Tag: seminary

BibleWorks and the Septuagint

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 all of what I have to say here will still be applicable to users of version 9 (and 7, for that matter).

Here is what my BibleWorks looks like for 1 Maccabees (click or open in a new tab to view larger):

The following features help me navigate my way through the Septuagint:

  • A nice, big Browse Window (middle column in the top window) so that I can see the whole Greek verse easily at once, with English translations below. Both the LXA (Brenton’s Septuagint with Apocrypha, in English) and the NRS (NRSV, which includes the Apocrypha) are part of BibleWorks.
  • A stand-alone Word Analysis Window (bottom right of the screen) so I can better use my other columns. I set the default lexicon to LEH (Lust/Eynikel/Hauspie’s Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, Revised Edition).
    Not only is this a fantastic Septuagint-specific lexicon; it also includes word frequency counts. What I particularly like about this is that I can use the Stats window (in the Analysis Window, the right column in the top window) to find out how many times a word appears in the whole Greek Bible (LXX+New Testament). Then using the LEH frequency counts, I can get a quick number on how many times a word is used in the LXX and the NT. This is helpful if I see an LXX word that occurs 200+ times, have never heard of it, and then see it only appears 10 times in the NT.
  • The Resource Summary Window (bottom left of the screen). Here I can access Conybeare’s Grammar of Septuagint Greek, which comes with BibleWorks and is hyperlinked both by part of speech and Scripture index. Another nice feature is that I can pull up BibleWorks paradigms quickly for a given part of speech–a helpful grammatical refresher! The IVP Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels in that window is an add-on from WordSearch, but their IVP Dictionary package has a bunch of great Septuagint articles.
  • Note: There is no punctuation in the BibleWorks Septuagint text. This is not a display error; it’s just how it is. There are accents and breathing marks, though. And, the way I see it, even if Rahlfs in print has punctuation, the original manuscripts did not, so no huge loss.
  • I hesitate to write too much more about the Analysis window (right column in the top window), because BibleWorks 9 has significantly changed (=improved) the layout. In fact, there are now four columns, as seen here. However, for anyone using 8 or less, the above configuration allows you to work with the LXX profitably. For BibleWorks 9, I’m sure you could use the above layout as is (BW9 lets you use just three columns if you want, I believe) or make whatever modifications you wanted in BW9.

1 Maccabees has no existing Hebrew text. The scholars I’ve read on it all think that the Greek of 1 Maccabees has the flavor of translation Greek, and so translated a Hebrew original. But we don’t have it. (BibleWorks is powerful, but not quite that powerful!)

How I use the LXX when there is a corresponding Hebrew text (e.g., when I’m reading Micah) looks a little different. For example, in addition to the above, I’ll have the Hebrew text and English translation displayed. BibleWorks has the amazing Tov-Polak Parallel Hebrew/LXX Database, too, that comes with the base package.

BibleWorks allows me to read through the Septuagint in Greek with English translations displayed underneath. (I can also hide them–that’s what my “No Eng.” tab is in the left column of the top window.) It gives me instant word analysis (its parsing and then word definition and frequency count through LEH). I get grammatical helps from Conybeare and BibleWorks paradigms. I can search on a word to see how it’s used throughout the Septuagint and/or New Testament (note the highlighted word above). And with the IVP add-ons, I get historical background, too.

Using BibleWorks is a fabulous way to read through the Septuagint. I feel very blessed to have access to such a tool as this.

And I know there is much more BibleWorks can do. Fellow BibleWorks users and lovers of the Septuagint, how do you use BibleWorks for LXX success?

Septuagint Sunday is a regular feature of Words on the Word. All my LXX posts are here. The full contents of BibleWorks (now in version 9) are listed here. You can buy the program here or here.

The “Preacher’s Trash Bin” (A Review of What Not to Say)

Here is some great preaching advice from my mother-in-law, a pastor: Never say from the pulpit that a certain idea came you to while you were in the shower.  Because who wants to think about their pastor in the shower?

Or as John C. Holbert and Alyce M. McKenzie put it, “Don’t tell stories that involve listeners picturing you naked. …So you received an insight into the cleansing power of God’s love in the shower on the mission trip as the cleansing and healing water cascaded over your body. Find another setting to tell about your epiphany.”

I set out to read What Not to Say: Avoiding the Common Mistakes That Can Sink Your Sermon, thinking that the book would be full of practical ideas like not sharing shower epiphanies as having taken place in the shower. Yet Holbert and McKenzie also write with theological depth and care as they coach preachers on what not to say and do in the pulpit.

