A couple of days ago I blogged on a multi-view book called Four Views on the Apostle Paul (ed. Mike Bird). Now, I would like to make mention of another recent book entitled Biblical Hermeneutics: Five Views (ed. Stan Porter and Beth Stovell). Now, while these books came out around the same time, not only are they in different series, but also by different publishers! Apostle Paul is a Zondervan title. Biblical Hermeneutics is an IVP title. OK, now on to the substance of the... Read more

In my OT and NT intro courses, I do a couple of lectures on basic hermeneutics, especially the matter of why Christians have a hard time figuring out why we obey some commands, but not others. As an opener for this subject, I usually make mention of A.J. Jacobs’ book, A Year of Living Biblically, which chronicles Jacobs attempt to obey all the hundreds of commands in the Bible. As he well notes, it is impossible. The more important question is – is it... Read more

Perhaps one of the most hotly anticipated NT academic book releases of 2012 is the Zondervan Counterpoints volume Four Views on the Apostle Paul edited by Stan Gundry and Mike Bird. If you are not familiar with how this series works, a handful of specialists give their approach to a subject and the other contributors take turns responding. In this book, here are the four views Thomas Schreiner (“A Reformed Reading”) – Conservative evangelical Pauline scholar Tom Schreiner offers a classic,... Read more

One of the challenges for those of us who teach introductory Bible classes is breaking down the problematic ways that our students read the Bible and teaching them to approach “reading” with a strategy. We want our students to be “active” readers and “competent” readers – that is no small task! I recently ran across a handout from the University of Michigan School of Information about “How to Read a Book.” It is simple, clear, and useful. Much of what they suggest... Read more

For the past several years, I have attended the friday night session of the Institute for Biblical Research which meets as an affiliate with SBL during the annual meeting. Recently, IBR launched research groups. Creig Marlowe (OT) and I co-chair a group focused on the topic: “The Relationship Between the OT and the NT.” Last year we met and discussed numerous topics in need of further research, but when it came time to vote on the most interesting subject, this... Read more

It is an honor for me to serve as associate editor for the Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters (with Mike Bird as head honcho) and I am enjoying my experience very much.  We have a great (ever expanding) editorial board – check it out. The 2.1 issue recently came out and I wanted to make mention of it. It is on the short end with only four articles. This is not ideal, but I came to learn quickly... Read more

Hello hello! Now that the fall semester is nearly upon us, it is time for me to return to blogging. Without going into detail, let me say that it has been a very long and very challenging summer, but I am excited about this school year and eager to get into the classroom.  By the way, for those of you who are unaware, I moved this summer from Seattle to Philadelphia – I will be teaching as assistant professor this... Read more

I have been on a blogging hiatus because I am in the middle of a cross-country move from Seattle to Philadelphia (we have driven 40+ miles already, 10-15 more to go!). I won’t be posting regularly until the end of July, but I wanted to check in and make mention of the latest issue of the South African journal, Neotestamentica (46.1 2012). Lots of good stuff in this issue. It also includes my article on Romans 1, if you are interested.... Read more

NT scholar M. Eugene Boring (Brite Divinity School) has written a NT Introduction (coming Oct 2012, WJK). He is well-known for work on the Gospel of Mark and Revelation. Apparently it will be a hefty volume (700+ pages). I am still on the lookout for a good introductory textbook so — fingers crossed! Read more

I love Currents in Biblical Research and the new 10.3 issue has a couple of interesting articles, one on the reception of the Gospel of John in the second century. Check it out. Read more