Featured Posts
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Sorrow Like My Sorrow – Lamentations 1:12
Can we really understand the suffering of another person or they ours?
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What Is Biblical Literacy?
We complain about it, write about it, claim it’s important or even critical, design programs to create it, but what is it? I don’t mean that none of us know what we mean when we say “biblically literate” or “biblically illiterate,” but do we all mean the same thing? I don’t think we do, and…
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Fences: Mending or Rending
The following is a sermon I presented at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Pensacola on September 11,2005 and originally posted here on September 13, 2005. I’m reposting it because when I went to look for it, I found that the original post had somehow been truncated, and also because there is a one word at a…
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Experiencing the (Baptism of the) Holy Spirit
This is a topic where I tend to make just about everyone uncomfortable. Long time readers may recall a previous discussion of speaking in tongues, and my own experience of it. Those who expect me to be intellectually oriented and rational are uncomfortable with mystical experiences, and many who are comfortable with the mystical experiences…
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More Study Bible Comparisons – Introduction to Romans
I haven’t written on this for a bit, and I wanted to note some differences between three of the major study Bibles I use in terms of introductions to books. I’m studying Romans right now, so I thought I’d compare there. In comparing words, I get myself a quick approximation of the average line length…
How Much Pandering and to What End?
I’ve been very disappointed in the way this campaign has gone. Not that it’s that much more nasty than any other campaign. As I recall from previous elections, things get pretty emotional and nasty. My disappointment has been in the candidates who could have done much better for the country. Obama made a mistake, in…
Practical Problems with Word for Word Translation
A nice, short note at mmm-BELLY-may Day (HT: Kouya Chronicles).
How a Christian can Vote for Obama
Laura at Pursuing Holiness has a post titled How can Christians support Obama?. She begins: I am frustrated almost beyond belief that any Christian can support Obama. . . . She then outlines the reasons she has for believing that we cannot support Obama and provides links, describing these points as “well-substantiated.” Laura’s post falls…
Explaining Suffering – or Not
As a follow-up to my notes on God’s Problem, I would like to comment briefly on how a diversity of explanations do coexist, and how they might justifiably do so. First, despite our best efforts to find logical explanations, in general people use case by case explanations pretty readily. They may believe that one person…
Not Watching the Presidential Debate
. . . was very relaxing. I actually never watch these debates because they are more a tribute to those who plan the event than to anything that either candidate is capable of saying. I would like to see a debate which allows the two candidates to confront and challenge one another. The real story…
Preserving Literary Quality?
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,…
Book Notes: God’s Problem (Ehrman)
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…
Source and Redaction Criticism: Ehrman on Job
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…
Etymology but no Fallacy
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.
Pro-Life Obama
These folks sound more like me than the pro-lifers I know, but they are pro-life and supporting Barack Obama. The key issues are pre-natal care, health care, and support for adoption. I would cite all of those elements plus better sex education, and pre-natal support for the mother-to-be.
Book Notes: An Old Testament Theology (Waltke)
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…
Thoughts on Michael Reiss
. . . from Thoughts from the Heart on the Left. Tony has some good words on the topic.
New Creationist Prize
. . . 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…
Book Notes: An Introduction to the New Testament (DeSilva)
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…
Borrow, Spend, and Rescue
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…
Biblical Studies Carnival XXXIV Posted
. . . at Metacatholic.
Seeing What We Expect
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…
RefTagger from Logos Bible Software
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…
Tagged – but I can Break the Rules
Just to be honest, I probably would have in any case. Tony from Thoughts from the Heart on the Left tagged me with the meme created by L. L. Barkat, so here goes, as I break rules. I’m going to copy the rules from Tony’s post rather than the original, just to be a bit…
Next Biblical Studies Carnival
. . . will be at Metacatholic, and he is calling for submissions as comments to the post I’m linking right here.
Incomprehensible Preaching?
I found this humorous story from the Lark via Shuck and Jive. It’s humorous, I think, because it strikes close to home even though it’s exaggerated. I make two serious points out of this. On those occasions when I’ve had the opportunity to teach Greek or Hebrew to those planning to be pastors I emphasize:…
Evolution, Historical Methods, and Assumptions
Andrew Lamb has commented on a post I wrote back in July. I have responded to most of the comment there, but he references an article of his own, Immeasurable Age, and it employs an approach that, while I do not think it has merit, is so common in both public discourse and apologetics, that…
A Simple and Legitimate Use for a Concordance Indexed to the Biblical Languages
I should just call the title a post and go on! But I won’t. The title and post came to me as I read Stupid Bible Tricks #1, and empathized. I recall one occasion when a speaker who was aware that i read Greek, and knew I had my Greek testament in front of my…