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Rome catacomb reveals "oldest" image of St Paul - Yahoo! News

(author unknown) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 15:52:48 PDT

Vatican archaeologists using laser technology have discovered what they believe is the oldest image in existence of St Paul the Apostle, dating from the late 4th century, on the walls of catacomb beneath Rome.

New Greek New Testament Manuscripts On-line

noreply@blogger.com (Tommy Wasserman) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:56:00 PDT

Daniel Wallace, director of the Centre for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts announces on Wieland Willker's Textual Criticism discussion list that 36 MSS from Athens have recently been uploaded to the CSNTM website including 30 MSS from the Benaki Museum and six from the National Historical Museum.

See also our previous report on the new MSS found in Athens here.

Moreover (also via Willker), three more MSS now have Gregory-Aland numbers. They belong to the Van Kampen collection and are located at the Scriptorium in Orlando, Florida:

Scriptorium, VK 272 is GA 2895
Scriptorium, VK 862 is GA 2896
Scriptorium, VK 906 is GA 2897

See our previous reports on the Van Kampen collection here and here.

Waters Reviews Wright’s Latest

R. Scott Clark — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:23:55 PDT

At Ref21.

Posted in Covenant, Justification, Pastoral Ministry Tagged: covenant nomism, justificatiion, n. t. wright, New Perspective(s) on Paul

Ten Theology Books for Your Beach Bag

JT — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:09:14 PDT

Collin Hansen recommends some new releases.

A mathematical conundrum

noreply@blogger.com (P.J. Williams) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:41:00 PDT

According to Ehrman (Misquoting Jesus, p. 84), John Mill (1707) examined readings in 100 Greek mss, and concluded there were 30,000 variants. Ehrman notes that we now have 57 times (his figures) the number of witnesses available to Mill (p. 88) and that there are between 200,000 and 400,000 variants (p. 89), which, incidentally, is more variants than there are words in the NT (p. 90).

Why should there be approximately 57 times more witnesses and only (very) approximately 10 times more variants? Were Mill's figures bloated? Or do subsequently discovered mss reveal ever lower proportions of previously unknown variants? What role do different estimates of the versions play in this?

Words fail me: murderous Christianity

(author unknown) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:20:58 PDT

Here's an interview with a pastor who speaks to God and is praying for Obama's death now that Tiller has been murdered. I find this overwhelming.

The Worst And Saddest Of Yahoo! Answers - Geekologie

(author unknown) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:22:34 PDT

The Worst And Saddest Of Yahoo! Answers

Pastor's comments on Tiller 'unbiblical' (OneNewsNow.com)

(author unknown) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:19:24 PDT

Kutcher outraged by conviction of US journalists in North Korea - Yahoo! News UK

(author unknown) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:13:39 PDT

Ashton Kutcher has demanded American politicians race to free two US journalists convicted for illegally entering North Korea, insisting Monday's shock news of their

The Lost Art of Reading Aloud

JT — Thu, 28 May 2009 10:00:00 PDT

Reading books aloud has fallen out of favor these days, unless it's parents reading to their children. But for Christians, reading publicly is a command for all the churches (1 Tim. 4:13).

The New York Times' Verlyn Klinkenborg had a good editorial recently on the lost art of reading aloud. Read the whole thing, but here's the conclusion:

You can easily make the argument that reading silently is an economic artifact, a sign of a new prosperity beginning in the early 19th century and a new cheapness in books. The same argument applies to listening to books on your iPhone. But what I would suggest is that our idea of reading is incomplete, impoverished, unless we are also taking the time to read aloud.

Readers should ponder Klinkenborg's following suggestion with regard to the reading of Scripture:

one of the most basic tests of comprehension is to ask someone to read aloud from a book. It reveals far more than whether they understand the words. It reveals how far into the words--and the pattern of the words--the reader really sees.

This Fall Zondervan will publish Unleashing the Word: Rediscovering the Public Reading of Scripture by Max McLean and Warren Bird. The book includes a DVD, as well as a foreword by Ravi Zacharias.

Though other contemporary books may be available (if so, leave a comment), the only other one I know of is Thomas Edward McComiskey's out of print (though still available used) book,
Reading Scripture in Public: A Guide for Preachers and Lay Readers.

HT: Scott Polender of Simeon Trust

Sponsor:

Esther Dyson

(author unknown) — Sun, 31 May 2009 17:00:00 PDT

"The Internet is like alcohol in some sense. It accentuates what you would do anyway. If you want to be a loner, you can be more alone. If you want to connect, it makes it easier to connect."

J. Frank Dobie

(author unknown) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:00:00 PDT

"The average Ph.D. thesis is nothing but a transference of bones from one graveyard to another. "

Chinese Calvinism flourishes | Andrew Brown | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

(author unknown) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 17:25:17 PDT

Andrew Brown: The churches that follow Calvin are the third largest Christian grouping in the world. In China they hope to become the religion of the elite

Chinese Christianity is more than Calvin | Fredrik Fällman | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

(author unknown) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 17:22:03 PDT

Fredrik Fällman: The new Chinese Christianity takes many forms. But is a strong church likely to emerge, and what would that mean?

