Last night as I was doing some reading for my course on ancient numismatics in the peaceful ambiance of Sydney’s Darling Harbour, I came across a bit of information that immediately aroused my curiosity—namely, that the deification of Roman emperors was typologically communicated on Imperial coinage by means of a star over the emperor’s head….
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Let us begin with a story. Around the middle of the nineteenth century there was a series of charismatic revivals in Scotland. It was during this time that a 15-year-old girl named Margaret MacDonald, on her sickbed, had a vision regarding the Church being taken away before a time of suffering in the last days….
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Before delving into the thesis statement to Paul’s letter to the Romans, I’d like to share with you all that I just received an offer letter from the Ancient History department at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia to pursue further graduate work in New Testament. I’d appreciate your prayers as I prepare to move to…
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Written on
January 19, 2009 by
BenjiOvercash in
Biblical Language,
Bitzer,
David Alan Black,
Featured,
Greek,
Hebrew,
ignorant clergy,
John Piper,
John Wesley,
Martin Luther
Do I understand Greek and Hebrew? Otherwise, how can I undertake, (as every Minister does,) not only to explain books which are written therein, but to defend them against all opponents? Am I not at the mercy of every one who does understand, or even pretends to understand, the original? For which way can I…
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Following is the first part of a paper I recently wrote on the christology of the prologue to John’s Gospel, which happens to be my favorite passage out of my favorite book out of my favorite corpus in the entire Canon. I’ve transliterated the Hebrew and Greek so that it will—I hope—be fairly accessible. I’ll…
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With all of the interest in the historical Jesus and early Christianity as of late brought on by books like The DaVinci Code, the Discovery Channel documentary on the so-called “Jesus Tomb,” and National Geographic’s release of the Gospel of Judas translation, it has become well-known that the Greek word Matthew uses in 1:22, which…
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Readability is important. For some, ye Olde Englishe of the KJV, which of course is no longer spoken, is perfectly intelligible and indeed preferable. That is fine. However, most readers require a modern dialect, and many, furthermore, require one written in natural English idiom. Ultimately, there is no hard and fast rule for choosing a…
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Ask a typical evangelical Christian what will happen to his soul when he dies, and he will likely respond, “Well, it will go straight to heaven, of course.” Having been surrounded by evangelical Protestantism my whole life (I grew up in evangelical churches, attended preschool and elementary school at an evangelical Christian academy, graduated from…
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We’ve already established that there’s no such thing as a truly literal translation, since at least some interpretation is necessary for the sake of coherence. But, as it was mentioned earlier, there are some very good nearly literal translations available. (We’ll henceforth refer to these as “literal” translations.) Among these are the New American Standard…
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'Wives Be Submissive': A Reexamination of the Household Code in 1 Peter 3:1-7
The text of 1 Peter 3:1-7 and other similar NT passages have often been used to suppress able Christian women, both in the home and in the church. The controversial note on 1 Peter 3:7 in the 1547 Matthew Bible perhaps best conveys the misogyny which has occasionally pervaded the interpretation of these passages: “And…
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