My grandfather was many things. A devout Christian, a Baptist Sunday school teacher, a 32nd order Mason, really a Shriner, the fire chief of the fire department in Wilmington N.C. To me, he was larger than life, and I loved him. He’s the one who would give me a paper grocery bag and tell me to go into the backyard and climb the pecan tree, and then bring him some pecans. And then he and my mother taught me how... Read more
We live in an age where people are desperately looking for connection with each other. Texting, tweeting, instant messaging, Facebook posting, Tiktoking and so much more. The problem is, virtual communication is a pale shadow of real in person communication. You are more easily fooled or foiled or scammed in the virtual world. Consider for a minute some of the dating apps, where people put out their best features and pictures, if they are honest, or make up a resume... Read more
The following is a wise blog post by one of my former students, and a very fine minister— Randy Saultz, used by permission. —- At certain moments of my lifetime, it seems that I have been surrounded by a group of people in the church that are sometimes labeled as “dispensationalists.” Honestly, I forget about them sometimes. And then, Russia makes its way into the news or someone mentions the Middle East or the Moon turns red and they start... Read more
LENTEN LEXICON It’s not the blood lines Or the age lines That define the man It’s the thought lines And the taught lines That refine the man It’s not the clothes Or the shows That finally make the man It’s the devotion And emotion That reveal just who I am I’m not a product once assembled Or a willow in some gale I’m the writer who listens To the Author of our tale —- ... Read more
Back in 1977 B.C. (by which I mean before computer and before cellphone), when I was doing my doctoral dissertation at Durham on ‘Women in the NT’, there were precious few monographs of any depth or quality on this subject. So much was that the case, that Cambridge decided, in an unprecedented move to publish my dissertation in their SNTS monograph series in two different volumes, one on Women in the Ministry of Jesus, one on Women in the Earliest... Read more
With the increased interest in intertextuality issues has also come increased interest in the LXX and other Old Greek versions of the OT, and rightly so. But finding good tools for scholars and students to use to study this remarkable Greek translation of the OT has been difficult. On the one hand, the Greek of the LXX is not identical with the Greek of the NT, not least because of all the extra vocabulary in the LXX. And while one... Read more
F. Goodyear has much of relevance to say about Quintilian in his essay in The Early Principate (pp. 178ff.) in a short number pages. The extravagance and hyperbole that characterized Nero’s time, gave way to a more sober approach to both governing and rhetoric. Quintilian in any case preferred the more classic approach of Cicero, and so he did not attempt any major revisions of rhetorical theory. But it was not just more careful following of rhetorical rules, it was... Read more
Writing in the last third of the first century AD., Quintilian took the trouble to sum up the essence and scope of both Greek and Latin rhetoric, providing posterity with an invaluable handbook, the Institutions of Oration. He was born a little after the time of Jesus’ death in the 30s, and he died somewhere around 96 A.D. Though born in northern Spain, it appears his main education came in Rome from the then famous rhetor–Domitius Afer. He practice law in... Read more
To end on a happy note, here we see images of a Samaritan wedding, and part of the chuppah under wish it would take place in Nablus or perhaps even up on Mt. Gerizim. Read more
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