By Living Waters

This morning I awoke to yet another installment from one of the Biblical studies discussion groups to which I subscribe. Seldom do I have the time or interest to following the discussions these days. But around Easter time people tend to submit thoughts or items that for many reasons interest me. This morning I was directed to an essay by Dr. John Dickson, the director of the Centre for Public Christianity and an honorary associate of the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University. In his essay, “Facts and friction of Easter,” Dickson writes of the extremes his finds between skeptics, accommodationists and apologists when it comes to the resurrection of Jesus. Much of what he writes is fair enough. But here’s an excerpt that contains some thoughts that I believe are vulnerable and worth pondering. (more…)

Don Garlington provides a healthy review and corrective to the fearful and triumphalist promotion of John Piper’s latest contribution to Reformed and Evangelical factionalism, The Future of Justification.

“The hardest task confronting any New Testament scholar is to come up with an idea or an argument that is at the same time fresh, interesting, and not too far-fetched.”
–John Aston, The Religion of Paul the Apostle (New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 2000) 244.

Of course, this applies all the more to postgraduates.

I was granted faith in Jesus Christ in late-1987, at the ripe old age of twenty. I was attending Utah State University at the time, majoring in Music. After coming to faith, my interests migrated and I changed my major to Philosophy. Several philosophy courses contained segments critical of the Bible, especially of the New Testament. One term I enrolled in the course, “The History and Thought of the New Testament” — which was neither. The lecturer was a deviant Presbyterian minister who’s education was a bit out of date. He tried hard to dissuade students of any confidence in the New Testament gospels.

What he didn’t know, at least at first, was that I had become acquainted with Dr. Craig L. Blomberg, now Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary. Not only that, I had acquired a copy of Craig’s book, The Historical Reliability of the Gospels (first edition). These were the days before email and low-priced long distance phone calls. Nevertheless, I began speaking with Craig about numerous issues. He was eminently helpful and always available. I read his book (or portions thereof) so many times that I eventually had to replace it. Then I had to replace it again. Now I’m very pleased to note that a second edition has been published. I highly recommend this book: The Historical Reliability of the Gospels. (If you buy a copy from Amazon, make sure it is the second edition!)

Later I was to make my way to Colorado, begin working with Summit Ministries, and eventually pursue an M.A. I took many courses on many subjects at different schools. I only took two courses with Craig, however. He is highly sought after at Denver Seminary. What I did enjoy, however, were our regular conversations and correspondence. I also enjoyed a fantastic independent study with Craig, one in which I first floated my peculiar reading of Romans 1:18ff. (No, Craig was not persuaded by my thesis, though he felt there was enough traction for it to be pursued. I’m pursuing it!)

Craig is an inspiration to younger wanna-be evangelical scholars. I cannot thank you enough, Craig!

While at the British New Testament Conference I participated in a number of seminars focused on interpreting the New Testament in light of the literature of Second Temple Judaism. One presentation discussed positive and negative forms of “the golden rule”: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It was noted that most often the rule appears in a negative form: don’t to to others what you would not like them to do to you.

Some have proposed that the negative form is more limited since it merely discourages doing harm to others rather than doing service for them. As such, the negative version may lend itself to a more restrictive application (e.g., “hey, I didn’t hurt anyone”). Others have proposed that the two forms imply each other. I could see the positive formulation implying the negative, though the obverse is more difficult to manage (it seems to me). (more…)

I’ve been waiting some time for this. Anyone who knows me, knows that I can hardly read anything without a pencil in my hand. Finally, a wide-margin Greek New Testament. It retails at $59.95, though Amazon is selling it (pre-order) for $40.77. Here’s the blurb from Hendrickson Publishers:

The leading edition of the text of the New Testament, this scholarly edition is designed for extensive research, textual criticism, and other academic studies.

In keeping with the goals of serious and advanced New Testament scholars, the revised critical apparatus shows a nearly exhaustive list of variants but includes only the most significant witnesses for each variant. The Greek text has paragraph and section breaks. Cross-references in the margins are extensive and include synoptic parallels. Five appendices offer in-depth information for further understanding of passages.

The introduction appears in both English and German. Text, notes, and critical apparatus appear in a clear font throughout the volume.

Larger in size but priced lower than the large print edition, this user-friendly edition gives professors and students the opportunity to make notes in their Bible as they translate the New Testament.

I wish the Hendrickson site had a sample page or two so we’d could see the font size of the text, its relative clarity, and the proportionality of the text to the margins. Regardless, I’m sure it will be helpful.

On May 3rd I was treated to a wonderful evening in honor of Professor C.K. Barrett’s 90th birthday. The reception was a treat, as we browsed by and chatted with a number of great New Testament scholars, as well as a host of energetic and very promising postgraduate students. A highlight of the evening was the keynote paper by Professor Morna D. Hooker. Her text was 2 Corinthians 5:21. The title of her paper was, “On Being the Righteousness of God.” With her express permission, the audio of her lecture is available online here (password: letusin). (The file is unedited, so there may be some popping or silent spots, etc.) Following her presentation you will hear interactions from such people as C.K. Barrett, Walter Moberly, N.T. Wright, James Dunn and John Barclay.

Biblical Training has just added an Introduction to the New Testament course by Professor Craig Blomberg (Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary). The course is in mp3 format. Certainly worth downloading and putting on your iPod (or other mp3 player) to listen to whenever possible. I highly recommend Blomberg’s books (though I would quibble with him here and there). I cut my Christian teeth on his excellent, The Historical Reliability of the Gospels. And while I’d quibble a bit with it as well, might I recommend Blomberg’s thought-provoking essay, “The New Testament Definition of Heresy (Or, When Do Jesus and the Apostles Get Really Mad?)” (pdf download).