Okay, that time of year is upon us, biblical and theological studies conference season, mardi gras for the Minor Prophets, party time for Pauline studies, wonderland for Wisdom literature, and shindig for Synoptic Gospels. And this year it is in Denver! I’ve never been to Denver, Colorado. I’m looking forward to some scenic Rocky Mountain views, decent beer, visiting the Tim Teabow museum, and walking around a city that apparently smells like the office of a Rastafarian music teacher. Things to do: ETS... Read more

Thomas R. Schreiner is the James Harrison Buchanan Professor of New Testament Interpretation at SBTS in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. His 1998 commentary on Romans in the BECNT series was a sterling piece of exegetical work, one of the standouts of that series, and identified Schreiner as one of the leading evangelical Pauline scholars (see my post about Sain Tom “the Exegetete” Schreiner). However, Schreiner has produced a second edition of his Romans commentary, with far more than a few cosmetic changes,... Read more

I’m reading over Craig Keener’s Galatians (NCBC; Cambridge: CUP, 2018), trademark Keener, readable and suffused with historical descriptions, lots of great remarks on the background and theological significance of the letter. Rather liked Keener’s take on the “Israel of God” in Gal 6:16: Paul normally uses “Israel” to mean the Jewish people, but in at least one instance qualifies this label (Rom 9:6), and once he speaks of “Israel according to the flesh” (1 Cor 10:18). Calling anyone else Israel is not,... Read more

Philip Ziegler (Aberdeen University) is the author of Militant Grace: the Apocalyptic turn and the future of Christian theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2018). Here is my interview with him about his book. Hi Phil, it really looks like you are trying to indigenize Ernst Käsemann and J.L. Martyn into systematic theology. What do these two figures bring to theology which theologians need to take notice of?      What I have found so striking in Käsemann and Martyn’s work on Paul... Read more

As you might know, Craig Keener and I edit the New Covenant Commentary Series, well, Logos has just announced that their free book of the month is 2 Timothy and Titus by Aida Beascon Spencer, what is more, you can also get Nijay Gupta on 1-2 Thessalonians for 0.99 and Mike Bird on Colossians/Philemon for $1.99. That bargain is so epic it is unbelievable. Get Aida’s book for free, get Nijay’s very good Thess commentary for a buck, and splurge on... Read more

John Fea The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2018. Amazon.com By Rev. Dr. Rhys Bezzant With pert prose and a full mind, John Fea introduces us to the present political situation in the US, but does so in terms of its recapitulation of themes from American history generally, and American Christian history in particular. This is a fantastic book which draws out the themes of fear, power and nostalgia which are in evidence in Trump’s rhetoric... Read more

Over at Alan Garrow’s blog, he has a statement from Richard Bauckham on how he changed his mind about the Synoptic Problem and came to believe that Matthew used Luke, i.e. Matthean posteriority (simultaneously annoying Q and Farrer-Goulder theorists). To me Matthew’s use of Luke had the obvious advantage of avoiding what I found incredible in the Farrer hypothesis. Though Matthew’s compositional procedures, if he took the “Q” material from Luke, would involve often conflating Luke with Mark (in the way that... Read more