In this excerpt from Walking in God’s Wisdom, Benjamin T. Quinn lays out five essential ingredients of biblical wisdom. One of my favorite questions to ask people is, “How would you define wisdom?” It is an interesting question as I’ve never met anyone—Christian or not—who was uninterested in wisdom. In fact, many cultures and world religions
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A Guided Tour of Corinth
In this excerpt from Transformed in Christ, Ron Elsdon and William Olhausen provide some insight into the history and culture of Corinth. Many cities, past and present, have reputations, including the Greek city of Corinth. But was its reputation deserved? Two of Paul’s letters usually command more attention than the others. In the case of
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Context is King: Get a Focused View of the Biblical Text in this New Commentary
When studying a given passage in the Bible, it can sometimes be difficult to get your bearings. Taking a verse out of context is a major no-no, so understanding how that piece fits into the larger picture is an important interpretive step. The Lexham Context Commentary helps you do exactly that — see the “forest”
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What Can Biblical Studies Learn from Martin Luther?
In this excerpt from the introduction to Always Reforming, Channing L. Crisler outlines Martin Luther’s approach to reading and interpreting scripture, and how his hermeneutic can inform scholarship today. “Comfort yourself with the Word of God, the pre-eminent consolation.” In this way, Martin Luther consoled a father and husband suffering the loss of both his
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Signs of the Messiah: An Interview with Andreas Köstenberger
John’s Gospel is written to inspire faith in Jesus. In Signs of the Messiah, Andreas J. Köstenberger—veteran New Testament scholar and expert on the Gospel of John—guides readers through John and highlights its plot and message. By keeping the Gospel’s big picture in view, readers will see Jesus’ mighty signs and be compelled to trust
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The Death and Resurrection Motifs of Joseph’s Narrative
In this excerpt from Figuring Resurrection, Jeffrey Pulse explains how death-and-resurrection motifs play a critical role in understanding Joseph’s story in the book of Genesis. Many scholars over the centuries have engaged with Joseph and his story, and their efforts have often borne useful fruit. One aspect of Joseph’s story, however, has been somewhat neglected.
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Who Was the “Disciple Whom Jesus Loved”?
Formally, like all the Gospels, John’s Gospel is anonymous. Unlike the New Testament letters, it doesn’t start out by saying, for example, “I, the apostle John, wrote this Gospel.” That’s because a Gospel is not person-to-person or person-to-group communication like an epistle is. Rather, as Richard Bauckham and others have argued in The Gospels for
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How Does Genesis Define Evil?
Evil is predominantly found to refer to anything that departs from God and his good ways established in creation and in covenant. The shortest definition of evil is a violation of divine design. However, this does not fully account for covenant, the broad range of meaning of the lexeme רע (evil), or the role of
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Suffering and Wisdom in the Book of Job
The book of Job is regularly called a theodicy. Yet if by “theodicy” one means an answer to that age-old dilemma, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” then the label does not fit very well. The answer to human suffering is glaringly absent. But if it is taken to mean the vindication of
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Does the Historicity of the Book of Daniel Matter?
Daniel is one of the most disputed books in the Hebrew Bible. To most theological conservatives, the book of Daniel gives historically reliable accounts of Daniel and his friends and contains genuine, detailed, and remarkably fulfilled prophecies. To critical scholars it is a work of fiction with many historical errors and prophecies that are only
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