A Bereavement Ministry Resource

Dealing with grief is a reality that must be faced in every kind of ministry. It can also one of the more difficult pastoral skills to develop and I know that I have often felt woefully

inadequate in seeking to mediate comfort. So I was delighted to receive a copy of Larry J. Michael's book, A Necessary Grief: Essential Tools for Leadership in Bereavement Ministry. Although other responsibilities have prevented me from a careful reading, what I have seen seems quite helpful. There are numerous lists (e.g., questions children might ask at the death of a loved one, p. 167) and helpful appendices (e.g. funeral planning checklist, pp. 153-55). You can check out the book and read a 32-page excerpt 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. 

Peter Bing and Regina Höschele
Aristaenetus, Erotic Letters
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9887
Reviewed by Richard I. Pervo

David E. Briones
Paul’s Financial Policy: A Socio-theological Approach
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9732
Reviewed by Julien M. Ogereau

Brandon D. Crowe
The Obedient Son: Deuteronomy and Christology in the Gospel of Matthew
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8581
Reviewed by Don Garlington

Philip R. Davies
On the Origins of Judaism
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8176
Reviewed by Daniel Boyarin

Patricia Dutcher-Walls
Reading the Historical Books: A Student’s Guide to Engaging the Biblical Text
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9834
Reviewed by Iain Provan

J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays
Living God’s Word: Discovering Our Place in the Great Story of Scripture
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8993
Reviewed by James W. Thompson

Jörg Frey and Angela Standhartinger, eds.
Neues Testament und frührabbinisches Judentum
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9540
Reviewed by Judith M. Lieu

Joel B. Green and Tim Meadowcroft, eds.
Ears That Hear: Explorations in Theological Interpretation of the Bible
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9320
Reviewed by Craig L. Blomberg

Martin Hengel
Between Jesus and Paul: Studies in the Earliest History of Christianity
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9428
Reviewed by Timothy P. Henderson

Pieter W. van der Horst
Studies in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9793
Reviewed by Matthew J. Grey

Alexander Kyrychenko
The Roman Army and the Expansion of the Gospel: The Role of the Centurion in Luke-Acts
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9795
Reviewed by James M. Morgan

Clemens Leonhard and Hermut Lohr, eds.
Literature or Liturgy?
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9841
Reviewed by Thomas Bergholz

Jared L. Miller
Royal Hittite Instructions and Related Administrative Texts
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9443
Reviewed by Michael S. Moore

Birger Olsson
A Commentary on the Letters of John: An Intra-Jewish Approach
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9367
Reviewed by Daniel R. Streett

Stanley E. Porter and Cynthia Long Westfall, eds.
The Church, Then and Now
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8795
Reviewed by Nijay Gupta

Rafael Rodríguez
Oral Tradition and the New Testament: A Guide for the Perplexed
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9734
Reviewed by Werner H. Kelber

Michael Tuval
From Jerusalem Priest to Roman Jew: On Josephus and the Paradigms of Ancient Judaism
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9539
Reviewed by Jonathan Klawans

David R. Wallace
Election of the Lesser Son: Paul’s Lament-Midrash in Romans 9–11
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10007
Reviewed by A. Chadwick Thornhill

Matt Waters
Ancient Persia: A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire, 550–330 BCE
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9751
Reviewed by Jason Silverman

Ola Wikander
Drought, Death, and the Sun in Ugarit and Ancient Israel: A Philological and Comparative Study
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9860
Reviewed by Laura Quick

Lucas on Proverbs

Ernest Lucas, the author of the forthcoming commentary on Proverbs in the Two Horizons series discusses the book here.

Revelation's Interpretive Challenges

Ian Paul has an interesting and helpful post here on some of the interpretive challenges presented by the way language is used in Revelation.

Upcoming Lectures at the Lanier Theological Library

If you live in or around the Houston area you might be interested in some upcoming lectures at the Lanier Theological Library. 

9/12/15 – Lynn Cohick
September 12 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
“We are the Circumcision:” Philippians 3 and the Christian Life"

10/30/15 – Lecture by Peter Williams
October 30 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
"Does the Bible Support Slavery?"

2/6/16 – Lecture by Michael Bird
February 6, 2016 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
"An Invasive Story: Paul’s Theology between Messianic Event and Salvation-History"

Reading Josephus

Philip Jenkins has a helpful introduction to reading Josephus 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. 

