I'm planning to provide select excerpts from the What in the World! (WITW) newsletter as a regular feature of this blog. The newsletter is available free from Bob Jones University. It's been coming out for a good 20 years as a service to local churches. So here's my...
Mark Ward
The status of women in OT times
I just finished reading Ezra and writing about it for tenth graders. I spent a fair amount of time evaluating and seeking to understand Ezra's actions at the end of the book, the 111 divorces he oversaw. I had a thought: if marrying a Canaanite woman didn't make that...
Pandora
I just got a recommendation from a friend to try a cool Internet radio station called Pandora. You can set up your own Internet radio stations based on your favorite artists. So I made a station for artists like "Chanticleer" and one for artists like "The King's...
Quotation
“The more you hang out with monkeys the more you realize just how special people really are.” —a scientist in the recent Smithsonian
The TNIV and The Books of the Bible 3
If you go to "The Books of the Bible" site, don't be put off by the endorsements. It appears that IBS realizes that they've lost conservative evangelicalism as a target demographic for the TNIV. Too many names we all (rightly!) trust came out against it. So they're...
The TNIV and The Books of the Bible 2
When I showed my truly wonderful, open-minded boss my new TNIV without verse numbers and chapter numbers, he said, "Hmm. This is not a step forward." I said, "I think it is." I explained how with my new Bible you don't have verse numbers and chapter numbers...
The TNIV and The Books of the Bible
I've seen the power that preaching with a sound hermeneutic can have. Just one effect of a pulpit ministry based on solid exegesis is that listeners develop skill in reading the Bible for themselves. But most printed Bibles do good hermeneutics a disservice. Good...
Church websites
I'm designing a new church website and promotional materials for Cleveland Park Baptist Church in nearby Spartanburg, and as part of my preparation I just surveyed some of the work others are doing in this field. I came across a site which I was impressed with,...
Logos and comps study
Logos has become a daily companion to me in my studies, and I received special profit from it during recent comprehensive exam studies. Here's a selection of works I used to study textual criticism and New Testament introduction (these works came with Scholar's Gold,...
Kidner on Ezra
Derek Kidner has been a very helpful commentator for me. I know his works (at least the ones I'm familiar with) aren't technical, but I don't always need technical. He's rare among his breed for having such pleasing prose. His style seems just perfect for the OT books...