Yearly Archives: 2016

Let Christmas Set the Tone for the Year

Unlike January 1, Advent and Christmas begins the year meaningfully and in the proper perspective: new beginnings are here not because you have decided that it is so or are going to make it so, but because God has decided that it is so and has sent Jesus to make all things new.

“Good Will Toward Men”, Lectio Difficilior, and the Inspiration of Scripture

Luke 2:14 has well known variant readings (is “good will” nominative or genitive?), and despite scholarship preferring one over the other, the choice between these readings is not clear. How do variant readings and translations affect our understanding of the inspiration of the Bible? What if ambiguities weren’t something God intended to work around but something he intended to work within.

Understanding Bible Translation Methods

Because virtually all Bible translations strategically use the word-for-word and thought-for-thought methods where necessary based upon a threshold of difficulty unique to that translation, we shouldn’t fall into the error of thinking that there are “word-for-word” translations over here and “thought-for-thought” translations over there, and one category is automatically better than the other. It just doesn’t work that way.

When Word-For-Word is Not so Word-For-Word

Even someone as awesome as William Tyndale can make a mistake. And even as revered a translation as the King James Version can unthinkingly perpetuate it.

Wrestling With God in the Comments Section

God doesn’t need us to defend his integrity in the comments sections of the Internet. What he wants from us is that we be trusting enough in his goodness that we join with the world in wrestling with hard questions honestly and not piously ignoring them. Being a faithful witness for God isn’t about self-righteously dismissing doubters but about pointing to God in the midst of the doubts.

Principles of Bible Reading: From Text to Application

Good Bible interpretation is radically text-centered and moves from text to application. This involves avoiding confirmation bias, letting the Bible determine subject matter, and not insisting that every text be reducible to an ethical “action point.”

Review: thetheology.org

An extension of the YouTube channel, “The Theology Q&A”, thetheology.org is a Christian forum website designed to be a place where questions about the Bible and theology can be asked and answered. It’s a place to have conversations about the Bible with other people who may have questions.

Principles of Bible Reading: How Else Could It Be Said?

An important assumption of close reading, whether or not the text at hand is Scripture, is that every detail matters. Every detail can and should be subjected to scrutiny. One way we can subject details to scrutiny is by asking, “How else could it be said?” By asking this question we attempt to replicate the thinking that constructed the text.