JBMW Arrives Online

Brent Nelson — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:30:28 PDT

With great thanks to Editor Denny Burk and Associate Editor, Christopher W. Cowan, we are glad to announce the arrival of the Spring 2009 issue of the Journal on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (JBMW).

Dr. Denny Burk offers a pointed editorial on the inevitable clash of worldviews when biblical complimentarianism collides with egalitarianism in both its religious and secular forms.

Dr. Wayne Grudem, one of the founders of CBMW, supplies a helpful perspective - on that few others could provide - on the history of the controversy over God's design for the two sexes in his article "Personal Reflections on the History of CBMW and the State of the Gender Debate."

You'll also find a thorough-going response by philosopher Stephen B. Cowan to an idea espoused by many egalitarian scholars that the three persons of the Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Spirit cannot be different in role if they are one in essence. First offered at the 2008 Evangelical Theological Society gathering in Providence, Rhode Island, his paper is entitled "The Metaphysics of Subordination: A Response to Rebecca Merrill Groothuis."

Dr. Tom Schreiner serves the reader well with his perceptive book review "Who's Explaining Away Blue Parakeets? A Review of Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008."

Finally, Associate Editor Christopher W. Cowan examines an attempt to feminize the vocabulary we use to refer to God in "Rob Bell's "Feminine Images" for God: A Review of Rob Bell, NOOMA: "She." Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008."

More articles will be available this fall. If you would like to subscribe to the JBMW you may do so here.

The gender debate is far from over, and likely will only intensify and diversify. We trust this issue of JBMW will contribute clarity and cogency to an often visceral debate.

The World’s 10 Weirdest Vending Machines | Business Pundit

(author unknown) — Sun, 31 May 2009 06:12:40 PDT

Vending machines have been around since the first century AD. By today's accounts, even the first vending machine, which dispensed holy water to temple

The Google Book Settlement

Chip MacGregor — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:07:52 PDT

I've had more than twenty people write to ask my opinion of the Google book settlement. Some thoughts...

1. In case you don't know, Google was taking out-of-print (oop) books and digitalizing them. They made a big hoopla out of this, as though they were doing all these authors a favor by making hard-to-find titles available for everyone. There's certainly benefit in making oop books available, but there was also a problem: those books weren't in the public domain yet. So one could argue (with good reason, in my opinion) that Google was intruding on the authors' rights by making those books available without a signed contract with the creator. The Author's Guild shared that sentiment, sued Google, and together the two sides worked out a resolution.

2. I was not really a huge fan of the whole Google settlement. In my view, the United States has the greatest intellectual property rights laws in the history of the world, so why do a shortcut because one organization decides to sue? I mean, we already have a resolution method in place -- it's called "negotiation and contract," and we use it all the time in publishing. Still, it's a reasonable argument to suggest that this settlement moves a lot of author careers forward by making their work available again. Google will be doing two things... First, they'll make the title, table of contents, and a sample number of pages available online for anybody to check out. That should lead to a lot of digitalized or print-on-demand books being ordered by consumers in the near future. Second, they will simply offer the digital books to universities and libraries for free. That's the basics of the settlement.

3. This may come as a shock to you, but there's money involved. Imagine -- our cozy little corner of the world, people were trying to take advantage of authors. I'm stunned. (Yawn.) This was nothing more than a blatant power-grab by Google, and at least this settlement means authors have the potential to make something. It ain't much, but it's better than nothing (which is what you were going to get if Google had been allowed to do this unrestrained). The settlement sets up a book registry to resolve disputes and watchdog the process, but it basically looks like this -- if you own the rights to your book, you'll get 100% of the income, minus the Book Registry's fee; if the book is oop but the rights remain with the publisher, all monies will be split half and half; and if the book is long oop (published before 1987) but rights have never reverted,the income will be split 65% to the author and 35% to the publisher.

4. So what do you do as an author? If your book is still in print, you don't have to do anything. Your publisher will complete the process, and the terms of your book contract will apply. If you have a book that's out of print, you have three choices... You can opt in to the settlement (and therefore relinquish your right to sue Google if they've already digitalized your book), or opt out (good luck suing Google), or you can do nothing, in which case the Justice Department will eventually treat you as though you opted in. To me, this is a no-brainer -- opt in. The only reason to opt out is to sue Google independently, and that looks like a Herculean task.

5. What are the benefits of opting in? You'll share in all revenues your book earns. If people read a portion of your book and like it, they can purchase a digital (or, somewhere down the road, a POD copy), making you money. If people print out pages at the local library, they'll pay a rights fee and you'll get that money. If someone creates an ad that includes your book, you'll make some money. If your book is included in some library or university subscription service at some point, you'll make money. In other words, all those rights that currently earn you nothing could begin to earn you an income at some point. That's the big reason to opt in.

