4 Specific Non-Entities – Christmas Edition

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all (both?) of us here at BBG.  We hope you and yours have a great time remembering the astounding miracle we celebrate each Christmas.  As Luther said, “The mystery of the humanity of Christ, that He sunk Himself into our flesh, is beyond all human understanding.”

4.  Since I clearly cannot maintain a blog with any regularity, I’ve recently joined twitter: @BMarchionni.  Perhaps I can manage to put out 140 characters of pith on a regular basis.  Hold your breath.

3.  The sermon I preached at The Harbor a few weeks ago is now available here.  Astute listeners will notice much overlap with the sermon I preached from Ps.107 earlier in the year, which is by design.  The sermon is actually an amalgam of the sermon on Ps.107 and another one I preached from Is.55 years ago.  It was a last minute opportunity, so I had only a few days to prepare.  In the process, I learned that it is extremely difficult to preach the same sermon (or even something similar to the same sermon) twice.  In the end, I probably spent as much time modifying, cutting and cleaning the pieces of the two sermons as I would have if I started over from scratch.

2.  Regarding Christmas, or more technically speaking, the Incarnation, I’ve always loved C.S. Lewis’ illustration:

Lying at your feet is your dog. Imagine, for the moment, that your dog and every dog is in deep distress. Some of us love dogs very much. If it would help all the dogs in the world to become like men, would you be willing to become a dog? Would you put down your human nature, leave your loved ones, your job, hobbies, your art and literature and music, and choose instead of the intimate communion with your beloved, the poor substitute of looking into the beloved’s face and wagging your tail, unable to smile or speak? Christ by becoming man limited the thing which to Him was the most precious thing in the world; his unhampered, unhindered communion with the Father.

1.  I recently caught a half-hour or so of BBC’s “Planet Earth” that focussed on the jungle, and had to manually re-attach my jaw.  The beauty and diversity of nature – however fallen – can easily fry my circuits when I consider what awaits us in the life to come, when He makes everything new.  If words cannot do justice to some of the beauty and wonder we experience now, how much more so for the New Heavens and Earth?  Statements like, “God is amazing,” in such a context seem so hopelessly impoverished.  Perhaps this is one of the reasons why our praise and worship needs to extend beyond what we can speak, write or sing.

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5.5 Random Things #9

5.5.  This post is dedicated to the Boston Bruins.  We don’t expect you to win the Stanley Cup, just don’t embarass our city.

5. Monergism has put up 33 lectures from Kim Riddlebarger on Amillennialism for free download.  Riddlebarger is one of the more well known defenders of the Amillennial interpretation around, so I highly recommend jumping on this.  I’m not convinced of the position (though I’ll give these lectures a listen) when it comes to Revelation 20, but have great appreciation for the overall structure of Amillennialism.  While I am beginning to think that the Millennium is the single most overrated theological debate in the church today, eschatalogy is incredibly important so download these lectures and see what you think.  (You can also check these out at Riddlebarger’s church website.)

4. Ben Witherington and Peter Leithart recently had a very interesting exchange inspired by Leithart’s recent book, Defending Constantine.  Witherington was generally appreciative, but had some fairly strong critiques in certain parts.  Here is a helpful roundup of the debate and links.  If nothing else this can demonstrate just how hard a debate can be when you have two very different approaches to Scripture.

3. Some time ago I posted a link to Craig Keener’s notes on Biblical Interpretation (which ended up being one of our most popular posts, interestingly enough).  According to his website, Keener will also be posting Bible study notes that would be incredibly helpful for teachers and Bible study leaders.  He currently has 10 studies on the Gospel of Matthew.  Check it out!

2. Rule to live by: any time someone writes a post with the word “anacoluthon” in the title, you have to link to it.

1. Gotta be honest, I really enjoyed Paul Helm’s takedown of N T Wright.  Keep in mind, I like N T Wright, a lot.  But he has this annoying habit of taking potshots at Americans, especially the American church, for reasons that are a bit confusing and, quite frankly, make him look petty.  In this case, he was asked about the recent controversies regarding hell, then proceeded to find a way to poke at Americans in what is, as Helm points out, a series of non-sequitors and incredibly unfair characterizations.  See also Trevin Wax’s measured critique.

