The Latest Issue of the Review of Biblical Literature

The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews can be accessed by clicking the links below but unfortunately you must be a SBL member to read them.

James P. Allen, Ancient Egyptian Phonology
Gaëlle Chantrain

Brian R. Doak, Ancient Israel’s Neighbors
Yigal Levin

John Paul Heil, Romans: Worship in Hope of the Glory of God
William Horst

Johanna Körner, Sexualität und Geschlecht bei Paulus: Die Spannung zwischen “Inklusivität” und “Exklusivität” des paulinischen Ethos am Beispiel der Sexual- und Geschlechterrollenethik
Simon Bellmann

Robert K. McIver, Verbatim and Gist Parallels Between the Gospels: Coded Greek Synopsis and Selected Statistic
Jeffrey M. Tripp

Douglas J. Moo, The Letter to the Romans
J. Andrew Cowan

Jeffrey L. Morrow, Alfred Loisy and Modern Biblical Studies
Raleigh Heth

V. George Shillington, A Complicated Love Story: Focus on the Fourth Gospel
Cory M. Marsh

Danilo Verde, Conquered Conquerors: Love and War in the Song of Songs
Brandon R. Grafius

Johanna W. H. van Wijk-Bos, The Land and Its Kings: 1–2 Kings
Walter A. Maier III

The Authenticity of 2 Peter

Darian Lockett has a good discussion of the issue here.

Praying the Imprecatory Psalms

In this podcast, Trevor Laurence makes a case for doing so.

Walton's Slides on the Gospel of Luke

Steve Walton has posted his PowerPoint slides here and here from some recent talks that he gave on the Gospel of Luke.

Tips for Seminary Reading

One of the major differences that I noticed in moving up the educational ladder was that amount of reading can increase fairly dramatically. So beginning and future seminary students might want to consider these tips by Danny Zacharias and Benjamin K. Forrest. Pastors might also find wisdom here as they try and stay well-read.

Text and Canon Institute Website

The Text and Canon Institute has a brand new website. You can access it here. It looks like this is going to be a wonderful resource related to the Bible and its origins.

The Latest Issue of the Review of Biblical Literature

The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews can be accessed by clicking the links below but unfortunately you must be a SBL member to read them.

Tanios Bou Mansour, Le ministère sacerdotal dans la tradition syriaque primitive: Aphraate, Ephrem, Jacques de Saroug et Narsaï
Sebastian P. Brock

Tony Burke, ed., New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, Volume 2
J. K. Elliott

Noel Forlini Burt, Encounters in the Dark: Identity Formation in the Jacob Story
Julianne Burnett

Haim Goren, “The Loss of a Minute Is Just So Much Loss of Life”: Edward Robinson and Eli Smith in the Holy Land
Thomas Davis

Gudrun Guttenberger, Das Evangelium nach Markus
Olegs Andrejevs

Evan Hershman, Jesus as Teacher in the Gospel of Mark: The Function of a Motif
Vernon K. Robbins

Martha Himmelfarb, Jewish Messiahs in a Christian Empire: A History of the Book of Zerubbabel
J. Thomas Hewitt

Jonathan A. Kruschwitz, Interludes and Irony in the Ancestral Narrative
Rachel Adelman

Jonathan Loopstra, The Patristic “Masora”: A Study of Patristic Collections in Syriac Handbooks from the Near East
Jacob A. Lollar

Klyne R. Snodgrass, Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus
Peter Claver Ajer

Free Text-Driven Preaching Webinar

David Allen is offering a free text-driven preaching webinar on November 11 @ 2:00 PM  (CST). You can sign up here.

Five Reasons to Read the Bible Intertextually

B. J. Oropeza shares them here.

Free Visual Word Outlines

All the visual outlines from Patrick Schreiner's book, The Visual Word: Illustrated Outlines of The New Testament Books are available here. Scroll down to "Free Resources" to access the PDF outlines.

HT: Patrick Schreiner

Psalms: Volume 1: The Wisdom Psalms

I am happy to say that the a commentary on the Psalms that I have coauthored with Creig Marlowe has just been published. Unlike most commentaries that proceed through the psalms numerically, this commentary groups the psalms by form. This first volume is on the wisdom psalms. This commentary series is written with preachers and teachers in mind.

It is available on Amazon here or at Christian Book Distributors here. 

 

The Latest Issue of the Review of Biblical Literature

The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews can be accessed by clicking the links below but unfortunately you must be a SBL member to read them.

