Life goes better without legislation
A citizens’ commission in Oregon thinks there is a need for rules against drunken legislating. In a story titled Resolved: Legislating goes better sober, MSNBC tells us that this commission would like to protect Oregon voters from the drinking habits of those they elect to their legislature. I kid you not, drunken legislating. They suggest…
Anything Can Happen in Baseball
11 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the skillful; but time and chance happen to them all. — Ecclesiastes 9:11 (The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version….
BibleAndReference.com: Study Tools and Links
I’m adding this resource from Christianity Today to my Bible Study Resources links. It provides Bible search in a number of versions (via Bible Gateway, and I tend to use Bible Gateway directly), and also a number of other resources and links to resources. One of the great things about the internet and Bible study…
ChristianBibleStudies.com: How to Lead a Good Discussion
I’m adding a couple of links from Christianity Today to this site, and I want to call particular attention to them. I try to keep the links, especially those near the top, as useful as possible. One of my key suggestions for Bible study is to look at different views in order to fill out…
Liberalism and Diversity
A couple of weeks ago while teaching I was asked about the title of my book Not Ashamed of the Gospel: Confessions of a Liberal Charismatic, and what I meant by “liberal charismatic.” Now this isn’t an ad for my book–no, really, it’s not!–but that title was not one I gave myself, but rather one…
e-Sword Bible Software
Sometimes I like to recommend various Bible study tools, and this is especially fun when the tools themselves are free and of good quality. Free software is often worth precisely the price you pay for it, but in the case of e-Sword, you will be pleasantly surprised. (Note: For other Bible study tools see my…
Isaiah 24-27 – Starting Form Criticism
Form Criticism involves identifying smaller units in a composition that might have been transmitted separately, especially orally, prior to being included in the composition you are studying. There are quite a number of sections in our selection (Isaiah 24-27) that can be examined in this way. Since I am writing this series to help people…
Jesus as Human and Divine Priest
There are three passages in Hebrews that are critical to the concept of Jesus as a priest who combines divine and human attributes. 17For this reason it was necessary for him to be like his brethren in all ways, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest concerning divine matters {matters dealing…
Bible Translation and Literary Style
One thing second or third year Greek students notice, at least those who manage to start actually reading the Greek New Testament, is that various books have different levels of Greek grammar and vocabulary, and different literary styles. There’s a reason why most early reading exercises from the New Testament are from John or Mark….
Dealing with White Collar Crime
I’m glad to see that people who have committed fraud are convicted. Such things should happen for free. Newsweek (via MSNBC) interviews Allan Sloan, editor of the Wall Street Journal on why the government succeeded in this case. I think he has some good points. Some of the accounting material in this case, and the…
Boycotts and Chinese Voodoo Dolls
Every few days I get an e-mail from one or another Christian group that wants me to boycott something or try to get someone else to boycott. Though most of the e-mails I get are from conservatives, liberals are by no means immune to the urge to boycott. I’m not a boycotter. I don’t even…
First Reaction to ‘The Scriptures’ Bible Translation
Someone kindly e-mailed me a question about this Bible version, so I decided to take a look for myself. This is just a preliminary look, but you can find my notes at The Scriptures, and you can compare my results on this version with others using my Bible Translation Selection Tool. I would say that…
Hebrews 6:4-6: Can Those who Fall Return?
Again I’m addressing a very small portion of this chapter. To get the context in mind, please read my previous post Hebrews 6:1-3: Going On Toward Perfection. These three verses have generated a great deal of commentary, because they appear to be saying that if one falls away from the Christian walk he cannot return,…
Hebrews 6:1-3: Going On Toward Perfection
1Therefore, leaving the beginning of the message of Christ, let us carry on to maturity, not re-laying the foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith in God, 2of the doctrine of baptism, of the laying on of hands, of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 3This we will do if God…
Praying to be Seen
A few years ago a number of my students in an introductory Bible study class arrived very excited. There was a town coucil here in Florida (I forget precisely where), that had invited a Wiccan–a witch!–to offer a prayer opening a public ceremony. My students were discussing what they would have done about this obviously…
Every So Often Links
I often run across things I’d like to mention on this blog just to call folks’ attention to them, but I hate numerous, short blog entries in which my only contribution is to say, “Hey! Look at this!” So I think that every so often I’ll provide a series of links to things that I…
A Step for Abiogenesis?
In a short article, ScienceNOW Daily news discusses some new research that may shed light on how life first emerged on this planet. I want to call attention to the article for a couple of reasons, but primarily because this, in my view, is how real science is done, and how it sounds when announced….
Reading Psalm 46
I’ve been reading Psalm 46 in my devotional time, and have gone through it numerous times now. I’ve blogged about some of the things I’ve been thinking about while working with this Psalm at Threads from Henry’s Web, in an article entitled Translating Psalm 46. Reading poetry is a bit different from reading prose, particularly…
Translating Psalm 46
One of the things I find difficult to present to lay audiences is the range of options that a translator has in dealing with any passage. In particular poetry offers may options. One is not presented with just a couple of binary yes/no choices; rather, one is presented with a huge range of options, each…
Jesus as King and Priest
With the reference to Melchizedek (chapter 7), the author of Hebrews ties Jesus as King to his argument, though he doesn’t dwell on that. There is a key thought here that I would like to look at briefly. Often we find people disagreeing over just what type of person Jesus is. Is he the gentle,…
Why a New Priest?
The author of Hebrews is at some pains to make it clear to us that we need a new priest and indeed a new priesthood. As I’ve noted in previous entries, he has specific characteristics he expects in this new priest. The heart of his argument for a new priesthood is contained in chapter 7….
An Evolutionary Understanding of Kinds
One of the key issues in the creation-evolution controversy is the extent to which Genesis 1-2 should be understood as narrative history, and whether its statements with regard to the physical world should be taken as scientific statements, or at least as statements that carry some scientific content. I was just reminded of the importance…
My Reaction to the Da Vinci Code
There are some things you just can’t get away from no matter how hard you try. The Da Vinci Code, book, movie, or simply passing comment, is one of these. I have a friend who is much more interested in these things than I am, and I’ve even promoted his willingness to talk about it,…
Adventists and Spiritual Gifts
A friend of mine drew my attention to a blog entry about spiritual gifts and I think it provides some interesting fodder for thinking about gifts. The entry is Adventism, the Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts, written by Paul Whiting. He was surprised, and perhaps dismayed that his class was largely unable to identify their…