With various helpful videos in the internet about helping us understand the modern world by asking "what if the world were 100 people" I have had in my mind to make something similar for my own discipline, namely what would the Roman Empire look like if it were 100 people during Jesus' day?
As a teacher and a scholar of the New Testament, I’m passionate about good resources for Bible study. The reality is that most of the best resources cost something, particularly the more in-depth resources. But, the good news is that there are still a number of great resources that don’t cost a dime.
I am teaching for the first time a class on the Gospel of John, and having a great time doing so. One of the first things I tackled in the class was authorship – namely, who is the Beloved Disciple, the author of the Gospel?
I'll make a confession on behalf of all professors: we dislike poorly formatted papers. And while students may find it nitpicky, there are actually very good reasons for properly formatting an assignment. It allows the professor to focus on your content, rather than getting distracted by how presentation.
It has been awhile since I made a YouTube video and thought it was about time! I chose a passage of scripture that for pretty much my entire Christian life I have seen misused in the context of a communion service. Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and please be sure to share this post if you liked the video, so more can see it! (below is a transcript if you'd rather read it than watch it).
I am launching a new product today for my fellow colleagues in Biblical Studies and theology called A Digital Supplement for the SBL Style Guide, 2nd Ed. A big thanks to my TA Evan Colford for helping me finalize this product and get it ready for distribution.
Logos is recognized as having the largest digital library for Biblical and Theological studies. Most people don't realize that Logos as a software is itself free - just go to the download page and download it.
Logos 6 has introduced a total of 24 brand new interactive media resources to their library. Much of this interactive media is cross-linked throughout the software (in the guides, factbook, etc.) but can also be accessed in both the tools menu as well as in the library, where they are categorized as "interactive."
Chances are that if you've visited my site, and definitely if you've been my student, you know about my Singing Grammarian publication. In case you don't know about it, the Singing Grammarian is 18 songs and visual presentations for learning New Testament Greek.
By the time I was into my second year of undergrad, I was firmly set upon going forward in my studies, working on a PhD in New Testament, and teaching the New Testament as my vocation. I am very grateful that I have been able to realize my goals, and I'm in a wonderful position as an Assistant Professor at Acadia Divinity College.
I have just recently graduated with my PhD in New Testament (yay me!). I did the degree part-time. Everyone's situation is different, but I think there are a whole lot of principles that will apply to any PhD student in theology, whether you are doing a residential degree, distance degree, part-time, or full-time. So as you read this brain dump in no particular order, keep in mind that I'm writing it from the perspective of a Biblical Studies student.
In my previous post, I talked about the Ancient Literature connections that Logos 6 introduced – which allows its users to see the important connections with non-biblical literature. In this post I want to explore some new features of Logos 6 that greatly advance word studies in the primary languages.
With the advent of Logos 6 comes some great new features for both pastors and scholars. Over the next little while, I want to highlight some features that I feel really stand out for scholars in particular. The first is the new Ancient Literature Dataset
As most of you know, Greek is one of my main area's of focus and one of my early projects was the Singing Grammarian – 18 songs for learning Greek. But for a time I also taught Hebrew and during those few years I set out to write some songs for learning Biblical Hebrew grammar as well. The project never really got finished as I stopped teaching Hebrew and moved on to other things. But I thought it was about time to put these out for the world to make use of. So below are six songs for learning Biblical Hebrew grammar. You can find it on my YouTube channel in its own playlist. Enjoy all you Biblical Hebrew learners!
Please enjoy this video I just uploaded to YouTube, explaining why Matthew's and Luke's genealogy of Jesus is different. If you enjoyed it and think other will, please share it via social media too! The transcript is below. For more information specifically on Matthew's creative counting, see my previous blog post.
It seems to be a basic law of human nature that we have difficulty seeing the flaws in our own writing. We put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboards) and we think that what comes out is perfectly coherent and anyone with half a brain should be able to understand it. Then someone else reads it. All of a sudden, we recognize that we aren't as brilliant, insightful, and clear as we thought we were. In this post, I want to offer some tips on how to be more clear when we are writing, as well as how to be better editors of our own writing. While I am for the most talking about academic writing, I think many of the principles apply to more casual writing as well.
With the summer of violence in the holy land, it dawned on me that these are the times when the rubber really hits the road in terms of theology and exegesis. We are no longer talking about things of the past or what I believe, but about war and people actually dying- and I think theology (specifically Christian theology) plays an important part in this. Do I believe that the Jewish people were promised and given that land by God? Do I believe that the people of God are only those who are in Christ? Do I think all this is part of the unfolding of prophecy in the Bible? Or is it just political circumstances?
Finding the right sources for doing theological research can be difficult if you are not sure where to look. Fortunately for us, the information age has utilized some great resources out there to help us harvest good information.
In my previous post I highlighted the six reasons every academic and university student should be using a Reference Manager. In this post I will highlight some of the top apps out there in this category. I have had hands-on experience with most of these apps at one time or another.
The job of the student and academic is to swim through and manage a sea of reference material. Lucky for us, technology has indeed kept up with this need. In this post I want to introduce you to the one type of app that I think every academic and student can utilize to help manage academic literature: the reference manager.
Have you ever wondered why Matthew and Luke's genealogy of Jesus is different? It is clear to most scholars that Matthew is not intending to create and exhaustive genealogy of Jesus (or more specifically Joseph), but rather a dynastic genealogy. Matthew is using the genealogy to show how Jesus is in the line of dynastic succession. As such, the evangelist is not focused on an exhaustive list.
Google Books is an awesome resource to help you in your study. I am on the site constantly and have found it invaluable in my academic studies. Let me tell you how.
A while back I was listening to a podcast about mentors by Michael Hyatt (one of my favorite podcasts) and it had me reflecting on people that have had an influence on me. One of the things Hyatt talked about was finding mentors and learning from people you don’t necessarily even know - learning through podcasts, books, etc. There are a number of people I would point to as being mentors in my life: people I try to continue learning from. From time to time on this blog I want to take time to reflect on some things I’ve learned from my mentors.
Where Did The Greek Deponents Go? Answer - they never existed in the first place. I learned Greek from David Alan Black’s book Learn to Read New Testament Greek. But over the course of teaching introduction to Greek and developing mobile apps to learn Biblical Greek, I have become familiar with all of the major intro Greek grammars and have now written my own too.
Those of you in the field of Biblical Studies know that it is important to keep your eyes out on the latest journal publications. Even if you don't read every article, you want to keep an eye out on the articles coming out so that you can keep on top of areas of your own interest. Even for those articles that aren't in your area of interest, reading the abstracts quickly on new articles is a great practice to cultivate.
