The Ryan Center 2011 Bible study conference, “Read the Bible for Life,” is rapidly approaching! We are still well ahead of the deadline and registration is around 170. The reduced rate hotel rooms sold out, but we have been able to secure a few more with the lowered rate through tomorrow, March 23 (details here, …
The book of Fourth Maccabees (a Jewish book from around the time of Jesus) gives a powerful portrait of a faithful father. In context, the mother of sons who had died for allegiance to their faith, reflects on her husband’s work in training their sons: A happy man was he, who lived out his life …
In my Johannine Literature class today we discussed John 4 and Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well. There is much to learn in this passage, not least how in John 4 and John 3 we see Jesus dealing with individuals. A few years ago I wrote a brief article discussing lessons we can …
Continue reading ‘Learning Evangelism from the Great Soul Hunter’ »
Prefaces and Acknowledgments are often some of the most intriguing parts of academic books. Often you get a glimpse into the heart of a person, and quite often you see who or what has motivated them. David Norton, one of the foremost authorities on the King James Bible, has a new book titled, The King …
“…possession of the scripture in English was prima facie grounds for suspicion of heresy, and a heresy trial could result in imprisonment, excommunication and even death by burning. Nevertheless, some two hundred and fifty manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible, or parts of it, survive, considerably more than of any other text in Middle English” (Mary …
Having commended the poetry of Frank Stanton, here is one of my favorites from him which might be useful for a Monday and comes to my mind since my travel plans this weekend were interrupted by a snow storm. 🙂 “A Country Philosopher” The cold has killed the corn off an’ blighted all the wheat; …
Here is another excerpt from Adam Nicolson’s, God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible. Here Nicolson is describing the widespread attentiveness to Scripture and the in depth, intense preaching of the day. Something to aspire to: “…week after week, preachers would occupy their pulpits analysing texts, pursuing moral and theological arguments, exercising the …
I have commented several times here on the value of poetry. One poet I particularly appreciate is Frank L. Stanton (1857-1927), who was the first poet laureate of Georgia. His poems are primarily a celebration of the simple pleasures of life rooted in the rural South. I recently acquired a book of his poems which …
Adam Nicolson, in God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible, contrasts the careful, rich use of language found in the King James with the more recent New English Bible. I think he is absolutely right. “The flattening of language is a flattening of meaning. Language which is not taut with a sense of …
Adam Nicolson, in his book, God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible, describes Puritans this way: “A puritan ate and drank the word of God. That word was his world.” (123) Nicolson does not intend this as a compliment, and there were errors of various sorts associated with various ones known as”Puritan.” However, …