By Scot McKnight Source: CLIFTON, N.J. – An aspiring nun who was told she couldn’t enter a convent until her student loan debt was paid off has used an online appeal to get the money. Alida Taylor, 28, was accepted to join the Sisters of Life in New York City in September. …read more
By Stephen Bedard Did you even know there was a Psalm 151? The truth is there are many more psalms than the 150 found in the Bible. A psalm is a genre and there is no reason why we can’t write more psalms.
There is a Psalm 151 that is a part of the …read more
By Anthony Le Donne A Christian community should do as Jesus did: propose and not impose. Its attraction must lie in the radiance cast by the love of brothers. …read more
By Abram K-J This is the text of the sermon I preached the Sunday after Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and five Dallas police officers were shot to death.
Diamond Reynolds, girlfriend of Philando Castile (© Adam Bettcher / Reuters—REUTERS)
Michael Brown’s homicide in Ferguson, Missouri was almost two years ago. His encounter with …read more
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By René Salm The word “gospel” The Greek word euangelion (and its Latin equivalent, evangelium) is a critical and ambivalent term. It has two principal meanings: (a) “good news, doctrine, teaching”—this is the general, or abstract meaning; and (b) a written text combining the sayings and the doings (logia and praxeis) of Jesus …read more
By arenmaeir Well, it appears that Pokémon Go has reached Tell es-Safi/Gath!
Here’s a screen shot – courtesy of Debby Tabacinic:
…read more
By arenmaeir Today in pottery reading a great find popped up from Area A – a portion of a head-shaped vessel! A beautifully made nose, mouth, left cheek and hints to other parts are preserved.
Due to the relatively small size, it most probably is a vessel – and not a mask (such …read more
By arenmaeir This is the last week of the 2016 season at Tell es-Safi/Gath. As mentioned previously, the season up until now has been very successful – and I hope this will continue in this week as well. Hard to believe how quickly the weeks go by…
Promise to update on any developments …read more
By Scot McKnight Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son …read more
By ferrelljenkins Tell es-Safi/Gath. Prof. Aren Maeir continues to report almost daily about progress in the excavation at Tell es-Safi/Gath. Staff and volunteers are working in at least five areas and Maeir continues to give a brief summary of finds of the dig with multiple photos here. The photos are not labeled, …read more
By James E. Snapp, Jr. It is sometimes claimed by apologists who dabble in New Testament textual criticism that textual variants do not have an impact on Christian doctrine. They should abandon that claim, and instead state that no basic Christian doctrine depends on any single text-critical contest, with the exception of the doctrine …read more
By Kim Fabricius Brexit: well, so much for plebis*ites.“What the fuck just happened?” exclaimed one observer. “Inept, embarrassing, horrible, clueless,” said another. And a third: “It’s a sad time to be English.” But were they speaking about losing to Iceland – or to Brexit?So The Three Stooges (Boris, Michael, and Nigel) and have …read more
By Stephen Bedard Here are some leadership posts that I came across this week. Go and check them out.
8 Church Member Who Made Me Mad… But Who Taught Me Something – Chuck Lawless
5 Ways to Deal With Jackholiness – Dan Rockwell
When Plans Get Interrupted, What Should You Do? – Charles Stone
Eight Mistakes Churches …read more
By Mark Hoffman There’s an app for that! AugsburgFortress now has Luther’s Small Catechism / El Catecismo Menor de Lutero available as an app for both Android and iOS. It includes the updated translation, and the app offers the choice of either English or Spanish. It’s a simple app and attractively presented. …read more
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By Ken Schenck Today I begin a stretch of posts on church management.Since my theology in bullet points series is now done, I’m shifting my “Seminary in a Nutshell” series to Sundays, a series I’ve been working on now for about seven months. First I did a section on the Person and Calling …read more
By Mythicist Milwaukee Gateway to Reason 2016 is happening! Thomas True joins us to discuss the second installment of the Gateway to Reason conference that is taking place in St. Louis, MO on August 12-14, 2016. This three day event will be hosting nationally known secular names such as David Silverman, Dr. Darrel …read more
By Scot McKnight By Dave Moore Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians! Chris Armstrong is a historian who serves as the founding director of Opus: The Art of Work, an institute on faith and vocation at Wheaton College. The following interview centers around Armstrong’s terrific new book, Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians: Finding Authentic …read more
By Eerdmans We’ve got some pretty good books coming out these days — and you don’t have to take our word for it. In our “Blurb of the Week” posts — and all week on the EerdBlurbs Tumblr — we share the really nice things other people are saying about Eerdmans books.
