David Capes, Rodney Reeves, and Randy Richards have teamed up again to write a book about Jesus for students. Rediscovering Jesus is unique in that it looks at, not only the Jesus of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul and the other NT writers, but they also dedicate chapters to other portraits of Jesus: Gnostic, Muslim, historical Jesus scholarship, Mormon, “American,” and “Cinematic.” This textbook actually inspires me to want to teach a course on Jesus in biblical and cultural interpretation! This... Read more

I am reading The Book of Pastoral Rule by Gregory the Great for the first time now as part of my research for a book on Paul and pastoral ministry. I was blown away by the relevance for today of his instruction – even words from the first two pages! Pastors, read this (I am preaching to myself as well): …there are many who through the temptation of authority in the holy Church aspire to the glory of honor. They want... Read more

Just got my copy of Reading Roman in Context in the mail. This is a well-designed new textbook that puts Romans in context and conversation with several second temple Jewish texts. Three things you should know about it. #1: It has several contributors, many of whom were my fellow PhD students at Durham. It is nice to get the perspectives, interests, and writing styles of each of these contributors. #2: It is short enough to work very well as a supplemental textbook... Read more

If you read this blog with some regularity, you know that I like to read and review books. I review (announce, note, book-author interviews, etc.) about 40-50 books a year here, and another 5-10 for print journals. I am always appreciative to have a free copy from the publishers of these books. I am old-fashioned in the sense that I like to have a hard copy to put on my shelf and I mark-up my books pretty heavily. I have... Read more

Yup, it’s true, Logos is giving away Mikeal Parsons’ excellent Acts commentary in the Paideia series. I pity the fool who misses this amazing deal!  Read more

In the latest issue of Theology journal, Richard Briggs offers a poignant reflection on teaching Scripture to ordinands and seminarians (“New Directions in Teaching Scripture to those Training for Ministry,” 118.4 2015). Firstly, he notes that many Bible professors are much more interested in their own hobby horses and working in traditional academic categories than they are deeply reflecting on what formational and vocational needs should be prioritized for seminarians. In his own words, he says that he has a troubling sense that... Read more

Fascinating video here from the Veritas Forum, a dialogue between NT Wright and Entrepreneur Peter Thiel about technology, history, progress, the future, religion and science/technology, and so forth. Perhaps what impressed me most was how well read both these speakers are on many topics beyond their “specialty.” I wonder who would win at Trivial Pursuit, or Jeopardy? If you don’t know who Peter Thiel is (I didn’t until I googled him), have a look at his Wikipedia page. He is... Read more

Many books I read are just fine. Some are good. A few are outstanding. David deSilva’s latest offering, Day of Atonement, is in a league of its own. The subtitle is: A Novel of the Maccabean Revolt (Kregel, 2015). This is a work of historical fiction that places the reader in the world of early Judaism with a specialist interest in Hellenization and the negotiation of Jews in the Greek and Roman world. I read fiction from time to time... Read more

Dr. George Guthrie recently published a commentary on 2 Corinthians for the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament series (Baker, 2015). It is an excellent commentary, well-researched, articulately written, and deeply theological. Guthrie did me the honor of answering some questions about 2 Corinthians and his research. NKG: Aside from Galatians, there is no other letter of Paul where “opponents” seem so heavily to blame for the problems in the church. How do you understand who these troublemakers are? GHG: Broadly... Read more

E.P. Sanders was one of the most influential scholars in the late 20th century to contribute to the study of Paul and his Jewish environment, not to mention his many works on Jesus and Judaism. Someone recently posted on Facebook the news that Sanders has a new book on Paul coming this fall, Paul: The Apostle’s Life, Letters, and Thought (Fortress). According to the Amazon page, it will be a whopping 600+ pages! Below is the basic information listed about the... Read more