Just in Time for Christmas: The Incarnation of the Gospels

The Westminster Bookstore is offering The Incarnation in the Gospels by Daniel Doriani, Philip Ryken, and Richard Phillips for 52% off or $11. Use this link. This looks like a good resource that might come in handy for that Christmas series you are planning. You can access a PDF excerpt of the book here or listen to an interview related to the book with Doriani here.

Message Statements for Books of the Bible

As part of my doctoral work, I had to write an argument for every book of the Bible. In order to write an argument I needed to craft a one-sentence summary of what the book is about. This one-sentence summary consisting of a subject and compliment(s) is called a message statement. While some might assume that writing a single sentence like this should be easy. In reality, it is a challenging exercise. In essence, it is like trying to capture lightning in a bottle. So I was interested to read this post by Andy Naselli that lists all the message statements from the NIV Proclamation Bible. Some of the messages are very good but a few are not really message statements at all. In any case, I find that it sharpens my thinking to see how other interpreters understand the books of the Bible.

Jerome Murphy-O'Connor (1935-2013)

It is being reported that Jerome Murphy-O'Connor has died. I never had the privilege of meeting him, but two of his books have been particularly helpful to me.

• St. Paul's Corinth: Texts and Archaeology, 3rd revised and expanded ed. (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 2002) 
• The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700, 5th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).

The Biblical Story

If you are interested in the metanarrative of the Bible you might be interesting in The Biblical Story, a set of videos featuring Dr. Charles Baylis. Dr. Baylis is a Professor of Bible Exposition at Dallas Theological Seminary.

A Resource for Improving Sunday School

The folks at Kregel recently sent me a copy of Sunday School That Really Excels: Real Life Examples of Churches with Healthy Sunday Schools edited by Steve Parr. I was glad to receive this volume because I am a proponent of Sunday school and have taught in this environment for many years. I have also served on the administrative end of Sunday school ministry. 

There are a number of things that I like about this book. I like the variety of topics. There are seventeen chapters that deal with appropriate and varied issues. Most readers involved in Sunday school will find something relevant to their situation here. I like that the chapters are relatively short. I like the fact that the chapters are based on real examples. Some books on Sunday school can be long on theory and short on examples.

While my assessment of this work is generally positive, I would note a couple of minor criticisms. As with any volume written by multiple authors, some chapters will be better than others. More importantly, given the title of the book, I was a bit surprised that there was not really a definition of what constitutes an excelling or healthy Sunday school. Allan Taylor in the forward mentions the "e" word. He asserts the virtue of pursuing excellence but does not really establish what that means specifically for Sunday school.

These criticisms aside, most interested in Sunday school should find something of value in this volume. A 36-page excerpt is available here.

450 Sermons and Four Preaching Truths

Ed Stetzer summarizes the findings of a LifeWay Research study 450 sermons here. He suggests that the study revealed the following four preaching truths. Do read Stetzer's entire article for explanation of the points

1. The Word should be heard.
2. The Word should be organized.
3. The Word should be sufficient.
4. The Word should be useful

Preaching Legal Texts

Steven Smith continues his series on preaching different genres. You can find his discussion on preaching from the Law here.

Hurtado on the Social Description of Early Christians/Christianity

Larry Hurtado has a brief but helpful reminder concerning the social diversity of the early Christ followers here.

Text-Driven Preaching and Linguistics

David Allen has a nice post entitled "Text-Driven Preaching and Linguistics: What the Preacher Must Know to be a Good Exegete" 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.

Emily Arndt
Demanding Our Attention: The Hebrew Bible as a Source for Christian Ethics
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7969
Reviewed by Thomas Krüger

Pieter J. J. Botha
Orality and Literacy in Early Christianity
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8793
Reviewed by Stephen Reed

Marc Zvi Brettler, Peter Enns, and Daniel J. Harrington
The Bible and the Believer: How to Read the Bible Critically and Religiously
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8670
Reviewed by Greg Carey

Warren Carter
Seven Events That Shaped the New Testament World
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9047
Reviewed by Don Garlington

David G. Firth and Philip S. Johnston, eds.
Interpreting Deuteronomy: Issues and Approaches
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9121
Reviewed by Nathan MacDonald

Naomi Grunhaus
The Challenge of Received Tradition: Dilemmas of Interpretation in Radak’s Biblical Commentaries
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9085
Reviewed by David H. Aaron

Lori Hope Lefkovitz
In Scripture: The First Stories of Jewish Sexual Identities
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8716
Reviewed by Deborah Rooke