George Aichele
The Letters of Jude and Second Peter: Paranoia and the Slaves of Christ
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9077
Reviewed by Andrew Mbuvi

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

Bruce Chilton
Visions of the Apocalypse: Receptions of John’s Revelation in Western Imagination
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9658
Reviewed by Ian Boxall

Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel, and Lawrence H. Schiffman, eds.
Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writing Related to Scripture
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9664
Reviewed by Igal German

Michael Graves
The Inspiration and Interpretation of Scripture: What the Early Church Can Teach Us
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9744
Reviewed by Kenneth D. Litwak

A. Kirk Grayson and Jamie Novotny
The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib, King of Assyria (704–681 BC), Part 2
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9864
Reviewed by Michael S. Moore

Lowell K. Handy
Psalm 29 through Time and Tradition
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8998
Reviewed by Wojciech Wegrzyniak

Franz D. Hubmann; ed. Werner Urbanz
Prophetie an der Grenze: Studien zum Jeremiabuch und zum Corpus Propheticum
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9525
Reviewed by Mark E. Biddle

Michael B. Hundley
Keeping Heaven on Earth: Safeguarding the Divine Presence in the Priestly Tabernacle
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9588
Reviewed by Nevada L. DeLapp

Craig S. Keener
Acts: An Exegetical Commentary (3:1–14:28)
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9380
Reviewed by Joshua L. Mann
Reviewed by Justin A. Mihoc

Amy-Jill Levine
Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9937
Reviewed by Jessica Tinklenberg

Shelly Matthews
The Acts of the Apostles: Taming the Tongues of Fire
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9647
Reviewed by Brian LePort

David Miano
Shadow on the Steps: Time Measurement in Ancient Israel
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7961
Reviewed by Trent C. Butler

Heinz-Dieter Neef
Die Prüfung Abrahams: Eine exegetisch-theologische Studie zu Gen 22,1–19
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9852
Reviewed by Thomas Hieke

C. Marvin Pate
Apostle of the Last Days: The Life, Letters, and Theology of Paul
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9716
Reviewed by James Hanson

Daniel Patte, ed.
The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7779
Reviewed by Valeriy Alikin

Daniel Patte and Vasile Mihoc, eds.
Greek Patristic and Eastern Orthodox Interpretations of Romans
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9249
Reviewed by Michael F. Bird

Abraham Sung-Ho Oh
Oh, That You Would Rend the Heavens and Come Down! The Eschatological Theology of Third Isaiah (Isaiah 56–66)
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9956
Reviewed by Klaus Koenen

Eric D. Reymond
Qumran Hebrew: An Overview of Orthography, Phonology, and Morphology
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9770
Reviewed by Emanuel Tov

Brian C. Small
The Characterization of Jesus in the Book of Hebrews
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9787
Reviewed by Felix H. Cortez

Joan E. Taylor, ed.
The Body in Biblical, Christian and Jewish Texts
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9867
Reviewed by Joshua Schwartz

Alexander J. M. Wedderburn
The Death of Jesus: Some Reflections on Jesus-Traditions and Paul
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9175
Reviewed by Peter Frick

The Radical Perspective on Paul?

There is an interesting discussion taking place at the Euangelion blog here and here on the so-called "Radical Perspective on Paul."

Anthony Thiselton's New Systematic Theology

I enjoyed reading Anthony Thiselton's thoughts on his new systematic theology here. Although my field is in biblical studies, I have a great appreciation for those who work in systematics. I hope to pick up this volume soon.

Getting Things Done in Seminary

Matt Perman has some pretty sound advice on how to get things done in seminary here.

Free Bruce Waltke Audio: Why I Have Kept the Faith

Regent Audio is offering a free audio download of a message by Bruce Waltke entitled, "Why I have Kept the Faith." You can access it here. The free offer expires Monday, June 15.

If Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians Was Published in Christianity Today

The Sacred Sandwich has a great spoof of reader responses if Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians was published in Christianity Today here.

HT: Lisa Robinson

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. 