* …read more
By Stephen Bedard It takes much more than an excitement or appreciation about apologetics to be a good apologist. You can have read dozens of apologetics books and have listened to all the best podcasts and still be ineffective as an apologist.
Here are four Rs that can get you started on the road …read more
By Craig Keener After violent attacks by Islamic extremists, stupid people want to blame all Muslims—alienating more Muslims and polarizing things further; and some people who are even more stupid want to blame all religious people, thereby further marginalizing all peace-loving believers as if Islamist radicals and secular radicals are the only voices …read more
By Scot McKnight Capi Lynn: SALEM, Ore. — A mystery philanthropist has been spreading cheer one $100 bill at a time for more than three years in and around Salem, Ore. He randomly hides the bills to be found at stores, markets, fairs and festivals, surprising and delighting unsuspecting shoppers and patrons. When …read more
By adversusapologetica Since I will be comparing the NT Gospels to the genre of Greek popular-novelistic biography in my Ph.D. dissertation, a major component of this project will be identifying the features and characteristics of “popular literature.” Fortunately, a new academic book on Greco-Roman biography just came out this year (published just …read more
By Bill Heroman I usually prefer to think of narrative as narration, which is to say, a representation of temporality, as a stream of consciousness (‘focalization’) fixed upon some perceived sequence of dynamic change(s). Defining “narrative” leads many scholars to emphasize other aspects of discourse, such as talking, telling, purporting, claiming, fabricating, and …read more
By Danny Zacharias Articles in TynBul 67.1 (May 2016) Jul 14th 2016, 15:25, by noreply@blogger.com (Tyndale Member) p.1An Unpublished Fragment of Deuteronomy: Chester Beatty Papyrus VI, Folio 105, Fragment 2, Recto An Unpublished Fragment of Deuteronomy: …read more
By Scot McKnight Denmark leads the way: [Officers] Link and Aarslev are crime prevention officers. They usually deal with locals who are drawn to right-wing extremism, or gangs. The landscape of global terrorism was completely new to them. But they decided to take it on. And once they did, they wound up creating …read more
By James Crossley Sects and Broad Churches
Part of my interests in the history of modern English political discourses and constructions of what the Bible, Christianity and religion are deemed to be, has involved the use of the derogatory label of ‘sect’ and ‘cult’ to describe an unwelcome variant of a political movement. The …read more
By James Crossley Sects and Broad Churches
Part of my interests in the history of modern English political discourses and constructions of what the Bible, Christianity and religion are deemed to be, has involved the use of the derogatory label of ‘sect’ and ‘cult’ to describe an unwelcome variant of a political movement. The …read more
By Bob MacDonald The words of Job are complete. (He will say a few more in 10 chapters.) This chapter I find has a number of difficulties. At times it seems incoherent to me but a few guesses with helping verbs seems to have helped.
Verses 1-12 are about the first need for intercessors, …read more
By arenmaeir Today, Friday, July 15, 2016, was the last day of week three of the 2016 season – and the end of a great week in general. Last night we had the end-of-the-week party – and we said goodbye to quite a few team members who leave Israel this weekend. Thanks …read more
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By Scot McKnight Northern Seminary is pleased to announce that the Apprentice Institute and faculty of Northern Seminary have partnered to deliver a Doctor of Ministry in Transformative Discipleship. This program is intentionally designed for Christian leaders who desire a deep experience in personal discipleship while simultaneously growing in the capacity to bring …read more
By Eerdmans Welcome once again to Eerdmans All Over, a Friday roundup of all the Eerdmans-related news, reviews, interviews, and other interesting online content we can gather in a given week.