6. What do I need to do? If you have a book that is oop, check to see if the rights have reverted to you. If so, you should go to the Google site (www.googlebooksettlement.com) and register your books. You want to make sure they know you own the rights -- that way if there is any revenue in the future, you'll get paid. If you have a book that is still under contract with a publisher, your publishing house will work out the details with Google for the future digitalizing of your work. And one important thing to note: If you own the rights to a book that Google has already digitalized without your permission, you're eligible to receive a cash payment from them. It's only about $60, but that'll buy you a decent dinner, and you probably weren't making anything on it anyway.

7. Can't my agent take care of this for me? Nope. The agent isn't the rights holder. You are. He or she helps you manage your rights, but the rights are yours. It's in your best interest to set up an account and manage your Book Registry information.

8. Is the Google Book Settlement the same thing as the Google Book Search? No, it is not, and that seems to be confusing people. The "search" aspect is something your publisher may do with Google -- it allows them to make the text of your book searchable through Google. Not all the publishers are participating, since some simply don't want to be partnering with Google at this point. But these are two completely different initiatives that involve both "books" and "Google."

There's been a ton of debate over this, and we're not done. The Justice department is reviewing the whole schlamozzle, and has said it will issue a ruling in October. Again, this isn't a perfect resolution, but given the choices, I think authors should opt in. I want to quote my friend Steve Laube, a very good literary agent who wanted his authors to understand why he's supportive of the Google settlement. He noted that he was researching a topic and, through Google, found a book that spoke to his need: "It's not piracy but obscurity that is the danger to the writer. I looked up a nonfiction book recently, found the information I needed on a page, just like I would have done at a library... I was able to retype the quote and the appropriate citation and bibliographic info. I almost bought the book and may still do so. But I would not have been able to find the information I needed without Google Book Search."

If you need more detailed information, you should talk it over with your agent. I'll try to answer some questions in my "comments" section below, but again, I think the best choice for an author in this situation is to opt in to the settlement. Hope this helps.

Chip

The Importance of the Biblical Languages in the SBC: for the Gospel’s Sake

Benjamin J. Montoya — Thu, 21 May 2009 07:00:35 PDT

Today many see the biblical languages as something that are useless to learn. They base this idea on several arguments. For example, one argument often put forward is that we have such great commentators that the individual student, pastor, teacher, etc., simply has no need to learn the biblical languages. Another argument which is often made is that we have such good English translations that we simply have no need to learn the languages. However, I believe Martin Luther has a good lesson for all of us to learn concerning the biblical languages. He faced a similar situation in Germany when people were asking him why they ought to learn the languages when they could read their German Bibles. His response is as follows:

Without languages we could not have received the gospel. Languages are the scabbard that contains the sword of the Spirit; they are the [case] which contains the priceless jewels of antique thought; they are the vessel that holds the wine; and as the gospel says, they are the baskets in which the loaves and fishes are kept to feed the multitude.

If we neglect the literature we shall eventually lose the gospel….No sooner did men cease to cultivate the languages than Christendom declined, even until it fell under the undisputed dominion of the pope. But no sooner was this torch relighted, than this papal owl fled with a shriek into congenial gloom….In former times the fathers were frequently mistaken, because they were ignorant of the languages and in our days there are some who, like the Waldenses, do not think the languages of any use; but although their doctrine is good, they have often erred in the real meaning of the sacred text; they are without arms against error, and I fear much that their faith will not remain pure (Martin Luther, as citied in John Piper’s The Legacy of Sovereign Joy: God’s Triumphant Grace in the Lives of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin [Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2000] 97).

In this quotation Luther explains that the gospel is at stake in learning the languages. He grounds this in the fact that the means by which the gospel comes to us is through the languages. Therefore, it behooves us all to learn the languages. Obviously, we have great commentators today; nevertheless, just as the “fathers were frequently mistaken” so are our commentators as they are fallible. Also, we have amazing English translations; however, none of the English translations are perfect or ever will be. Therefore, if we as Southern Baptists believe the gospel is important - which we do - then we should give ourselves to the task of learning the languages.

I personally know that learning the languages can be difficult as I have spent the many hours learning them and help teach students these things Nevertheless, is not the gospel worth our blood, sweat, and tears? I believe it is. Ours is a day wherein we have numerous resources with which to learn Greek and Hebrew; if someone reading this post is unaware of these resources please let me know by commenting on this post and I will provide a list.

Ancient handle with Hebrew text found in Jerusalem

(author unknown) — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:48:30 PDT

Archaeologists digging on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives have discovered a nearly 3,000-year-old jar handle bearing ancient Hebrew script, a find significantly older than most inscribed artifacts unearthed in the ancient city, an archaeologist said. The Iron Age handle is inscribed with the Hebrew name Menachem, which was the name of an Israelite king and is still common among Jews.

First Temple remains discovered in Jerusalem | JTA - Jewish & Israel News

(author unknown) — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:30:35 PDT

Remains from the First Temple period were discovered in eastern Jerusalem.