Kees de Blois, Louis Dorn, Gerrit J. van Steenbergen, and John A. Thompson, A Handbook on Hosea and Joel
Steven Tuell

Dean Furlong, The Identity of John the Evangelist: Revision and Reinterpretation in Early Christian Sources
Derek Tovey

Bruce Louden, Greek Myth and the Bible
Michel Pauw

Karalina Matskevich, Construction of Gender and Identity in Genesis: The Subject and the Other
Barbara Deutschmann

Lidija Novakovic, Philippians: A Handbook on the Greek Text
Michael Sweeney

Peter Oakes, Empire, Economics, and the New Testament
Jürgen K. Zangenberg

B. J. Oropeza, Craig Evans, and Paul T. Sloan, eds., New Studies in Textual Interplay
David M. Allen

Geert Roskam and Joseph Verheyden, eds., Light on Creation: Ancient Commentators in Dialogue and Debate on the Origin of the World
Brandon R. Grafius

Jeffrey Siker, Sin in the New Testament
William Horst

Danilo Verde, Conquered Conquerors: Love and War in the Song of Songs
Ellena Lyell

Hermeneutics and Preaching

Abe Kuruvilla talks to Andreas Köstenberger about hermeneutics and preaching here.

Free eBook: Mimetic Theory and Biblical Interpretation

Wipf and Stock is offering a free eBook copy of Michael Hardin's Mimetic Theory and Biblical Interpretation: Reclaiming the Good News of the Gospel. The offer is only available until November 15. Here are the instructions to get your copy.

1. Click on this link.
2. Click "ADD TO CART" on the eBook option.
3. Use the code "HARDIN21"
4. Upon checkout completion, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions of how to download your free eBook.

Free Logos Resources for November

Logos is offering Millard Erickson's Making Sense of the Trinity, Scripture and Truth edited by D. A. Carson's and John Woodbridge, Mark: Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist by Francis Moloney. You can also purchase other books at significant discounts and enter to win the 22-volume Baker Academic Early Church Collection. These offers can be accessed here and here.

Tyndale Bulletin: Open Access

The Tyndale Bulletin is going open access. Articles will initially be released on a rolling basis. You can access the first free article here. I wish that more journals would follow suit.

Creating Sermon Conclusions

Here are some thoughts on creating sermon conclusions.

1. Be in prayer about it.
2. Create your conclusion with real people in mind.
3. Make sure you have the message nailed down and then bring your conclusion in alignment with it.
4. Know yourself, be yourself, but be open to stretching yourself.
5. Understand that conclusions also involve non-verbal communication.
6. Keep it brief and tight and convey the appropriate tone.
7. Write it down and talk it through.
8. Write, rewrite, and rewrite again.
9. If possible, preview it with a spouse, friend, fellow preacher, etc.
10. Nail it down (if short enough, memorize it).
11. Wait until you are well into the sermon writing process before you do your conclusion.
12. Make sure to address both believers and unbelievers.

Abraham's Purchase of a Burial Cave

Diana Edelman has a nice article here on Abraham's purchase of the burial cave of Machpelah (Gen 23:3-20). I enjoyed the whole article but liked this last bit the best.

R. Yuden son of R. Simon said: “This is one of three places that the nations of the world cannot charge Israel and say to them ‘this is stolen [land] in your hands.’ They are: the cave of Machpelah, the Temple mount, and the burial plot of Joseph. The cave of Machpelah ‘Abraham paid Ephron’ (Genesis 23:16); the Temple mount ‘David gave Arnon’ (1 Chronicles 21:25), the burial plot of Joseph ‘And he bought the field’ (Genesis 33:19).” [Genesis Rabbah (§79)]

Here the rabbis are picking up on an important theme in this chapter, which emphasizes the legal nature of this purchase. Thus, the long story of Abraham purchasing a burial plot for Sarah from the local Sons of Heth represents the first step towards fulfilling the divine promise.

Preaching and Genesis 22:8

Claude Marriottini has a good reminder here of how preachers can go astray with faulty interpretations. His three lessons are the same ones that I have reiterated myself on a number of occasions.

The Samaritans

This is a pretty good article on the Samaritans focusing mostly on the present day

Photo Companion to the Bible: Paul's Epistles

BiblePlaces has just released its Paul's Epistles volume in the fantastic Photo Companion to the Bible series. As a teacher and preacher, I regularly use the materials in this series. This collection covers all thirteen of Paul's letters and includes by my count over 8,000 photos in a helpful and user-friendly PowerPoint format. The presentations also include helpful descriptions that make these volumes more like pictorial encyclopedias.

And even better, this collection of all thirteen epistles is on sale today for $129, using the coupon code EPISTLES. This is like buying two of the individual volumes and getting the other eleven for free!  Upgrade pricing is available for those who previously purchased Romans and/or 1-2 Corinthians (email us for the upgrade option). Purchase the set today as a DVD+download or as download-only. Check it out.

Top 1–2 Chronicles Commentaries

Bill Schniedewind lists and annotates his top six 1–2 Chronicles commentaries on Nijay Gupta's blog here.It is a good listing but I would try and sneak in Eugene Merrill's Kregel volume in.