Pablo R. Andiñach
Introducción hermenéutica al Antiguo Testamento
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8681
Reviewed by Diego Pérez Gondar
Reviewed by Edesio Sánchez-Cetina

Bradley Beach and Matthew Powell, eds.
Interpreting Abraham: Journeys to Moriah
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9711
Reviewed by Simon Lasair

Katell Berthelot, Joseph E. David, and Marc Hirshman, eds.
The Gift of the Land and the Fate of the Canaanites in Jewish Thought
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9776
Reviewed by Joshua Schwartz

James V. Brownson
Bible, Gender, Sexuality: Reframing the Church's Debate on Same-Sex Relationships
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9115
Reviewed by Hermias van Zyl

Walter Brueggemann
Reality, Grief, Hope: Three Urgent Prophetic Tasks
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9748
Reviewed by H. F. Van Rooy

Peter W. Flint
The Dead Sea Scrolls
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9147
Reviewed by Daniel K. Falk

R. Michael Fox
Reverberations of the Exodus in Scripture
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9822
Reviewed by Jordan M. Scheetz

Matthias Henze and Gabriele Boccaccini, eds.
Fourth Ezra and Second Baruch: Reconstruction after the Fall
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9615
Reviewed by Kai Akagi

Detlef Jericke
Die Ortsangaben im Buch Genesis: Ein historisch-topographischer und literarisch-topographischer Kommentar
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9514
Reviewed by Bálint Károly Zabán

Simon J. Joseph
The Nonviolent Messiah: Jesus, Q, and the Enochic Tradition
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9811
Reviewed by Sarah E. Rollens

Henk Leene
Newness in Old Testament Prophecy: An Intertextual Study
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9613
Reviewed by J. Michael Thigpen

Gerd Lüdemann
The Earliest Christian Text: 1 Thessalonians
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9636
Reviewed by Trevor J. Burke

M. Pina Scanu, ed.
Alla luce delle Scritture: Studi in onore di Giovanni Odasso
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9256
Reviewed by Andrea Ravasco

Werner H. Schmidt
Das Buch Jeremia: Kapitel 21–52
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9381
Reviewed by Bob Becking

Marty E. Stevens
Leadership Roles of the Old Testament: King, Prophet, Priest, Sage
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8973
Reviewed by Daniel S. Diffey

N. T. Wright
Paul and the Faithfulness of God
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9566
Reviewed by Russell Morton

The Structure of Romans: A Survey of Recent Commentaries

This post on the structure of Romans in recent commentaries came out last year but I must have missed it. But better late than never. 

Preaching on the Churches of Acts

Brian Harbour in his article "Preaching from Acts" notes several approaches to preaching the book. One interesting approach is to preach the churches in Acts. I like the idea, but this would have to be done very carefully since Acts only provides limited descriptions of the churches. One would also have to nuance carefully the descriptive versus prescriptive aspects of the book. In any case, here is what Harbour suggests.

Since the book of Acts focuses on God's work through the church, an informative homiletic approach would be to preach a series of sermons on the churches of the book of Acts. After carefully describing the characteristics of the churches of Acts, you would then apply these characteristics to the church today.

You could preach a series with the following messages: "The Church at Jerusalem" (Acts 2); "The Church at Antioch" (Acts 11:19-30); "The Church at Philippi" (Acts 16); "The Church at Thessalonica" (Acts 17); "The Church at Berea" (Acts 17:10-14); and "The Church at Corinth" (Acts 18:1-17).
As an example, you might preach a sermon on the church at Antioch entitled, "The Church of the New Age." Using the text of Acts 11:19-30, develop the following outline:

1. The church at Antioch was evangelistic in nature, 11:19-21. These Christians at Antioch understood their primary purpose to be sharing the message of Christ.

2. The church at Antioch was sound in doctrine, 11:26. Barnabas and Paul spent more than a year explaining the basics of the Christian faith. The church was not just interested in making converts. They wanted to make disciples.
3. The church at Antioch was bold in character, 11:26. The followers of Jesus were called Christians, belonging to the part of Christ, because of the boldness of their commitment. They lived their lives in such a way that others could tell they belonged to the party of Christ.

4. The church at Antioch was caring in attitude, 11:27-30. They responded to the prophet's announcement of a famine in Judea by giving generously of their own resources to meet that need.

5. The church at Antioch was missionary in spirit, 13:1-4. The full story of the church at Antioch is not told until we trace the missionary journeys of Paul, for it was out of this church that Paul was sent. The church at Antioch was a church with the world on its heart.