Their chapters cover what not to say (and what to say): about God, about the Bible, at the sermon’s beginning, about the congregation, in the middle of the sermon, about yourself, in stories, and at the end of the sermon.

The goal of the book is “to give very direct advice out of the store of [the authors’] combined sixty years of preaching and over forty years of teaching others how to preach.”  They write, “It’s important in preaching to be as clear about what we are not saying as we are about what we are saying.” Here is where the theological depth of the authors comes to the fore, right in the first chapter: “First, affirming the sovereignty of God is not the same as insisting that everything that happens in my life and the world is directly the result of God’s actions.” The authors have a high view of God’s sovereignty, yet caution preachers against saying or implying, “Everything happens for a reason… and that reason is God.” Especially in a funeral sermon, for example, they say it’s theologically misguided for the preacher to say that God just “needed” the deceased’s voice to join the heavenly choir, or wanted “another flower for his heavenly bouquet.” God is sovereign, yes, preachers should affirm, but did he really cause a drunk driver to kill your daughter? No, the authors would say; free choice gone awry (i.e., stupidity) caused that. But preachers have to be careful that their words don’t somehow affirm that God’s sovereignty means He somehow took away that life. He may have allowed it; he didn’t ordain it.

Though the reader may not always find herself or himself in lock-step with the authors’ theology (I think the Bible is more of an “answer book” than they seem to indicate, and I respectfuly disagree with their interpretation of Romans 1, that Paul didn’t really understand the nuances of homosexuality), the reader will certainly appreciate their theological, Biblical, and homiletical care that grounds the eminently practical advice they give. The authors’ love of the Gospel, of the Church, and of preaching is on full display in these pages… and it inspired me as I read.

A few more highlights ought to convince anyone with an interest in preaching or public speaking to read this book:

  • The authors say the preacher should ask herself or himself this question honestly: “Do I habitually base my sermons on my favorite passages and avoid others I know little about or that may prove difficult?”
  • “Preachers throughout history have known that it is as important to exegete the congregation as it is to exegete the text. Jesus certainly did….”
  • “Sermons these days need to teach biblical and theological themes to often biblically illiterate listeners.”
  • “When we stir up people’s emotions without tying them to a biblical and theological message, what are they to do with their stirred-up emotions?”
  • Holbert and McKenzie want the preacher to ask: “Does the sermon tell the truth of the Gospel, not a domesticated version I assume the congregation would prefer to hear?”
  • On bad preaching habits (verbal filler, overused non-verbal gestures, etc.), they say: “Anything you do in the pulpit again and again will become over time the source of boredom and finally ridicule. When the youth sit in the balcony and count the number of times you say or do a certain thing, it is time to take stock of your preaching patterns.”
  • “Never make yourself the hero or heroine of your sermon” by using yourself as a positive example of how to apply a certain Scripture. “The sermon is not about us; it is about God.”
  • “Never use any of your children as sermon examples.” (Whether the reader finally agrees with this or not, the authors make a good case for it.)
  • Ask anyone for permission to talk about them in a story, even if that story shares something positive about them: “There are people in your church who would immediately transfer their membership if you thanked them publicly or singled them out in a positive way.”

It would be easy for me to go on about the helpful things I read in this book. I highly recommend it to all who preach or teach, in the Church or elsewhere.

The book is out now through Westminster John Knox Press.  (I am grateful to have received a digital galley of What Not to Say for review through Net Galley.)

I’ll give the authors the last word:

Preachers and teachers of preaching like to talk about the preacher’s toolbox. That is a positive metaphor. It signifies a repertoire of useful, effective sermonic strategies. There is also a preacher’s trash bin, a receptacle where we ought to put all the ineffective sermon strategies we don’t ever want to use again.

Seminary with Young Kids

I’ve been known to try to do too many things at once.

In the fall of 2010 I was working 20 hours a week in youth ministry at a local church, preaching monthly there on top of that, taking four seminary classes (all of which were either Biblical Greek or Hebrew-based), and doing a wee bit of youth ministry consulting work. Suffice it to say I wish I had not done so much then–even three classes instead of four would have been a welcome relief. I did do most of my schoolwork at home, which at the time seemed like a good idea, because I could be around my wife and kids as I worked… but in retrospect, they weren’t getting any more of my attention than they would have if I had been off somewhere studying. So maybe that actually made it worse, to have me there, but not really have me there.

On Monday my wife and I are scheduled to have our third baby delivered.  So this is perhaps an appropriate time to link to this great article, “How to Survive Seminary with Young Children.” It’s written from a mom’s perspective, though the bulk of this advice is also helpful for those who are trying to be faithful dads and good seminarians at the same time.