Monday, September 19, 2011

Saturday, September 3, 2011

N.T. Wright Clip of the Day - Evil

Here's a clip of the esteemed bishop giving his pitch, of sorts, for one of his great popular (as in for everyone, not just scholars) books, Evil and the Justice of God


In this book N.T. Wright lays out his critique of modern Western culture's failure to recognize evil for what it is, and for going about "solving" the problem of evil through arrogant, misguided, harmful,  and 
ultimately ineffective means (which is an intregal part of his take on post-Enlightenment thought), while  infecting at least part of the Church with this mindset along the way. 

Friday, September 2, 2011

What Did a Synagogue of Jesus' Time Look Like?

If you enjoy reading the Bible, you might enjoy the Gospels. And if you're one who enjoys the Gospels, you probably try to picture what Jesus'  ministry was like. Part of that ministry involved teaching, reading, and speaking in synagogues in and around Palestine.

Well, what was a synagogue like there? The Gospel writers give us little to no details. Was it like a small bungalow? Was it a marble building? Was it akin to a Greek stadium? For those answers, check out this informative and concise article by Paul Flesher:
What Did a Synagogue of Jesus' Time Look Like?

Free Online Academic Bibles Are Now Available!

Right now, everyone in the world has free access to some of the best (arguable) scholarly work on the biblical texts. The internet is awesome.


I'm not sure how long this site has been up, but the German Bible Society (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft), which is well-known among Bible scholars for their critical editions of the Bible and apocryphal texts, have published them online for your viewing pleasure!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Bibleworks Manuscripts

Ok, so this alone almost makes me want to get Bibleworks 9.
Bibleworks 9 - the MSS Tab

For those who may not be textual biblical text nerds, this is obviously a good idea that I've dreamed of using one day, but clearly a lot of work at the same time. Basically, what it does is let you look at specific biblical manuscripts as you look at certain verses of the Bible. This way you can analyze for yourself the manuscripts and perhaps do some textual criticism for yourself, instead of depending solely on published critical editions.

Just think how useful and crazy awesome this would be if every ancient witness to the text were digitally imagined and searchable in this way...

And as a side note, the more at least some people start (hopefully) reading manuscripts, the more and more they'll see how the Koine pronunciation of this time was akin to how the esteemed Dr. Randall Buth lays it out here: http://www.biblicallanguagecenter.com/assets/pdf/PRONSYS1_US.pdf.
(I did see an εκει spelled εκι in the video...)

Reformation True

Reformation True
Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Sola Scriptura