These churches of Acts were not perfect. They were like our churches today. They had their flaws and their conflicts. And each was unique. The Jerusalem church was conservative while the Antioch church was progressive. The Philippian church was warm-hearted while the Thessalonican church was impractical. Yet these churches were a vital part of the inauguration of the Christian faith. Understanding the dynamics of these churches can be informative for us today.

 http://www.preaching.com/sermons/11567240 

The Seminary Bookstore

Kenneth Mathews made the following observation concerning his seminary days.

When I was in seminary in the 1970s, the most popular facility on campus was not the break room, but the bookstore. Students spent hours browsing the stacks and would squeeze out of their meager incomes discretionary dollars for books-books that were not required for classes. That they would buy class textbooks was a given, but students studied additional volumes that would be instrumental to their life-long commitment to ministry. We learned at seminary that a long term investment in tools was needed to equip us for the life to which God had called us ("The Minister's Toolbox: Why Ministers But Books," Beeson [Spring 2011], 17).

My early seminary experience was fairly similar. The library was also fairly popular. But it seems that something has drastically changed. Maybe it was the idea of buying books more cheaply online or the use of the internet and Bible software as the research tool of choice. But I suspect that at bottom it is probably that books in general are being read less-and-less these days. If true, that is unfortunate.

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. 

Moshe Bar-Asher; Aaron Koller, ed.
Studies in Classical Hebrew
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9804
Reviewed by Jerome A. Lund

Sungho Choi
The Messianic Kingship of Jesus: A Study of Christology and Redemptive History in Matthew’s Gospel with Special Reference to the “Royal Enthronment” Psalms
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8989
Reviewed by Robert L. Foster

S. Min Chun
Ethics and Biblical Narrative: A Literary and Discourse-Analytical Approach to the Story of Josiah
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9779
Reviewed by Benjamin J. M. Johnson

Lutz Doering
Ancient Jewish Letters and the Beginnings of Christian Epistolography
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9090
Reviewed by B. J. Oropeza

Joel B. Green, Lee Martin McDonald, eds.
The World of the New Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9404
Reviewed by Kathleen E. Mills

Minna Heimola
Christian Identity in the Gospel of Philip
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8418
Reviewed by Tavis A. Bohlinger

Jan Willem van Henten
Judean Antiquities 15: Translation and Commentary
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9786
Reviewed by Arie W. Zwiep

Ulrich Huttner
Early Christianity in the Lycus Valley
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9783
Reviewed by John C. Poirier

Amy Kalmanofsky
Dangerous Sisters of the Hebrew Bible
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9713
Reviewed by Glenn Pemberton

Craig S. Keener, Jeremy S. Crenshaw, and Jordan Daniel May, eds.
But These Are Written…: Essays on Johannine Literature in Honor of Professor Benny C. Aker
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9736
Reviewed by Phillip J. Long

Kai Lämmerhirt
Die sumerische Königshymne Šulgi F
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9187
Reviewed by Niek Veldhuis

Josef Lössl and John W. Watt, eds.
Interpreting the Bible and Aristotle in Late Antiquity: The Alexandrian Commentary Tradition between Rome and Baghdad
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8576
Reviewed by Siam Bhayro

Bieke Mahieu
Between Rome and Jerusalem: Herod the Great and His Sons in Their Struggle for Recognition
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8534
Reviewed by Frank E. Dicken

Emanuel Pfoh and Keith W. Whitelam, eds.
The Politics of Israel’s Past: The Bible, Archaeology and Nation-Building
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9323
Reviewed by Pekka Pitkanen

Stanley E. Porter
How We Got the New Testament: Text, Transmission, Translation
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9424
Reviewed by Pheme Perkins
Reviewed by Sylvie Raquel

John R. Spencer, Robert A. Mullins, and Aaron J. Brody, eds.
Material Culture Matters: Essays on the Archaeology of the Southern Levant in Honor of Seymour Gitin
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9863
Reviewed by Raz Kletter

David Stacey and Gregory Doudna
Qumran Revisted: A Reassessment of the Archaeology of the Site and Its Texts
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9403
Reviewed by Ian Werrett
Reviewed by James H. Charlesworth

Markus Zehnder and Hallvard Hagelia, eds.
Encountering Violence in the Bible
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9645
Reviewed by Paul Middleton

Free Logos Book for June: Esther by Anthony Tomasino

The free Logos Book for June is Anthony Tomasino’s commentary on Esther in the Evangelical Exegetical Commentary series. You can also purchase 1, 2, 3 John by Gary Derickson in the same series for .99 cents. You can also enter to win the entire Evangelical Exegetical Commentary series. Go the Logos' Free Book of Month page here to enter and download your free book today!

