In his “Prologue to the New Testament,” William Tyndale movingly wrote: Euagelio (that we cal gospel) is a greke worde, and signyfyth good, mery, glad and joyfull tydings, that maketh a mannes hert glad, and maketh him synge, duance and leepe for ioye.[1] [1] Cited from Richard I. Deibert, Mark (Interp; Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox, 1999), 6. Read more

Over at TGC is the announcement that the 2013 TGC conference will be His Mission: Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. That is a great topic and one that I think anyone would be encouraged by hearing. The topics lined up to be spoken on look great. Colin Hansen introduces the rationale for the conference with these words: We may believe in our hearts that Jesus preached the gospel, but sometimes Christians confess with our mouths a message of the... Read more

A long time ago, even before the universe was made, there was the Word. The Word was right next to God, and everything that was true of God was also true of the Word. He was with God at the very genesis of the universe, from its very inception. And it was through him that the universe came into being, without him there would be literally nothing, rather than something like the universe. In him was an abundant life, and... Read more

Dr. Robert Yarbrough (Covenant Theological Seminary) gave a series of lectures on Adolf Schlatter in 1995. Those lectures are now available on-line (HT Jim West). For those who don’t know, Schlatter was one of the leading evangelical NT scholars in Germany in the early twentieth century. Out of all the biographies of NT scholars that I’ve read, I have to say, the one about Adolf Schlatter was by far the best! I look forward to listening to these lectures. Read more

My students and I are halfway through a week of mission at an Anglican Church in Brisbane (St. Stephen’s Cooparoo) and we learnt that this year marks the 350th annivesary of the Book of Common Prayer. There is a whole webpage dedicated to celebrating the event (here) and you can learn more about the BCP here and also read Gerald Bray’s brief intro. You might think that the BCP is just an “Anglican” thing. Not so! In F.F. Bruce’s autobiography, and... Read more

In reading Tom Wright’s How God Became King, I think I’ve found a great essay question for students in a Gospels class in one quote from the book: “The cross serves the goal of the kingdom, just as the kingdom is accomplished by Jesus’ victory on the cross.” Discuss! Any one want to give me an answer in 100 words?   Read more

My Tim Horton-loving, Ice Hockey-watching, Medicare-supporting, Tooney-carrying Canajan buddy Michael Pahl, is blogging again over at Rustlings in the Grass. With his first post a response to my piece on the Genre of the Gospels. Welcome back Michael, we missed you! Read more

Scot McKnight continues his review of The Apostle Paul: Four Views, this time including Mark Nanos’ view. McKnight concludes: The big issue of this whole discussion can be expressed as questions: Did the apostle Paul think all Jews had to believe Jesus was the Messiah to be saved, or to enter the kingdom of God, or the Age to Come? Did he think non-messianic Jews were just as saved as messianic Jews? Was historic Judaism sufficient or did one have to... Read more

Last week my M.Div students had to do a review of Eric Metaxas’ biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. While they loved the story, they hated the length! But it was also a great learning curve for most of them, completely ignorant they were of the state of the church in Germany during the War. Any ways, over at the Academia Church Blog, my friend Larry Garcia has a nice post on A Supper in Cell 92 with Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Read more

2012 marks the 50th anniversary of Prof. Geza Vermes’ English translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls (first made in 1962). There is an interview with Prof. Vermes on the BBC’s Heart and Soul with John McCarthy, which covers Vermes’ English translation of the DSS and his writings on the historical Jesus. You can listen to the interview on BBC iPlayer. I would contest nearly every point Vermes makes about the historical Jesus in the interview, even so, I am immensely grateful... Read more