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

Q. Why is genre so critical to understanding the meaning of texts in the OT? Does a genre mistake necessarily lead to a mistake about meaning of a particular passage? A. Old Testament texts like all literary productions are written by authors who are communicating a message to an audience (this of course needs nuancing, but still is an adequately true statement). Authors send signals to audiences as to how to take their words. These signals constitute what we call... Read more

Here, and in subsequent posts is a running dialogue between me and Tremper Longman. As you will see, his book prompts excellent reflection and pondering. Enjoy. BW3 —- Q. OT scholars have a much more difficult task than NT scholars, in my judgment, in getting at the meaning of OT texts, and the process by which they came to be formed, sometimes over many years and even centuries. In your dealing with the OT how important is it to try... Read more

Tremper Longman, Confronting Old Testament Controversies. Pressing Questions about Evolution, Sexuality, History and Violence, (Baker, 2019) 304 pages. $19.99. Tremper Longman has written a helpful and important study about some of the most difficult issues the OT raises for Christians. As the subtitle suggests, he will take on the evolution vs. creation debate, the historicity of things like the Fall, the Exodus and the Conquest, the issue of divine violence, and lastly the issue of homosexuality. This is in many... Read more

I’m very pleased to announce you can now order my latest historical novella— Priscilla: An Early Christian Life, which is only $14.00 on Amazon. It chronicles the whole story of early Christianity from 30-95 A.D. through the eyes of someone who was there for much of it. Paul’s co-worker, Priscilla. Enjoy!! Here’s the link….. https://www.amazon.com/Priscilla-Christian-Ben-Witherington-III/dp/0830852484/ref=sr_1_1?crid=V8PT21C4OYND&keywords=priscilla+the+life+of+an+early+christian&qid=155431 Read more