While Christians traditionally associate the Edenic serpent with Satan or a demonic character, many OT scholars have pointed out that this comes from later interpretation and fits only awkwardly in the narrative of Genesis 3. Some have pointed out that it would be at cross-purposes with the trajectory of the narrative to have evil-personified already in the garden even before the first human sin. So, some OT scholars simply argue that the serpent has no ill-will or evil motive. While... Read more

It is an unfortunate commonplace in classrooms of seminaries and Christian colleges to hear that Matthew improved and corrected the ugly and unintelligent Greek of Mark. As a teacher of Greek, while it is true that Mark seems to deviate from what we artificially consider the “standard” rules of Koine Greek, it is a bit simplistic to pretend that we can label Mark’s education level by his Gospel. For example, I have heard Greek teachers say that, unlike English, in... Read more

Today, Thursday, is the one day of the week I do not teach. So, it is called my “sanity day.” I get a chance to work on some conference papers and articles, and even (hopefully) to do some blogging. So here I am. And, an added bonus, there was a large package from Eerdmans today. What could it be? Was it several books? It was J. Ramsey-Michaels’ NICNT on the Gospel of John. As some of you know, I will... Read more

I will be requiring students to read 2 articles related to the Pistis Christou debate for my Philippians exegesis course. I know of many, many articles and essays on this subject. I am looking for suggestions of short texts (articles/essays/book chapters) that (1) help summarize the debate and (2) together represent more than one idiosyncratic perspective. I checked out the recent CBR article on the subject, but it was too advanced for my exegesis students who are probably engaging in... Read more

This question is often asked by my students. Often, it is not about “method,” though they learn that. It is a practical question about how they should choose which parts of the Bible to read, in what order, and in what depth. Do you read through the Bible in one year? Why? Others advocate reading the Bible more slowly and studying one book of Scripture a month. That is all fine, but how do we KNOW how to approach reading... Read more

The fall quarter at SPU is just about upon us. On Tuesday, my grad course on Philippians begins. Each week, students will read 1-2 articles on Philippians. I have chosen a good number already, but I am very open to suggestions regarding which articles and/or seminal essays my students should read. These are students largely going into ministry, so nothing too esoteric. However, they do know Greek and are eager to learn historical, literary, social, and theological issues. I will get... Read more

I absolutely love CBR, as it has such excellent scholarship and offers useful information on a number of topics for the busy scholar. This issue (Oct 2010), we have articles on pistis Christou, the letter to Titus, the relationship between individual and community in Paul, and the meaning of Ioudaios (among other articles). Check it out! Read more

May I commend to you a new book by my SPU colleague Brian Bantum called Redeeming Mulatto: A Theology of Race and Christian Hybridity? This is the book description: The theological attempts to understand Christ’s body have either focused on “philosophical” claims about Jesus’ identity or on “contextual” rebuttals—on a culturally transcendent, disembodied Jesus of the creeds or on a Jesus of color who rescues and saves a particular people because of embodied particularity. But neither of these two attempts... Read more

So, I do Powerpoint – it has become the academic standard for how to keep students and auditors “engaged” and to inform and inspire in ways that appeal from a visual/audio standpoint. Fair enough. How can we “kick it up a notch”? How can we spice it up even further? Look no further-  introducing Prezi – the next big thing in presentation software. And – the most important part – its free! At some seminars for SPU that I attended... Read more

I was pleased to discover recently that my colleague at SPU Jack Levison is editing a new book series with Walter de Gruyter called Ekstasis: Religious Experience from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Their editorial crew is impressive: David Aune, John Collins, and Chris Rowland are on board (alongside several other goo scholars). For more info see here. If your research or conference fits their subject description, do consider publishing with them. I had a good experience with WdG overall... Read more