The Advent season is a season of waiting, but our whole life is an Advent season, that is, a season of waiting for the last Advent, for the time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth. We can, and should also, celebrate Christmas despite the ruins around us…I think of you as you now sit together with the children and with all the Advent decorations- as in earlier years you did with us. We must do... Read more

Start saving up now! Tremper Longman has a commentary on Job coming in August (BCOT series) The Paideia series will put out two volumes soon- 1 Corinthians by Pheme Perkins and 1/2 Peter by Duane Watson and Terrance Callan. Craig Keener is going to publish a commentary on Acts in the summer. Oh yeah, it is 900 pages. And only the first volume. On Acts 1:1-4:30. I think if you buy the complete set in advance, it comes with a... Read more

This past 13 weeks, during the autumn quarter here at Seattle Pacific University, I had the honor of guiding our community through a study of Joshua and Judges. What a blessing that was! I learned so much and had some great interactions with commenters, students, staff, and faculty! Well, I am very exciting that my NT colleague Laura Sweat (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) will be the faculty guide for the winter quarter and we will be studying the Gospel of... Read more

A few years back Pope Benedict XVI had declared June 2008-June 2009 the “Year of St. Paul.” Well, 2012 will nearly rival that year in terms of interest in the enigmatic apostle! In May (2012) there will be a big meeting based on Romans 5-8 at Princeton Seminary. Also, St. Andrews (Scotland) will be hosting a conference on “Paul’s Letter to the Galatians & Christian Theology” (July 10-13, 2012). The keynote speakers at the St. Andrews conference include Richard Hays,... Read more

I am making good progress on my Colossians commentary – I am turning in 40,000 words to the editors by Dec 31  just on the introduction and chapter 1 of Colossians! It has been an exhausting delight! Anyway, one of the central issues of Colossians is Paul’s concern that the troublesome philosophy is putting people’s heads in the clouds, whereas Paul was trying to “ground” them deeper in Christ.( At some point soon I will do a series of posts... Read more

R. Barry Matlock and Grant Macaskill review and interact with Doug Campbell’s Deliverance of God in the Dec 2011 issue of JSNT (34.2). The titles are hilarious Matlock: “Zeal for Paul but Not According to Knowledge” Campbell: “An Attempt to be Understood” Oh the drama! Check it out.  Read more

Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMyTMTmJU6E. Read more

I was flipping through the IVP Spring 2012 catalog and saw these three forthcoming releases that look interesting Biblical Hermeneutics: Five Views (eds. S.E. Porter and B.M. Stovell) – the five views are -Historical-Critical/Grammatical (Craig Blomberg) -Redemptive-Historical (R. Gaffin) -Literary/Postmodern (F. Scott Spencer) -Canonical (R. W. Wall) Philosophical/Theological (Merold Westphal) This looks to be a fascinating engagement, but some of the names of the views are unfortunate (aren’t all of the views “Philosophical/Theological”; also I would assume Blomberg would designate his... Read more

When it comes to introductions to the Gospels, what comes to mind? Blomberg? Stanton? If you think about it, there isn’t a whole lot that professors have found eminently helpful for classroom use. I like Mark Allan Powell’s Fortress Introduction to the Gospels, but it is beginning to feel a bit old. You really don’t want anything too exhaustive, as it will bog the students down in critical literature and limit interaction directly with the text. I would commend to... Read more

It is not easy teaching an introductory course that covers the whole Bible. I do it and, while I love the opportunity to give our students a taste of how to study the Bible in life-enriching ways, it is difficult to find a good textbook. So, I grabbed a copy of John Drane’s new (second edition) Introducing the Bible (Fortress, 2011). Right away, I was blown away by how stunning it is visually – glossy cover, great full-color art, lots of... Read more