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5.5 Random Things #8

5.5.  This post is dedicated to the Sermon Writer’s Block.

5.  I really liked Michael Bird’s (relatively) short post on how the Penal Substitutionary Atonement and Christus Victor models of atonement work together. 

4.  His biting sarcasm is largely what makes Carl Trueman so popular, but it also makes it easy to miss some of his better stuff.  In an article titled “The Price of Everything,” Trueman suggests that “cynicism, along with its close cousin pessimism, are among two of the greatest contributions that historians can make to the life of the church.” 

3.  Some of you have heard about Harold Camping and his predictions that the end of the world is coming in October of this year (and the rapture is only weeks away!).  W. Robert Godfrey of Westminster Seminary California has written an intriguing, if not sad, series on “Harold Camping and the End of the World”.  It’s worth reading through it, as it’s both insightful and instructive, from someone who has known Camping for a long time.  Part 1.  Part 2.  Part 3.  Part 4.  Update: I somehow missed Part 5.  Sorry.

2.  Earlier this morning Justin Taylor posted a really helpful chart called “Differences between Jesus and the Levitical High Priests,” based on Hebrews 7 and 9.  Don’t think I won’t be stealing this for future use.

1.  The aforementioned Carl Trueman has created a bit of a stir, particularly with the “New Calvinist” crowd, recently with some posts regarding American mega-conferences and the celebrity culture of American evangelicalism.  As I said earlier, I think his sarcasm (not to mention his vast use of over-generalization, which granted is a feature of satire but can be counter-productive) can obscure his point.  Never fear, the ever reasonable Tim Challies steps in to help a bit (with links to Trueman’s posts, if you’re interested).  It’s a good read, and a great topic to consider more deeply.  I’d like to think we can learn a thing or two here.

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5.5 Random Things #7

5.5. This post is dedicated to my old roommate, JP.  He’s an Arizona Wildcat fan, and I’m a UConn fan.  Our teams play each other in the Elite Eight on Saturday, so it’s probably just as well that we aren’t roommates anymore.  That, and we’re both married with kids now, and that would be awkward living together…

5. Nick Norelli reviews Sean McDonough’s (coughgogordonconwellcough) new book, Christ as Creator.  I took McDonough’s Life of Jesus class, so I heard some of his early thoughts on Christ as creator in the gospels.  Looks like a fascinating read.  Now if we can do something about that ridiculous price…

4. Keith & Kristyn Getty (of “In Christ Alone” fame) are offering three free hymns for download on their site, until March 31 (I think). 

3. The incomparable Marcus has given some helpful thoughts on how to build a theological library– and he’s not talking about making bookshelves.  There’s some good advice here.  Or you could do what my coblogger, Brian, does and wait until your friends move and “borrow” their books. 

2. Brian and I were discussing the other day how the Minor Prophets are perhaps the least preached on portion of Scripture.  In his last post, Brian links to a sermon where he tackles a passage in Micah.  Cousin Jeremy has also been posting sermons from his church in Syracuse, starting with sermon series from Hosea and Micah.  Update: A couple hours after I posted this, Cousin Jeremy posted some sermons from Amos.  In fact, he went ahead and made a central location for any more sermon series he will be posting, so you may want to bookmark it. 

1. Speaking of preaching, I commend to you Tom Schreiner’s sermons from his church, Clifton Baptist, in KY.  He’s been doing a series on Romans for a while now (I think he’s up to 29 sermons and he’s only through chapter 7).  You can find a number of other sermon series he’s done, such as Revelation (which I think I’ve linked to before), James, Galatians, etc.

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5.5 Random Things #6

5.5.  This post is dedicated to my self-respect, which I released when I watched a few episodes of American Idol in a row.  Does it matter that one of the contestants (who made the top 60) used to go to my church?

5.  Louis over at Baker Book House Church Connection (longest blog title ever?) posted some of the titles to be released this year by Baker Publishing.  The highlights for me are Victor Hamilton’s commentary on Exodus, G K Beale’s NT Theology, and Craig Keener’s Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts.

