A Thorough, Accessible Introduction to the Greek Translation of the Old Testament
Scholars and laypeople alike have stumbled over Bible footnotes about the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Many wonder, What is it? Why do some verses differ from the Hebrew text? Is it important to Scripture?
In this introduction to the Septuagint, Gregory R. Lanier and William A. Ross clarify its origin, transmission, and language. By studying its significance for both the Old and New Testaments, believers can understand the Septuagint’s place in Judeo-Christian history as well as in the church today.
Biblical Greek Vocabulary in Context by Miles V. Van Pelt is designed to reinforce a student’s basic Greek vocabulary by presenting words that occur twenty-five times or more in the context of the Greek New Testament.
Miles Van Pelt collates all 513 of these Greek words into approximately 200 key biblical verses and/or verse fragments to help students practice reading them in their literary context and thus improve their Greek vocabulary retention. Rather than rote memorization, Van Pelt’s approach teaches word meaning through each word’s naturally occurring context–the way people naturally learn languages.
The book includes two primary sections:
- The first section provides room for students to write their own glosses of the biblical verse and to parse as they feel necessary. An English translation is also provided, and any term that appears less than twenty-five times is glossed. Proper names are identified with gray text.
- The second section of the book provides the same biblical verses from the first section but with minimal room to write glosses and parse and without an English translation for aid. The end of the book includes a Greek-English lexicon of all the words occurring twenty-five times or more in the Greek New Testament.
An insightful assessment of Christian baptism as a sign of safe passage through troubled waters.
We are used to having our parents help us, but how do we handle it when the tables are turned and our parents are the ones who need help? Declining health, financial needs, divorce, relational issues—what’s an adult child’s role when their parents are struggling? Or when there is conflict with them because of differing lifestyles and parenting philosophies?
Counselor Jim Newheiser understands the many types of challenges adults may face in their relationship with their parents, whether it be their parents’ financial strain, a struggle to properly care for their home or their health, conflict related to care for the grandchildren, or destructive relational choices. He helps readers understand their responsibility to honor their parents, and to be prepared to help with their needs, but also to recognize their first responsibility to their relationship with the Lord and their own marriage and children. He also gives guidance on what offenses to graciously overlook and what offenses to handle with gentleness and love. Ultimately, there may be some bad situations that are out of your control, but you can always be a loving representative of the Lord in how you respond.
Praying should be as urgent and necessary to us as breathing―yet all too often we’re bored by it, distracted from it, or uncertain of its purpose. We don’t really know why we should pray.
We have many reasons to be excited about prayer, as Guy Richard shows us. It is the relationship glue that bonds our hearts more and more to the Lord. God commands us to pray, and he graciously answers our prayers. As we pour out our hearts to him, we and the world around us will be changed.
Informative, encouraging, and practical, this brief book will serve as a helpful primer for pastors, elders, study groups, and Christians who seek encouragement and instruction on prayer and its blessings. As do all books in the Blessings of the Faith series, this short volume concludes with answers to frequently asked and pertinent questions on the topic.
An overview and analysis of John Webster’s seminal contributions to Christian theology
At the time of his death, John Webster was widely hailed as one of the leading Christian theologians in the world. Over the course of three decades, he produced groundbreaking studies on the theologies of Eberhard Jüngel and Karl Barth and, especially since the turn of the millennium, numerous books and essays on various themes in Christian dogmatics. He then intended to write an encyclopedic systematic theology—a project he was unable to complete.
No substitute is possible for that lost opus, but the contributors offer this volume as an homage to Webster and an aid to those who want to learn from him. A Companion to the Theology of John Webster begins with an introductory section on Webster’s theological development, then continues into an extensive overview of Webster’s contributions to contemporary discussions of particular doctrines. An epilogue suggests how Webster’s theology might have unfolded had he lived longer and imagines the continuing influence of his work on the enterprise of Christian dogmatics. Readers hoping to understand the legacy of this great theologian, and also those eager for fresh insights into the present state and future trajectories of contemporary Protestantism, will find much to offer here.
A leading New Testament scholar provides an easy-to-navigate resource for studying and understanding the Gospels. Written with classroom utility and pastoral application in mind, this accessibly written volume summarizes the content of each major section of the biblical text to help students, pastors, and laypeople quickly grasp the sense of particular passages. The series, modeled after Baker Academic’s successful Old Testament Handbook series, focuses primarily on the content of the biblical books without getting bogged down in historical-critical questions or detailed verse-by-verse exegesis. The book covers all four Gospels and explores each major passage, showing how Jesus is the central figure of each plot. It also unpacks how the Old Testament informs the Gospels.
