November 10, 2008 – 7:47 am
Our pastor made an interesting proposition yesterday, one that I’ve been leaning toward for a while now, but was still rather intrigued to hear it voiced from the pulpit. As Christians in the Protestant tradition, we accept that salvation by faith alone is a fundamental tenet and set aside any notion that our works have [...]
October 18, 2008 – 7:25 am
The value of a historical-critical study Bible does show itself from time to time. I was reading through the early chapters of Genesis, looking for more “once upon a time…” campfire stories, when I happened upon the study notes in my REB Study Bible for Genesis 3:1:
3.1: Serpent: an ancient extrabiblical story tells how a [...]
October 18, 2008 – 5:57 am
The relationship between Satan and Heaven is an interesting one to dig into. One popular view is that Satan led a revolt of angels in pre-history and was in opposition to the Creator from the start, such that the serpent in Eden was the physical embodiment of Satan. Yet throughout the Old Testament, we see [...]
October 9, 2008 – 8:54 am
I am continuing my survey of Bible Translation books, now reading Donald Kraus’ volume, Choosing a Bible For Worship, Teaching, Study, Preaching, and Prayer. Kraus is Executive Editor for Bibles at Oxford University Press and presents a fairly even-handed review of translation philosophies, from strict interlinear to cultural paraphrase, though most of his time is [...]
October 5, 2008 – 2:19 am
Opening my Bible to First Chronicles, I began perusing the listing of the generations of mankind. Mostly my eyes glaze over when confronted with these tables, but there are narrative fragments in there like Nimrod (1.10), Archar (2.7) and the infamous Jabez (3.9-10) that hint at broader stories not more explicitly told to us in [...]
September 24, 2008 – 1:40 pm
I’m continuing to look at the portrayal of Wisdom in Proverbs 8. Several Bibles have noted that the translation of 8.30 has significant theological importance in our understanding of who and how God created the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1-2. There seem to be three main views: that (a) Wisdom was God’s companion, [...]
September 20, 2008 – 6:31 am
NT Use of the OT — Test Your View!
Fuller Meaning, Single Goal view
You seem to be most closely aligned with the Fuller Meaning, Single Goal view, a view defended by Peter Enns in the book “Three Views on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament” (edited by Kenneth Berding and Jonathan [...]
September 3, 2008 – 2:24 pm
This is a post in a continuing translation comparison series. Focused on “the literary Bible”, my intent is look at passages or phrases where translations that have been especially noted for their literary translation qualities seem to capture the meaning of the text with an extra dash of written flavor, at least in comparison with [...]
September 3, 2008 – 6:20 am
Jeff (Scripture Zealot) and Sean Harrison (NLT Study Bible) have been doing a fantastic job of centralizing many of the recent NLT Study Bible reviews and articles, but I wanted to call your attention to a recent review at Biblia Hebraica comparing the book of Jonah in both editions.
Part 1 - introductory comments on the [...]
I attempted once again to use my REB as my Sunday “church Bible” again this past week, with mixed results. For those coming new to this blog, my church uses the NIV as its pew and pastoral translation; however, for reasons I can’t fully explain, I’ve never warmed to the NIV and so have been [...]