4.  Also in the world of publshing, Fortress Press is offering a 40% off sale of all their titles through the month of March (HT).  Fortress publishes a lot of stuff I couldn’t care less about, but they also publish a number of N T Wright’s best volumes.  If you’re a commentary collector, this could be a good time to purchase something from the Hermeneia series (although even at 40% off they’re still expensive).

3. The active and passive sides of God’s love.  Or, what makes Gordon Fee cry.

2. I need some music recommendations.  I have Christmas gift cards (iTunes, maybe even my Amazon gift card) to use, and would like to update some of my music.  By “update” I don’t mean it has to be new.  In fact, I generally am not a fan of the latest music.  I’ve already purchased some: finally got Mutemath‘s debut album (which has extra live tracks on iTunes) and Lettuce‘s Rage, per the recommendation of my co-blogger, Brian.  I’m leaning towards The Rocketboys, but also have enough money left over to get something else.  Some Stevie Wonder?  Any great blues guitarists (big fan of Stevie Ray Vaughan and old Clapton stuff)?  Great classic rock?  So many options…

1.  Our friends over at Sojourn Community Church have released another album, The Mercy Seat/The War, half Jamie Barnes songs and half Brooks Ritter.  Have a listen!

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5.5 Random Things #5

5.5.  This post is dedicated to the word “manya,” my daughter’s favorite word.  What started as the word for “milk” (spoken in the manner of an Asian tonal language) has now branched out to “Michael” (her uncle), “banana,” “balloon,” and even “clean up” (as in The Clean Up Song).  Seinfeld fans may even recall Manya from The Pony Remark (fair question, Jerry, fair question).  It’s amazing what this one little word can do.  Manya is the David Grohl of my daughter’s vocabulary. 

5. Not sure how many of our readers have heard of Meredith Kline, but he was an Old Testament professor at Gordon-Conwell a number of years ago; I went to Gordon-Conwell at the same time as his grandson Jonathan.  There is a website up dedicated to him, which includes the audio from classes he taught at a church, including his Kingdom Prologue.  I think I’ve tried 3 times to read that book, but could hardly get 5 pages without losing him.  Maybe his audio is a little… less dry.

4. Zondervan is giving away a copy of Klyne Snodgrass’ commentary on Ephesians, if you’re lucky.

3. “A Caution for Expository Preaching” by Iain Murray (HT).  I’m a fan of expository preaching, though I think there are good and bad ways to do it.  Murrary does a good job here. 

2. Another interesting scholar/preacher you should listen to is Rikk Watts.  Watts is an NT professor at Regent College in Vancouver, and used to preach at a church called The Rock Garden.  You can check out his sermons here, especially if you’re into quirky Pentecostal New Testament scholars.  Included are sermon series on Mark, 1 Corinthians, Revelation, Isaiah… you get the picture.

1. It’s been a while since I’ve mentioned my love for biblicaltraining.org.  They now have Darrell Bock’s Life of Christ class online, free as usual.

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5.5 Random Things #4

5.5.  This post is dedicated to not throwing up.  Why do I take you for granted?

5. Great quote posted by Marcus from Blomberg and Kamell’s commentary on James, one that all students of the Bible would do well to read.

4. I haven’t seen the movie yet, so I didn’t read his post, but Trevin Wax’s title says it all: Why “Dawn Treader” Will Sink the Narnia Franchise.  I’m not a Lewis junkie, but many of the reviews I’ve seen (again, not reading them thoroughly to avoid spoilers) have been quite positive, so I’m interested in what you Lewis experts think of Wax’s review.

3. Is it wrong that I thought this was funny?  (HT)

2. I never knew the man, never studied under him and have read very few things by him, but at Gordon-Conwell many of the “old guard” had so much respect for him that I couldn’t help but note the passing of theologian Roger Nicole.

1. You haven’t seen much action around here lately because my wife and I (finally) have welcomed our second child and first son to the family (and, unrelated, the previously alluded to sickness).  And here is where I selfishly plug our family blog.  Posting will begin picking up tomorrow, as I’m taking part in the ZECNT blog tour (here for details).  I’ll probably post 3 times (12/15, 17 & 20- give or take a day or two) regarding Grant Osborne’s Matthew commentary.

