God Bless Us, Every One!
Merry Christmas, dear readers. It's time for you to give to one another! Leave in the comments... the best book or book-related item you got for Christmas, and the best book you gave!
An Article Worth Reading
Benjamin Baxter, "Hebrew and Greek Word-Study Fallacies," McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry 12 (2010-2011): 7-14. HT: Rod Decker
Tipping Point Proclamation
Whereas it is a common and salutary practice for writers of biblical scholarship to thank those who helped them with an article or book, and Whereas it is also common for said writers to add at the end of their thank-yous something like, "Any faults are of course my own," and Whereas I have reached a tipping point with such disclaimers, and Whereas such disclaimers were probably not necessary in the first place because everyone already knew that your faults were your own and that no one agrees...
Absolutely Stolen
I will happily take this down if anyone has a copyright, but I couldn't just link to it. I had to put it on the blog. It is too perfect. (And then it sat in my queue so long that I can't find the link to the original...) I won't say that no pastor has the capacity or permission to publicly disagree with Bible translators. I hope to be one of those pastors begging to differ with a particular rendering here or there someday. But really, it's tossed off so easily! And look at the people's eyes!...
A Good Bible Commentary
A good Bible commentary combines judicious exegetical comments with a willingness to make and defend theological and personal application: Viewed from a perspective that holds this world to be a “closed system,” suffering is a harsh and final reality that can never be explained nor transcended. “All is trouble, adversity, and suffering!” cries Sue Fawley, summarizing Thomas Hardy’s own judgment in his most pessimistic novel, Jude the Obscure. But a Christian views the suffering of this life in...