Job Offer: HTC Development Officer

Here at the Highland Theological College we are seeking a Development Officer to add to our staff.

The Development Officer will be responsible for student recruitment and for advertising and marketing our courses. The Development Officer will assist hte Prinicpal with fund-raising and development work, and will take on some general administrative tasks, including maintaining our database. The Development Officer will also be a point of contact for our supporters, including speaking at meetings, visiting churches and so on.

Please send applications to:

Mrs. Fiona Cameron, PA to the Principal of HTC, High St. Dingwall, IV15 9HA, Scotland, UK.
fiona.cameron[at]htc.uhi.ac.uk

Latest issue of New Testament Studies (2006)

The latest issue of New Testament Studies includes the following articles:

Who Comes from the East and the West? Luke 13.28–29/Matt 8.11–12 and the Historical Jesus
MICHAEL F. BIRD

Die Bedeutung der Synoptiker für das johanneische Zeugnisthema. Mit einem Anhang zum Perfekt-Gebrauch im vierten Evangelium.
ROLAND BERGMEIER

Markion vs. Lukas: Plädoyer für die Wiederaufnahme eines alten Falles
MATTHIAS KLINGHARDT

Pagan Philosophers and 1 Thessalonians
JOHN GRANGER COOK

Psychologische Einsichten Quintilians in der Institutio Oratoria
PETER LAMPE

Pontius Pilate and the Imperial Cult in Roman Judaea
JOAN E. TAYLOR

The Reading ‘Who Wished to Enter’ in Coptic Tradition: Matt 23.13, Luke 11.52, and ‘Thomas’ 39
TJITZE BAARDA

The Death of James Barr

For those that don't know, James Barr, distinguished hebraist and biblical scholar who exposed grave flaws in the traditional approaches to philology and exegesis, passed away recently. You can read the obituary in the Times.

HT: Mark Goodacre

SWBTS and Speaking in Tongues

The Trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary of Forthworth, TX have voted to include a doctrinal statement effectively banning any faculty member or trustee from speaking in tongues even as a private prayer language (see BP News). The actual wording is that professors cannot "promote" practices such as speaking in tongues. That might sound ambiguous, but "promote" here has the obvious meaning of "admit to doing it", i.e. no member of SWBTS can admit to having a private prayer language. This is in response to a sermon preached by Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington where he admitted to speaking in tongues and took issue with the IMB for refusing to hire missionaries who did have a private prayer language.

HT: Denny Burk

Before I make an extended tirade on this point let me preface my thoughts with two points:

One: I'm not a Charsimatic, I don't speak in tongues and I'm not sure what to make of all that untie-my-bowtie-who-stole-my-honda stuff. Yet I'm not a cessationist either, so I'm open to what the Spirit will do in the life of other believers.

Two: I'm mad. I'm raging mad that an evangelicalesque institution would turn "private" prayer language, not tongues in public worship, but private prayer language into a make-or-break issue, an issue about what separates the good guys from the bad guys, an issue about who is wearing the white hats and who is wearing the black hats, an issue about who is of the Jedi and who is the Sith, and issue about what defies the bonds of fellowship and partnership.

On second thoughts, I won't go into my tirade, less I write in anger. But Joel Willitts and I are about to publish an essay (or perhaps manifesto might be a better description) called Solum Evangelium which is a call to make one's understanding and expression of the gospel the basis of fellowship and ministry partnership: it commeth! In the mean time if you're in a SBC church and if you're preaching this Sunday (sadly I'm not) this is what I BEG you to do: preach Galatians, the epistle of liberty and life in the Spirit. To those who would shackle and fetter us with the tyranny and bondage of neo-Fundamentalism I say let them hear the word that they fear to hear: Freedom. As Jesus said, "He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the captives"; as Paul says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free!" As John says: "if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed"; Or even as Ernst Kasemann put it, "Jesus means Freedom"! So preach freedom, the freedom of Christ Jesus, the freedom of the Spirit over the letter, the freedom to differentiate between areas of conviction and areas of command. The freedom to major on the majors and to minor on the minors. The freedom to agree to disagree. The freedom to walk hand-in-hand with those whom you don't always see eye-to-eye with on every controversial topic. If you preach freedom in the face of the prayer-police they will accuse you of being a liberal-clauset-charismatic-democrat-voting-pseudo-evangelical-compromiser. In response, preach Galatians some more, preach it until they cover their ears and call down curses on you. Then preach Galatians again and again. And if they preach back at you with a gospel of Jesus + cessationism or Jesus + anything else, then you must out-preach them! Let the gospel of grace and liberty fall from your lips like in did in the days of John Owen, of John Knox and Jonathan Edwards. Make it clear that we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with ALL of our brothers and sisters in Christ no matter what ecstatic utterances they pray in. At the end of the day, if one prays in tongues, he does so unto the Lord. If one does not pray in tongues, he still prays unto the Lord. But tongues or no tongues, we all pray to the same Lord, yours and mine, theirs and ours!