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5.5 Random Things #3

5.5. This post is dedicated to November 26, the due date for Baby #2, which has come and gone without a visit from the stork.

5. I think everyone and their mother has commented on the recent Evangelical Theological Society meetings, specifically the sessions involving Tom Schreiner, Frank Thielman, and N T Wright on Wright’s view of justification.  As far as I’m concerned, the best thing that came out of it was the clarification of Wright’s view of future justification.  You can see a recent post on Between Two Worlds that ably explains the details of the discussion.  Maybe we can now stop talking about it for a while.

4. Here’s an interesting interview over at Charisma with Gordon Fee regarding his life as a Pentecostal Bible scholar. (HT)

3. I make a vow to you today: if I see Jane Austen in heaven, I’ll be giving her a piece of my mind on behalf of all men.

2. I have been reading John Jefferson Davis‘ new book, Worship and the Reality of God, for review and have been challenged at numerous points already.  Here is a quote from page 64:

The evangelical Protestant tradition has been characterized as generally having a low ecclesiology; the New Testament, however, has a high and ontically weighty ecclesiology, because it has a high Christology.

1. I rarely post about sports here (an amazing feat of self-control, might I add), but I reserve the right to pipe up about it once in a while.  Here are 5 guys who maybe should have made the NFL Network Top 100 list:

• Steve Largent, WR- set all sorts of records (since broken by Jerry Rice, ranked #1) without a better-than-average QB.  His was the biggest omission.
• Warren Sapp, DT- Derrick Brooks made the list from the same Tampa Bay defense.  If I had to pick one, I’d pick Sapp.
• Ray Guy, P- I know, I know, a punter will never make this list.  But considering he’s the best football player whose feet actually touch the ball on a consistent basis, I’ll give him a shout out.
• Charles Woodson, CB- one of the better defensive players in the NFL for 13 seasons, including winning Defensive Player of the Year last year (granted, it should have gone to Darrelle Revis, but it still counts for something).
• Ken Houston, S- I realize that most good cornerbacks can become great safeties, but I was still surprised to find only a couple safeties on the list.  Safety is still a legit position in the NFL, and Houston made 12 straight Pro Bowls.

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5.5 Random Things: The Mostly NIV 2011 Edition

5.5.  This post is dedicated to all the men who have endured a pregnant woman’s nesting phase.  It hits with little or no provocation or warning.  When it comes, it comes.  On a related note, there is not a speck of dust in our entire house, so feel free to come over and eat off our floors.

5. The Society of Biblical Literature has recently announced the publication of the SBL Greek New Testament.  This critical edition of the Greek New Testament was edited by Michael W Holmes and differs from the standard NA/UBS text (for those interested, I generally use the UBS, mainly because I hate the font in the Nestle-Aland edition) in more than 540 places.  If you are a Logos Bible Software user, you can get a free download.  You can go here to see other free download opportunities.

4. Okay, let’s get to business.  The NIV 2011 has been officially released; with a copyright date of 2010.  Love it.  If you go to biblegateway.com and use the NIV, you will be using the updated edition.  The word on the street is that the physical copy will be released in March 2011.  I appreciated the Translators’ Notes (pdf, drafted by Craig Blomberg) which helps explain some of the Committee’s decisions.  It was well written and is a helpful look at the ins-and-outs of Bible translation.  You can also view quick comments from Doug Moo, who chaired the Committee. 

3. The most interesting aspect of the NIV 2011 (in my opinion) is the partnership with Collins Bank of English, who have tracked trends in the English language for quite sometime.  If you read the Translators’ Notes given above, you’ll see how this helped the Committee through the process.  This aids in avoiding purely personal and anecdotal evidence in changes in the English language, which is especially crucial considering the Committee is largely made up of middle-aged (or older), highly educated people- not exactly a representation of the English speaking world.  This was an ingenious idea, and I’m glad the Committee went this route.

