Over at his blog, Larry Hurtado has a great response to a claim made by the Bible Hunters program that the Gnostics were basically Christian “intellectuals.” The money quote has to be: There are modern equivalents to the ancient “gnostics,” people who go for the esoteric, who imagine themselves “special” in some way, such that, without the sort of academic training most of us think necessary, they can leap into some mystical “truths.”  Just go to the average bookshop and... Read more

Kirsten Powers and Justin Meritt wrote a piece in The Daily Beast about How Conservative Christians Selectively Apply Biblical Teachings in the Same-Sex Marriage Debate. The presenting issue is recent laws in Arizona which allow individuals and businesses the right to deny service to same-sex couples. The laws came into effect in order to protect photographers, florists, and cake-makers who can be sued for refusing to provide services to same-sex weddings. In contrast, Powers and Merritt claim “Christians wrestling with... Read more

I’ve always admitted that I’ve been more on the ball in the Jewish world than in the Greco-Roman world. I’ve got a fair grip on my OT, Apocrypha, OT Pseudepigrapha, Josephus, Philo, Dead Sea Scrolls, even read up on inscriptions. But reading scholars like David Aune, Stanley E. Porter, Abraham Malherbe, and Peter Oakes has always reminded me that it is important to get a grip on Greek and Roman stuff too. This was reinforced to me when I read... Read more

Good video by Mark Gignilliat from Beeson Divinity School about Seminary. It actually involves hard work! Amazing, who would have thought? Read more

Huzzah, today another academic year commences, another cohort of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed B.Th and M.Div students begins their academic journey here at Ridley Melbourne. I want to wish my new and continuing students a warm greetings from the blog and tell them how much I’m looking forward to our forthcoming lectures. Perhaps I’m nostalgic, but I love the beginning of the semester, the crisp sound of iPads opening and the sight of MacBook cords spread all over the class room. How I savour the mix... Read more

I’m heading to the great Northwest today, to Bellingham, WA. I’ll be hanging with the good folks at Logos Software for the week teaching a course on John’s Gospel for their Mobile Ed program.  It’s a really cool way to accesses excellent teaching resources. I’m really looking forward to it and thankful for the invitation, although I’ve got some anxiety about teaching to a camera for a week. But I’m coming, so let’s do this! Read more

I’ve been listening to Prof. John Barclay’s Galatians course offered a few years ago at Regent College. The audio of the course is available at Regent College audio. I strongly recommend the audio course! There are number of interesting and insightful discussions as one would expect from Barclay. One thing in particular was thought provoking. He notes that conceptions of grace in the Early Judaism of Paul varied considerably. I am aware that this is for him a current research... Read more

In light of two certain books about Jesus as God which are on the verge of being published, this little quote is quite interesting: If Jesus thought of himself as the decisive messenger of God’s kingdom and as mediator between God and Israel and if he used the expression “bar nasha” in that sense as a self-referential phrase, the application of other designations like “Messiah” or “Son of God,” as well as “high” Christology that speaks of Jesus as God’s... Read more

Over at the blog, Evangelical Calvinism, Bobby Grow posts one of the “theses” about Evangelical Calvinism set forth by him and Myk Habets, namely, a supralapsarian christology! Don’t get lost on the word, it means that God’s decree of Christ as Saviour is logically prior to God’s decree to permit the fall. Might sound speculative, but a whole lot rides on it. According to Grow/Habets: Evangelical Calvinists embrace the idea that who God is for us in Christ is grounded in... Read more

For those interested, the St. Andrews Eccelesia and Ethics II conference, focusing on the internet, will be held on the Saturdays of March 1st and 8th. Only costs a small donation to a charity of some kind to gain entrance. What is more, registrants will receive a 35% discount of any title published by T&T Clark! Here’s the line-up of speakers: Read more