I found the discussion involving Josephus and Philo interesting.
   

Early Rabbinic Texts Online

  
David Instone-Brewer has announced that he has created an online resource for accessing and studying early rabbinic texts. This looks to be a great resource. Check it out here. 
  

The Difference Between Allegory and Parable?

I have been thinking through Thiselton's statement that,  

"An allegory therefore presupposes shared understanding; a parable creates shared understanding. There are two further differences. An allegory addresses insiders who are in the know; a parable attacks, or seeks to win over outsiders. Further, it is crucial that on the whole a parable presents an entirely coherent narrative world; an allegory can contain a string of independent applications. Often this is expressed by insisting that a parable has only one point. But although this often follows, it does not always follow, and this view has been attacked" (Anthony C. Thiselton, Hermeneutics: An Introduction [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009], 38).

Not in the Bible

  
See this article by John Blake.