Q. In discussing Gen. 1-11 you choose the label theological history, by which, I take it, you do not mean theologized history (i.e. mundane history without divine involvement given a theological interpretation), nor do you mean historicized theology (by which is meant that basically the material is theology, perhaps with a historical veneer). Explain what you mean by theological history. A. The label theological history does not intend to undermine the idea that a narrative describes events that happen in… Read more

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Q. On p. 25 you say “When we interpret the Bible correctly it will never conflict with science if science is correctly interpreting nature.” Explain what you mean by that? A. This flows from the “two books” idea that we find in the Belgic Confession which itself articulates the truth that God speaks to us through his Word and through nature (based on Romans 1 and other teachings in Scripture). Both books require interpretation. The Bible is totally true in… Read more

Q. You use the two books metaphor to refer to the Bible and to nature, and what we can learn about God from each. I was reminded of 1 Kings 19, where we are told, that other than a general impression that there is an almighty God who created it all (so Rom. 1), you can’t discern God’s will from analyzing nature (tell that to the insurance companies that talk about acts of God when they mean natural disasters). 1… Read more

In the race to get those super hero movie bucks, D.C. lags far behind the huge Marvel comic franchise. But lately they’ve been doing better (see the Wonder Woman movie) and now we have Shazam, a very different sort of origins story about a 14 year old boy named Billy Batson who lost his Mom at the Fair, wanders around, meets a Wizard who is concerned about the unleashing of the seven deadly sins in the world, and adopts the… Read more

Q. You and I share a high view of Scripture and its truth content on subjects it intends to teach us about. Over many years of working on the OT, has your confidence grown or been more challenged in thinking the Bible is trustworthy and true? What does it mean to say the Bible is God’s Word, and God breathed (2 Tim. 3.16) a statement made specifically about the OT. A. Yes, I have been studying the Bible professionally for… Read more

Remember that Jesus said “Consider the birds of the air, they neither twitter nor tweet, and yet their heavenly Father gets their live feed” BW3 Read more

The baptism of our grandson… Elliot Arthur Witherington 4/7/19. Read more

Q. Dale Martin, also of Yale, in his recent book somewhat ironically called Biblical Truths says that we cannot get back to an ancient author’s intentions, for all we have is texts. As a historian who has spent no little time on artifacts, inscriptions etc. and archaeology this seems to me to be remarkably narrow-minded. We don’t just have ancient texts, we also have ancient contexts as well, or the remains of them. Martin seems to be reacting to Hirsch’s… Read more

Q. You talk about active readers and warn against reading one’s own meaning into an ancient text. What safeguards do you commend as a hedge against this sort of anachronism? A. There are probably more, but I will give you two. First, as we talked about in the previous question, we should read first as if it were an ancient text addressed to an ancient audience. But second, we need to read in community. The best guard against reading one’s… Read more