Ildefonso Lozano Lozano
Romanos 5: La vida de los justificados por la fe y su fundamento, la reconciliación por nuestro señor Jesucristo
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8625
Reviewed by David E. C. Ford

I. Howard Marshall, Volker Rabens, and Cornelis Bennema, eds.
The Spirit and Christ in the New Testament and Christian Theology: Essays in Honor of Max Turner
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8877
Reviewed by James P. Sweeney

Jacob Milgrom and Daniel I. Block
Ezekiel’s Hope: A Commentary on Ezekiel 38–48
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8832
Reviewed by Steven S. Tuell

vanThanh Nguyen
Peter and Cornelius: A Story of Conversion and Mission
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8911
Reviewed by Sean A. Adams

Reinoud Oosting
The Role of Zion/Jerusalem in Isaiah 40–55: A Corpus-Linguistic Approach
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9133
Reviewed by Marvin A. Sweeney

Yvonne Sherwood
Biblical Blaspheming: Trials of the Sacred for a Secular Age
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8782
Reviewed by Francis Landy

Mike van Treek Nilsson
Expresión literaria del placer en la Biblia hebrea
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9414
Reviewed by César Melgar

Thomas Willi
Israel und die Völker: Studien zur Literatur und Geschichte Israels in der Perserzeit
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9150
Reviewed by Michael Moore

Free Charts on Jude

Herb Bateman has made four charts on Jude available here. The PDF is available for free until for free until December 15. The charts survey various commentaries on the issues of authorship, date, recipients, and opponents. This resource is one of the resources made available at Bateman's Cyber-Center for Biblical Studies.

Free Theology Infographics

Zondervan has two free theology infographics related to Michael Horton's Pilgrim Theology. The infographics are available here and here.

Preaching Old Testament Narrative

See Steven Smith's post on preaching Old Testament narrative 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.

Beth A. Berkowitz
Defining Jewish Difference: From Antiquity to the Present
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8971
Reviewed by Joshua Schwartz

Stéphanie E. Binder
Tertullian, On Idolatry and Mishnah Avodah Zarah: Questioning the Parting of the Ways between Christians and Jews
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9176
Reviewed by Michael Rosenberg

Markus Bockmuehl
Simon Peter in Scripture and Memory: The New Testament Apostle in the Early Church
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8667
Reviewed by Jean-François Racine

James L. Crenshaw
Reading Job: A Literary and Theological Commentary
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8672
Reviewed by Richard G. Smith

Detlef Dieckmann
«Worte von Weisen sind wie Stacheln» (Koh 12,11): Eine rezeptionsorientierte Studie zu Koh 1–2 und zum Lexem dabar im Buch Kohelet
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9030
Reviewed by Stefan Fischer

Laura Feldt
The Fantastic in Religious Narrative from Exodus to Elisha
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9020
Reviewed by Michael Hundley

Norman Habel
The Birth, the Curse and the Greening of Earth: An Ecological Reading of Genesis 1–11
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8968
Reviewed by Terence E. Fretheim

Steven A. Hunt, ed.
Perspectives on Our Father Abraham: Essays in Honor of Marvin R. Wilson
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8108
Reviewed by David M. Maas

Luke Timothy Johnson
Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church: The Challenge of Luke-Acts to Contemporary Christians
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9015
Reviewed by Richard Pervo

Johannes Unsok Ro, ed.
From Judah to Judea: Socio-economic Structures and Processes in the Persian Period
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9071
Reviewed by Jason M. Silverman

Ishay Rosen-Zvi
The Mishnaic Sotah Ritual: Temple, Gender, and Midrash
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8539
Reviewed by Aaron Koller

Jacques T. A. G. M. van Ruiten
Abraham in the Book of Jubilees: The Rewriting of Genesis 11:26–25:10 in the Book of Jubilees 11:14-23:8
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9046
Reviewed by John C. Endres, S.J.

Jason M. Silverman
Persepolis and Jerusalem: Iranian Influence on the Apocalyptic Hermeneutic
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9074
Reviewed by Bob Becking

Paul Trebilco
Self-Designations and Group Identity in the New Testament
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8921
Reviewed by B. J. Oropeza

James Davila on Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

James R. Davila has an interesting piece on the recently published Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, Volume 1 here. According to Davila, this new volume

"contains new translations of nearly fifty complete or fragmentary texts, most of which have not been published in any of the earlier pseudepigrapha collections and some of which have never before been translated into English. They are translated by experts from many languages, including Aramaic, Armenian, Coptic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Old Church Slavonic, and Syriac. The reader of this volume will learn that other nonstandard ancient scriptures are quoted in the Bible. For example, the New Testament letter of James 4:5 may quote a Book of Eldad and Medad (cf. Numbers 11:26–29). Moreover, the Old Testament itself quotes many lost books, including the Book of the Wars of the Lord, the Book of Jashar, and the Book of the Acts of Solomon."