2.  The Gospel Coalition and Bible Gateway are teaming up to offer a translation forum called Perspectives in Translation.  The format is this: there is a question issued (e.g., how should Romans 1:17 be translated?) and various scholars offer their opinions in a concise format.  Love the idea, not sure I love the implementation.  Let me lay it out for you: 

• First, there isn’t a main page that has links to the various questions and answers.  The outcome is that it’s a pain in the rear to find things.  There ought to be a page with each question (such as the one above) and links to the answers given.  That would seem to be an obvious approach, so I’m not sure who fell asleep on that one.  To be frank, it’s a mess.
• Second, there isn’t a ton of interaction between the contributors.  I was looking forward to scholars debating (in a friendly way, of course) some of these issues. 
• Third, there are Bible scholars contributing, but no linguists.  One of the common mistakes lay people make is assuming that someone who knows Greek or Hebrew is qualified to translate.  But understanding how languages work is a pretty crucial aspect of translating any document into any language.  But, maybe I’m not giving these particular scholars enough credit.

Lest anyone think I’m completely down on this forum, I’ll say that I do love the idea and think it can improve.  I did enjoy Moo’s post on Romans 1:17 (and I agree, I doubt the average person would know what “from faith to faith” would mean).

1. For those interested in comparing the NIV 2011 (©2010) to the TNIV and the NIV 1984, you are in luck.  You can view them side-by-side-by-side at Bible Gateway.  But big kudos need to go to Robert Slowley, who has spent a ridiculous amount of time working on some comparions.  If you want a basic look at comparing the three versions in the NIV family, check out this link.  Another interesting comparison page provided by Robert: the 250 most changed verses.  If you want to see more, check out this roundup of links from Mark Stevens, as well as John Dyer’s page of comparisons.  These help explain an apparent discrepancy.  The Committee claimed that they kept about 95% of the original NIV, yet some of the numbers being quoted are more like 60%.  The Committe kept 95% of the same words, but 60% of the verses went unchanged.  I say that just in case anyone is confused, it was on John’s page that I realize where these numbers were coming from.  Thanks to Robert Slowley and John Dyer for putting the time in to track these changes, and thanks to Mark Stevens for bringing various links together in one helpful post.

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5.5 Random Things #1: The Comeback Edition

5.5.  This post is dedicated to the handful of folks who used to read my old blog, where I’d post occasional “5.5 Random Things”, often with links on various topics which may or may not be related to Bible geekdom.  Generally these are items of interest (to me, at any rate) that I don’t want to write a full post about.  I’ve decided pull this idea off the shelf, dust it off and give it a whirl.  Call it a comeback.

5. Matthew Montonini has posted an interview with J Ramsey Michaels over at New Testament Perspectives, specifically dealing with Michaels’ new commentary on the Gospel of John.  While I often wonder if it’s really worth the time and effort on the part of publishers to keep pumping out new commentaries, when I know of a respectable scholar who has been working for a couple decades on one, I pay attention.  Michaels’ commentary replaces the well-known commentary by Leon Morris in the NICNT, which is, in my opinion, the best commentary Morris ever wrote (and he wrote many).  Anyway, Montonini’s interview is in three parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

4. My co-blogger, Brian, recently won a free book.  In related news, Brian’s a jerk.

3. Over at Parchment and Pen, Tim Kimberly recently finished a series on the “Top Ten Biblical Studies in Archaeology.”  Not all will be convinced by his interpreation of the data, but I found it interesting nonetheless. 

2. In case you’re wondering, Pierce Baby #2 is due in 29 days.  If you’re familiar with these things, you know it could be 40 days.  I’m praying for a less biblical number.

1. Obama is the leopard king.  You know, of Daniel 7.  This guy says so, here and here.  Consider yourself informed. 

Side note: I love the reasoning behind this correlation, especially the connection between a leopard’s spots (two colors, black and white) and Obama’s mixed race.  The other beasts?  Monochromatic (sort of).  Nearly flawless logic. 

Side note to the side note: The logic would be closer to flawless if he argued his case in terms of primary colors.  Bear=black (for the sake of argument), lion=yellow, leopard=mixed (I realize black isn’t considered a primary color, but work with me here).  If he argued this, I’d cosign it in a heartbeat! 

Side note to the other side notes: Cousin Jeremy– is it possible that you missed this in all your years of studying the philosophy of race on the doctoral level?   Seriously, bro, let’s work on this.  I bet your problem is methodological.  You need to get a Casio and a video camera, hang out by a quaint river and let it come.  Trust me.

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