Bryon’s Weblog has a quote from Leland Ryken and some commentary, followed by some rather silly comments by an obvious troll. What I found interesting here, however, was the idea of preserving the literary qualities of the Bible. Let me reproduce the quote Bryon used: “If your essentially literal translation is the RSV, the ESV,…
Ehrman, Bart D. God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question-Why We Suffer. New York: HarperCollins, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-06-117397-4. 294 pp. I have previously noted that Bart Ehrman’s books are much more controversial on their jackets than on their pages (see notes on The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot and Response…
In chapter six of his book God’s Problem, Ehrman tackles the book of Job. (My notes on the book as a whole are here.) He describes the book as coming from two sources, one containing the narrative portions, and one containing the poetic dialogues. This view is not that exceptional, though one should also consider…
I’m glad to see Bill Mounce discuss valid use of etymology. I’ve long thought that we have fallen into an “every etymology is a fallacy” trap, but it’s good to see an acknowledged expert say that. Note that the vast majority of etymologies I hear are indeed false etymologies, but there are valid uses.
Waltke, Bruce K. with Charles Yu. An Old Testament Theology: an exegetical, canonical, and thematic approach. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007. ISBN: 0-310-21897-7. 1040 pp (940 excluding front and back matter). I’m going to complain a bit about this book, so first let me tell you the good things about it. It provides a solid introduction…
. . . and it’s sillier than the old ones. Adnan Oktar, who writes as Harun Yahya, is offering the prize, according to the Telegraph.co.uk (HT: Breaking Christian News, surely an interesting place to find this): Mr Oktar, 52, who successfully campaigned for Mr Dawkins’ official website to be banned in Turkey, has said he…
DeSilva, David A. An Introduction to the New Testament: Contexts, Methods, and Ministry Formation. Downers Grove, IL, 2004. ISBN 0-8308-2746-3. 974 pp. (904 without front matter and indexes). This is a bit out of place for review here and by me, but I wanted to write a few notes about it anyhow. If I were…
The senate has passed the bailout bill, and the house is expected it soon. I greet this event with seriously mixed emotions. I do believe that responsible legislators, should there be any, needed to support quick action, and because the action was quick, and because it was in response to a crisis, it is likely…
I was interested in watching the reactions to the debate the other night. No, I didn’t watch it, so I’m not going to give any opinion about who won or lost, or who was right. But in the blogs to which I subscribe I found two posts that were very interesting to me. The questions…
I generally read Adrian Warnock’s blog because his theology is so glaringly different from my own that I think there’s a certain amount of community accountability that results just from forcing myself to read and consider his viewpoint. (Sorry, Adrian, but that’s how it is!) But today he pointed me to a new tool from…