News from Eerdmans . . .
Yesterday we announced the new series editors for the Two Horizons New Testament Commentary: Robert W. Wall …read more
By Stephen Bedard This is a heartbreaking time that we live in. We live in a world where we can watch a black man killed by a police officer live on the internet. We live in a world where people respond to injustice by killing innocent police officers who are only trying to …read more
By Steve Bricker Resurrection of the Flesh by Luca SignorelliBut we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will …read more
By Scot McKnight By Tim Suttle “Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of …read more
By Todd Scacewater This volume came out at the same time as, and as a good complementary volume to the Bloomsbury Companion to Lexicography. Although there is not much overlap in the content, they are two important fields in linguistics (or in lexicography’s case, a field associated with linguistics) that those of us …read more
By Roger Pearse Where have all the atheist forums (sic) gone?
I was reading Twitter earlier this evening, and did a search on “atheism”. I found some stale jeering, a few self-important or foolish tweets; and a mass of muslim propaganda. If ever I saw an area dying for lack of participants, it …read more
By Eerdmans Eerdmans is pleased to announce the appointment of Robert W. Wall and Stephen E. Fowl as the new general editors for its acclaimed Two Horizons New Testament Commentary (THNTC) series.
Robert W. WallRobert Wall is Paul T. Walls Professor of Scripture and Wesleyan Studies at Seattle Pacific University; Stephen Fowl is …read more
By arenmaeir Another really nice day for a great team! Although we were not as many people as in the previous two days, things moved along really nice in all areas!
Area A: Louise and her team had a good day with a slew of Iron IIA vessels from the 9th cent BCE …read more
By Stephen Bedard In 2 Kings 21:1-18, Manasseh is portrayed as a purely wicked king of Judah. In 2 Chronicles 33, Manasseh is also described as a bad king but with the added detail of his repentance.
Read my post on What is the Difference Between Samuel/Kings and Chronicles?
Wouldn’t it be great to have …read more
By René Salm In the prior post I noted with surprise that “the Gospel of Marcion (as reconstructed by Harnack, Knox, and Klinghardt) does not in any way represent Marcion’s own theology!” The question thus naturally arises: How could Marcion have promoted/published a gospel which stridently and categorically contradicts his views? Of course, …read more
By David B. Capes On my summer reading list is a new book by Darrell Bock and Benjamin Simpson, both faculty members at Dallas Theological Seminary. The title of the book is Jesus the God-Man: The Unity and Diversity of the Gospel Portrayals (Baker Academic, 2016). Bock and Simpson treat the Gospels …read more
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By Scot McKnight Source: Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings (D) stood next to Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) and dropped an extremely uncomfortable reality check: Open Carry, the movement pushed with near-fanatical obsession by Texas Republicans, not only did nothing to help stop the mass shooting of police officers in Dallas, but it actually …read more
By david Peter Gurry reflects on the “logical impossibility” criterion that feeds into the Editio Critica Maior‘s account of “variants”:
The Editio Critica Maior defines a “variant” as a reading that is both “grammatically correct and logically possible.” If it doesn’t meet these two criteria it is marked with an f for Fehler …read more
By Biblical Archaeology Society Staff This Roman theater played an important role in the riot at Ephesus against Paul and the early Christians, according to Luke’s account in Acts 19. Photo: Jordan Pickett.In Acts 19, Luke describes a frenzied riot at Ephesus, a city in the Roman province of Asia in modern-day Turkey:
About that time …read more
By Ken Schenck A third excerpt__________________After Wynne died, Thomas quickly joined the group that worked with Francis West. West had arrived in Jamestown on the same ship as Captain Wynne and Thomas, so they knew each other and had even worked together when they went to the Monacans.In the summer of 1609, Smith …read more