Update: see the post by Wade Burleson on the issue.

Soli Deo Gloria

Recent Travels around Scotland

I've been lucky of late to have had a few invitations to speak at various postgrad seminars around Scotland including New College, Edinburgh University and at St. Mary's College of St. Andrews University. My papers were respectively on "Jesus the Law-Breaker?" (Edinburgh) and "Sectarian Gospels for Sectarian Christians?" (St. Andrews). I had a wonderful time with many enagaging questions and discussions with faculty and students at each presentation. What I love about Scotland is the sense of collegiality between the Universities and, despite coming from a small Theological College part of a University-still-in-the-making, I was treated with great warmth and as a partner in a common enterprise. The many, many, many American Ph.D candidates around the Universities have made it very enjoyable too and I have enjoyed their hospitality and friendship (in fact, I count some of them of my closest friends in Scotland, esp. some of the lads in Aberdeen!). Yes, Scotland is definitely the place to either teach or learn Theology and Biblical studies!

The photos are of St. Andrews Cathedral in St. Andrews and John Knox's statue in New College.

Richard Bauckham's New Book

Last night I was reading some of Richard Bauckham's new book to my daughter - no, not Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (my six year old daughter Alexis is probably not up to that yet, we do work through the GNB though!) - I mean his "other" new book: The MacBears of Bearlock. A children's book written by Richard Bauckham about a bear family who live beside a loch in the north of Scotland. It seems like a good read for children, and it's certainly not as technical as some of his other works. Don't expect to find any encoded allusions to second-temple monotheism or a literary structure for Revelation hidden in the subtext. It is not an allegory in the C.S. Lewis style, but just a fun and adventursome story for children. Good clean fun with a bunch of Scottish bears trying to solve a mystery and keep everyone in the family happy at the same time!



For those interested it can be purchased at Amazon.uk for about £4.99 or about $7.00 (USD) + postage and handling. Your kids will love it! It's a good way to get them exposed to NT scholars at a young age. Who knows, maybe one day when they are grown up they'll be browsing through a book store and see Richard Bauckham's The Gospel for All Christians and will buy it thinking that it is a sequel by the same author to their favourite childhood book! Perhaps not. Anyway, I hope MacBears sells like a Harry Potter novel!

John Stott on Evangelicalism

Over at Stuff of the Earth Michael Pahl has a good post on Bruce and Stott on Evangelicalism. It includes an interview with Stott from Christianity Today and shows that Stott is in essential agreement with the understanding of Evangelicalism as layed out by Bruce (see the post below).

F.F. Bruce on Evangelicalism

On Evangelicalism, Bruce writes:

"I cannot remember a time when I did not hold this to be the essence of the gospel [Jesus' sacrificial death], but questions which attached themselves to it in earlier days have apparently resolved themselves. It is for this reason that I am always happy to be called an evangelical, although I insist on being an unqualified evangelical. I do not willingly answer, for example, to such designations as 'conservative evangelical'. (Many of my positions are indeed conservative; but I hold them not because they are conservative - still less because I myself am conservative - but because I believe they are the positions to which the evidence leads). To believe in the God who justifies the ungodly is to be evangelical. On many points of New Testament criticism I find myself differing from such post-Bultmannians as Ernst Kasemann and Gunther Bornkamm, but critical differences become insignificant in the light of their firm understanding and eloquent exposition of the Pauline gospel of justification by faith, which is the very heart of evangelical Christiantiy. I deplore the misuse of the noble world 'evangelical' in a party sense. I emphasize this account of what it means to be evangelical because from time to time speakers or writers try to limit the scope of the word by imposing further conditions, as who should say: Unless you subscribe to b, c, and d in addition to a, you cannot be recognized as evangelical. All that this amounts to is that they are imposing their own 'pickwickian' sense on the word." (In Retrospect, pp. 309-10).

Amen, Brucey my Boy!

One thing for Bruce that gets repeated in his book is that faith, evangelical faith, is about "I know whom I have believed in" and not "I know what I have believed in".

E.P. Sanders and Tendencies of the Synoptic Tradition

A new reprint of Sanders' classic book has just been released and is available at
Amazon.com for those interested.

Coincidentally, today was the day when I again taught the Synoptic Problem to my first year students - this is always an interesting day. The relevance of the topic always comes up as does the question of why God would give us Scripture in this way! And once again, after setting my students to study the Synoptic accounts of the parable of the mustard seed, most of them thought that the Farrer-Goulder-Goodacre theory had the most mileage!

F.F. Bruce on ETS

"On another visit to America I participated in the twenty-fifth anniversary conference of the Evangelical Theological Society, held in Wheaton College, Illinois, in the last week of December 1973. For its silver jubilee the Society invited two foreign guests - Dr. Howard Marshall of Aberdeen and myself. Our contributions with published in the proceedings of the conference, New Dimensions in New Testament Study, edited by R.N. Longenecker and M.C. Tenney (1974) ... The Evangelical Theological Society strikes me as being a more conservative body than the Tyndale Fellowship in this country, but there is a maturity of scholarship in the twenty-odd papers in this volume which augurs well for the progress of the society during the next quarter of a century."

F.F. Bruce, In Retrospect, p. 241.

Is this a compliment or a polite jibe at ETS?

C. Kavin Rowe - Early Narrative Christology

Those into Lucan studies should take note of this book by C. Kavin Rowe of Duke University. I've only read the conclusion, but it seems like an informative read.

Early Narrative Christology
The Lord in the Gospel of Luke
Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft - BZNW 139
by C. Kavin Rowe





Despite the striking frequency with which the Greek word kyrios, Lord, occurs in Luke's Gospel, this study is the first comprehensive analysis of Luke's use of this word. The analysis follows the use of kyrios in the Gospel from beginning to end in order to trace narratively the complex and deliberate development of Jesus' identity as Lord. Detailed attention to Luke's narrative artistry and his use of Mark demonstrates that Luke has a nuanced and sophisticated christology centered on Jesus' identity as Lord.

Available from Eisenbrauns here.

How effective was the birkat ha-minim

The birkat ha-minim was the curse on Christians added to the eighteen benedictions at Yavneh and was important in the expulsion of Christians from Jewish synagogues, e.g. John 9:22 (so the story goes), but how far ranging and how effective was such a curse:

"If the intent of the blessing was to exclude Christians from the synagogue, it failed. It failed in third-century Caesarea, where Origen preached on Sunday to Christians he knew were in synagogue the day before, and it failed in the late fourth-century Antioch where John Chrysostom condemned his flock for their visits to the synagogues at a time when the empire was already Christian."

Martha Himmelfarb, "The Parting of the Ways Reconsidered: Diversity in Judaism and Jewish Christian Relations in the Roman Empire: 'A Jewish Perspective'," in Interwoven Destines: Jews and Christians Through the Ages, ed. Eugene J. Fisher (New York: Paulist, 1993), p. 49.

Anti-Judaism, Anti-Semitism, and Anti-Zionism: What's the difference?

Paula Fredriksen writes:

Is anti-Judaism, then, the same as anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism? I do not think so. The first is a theological position; the second, a racist one; the third, a political one.