The Klingon Version of the Psalms

Amazon offers a Kindle version of the Psalms in Klingon here. Apparently, this "translation" is based on the World English Bible. I would not recommend purchasing it and make sure you read the customer reviews. I only mention it here for two reasons. First, it serves to highlight the challenges of translation in general. Second, there might serve as a useful sermon illustration.

Abiathar in Mark 2:26

Many students of Mark are familiar with the problem of the naming of Abiathar in Mark 2:26. Rob Plummer has a pretty nice explanation of the issue and some of the potential solutions in the video below.

Audio of the 2014 Evangelical Theological Society Meeting on Sale

WordMp3.com is offering the complete set of 630 mp3 downloads from the 2014 Evangelical Theological Society Meeting for the sale price of $69.99. You can check it out here.

Reminding the Corinthians of the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1?

Matthew Malcom has an interesting observation here related to the use of gnorizo in 1 Corinthians 15:1

The Use of Acts in Developing Church Practice

Loveday Alexander, in a chapter entitled, “Community and Canon: Reflections on the Ecclesiology of Acts,”makes the following insightful comment regarding the use of Acts in debates concerning church practices. 

In such debates, all protagonists tend to cite biblical models in favour of their own position: so it seems pertinent for us, as biblical scholars, to re-examine the model of the church which all Christian sects and denominations claim as their fons et origo, the church of the apostles as portrayed in the book of Acts. The book of Acts has been used to provide a scriptural basis for a variety of ecclesiologies, from catholic to charismatic: and all (or most) of these to some extent can be justified from within the text. The search for Luke's ecclesiology is thus partly an exercise in deconstruction, in detaching the text from the layers of interpretation which inevitably read Luke's story in the light of their own times and experiences. It is also an exercise in disciplined attentiveness to Luke's own rhetorical agenda, in which ecclesiology as such plays a relatively minor part. But in the end, we have to come back to the broader, hermeneutical question: how can this text help us today to construct an ecclesiology for our own time and place?

Loveday Alexander, “Community and Canon: Reflections on the Ecclesiology of Acts,” in Einheit der Kirche im Neuen Testament: Dritte europäische orthodox-westliche Exegetenkonferenz in Sankt Petersburg 24.–31. August 2005, ed. Anatoly A. Alexeev, Christos Karakolis and Ulrich Luz in collaboration with Karl - Wilhelm Niebuhr, Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 218, ed. Jörg Frey (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008), 46.

Ridiculous Stunts Pastors Have Pulled To Get People To Church

The HuffPost has an article entitled, "6 Of The Most Ridiculous Stunts Pastors Have Pulled To Get People To Church" here. I am not a fan of this approach to ministry and think that generally it is not ultimately helpful. But I must admit that some of the "stunts" performed by some of the prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel were likely viewed as "over-the-top" by their contemporaries. What are your thoughts?

Locusts and the Book of Joel

The book of Joel is known for its use of locusts as a metaphor for coming judgment. Many of us in the Western world have little personal experience with locusts or locust plagues. And I have always wondered what the difference was between grasshoppers and locusts. An article by Harold Brodsky helps to explain.

The mature biblical desert locust has a wingspan of about 4 inches, and a body length of about 3 inches. Locusts look like large grasshoppers and are, in almost all respects, morphologically the same. Technically, what distinguishes a true locust from a large grasshopper is behavior. When conditions are right, grasshoppers that normally act as solitary individuals learn to swarm. During daylight hours they will rise as a cloud and migrate in search of moist green vegetation. Not all species of grasshoppers can exhibit this type of behavioral transformation. When they do, they can be called locusts.

Harold Brodsky, “An Enormous Horde Arrayed for Battle”: Locusts in the Book of Joel,” Bible Review 6:4 (1990): 24.