Denominations

  
I know that thinking positively about denominations has fallen on hard times. But I have long believed that on their best days they can still serve a helpful function. So it is nice to read someone else who sees denominations as a good thing.

Nestle-Aland 28 Available Online

The new Nestle-Aland 28 is now available online here.

HT: Michael Gorman

How to Become A Biblical Scholar

  
An interview with C. Clifton Black addresses the issue of becoming a biblical scholar here.
 

Review of The Handy Guide to New Testament Greek

Douglas S. Huffman, The Handy Guide to New Testament Greek: Grammar, Syntax, and Diagramming (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2012).

During my Bible college days I remember purchasing A Card-Guide to New Testament Greek by Benjamin Chapman and Gary Shogren. This was a laminated sheet, printed on the front and back, highlighting the basic information covered in first year Greek. Zondervan also now produces a four-page laminated overview produced by William Mounce.

Huffman’s work is more than these two resources but less than a first-year Greek grammar and/or a second-year Greek syntax. It is a supplemental resource designed to conveniently distill the information typically covered in first and second year Greek courses and texts. By this measure, Huffman’s guide is largely successful. There is a lot of information packed in these 112 pages. It is full without feeling cramped. The printing is easy on the eyes and the use of color is both attractive and helpful. This guide contains helpful definitions, explanations (simple without being simplistic), descriptions, examples, tables, and memory devices (e.g., “Old MacDonald nouns,” p. 10). The work is rounded out by a solid chapter on diagramming that reads more like a book than the first two chapters. The value of this resource is also enhanced by a fairly comprehensive and nicely organized bibliography (for the table of contents go here). I actually enjoyed going through this guide and my overall impression of this work is very positive. 

The main challenge as I see for this niche product is finding an audience outside of the Bible college or seminary classroom where it is a required text. If this resource is intended to be used after graduation then I suspect the best hope will be to put it out in the main ebook formats. 

Douglas Huffman is a Professor and associate Dean of Biblical and Theological Studies at Biola University. You can read an excerpt here.

Thanks to Kregel Academic for providing the free copy of this book used in writing this unbiased review. 
  

Luke Commentary on Sale

  
Christian Book Distributor's "Deal of the Day" is I. Howard Marshall's Luke Commentary.

The Gospel of Luke: New International Greek Testament Commentary [NIGTC]

CBD has the volume at $47% off or $35.99. This is about $20 better than either Amazon who has the same volume for $55.31 or the Westminster Bookstore at $56.91.
 

Merry Christmas!

  
Praise be to the Lord Jesus Christ in celebration of His birth and Merry Christmas to all from my family to yours.
 

Christmas in Koine

  
Daniel Streett has posted a collection of links for Christmas songs in Koine Greek 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.

Frederick Dale Bruner
The Gospel of John: A Commentary
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8442
Reviewed by Sonya S. Cronin

Georg Fischer and Dominik Markl
Das Buch Exodus
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8142
Reviewed by Paul Sanders

Peter Hon Wan Lau
Identity and Ethics in the Book of Ruth: A Social Identity Approach
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8253
Reviewed by Timothy Stone

Nancy C. Lee
Lyrics of Lament: From Tragedy to Transformation
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7435
Reviewed by Ulrich Berges
Reviewed by Leonard Mare

Mikeal C. Parsons
Body and Character in Luke and Acts: The Subversion of Physiognomy in Early Christianity
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8324
Reviewed by Stephan Witetschek

Matthew S. Rindge
Jesus' Parable of the Rich Fool: Luke 12:13-34 among Ancient Conversations on Death and Possessions
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8342
Reviewed by Matthew Hauge

John H. Sailhamer
The Meaning of the Pentateuch: Revelation, Composition and Interpretation
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8130
Reviewed by Andrew Steinmann

Simon P. Stocks
The Form and Function of the Tricolon in the Psalms of Ascents: Introducing a New Paradigm for Hebrew Poetic Line-form
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8553
Reviewed by Gert T. M. Prinsloo

Klaus Wachtel and Michael W. Holmes, eds.
The Textual History of the Greek New Testament: Changing Views in Contemporary Research
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8381
Reviewed by James Leonard

Upcoming Lectures at the Lanier Theological Library

  
Those in and around Houston, Texas might be interested in three upcoming free lectures at the Lanier Theological Library in 2013.

