Ridley College has put together a great on-line unit for lay people about apologetics featuring speakers like John Lennox, Tom Wright, John Dickson, and Simon Smart. It is part of the Ridley Certificate which is a program designed for Christians and Study Groups to get together to cover materials to strengthen them and encourage them in their faith. It is only $95 Aussie Dollars (so about $80 American Dollars) and for that you get six sessions with a quiz afterwards.... Read more

My Ridley Colleague Andrew Malone has written a book called Knowing Jesus in the Old Testament? A Fresh Look at Christophanies (Nottingham, UK: IVP, 2015). Note how the book begins:   Irrespective, its a great little discussion about the meaning of so-called “Christophanies” in the OT. So much so that I wrote this blurb for the book: Who is the “Angel of the Lord”? Is it God, Jesus, or Michael? Thankfully Andrew Malone engages in a careful study of these disputed “christophany”... Read more

Here are the articles for the latest issue of the Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters 4.2 (2014). Now edited by Stanley E. Porter and Christopher D. Land. Editors’ Foreword Stanley E. Porter Christ as Creator: Implications for Ecotheological Readings of Paul J.J. Johnson Leese Letter Carriers and Paul’s Use of Scripture Matthew S. Harmon Psalm 16:10 and the Resurrection of Jesus “on the Third Day” (1 Corinthians 15:4) John C. Poirier Reconsidering Beliar: 2 Corinthians 6:15 in Its... Read more

Just got my copy of Scot McKnight’s  A Fellowship of Differents: Showing the World God’s Design for Life Together. A great piece by Scot on the nature of the church and what it means to really “be” the church. Great mix of biblical exposition, theological reflection, biting exhortation, and memorable illustrations. The chapters on “The Table of Connection” and “A New Freedom” are worth the price of the book itself. Read more

Here is my lecture for Lincoln Christian University’s Las Vegas extension campus professorial lecture delivered in Las Vegas in November 2014. My thanks to Paul Trainor for posting it on-line. Read more

Moises Silva (ed.) New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis 5 vols.; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014. Available at Amazon.com When this behemoth landed on my doorstop I was little more excited than when I get most book packages. The  NIDNTTE is a terrific reference source for Greek words and their meanings. To give the story of the book: Lothar Coenen et al edited the Theologisches Begriffslexikon zum Neuen Testament which had been produced by German academics, then an English edition was... Read more

Jonathan A. Moo & Robert S. White Let Creation Rejoice: Biblica Hope and Ecological Crisis Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2014. Available at Amazon.com. I know that any talk about the environment can elicit a sway of responses ranging from a new age-esque earth worship to the other extreme of advocates for environmental vandalism. In this book, Moo and White bring sane mix of environmental science and exegetical discussion to help form a Christian view of creation and the future, or in other words,... Read more

Ernst Würthwein The Text of the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Biblia Hebraica. 3rd Edition. Revised and expanded by Alexander Achilles Fischer. Translated by Erroll F. Rhodes. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014. 363 pages. Available at Amazon.com. By Jill Firth Würthwein’s classic Der Text des Alten Testaments was first published in 1952, and the fifth German edition was in 1988. Professor Würthwein died in 1996, and Professor Alexander Achilles Fischer undertook a complete rewriting of the text in 2009, to... Read more

Richard J. Bautch and J. Todd Hibbard (eds) The Book of Isaiah: Enduring Questions Answered Anew. Essays Honouring Joseph Blenkinsopp and his Contribution to the Study of Isaiah. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2014. 234 pages. Available at Amazon.com Joseph Blenkinsopp is the John A. O’Brien Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at Notre Dame. While he has been based at Notre Dame since 1970, he has lectured widely and has been President of the Catholic Biblical Association (1988-1989), Guest-Professor at Pontifical... Read more

I was poking around on you.tube where I found some interviews with Harold Attridge (Yale Divinity School) on Romans. There is a whole series of them, but particularly relevant for my students this week, is the discussion on Romans 5. Good discussion on stuff like: Original sin, universalism, grace and law, usefulness of the word “Christian.”   Read more