Today I review chapters 7 and 8 of Timothy Michael Law‘s new book When God Spoke Greek: The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible. Law writes this book because: [M]y mother still asks what I do for a living, and my father knows but still gets tripped up on the final syllable of Sep-tu-a-gint. This … Continue reading When God Spoke Greek, a review mini-essay
It’s not uncommon for people to ask: why the Septuagint? (That comes right after: What is it?) Why bother with the Greek Septuagint when we have the Old Testament in Hebrew, in which it was first written? English translations of the Bible in most churches use the Hebrew text as a base, anyway. Before giving … Continue reading Why You Need the Septuagint
What was the world–or, better, what were the worlds–in which early Christians lived? Seven Events that Shaped the New Testament World answers that question by highlighting seven key “events” in the seven or so centuries surrounding Jesus. Here, from the table of contents, is what the book covers: 1. The Death of Alexander the Great … Continue reading Seven Events that Shaped the New Testament World, reviewed
This past week I’ve received some 50 entries in a giveaway contest for a study by Myrto Theocharous called Lexical Dependence and Intertextual Allusion in the Septuagint of the Twelve Prophets: Studies in Hosea, Amos and Micah. You can read more about the book here. I’ve made some progress in reading the book myself this week, … Continue reading Septuagint Sunday: Congratulations to…
What kind of Messiah was Jesus? Recently for a seminary class I had to describe the difference between “the Maccabean hope in a Messiah and Jesus’ fulfillment of that hope.” Maccabean hope on first glance would appear to be a hope in military power. This poem at the beginning of 1 Maccabees 3, for example, … Continue reading What kind of Messiah was Jesus?
Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, edited by G.K. Beale and D.A. Carson, is available as an add-on module in Accordance 10. In the first part of my review of the module, I focused on Accordance’s presentation of the commentary. Here I review the content of the commentary itself, but still … Continue reading Review: Accordance 10’s Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, by Beale and Carson (part 2 of 2: the content)
Here’s a Words on the Word weekend recap. Friday through Sunday at WotW had the following: Family: “Less ball sports, more boat sports” Bible: Part 1 of BibleWorks 9 review / The Bible as Narrative… sort of / Damon+Wahlberg in I Heart Maccabees? Grad School: I guest post about “null curriculum” / The Simpsons on … Continue reading Words on the Word Weekend Recap
I recently blogged on why you need the Septuagint. And here are some great resources to begin and further pursue Septuagint study. One indispensable resource for Septuagint study that I use almost daily is the computer program BibleWorks. I have not yet made the upgrade from version 8 to version 9, but much if not … Continue reading BibleWorks and the Septuagint
I recently had somebody ask me, in so many words, why the Septuagint? Why bother with the Greek Septuagint when we have the Old Testament in Hebrew, in which it was first written? English translations of the Bible in most churches use the Hebrew text as a base, anyway. Before giving my top 10 reasons why, … Continue reading Why you need the Septuagint
A few semesters ago I had the privilege of taking a great class at Gordon-Conwell with Dr. Doug Stuart: Intermediate Hebrew Grammar (syllabus PDF). Dr. Stuart is an excellent professor and scholar. In that class we worked our way through the Hebrew text of Micah (which is quite a challenge!). The class left a lasting … Continue reading Micah and the Septuagint
Words on the Word 