January 29, 2013: Paige Patterson speaking on "The Expectation of the Reign of Christ on a Millennial Earth"

March 23, 2013: Alister McGrath speaking on "C.S. on Lewis and the Post Modern Generation: His Message 50 Years Later"

April 27. 2013: D. A. Carson on a topic not yet announced

You can see more about the lectures and register to attend here.

   

Audio: Moo on Romans

  
Readers of this blog know that I have highlighted the work of BiblicalTraining.org. It is a great resource. They have just announced the release a course by Doug Moo on Romans. All Biblical Training courses are free but you have to register. You can check out the Romans course here.
 

Top Ten End of the World Songs

  
In honor of all the hype about tomorrow, you can find suggestions for the top ten end of the world songs here, here, and here.
 

New Resource: Treaty, Law and Covenant in the Ancient Near East

A recent Tyndale House email noted the publication of Treaty, Law and Covenant in the Ancient Near East by Kenneth A. Kitchen and Paul J. N. Lawrence. The following is the publisher's description:

"This work presents a far-reaching social profile of life in the Ancient Near East, based on its wealth of law-collections, treaties and covenants through three millennia. Volume 1 sets out a uniquely comprehensive corpus of over 100 such documents in 10 languages, mostly displayed in facing-page transliterations and English translations with individual bibliographies. Volume 2 provides essential philological and background commentary to the texts, fully indexes their subject-matter, and concludes with a revolutionary and innovative series of full-colour diagrams of every text, vividly highlighting variations through the centuries. Finally, Volume 3 outlines the flowing interplay of political history, changing social norms and varying documentary formats throughout the whole period. Taken together, this tryptich offers a striking and indispensable new overview of its multifaceted world for Ancient Near-Eastern and biblical studies."

This looks like a wonderful resource but will beyond the budget of most folks. But perhaps your favorite university or seminary library will get a copy.
 

Wallace's Take on Nestle-Aland 28

  
Dan Wallace has provided one of the more comprehensive and interesting evaluations of the new 28th edition of Nestle-Aland that I have seen online. You can read it here.

Dead Sea Scrolls Online

  
A new website created jointly by Google and the Israel Antiquities Authority has now made thousands of Dead Sea Scroll fragments as high-resolution images available online.You can visit the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library here.

 

Top 12 Biblical Counseling Books of 2012

  
Counseling is not my area of specialty so I cannot vouch for this list, but it looks like there are some good resources 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.

Moshe Bar-Asher and Devorah Dimant, eds.
Meghillot [Hebrew]: Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls, VIII-IX
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7829
Reviewed by George Brooke
 
Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, ed.
The "Orphic" Gold Tablets and Greek Religion: Further along the Path
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7920
Reviewed by Timothy Pettipiece
 
Craig A. Evans, ed.
The World of Jesus and the Early Church: Identity and Interpretation in the Early Communities of Faith
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8366
Reviewed by Judith Lieu
 
Jonathan Knight
Revelation
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8470
Reviewed by Michael Naylor
 
Te-Li Lau
The Politics of Peace: Ephesians, Dio Chrysostom, and the Confucian Four Books
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7896
Reviewed by Minna Shkul
 
Abigail Pelham
Contested Creations in the Book of Job: The-World-as-It-Ought- and-Ought-Not-to-Be
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8619
Reviewed by Norman Habel
 
Michael Peppard
The Son of God in the Roman World: Divine Sonship in its Social and Political Context
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8259
Reviewed by Matthew Forrest Lowe
 
Daniel B. Wallace, ed.
Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament: Manuscript, Patristic, and Apocryphal Evidence
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8482
Reviewed by J. K. Elliott
 
Beat Weber
Werkbuch Psalmen III: Theologie und Spiritualität des Psalters und seiner Psalmen
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8037
Reviewed by Mark Elliott
 
Ina Willi-Plein
Das Buch Genesis: Kapitel 12-50
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8432
Reviewed by Wolfgang Zwickel

 

Texts, Hermeneutics, Preaching, and Stained Glass

  
What do texts, hermeneutics, preaching, and stained glass have in common? Check out Abe Kuruvilla's interesting post here. Make sure to read the interaction in the comments as well.
 

