what are biblical genealogies and what do they do? (guest series by Denis Lamoureux)

Last updated on: February 4, 2014 at 8:16 am By Peter Enns

Today we begin a 6-part audio-slide series by Denis Lamoureux on the always gripping, never boring, live-changing topic of all those “begats” in the Bible, a.k.a., biblical genealogies. Stop rolling your eyes. Actually, in my experience, genealogies–what they are and how they function in the Bible–is about as commonly misunderstood as any biblical genre. As Lamoureux puts it, “Most Christians assume that genealogies in the Bible are merely lists of related family members quite similar to genealogies today. However, in the ancient world the... Read more

a new book on what Christians today can learn about the Bible from people who have been dead for about 1500 years

Last updated on: February 5, 2014 at 10:15 am By Peter Enns

Today’s post is an interview with Michael Graves on his recent book, The Inspiration and Interpretation of Scripture: What the Early Church Can Teach Us. Graves (PhD, Hebrew Union College) is Armerding Chair of Biblical Studies and Associate Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, IL. Dr. Graves is the author of Jerome’s Hebrew Philology (2007), and produced the first English translation of St. Jerome’s Commentary on Jeremiah (2012). He is also the author of numerous articles on ancient Jewish and... Read more

Augustine and his figurative–and therefore not at all modern evangelical–view of the Bible

Last updated on: February 1, 2014 at 9:27 am By Peter Enns

EerdWord (Eerdman’s online author blog) just posted some thoughts by Michael Graves on “Augustine and the Inspiration of Scripture.” Graves, Armerding Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Wheaton College, just published with Eerdmans The Inspiration and Interpretation of Scripture: What the Early Church Can Teach Us. I feel this is an important book for a number of reasons, and I will post an interview with Graves on the book later in the week. The EerdWord post tees up the book nicely. Graves... Read more

can speech act theory rehabilitate inerrancy? (part 2 of Carlos Bovell’s review of The Lost World of Scripture)

Last updated on: January 31, 2014 at 8:20 am By Peter Enns

Today, Carlos Bovell continues his review of The Lost World of Scripture: Ancient Literary Culture and Biblical Authority by John H. Walton and D. Brent Sandy (part 1 is here). Bovell is a graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary and The Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto. He is the author of Inerrancy and the Spiritual Formation of Younger Evangelicals (2007), By Good and Necessary Consequence: A Preliminary Genealogy of Biblical Foundationalism (2009), an edited volume, Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Authority of Scripture (2011), and Rehabilitating Inerrancy in a Culture of... Read more

Bill Nye vs. Ken Ham: giving credibility to nonsense (or, walking into an apologetic war machine)

Last updated on: January 29, 2014 at 4:45 pm By Peter Enns

Bill Nye will be debating Ken Ham in a week’s time–inexplicably, on Ham’s home turf, where he controls the terms and the crowd. Nye is either going to get destroyed by Ken Ham or at least grow extremely frustrated with Ham’s tactics. I hope I’m wrong, but I’m not (unless I am, but we’ll need to wait and see). Nye seems to think he is walking into a debate of some sort over science, and that presenting the data will,... Read more

A Hope for Evangelicals and Civil Political Discourse (interview with Harold Heie)

Last updated on: January 29, 2014 at 7:46 am By Peter Enns

Today’s post is by Harold Heie, Senior Fellow at the Center for Faith and Inquiry at Gordon College (full bio here). He is the author of Learning to Listen, Ready to Talk: A Pilgrimage Toward Peacemaking,and his interest is in creating respectful conversations on the internet about difficult topics. Below is my interview with Harold Heie concerning his book, Evangelicals on Public Policy Issues: Sustaining a Respectful Political Conversation. What is your book all about? Six evangelical Christians who situate themselves at various points along the political spectrum... Read more

Review of The Lost World of Scripture (Walton and Sandy) by Carlos Bovell

Last updated on: January 31, 2014 at 8:05 am By Peter Enns

Today’s post is the first part of a book review by Carlos Bovell, who has been a guest here numerous times (most recently here). Carlos is a graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary and The Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto. He is the author of Inerrancy and the Spiritual Formation of Younger Evangelicals (2007), By Good and Necessary Consequence: A Preliminary Genealogy of Biblical Foundationalism (2009), an edited volume, Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Authority of Scripture (2011), and Rehabilitating Inerrancy in a Culture of Fear (2012). There’s a new book on... Read more

is Pete Enns a Marcionite?

Last updated on: January 18, 2014 at 6:41 am By Peter Enns

I’ve been hearing this question–a thinly veiled accusation–for quite a while now, and I find it utterly ridiculous and irresponsible. If my accusers would bother to do some research, like look into my birth records, they would see that I was born on this planet like everyone else–in Passaic, NJ, to be exact. This insinuated accusation assumes an inconceivably elaborate 24-esque terrorist conspiracy scheme involving forged birth records, which would require my German immigrant parents, who knew little English, to have deep... Read more

conservative Baptist leaders defend inerrancy at ETS: is this a parody?

Last updated on: January 11, 2014 at 8:40 am By Peter Enns

A couple of days ago, BRnow.org posted an article “Inerrancy ‘drift’ festers in Christian academia.” The piece reports on a panel discussion at the recent Evangelical Theological Society meeting in Baltimore featuring presidents from three Baptist school lamenting the failure of Evangelical institutions to maintain a strong view of inerrancy. There are many ways of articulating such a view, but the quotes as captured in this piece read like an inerrantist parody of itself–as if they are aiming to trammel out... Read more

3 biggest reasons why Bible reading is down

Last updated on: January 7, 2014 at 8:10 am By Peter Enns

Apparently, Bible reading is way down in churches, and Biblica has dug into finding out why. Here’s what I learned at the conference I attended last week sponsored by Biblica (see here). Bible reading is down because people read it in fragments, a-historically, in isolation. In fragments, meaning in the verse level rather than in large sections. A focus on verses not only encourages prooftexting but prevents readers from seeing the larger points of biblical works–whether we are talking about a letter like Romans, or... Read more