Paul Fredriksen, "The Birth of Christianity and the Origins of Christian Anti-Judaism," in Paula Fredriksen and Adele Reinhartz (eds.), Jesus, Judaism and Christian Anti-Judaism: Reading the New Testament after the Holocaust (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 2002), 28.

In this sense I would say that certain documents in the NT (esp. John, Hebrews and Matthew) could be said to be anti-Judaistic (i.e. they reinterpret the Jewish tradition so as to produce a theological break from it) but they are not anti-semitic.

F.F. Bruce on Faith and Academia

Here's a classic quote from F.F. Bruce:

I am sometimes asked if I am aware of a tension between my academic study of the Bible and my approach to the Bible in personal or church life. I am bound to say that I am aware of no such tension. Throughout my career as a university teacher I have also discharged a teaching ministry in my local church and occasionally in other churches. Naturally, when I discharge a teaching ministry in church I avoid the technicalities of academic discourse and I apply the message of Scripture in a more practical way. But there is no conflict between my critical or exegetical activity in a university context and my Bible exposition in church; the former makes a substantial contribution to the latter. At the same time, membership in a local church, involvement in the activities of a worshipping community, helps the academic theologian to remember what his subject is all about, and keeps his studies properly 'earthed'. One constantly hears complaints nowadays, among Catholics and Protestants alike, of the widening gap between scholars' understanding of Scripture and the use made of it by 'ordinary' Christians. The gap would not be so wide, I am sure, if more scholars were to involve themselves in the day-to-day life of a local church and communicate the fruits of their scholarship to their fellow church members in a form which the latter could assimilate. I have known some distinguished scholars who did this, to their own enrichment as well as the enrichment of the others.

F.F. Bruce, In Retrospect, pp. 143-44.

Data Sheet on Messianic Expectation

Glen Miller of Christian Think Tank has a good hand out on Jewish messianic expectation in the second-temple period. I haven't checked all of his references, but it looks kosher.

Also, does anyone know of a reference from Philo where crowds in Alexandria mock the hope of a Jewish ruler who was to come and reign over the world? I thought it was in Embassy to Gaius, but I can't find it.

F.F. Bruce's Biography

I am currently reading through the biography of F.F. Bruce In retrospect: Remembrance of things past. It's a cracking read. In a footnote, Bruce writes about one anonymous chap: "This good man in later years described me as an 'ecclesiastical liberal'; I suspect he meant it as a criticism, but I welcomed it as a compliment" (p. 27). Even Brucie got called a liberal! Maybe some of us aren't in such bad company afterall.

See here and here for a review of the book.

The New Testament in Christian Hymns

Ever wondered what verses in the NT appear in what Christian hymns? Then check out the list at Cyber Hymnal. For instance, you can find the great Christian hymns that contain quotes from or allusions to Galatians or Hebrews or Daniel. When you click on a song it gives you the lyrics and plays the music as well!

Hebrews and Catholicity

What Hebrews may lack in apostolicity it makes up for in catholicity. Consider the following quote from Jerome:

The Epistle which is inscribed to the Hebrews is received not only by the Churches of the East, but also by all Church writers of the Greek language before our days, as of Paul the apostle, though many think it is from Barnabas or Clement. And it makes no difference whose it is, since it is from a churchman, and is celebrated in the daily readings of the Churches. (Epist. 129)

New Books from T&T Clark

The following books stood out in the Dove Booksellers list:

Westfall, Cynthia Long
Discourse Analysis of the Letter to the Hebrews: The Relationship between Form and Meaning
(T & T Clark International, 2006)

Tonstad, Sigve K
Saving God's Reputation: The Theological Function of Pistis Iesou in the Cosmic Narratives of Revelation
(T & T Clark International, 2006)

Taylor, Mark E
Text-Linguistic Investigation Into the Discourse Structure of James
(T & T Clark International, 2006)

Slee, Michelle
Church in Antioch in the First Century, CE: Communion and Conflict
(T & T Clark International, 2006)

Robert Gundry reviews Bart Ehrman

Over at Evangelical Textual Criticism I have posted a link to Robert Gundry's review of Ehrman.