Schnabel on the Authorship of Acts

  
I have long appreciated the work of Eckhard Schnabel which I have found to clear and helpful. So I am excited to be dipping into his brand new commentary on Acts. In his introduction to Acts he deals with the issue of authorship, noting that while the Gospels and Acts are technically anonymous there are two points worth making.Schnabel writes,

"First, neither the Gospels nor the book of Acts were "anonymous" in the first century. It can be reasonably assumed that the early churches knew-on the basis of personal relationships or oral tradition-the identity of the authors of these long books, which were foundational for the life and ministry of the churches. We may note the example of L. Flavius Arrianus of Nicomedia, who did not state his name in the preface of his description of the life of Alexander the Great, published in the first half of the second century AD under the title Anabasis; he explains this literary decision with the comment, "I need not write my name, for it is not at all unknown among men, nor my country nor my family."

 
"Second, the anonymity of the historical books of the New Testament is a literary feature that distinguishes them from contemporary Greco-Roman historical books. It has been suggested that this is a specifically Christian phenomenon, which can be explained with the authors' conviction that Jesus Christ is the exclusive authority besides whom any human authority should remain silent. Others assume that the anonymity of the historical books of the New Testament emphasizes "the complete dependence of their authors on tradition, rather than on any firsthand experience."

Eckhard Schnabel, Acts, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, ed. Clinton E. Arnold (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 23-24.

Website on Biblical Architecture

  
Recently while working on some teaching materials I came across this website related to biblical architecture. The site focuses on ancient housing in general, Jerusalem, Machaerus, Masada, Megiddo, Lachish, the Herodium, and Jericho. I do not know much about the site but I found some helpful material there. 
 

Review of Ruth: From Bitter to Sweet

  
Ruth: From Bitter to Sweet is part of the Welwyn Commentary Series, a series designed facilitate personal study, Bible class and sermon preparation. The author is John D. Currid is the Carl McMurray Professor of Old Testament at the Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi.

Currid begins his volume with a very brief introduction. His discussion is fairly straightforward. There are four major themes: (1) the cost of disobedience, (2) God’s sovereignty, (3) faithful living, and (4) redemption and the book is divided by Currid into five “acts.” Concerning this latter point the author seems to be following Frederick Bush (who sees 4 “acts”) and others who utilize a dramatic approach. While this approach may be didactically helpful it might be anachronistic since drama as a genre does not appear until well after Ruth was likely written.

The commentary proper is divided into thirteen short chapters that generally appear to follow paragraph divisions. Each chapter contains an introduction, commentary, and points to ponder. The explanations are easy to read, fairly thorough for a commentary of this kind, and helpful. Currid interacts with the Hebrew text but proficiency in Hebrew is not required. There is minimal interaction with other commentaries but there is a lot of bang for the buck here. Although this work is not intended to be an in-depth exegetical commentary on Ruth, many of the significant issues related to this book are addressed. For example, Currid notes the importance and function of the character’s names in the book

My criticisms are fairly minimal and will be limited to three points. First, I wish that Currid had been clearer on some points. For example, the subtitle of the book, From Bitter to Sweet, suggests that Currid views the main character of the book to be Naomi (who asks to be called Mara or “bitter”) but this is not really explained in the commentary. While a relatively short commentary such as this one cannot be expected to discuss everything, who one understands to be the main character of the story seems to be fairly important. Second, while preaching paragraphs is a sound expository practice in some genres, it really does not fit as well with narratives such as Ruth. Dividing this short story into thirteen parts seems disruptive to the flow of the story and leads to unnecessary redundancy (e.g., the remarks concerning the morality of the threshing floor scene). I realize that thirteen can be a magic number of sorts for Bible study scheduling purposes, but I think that this commentary could be stronger and more helpful by reducing the numbers of chapters by at least a half. Third, there are a few typos. An en dash is missing on page 30 and the page numbers are absent from pages 136–37.

But these criticisms notwithstanding, Ruth: From Bitter to Sweet would be a good basic resource for laymen, Sunday school teachers, and preachers interested in the Book of Ruth.

Thanks to Shaun Tabatt and Cross Focused Media for the free review copy.
  

Interview with Elliott Johnson

A few weeks ago I posted a notice of a new book entitled Dispensational Understanding of the New Covenant (see here). Today I am pleased to interview Dr. Elliott Johnson, one of the contributors to that book. Dr. Johnson joined the faculty of Dallas Theological Seminary in 1972 and currently serves as senior professor of Bible Exposition. He is also the founder of the Asian Theological Seminary and has taught extensively overseas, including the Philippines, Poland, the former Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Russia. He also has ministered in Austria, Brazil, England, Germany, Israel, and Scotland.