Sounds interesting. I would love to pick up this volume.

Audio for the Advanced Expository Preaching Workshop

Audio for the 2013 Advanced Expository Preaching Workshop featuring the book of Revelation can be accessed here. For individual messages you can use the links below.  

Preaching from the Apocalypse, Dr. Paige Patterson
The Letters to the Seven Churches, Dr. David Allen
Reasons Why We Should Preach the Christology of Revelation, Dr. Steven Smith
Understanding the Book of Revelation, Dr. Craig Blaising
Preaching Revelation 17, Dr. Paige Patterson

 

 

 

The Preacher and the Text or a Textual Preacher?

Phil Newton has a call to expository preaching here. He points out the inconsistency of claiming to have a high view of Scripture and then not really preaching the Scripture.

Gabriel Barkay Audio

You can access Dr. Gabriel Barkay's recent talk at the Criswell College here (scroll down to 10.7.2013). Or use this link to download or this link to listen. Unfortunately there is no video and the presentation used PowerPoint. But if you are somewhat familiar with Jerusalem you can figure some of it out.

One Year to Better Preaching

Daniel Overdorf's new book, One Year to Better Preaching: 52 Exercises to Hone Your Skills, looks to be a helpful resource whether one is a seasoned preacher who needs a refresher or a neophyte preacher looking to start off on the right foot. As the title suggests, Better Preaching is set up to provide one aspect of preaching per week to work on. I have only read the first three chapters but each exercise seems to focus on something worth working on. The chapters are long enough to explain the exercise but short enough for one to get started pretty quickly. Check out a free PDF of the first exercise here.

Thanks to the folks at Kregel for sending the free copy used in this evaluation.

C.L. Seow: Job's Wife in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Interpretations

I found this to be a fascinating presentation.



HT: Eerdword Blog

Eckhard Schnabel: Why Study Acts

HT: Koinonia Blog

Free Ebook: Christ-Centered Preaching and Teaching

The Gospel Project is making a free ebook entitled Christ-Centered Preaching and Teaching available here. Contributors includ Ed Stetzer, Editor (LifeWay Research),Daniel Block (Wheaton College),David Murray (Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary),Walt Kaiser (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary), andBryan Chapell (Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria, IL).

Preaching from Wisdom Literature

Steven Smith has a good post on preaching from wisdom literature here.

Review of Memoirs of the Way Home

Gerald M Bilkes, Memoirs of the Way Home: Ezra and Nehemiah as a Call to Conversion. Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2013. 

Memoirs of the Way Home is a thematic exposition of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Combining these books into single study is appropriate since these books should be read as a single unit. Memoirs is a thematic exposition in that the author understands Ezra and Nehemiah as an extended account of the prodigal’s way back home” (2). The subtitle of the book also suggests another metaphor, namely, conversion.

The book contains thirty-three brief chapters, ten devoted to Ezra and 23 to Nehemiah. Each chapter includes several study questions. There are also two appendices (Lessons for ministry from Ezra and Lessons for prayer from Nehemiah).

The expositions are fairly concise and generally give the reader a decent explanation of the contents. (One who is looking for a detailed discussion of the text will need to turn elsewhere since the author clearly does not intend for this work to be exegetically comprehensive.) Principles and applications are intermingled throughout the discussion. Bilkes’ prose is simple, clear, and pastoral. Many of the chapter-ending questions are helpful and could be put to effective use in a class or small group setting. Preachers are also likely to find nuggets here and there to incorporate into their sermons.
 
However, I am not sure whether the prodigal metaphor works all that well and I found some of the attempted connections to the theme a bit strained. In the parable of the prodigal son, the son chooses to leave. In Israel's exile the people did not choose to leave but were in fact forcibly removed. Similarly, the return of Israel was not the result of coming to one's senses (see Luke 15:17) but of the grace of God who allowed His people to return. Equally unconvincing is the metaphor of conversion. Related to these two issues is the tendency to shift too quickly to the New Testament. While it is wholly appropriate for Christians to move ultimately to the New Testament, one senses that Ezra and Nehemiah are not being allowed to speak on their own terms.
 
These criticisms aside, Bilkes is to be commended for drawing attention to these less familiar books of Scripture.
 
You can read a PDF excerpt here. Thanks to Reformation Heritage for providing the copy used in this unbiased review.

Circumcision in the Old Testament

Steven Coxhead has a nice post on circumcision here.