1. What was your contribution to Dispensational Understanding of the New Covenant?

Dispensationalism provides a model of biblical theology based on an exposition of texts. The most commonly recognized passage referring to the New Covenant is Jeremiah 31:31–34. While Jeremiah affirms that this covenant will be ratified with the house of Israel and Judah, yet the church today also seems to benefit from the covenant (Luke 22:20). How can that be? Three answers are offered in the book which attempt to be faithful to both the Old and New Testament contexts so that the reader can evaluate the answers and reach their own conclusions. My contribution relates to one of the proposed answers.

2. What is your view of the New Covenant?

My view sees the New Covenant as inaugurated with Israel in the Millennial Kingdom, when “all Israel will be saved” (Rom 11:27). Nonetheless, when Christ died on the cross the New Covenant was ratified (Heb. 9:15) as Christ is the mediator of the covenant. So through Christ, believers are beneficiaries of the New Covenant blessings today (Heb. 9:15–17) since Israel as the anticipated recipient rejected the covenant mediator.

3. Who do you think should read this book?

I believe that this book would be most helpful for leaders and teachers in churches which desire to teach the whole counsel of God. Also students desiring a grasp on a biblical theology and worldview that consistently applies Israel’s covenant to the church might also find this work helpful.

4. What one book or person has been most influential in shaping your understanding of the New Covenant?

I have found two works to be particularly influential. Charles Ryrie’s Dispensationalism is a classic treatment of issues related to dispensationalism, including the role of the New Covenant. Another work which I have found particularly helpful is Moshe Weinfeld’s article on berith “covenant” in the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament edited by G. Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren, 2:253-79.

5. How does a proper understanding of the New Covenant affect the ministry of the church?

The gospel ministry includes New Covenant blessings (2 Cor 3:1–18). So to understand the church’s ministry today from a biblical point of view, one needs to understand both the gospel and the relationship of the church to these New Covenant blessings.

6. What one or two things have you learned while interacting with other Dispensational scholars on the New Covenant?

Working with other dispensational scholars has helped sharpen my thinking in two ways. First, it has helped me in better answering the question, “What is the relationship between Israel and the church?” This question is important because the answer helps to establish the identity and ministry of the church. Second, interactions with others have provided opportunities to focus on the argument of the Book of Hebrews, namely, “How are promises and covenants addressed to Israel applied to the church?” 
 
I am thankful to Dr. Johnson for his willingness to participate in this interview. I would encourage anyone interested in dispensationalism or the New Covenant to check out Dispensational Understanding of the New Covenant.
  

Ending a Sermon

  
John Acuff has a humorous but spot on article on Seven Signs a Sermon Is (Almost) Over." You can read it here.
 

Greidanus: Preaching Christ from Daniel

  

Sidney Greidanus' latest volume is Preaching Christ from Daniel: Foundations for Expository Sermons. The Eerdmans blog has a brief interview with Greidanus on the new volume here. I have found Greidanus'previous volumes on Preaching Christ from the Old Testament, Preaching Christ from Genesis, and Preaching Christ from Ecclesiastes to be helpful.
 

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.


David L. Balch and Jason T. Lamoreaux, eds.
Finding A Woman's Place: Essays in Honor of Carolyn Osiek
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8089
Reviewed by Ralph K. Hawkins
 
John Barton
The Theology of the Book of Amos
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8544
Reviewed by Tyler Mayfield
Reviewed by Heinz-Dieter Neef
 
Keith Bodner
Jeroboam's Royal Drama
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8447
Reviewed by Matthew Suriano
 
Michael D. Coogan and Mark S. Smith, eds.
Stories from Ancient Canaan: Second Edition
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8516
Reviewed by Henk Potgieter
 
Dean Flemming
Philippians: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8145
Reviewed by Matt O'Reilly
 
Frank Lothar Hossfeld and Eric Zenger
Psalms 3: A Commentary on Psalms 101-150
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8367
Reviewed by Thomas Kraus
 
Alice L. Laffey
First and Second Kings
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8444
Reviewed by Ginny Brewer-Boydston
 
Thomas C. Oden
The African Memory of Mark: Reassessing Early Church Tradition
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8231
Reviewed by J. Christopher Edwards
 
Nicholas Perrin and Richard B. Hays, eds.
Jesus, Paul and the People of God: A Theological Dialogue with N. T. Wright
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8134
Reviewed by James P. Sweeney
   

Foundations: An International Journal of Evangelical Theology

  
A new issue of Foundations: An International Journal of Evangelical Theology is now out for free online here. This issue focuses on baptism.

HT: Guy Davies