Seeing the Trinity in Scripture
Orthodox Christians affirm and worship a triune God. But how should this affect our reading of the Bible? In The Trinity and the Bible, Scott R. Swain asserts that not only does the Bible reveal the Trinity, but the Trinity illuminates our reading of the Bible.
Swain reflects on method and applies a Trinitarian framework to three exegetical studies. Explorations of three genres of New Testament literature―Gospel, epistle, and apocalyptic―display the profits of theological interpretation.
Through loving attention to the Scriptures, one can understand and marvel at the singular identity and activity of the triune God.
Corpus Christologicum is a compendium of approximately three hundred texts–in Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, Ethiopic, Syriac, Coptic, and other languages–that are important for the study of Jewish messianism and early Christology. In recent decades, the study of Jewish messianic ideas and how they influenced early Christology has become an incredibly active field within biblical studies. Numerous books and articles have engaged with the ancient sources to trace various themes, including “Messiah” language itself, exalted patriarchs, angel mediators, “wisdom” and “word,” eschatology, and much more. But anyone who attempts to study the Jewish roots of early Christianity faces a challenge: the primary sources are wide-ranging, involve ancient languages, and are often very difficult to track down. Books are littered with citations and a host of other sometimes obscure writings, and it can be difficult to sort them all out.
This book makes a much-needed contribution by bringing together the most important primary texts for the study of Jewish messianism and early Christology–nearly three hundred in total–and presenting the reader with essential information to study them: the critical text itself (with apparatus), a fresh translation, a current bibliography, and thematic tags that allow the reader to trace themes across the corpus. This volume aims to be the starting point for all future work on the primary sources that are relevant to messianology and Christology.
A Passage-by-Passage Commentary of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth
Designed to strengthen the global church with a widely accessible, theologically sound, and pastorally wise resource for understanding and applying the overarching storyline of the Bible, this commentary series features the full text of the ESV Bible passage by passage, with crisp and theologically rich exposition and application. Editors Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton, and Jay Sklar have gathered a team of experienced pastor-theologians to provide a new generation of pastors and other teachers of the Bible around the world with a globally-minded commentary series rich in biblical theology and broadly Reformed doctrine, making the message of redemption found in all of Scripture clear and available to all.
With contributions from a team of pastors and scholars, this commentary’s contributors include:
August H. Konkel (Deuteronomy)
David Reimer (Joshua)
Miles V. Van Pelt (Judges)
Mary Willson (Ruth)
Considered by many to be one of the most influential German Pietists, August Hermann Francke lived during a moment when an emphasis on conversion was beginning to produce small shifts in how the sacraments were defined—a harbinger of later, more dramatic changes to come in evangelical theology. In this book, Peter James Yoder uses Francke and his theology as a case study for the ecclesiological stirrings that led to the rise of evangelicalism and global Protestantism.
Engaging extensively with Francke’s manuscript sermons and writings, Yoder approaches Francke’s life and religious thought through his theology of the sacraments. In doing so, Yoder delivers key insights into the structure of Francke’s Pietist thought, providing a rich depiction of his conversion-driven theology and how it shaped his views of the sacraments and the church. The first in-depth study of Francke’s theology written for an English-speaking audience, this book supports recent scholarship in English that not only challenges long-held assumptions about Pietism but also argues for the role of Pietism’s influence on the changing religious landscape of the eighteenth century. Through his examination of Francke’s theology of the sacraments, Yoder presents a fresh view into the eighteenth-century ecclesiological developments that caused a rupture with the dogmas of the Reformation.
Original and vital, this study recognizes Francke’s importance to the history of Pietism in Germany and beyond. It will become the standard reference on Francke for American audiences and will influence scholarship on Lutheranism, Pietism, early modern German studies, and eighteenth-century history and religion.
There is much at stake in God making humanity male and female. Created for one another yet distinct from each other, a man and a woman are not interchangeable―they are designed to function according to a divine fittedness. But when this design is misunderstood, ignored, or abused, there are dire consequences.
Men and women―in marriage especially, but in the rest of life as well―complement one another. And this biblical truth has enduring, cosmic significance. From start to finish, the biblical storyline―and the design of creation itself―depends upon the distinction between male and female. Men and Women in the Church is about the divinely designed complementarity of men and women as it applies to life in general and especially ministry in the church.
In an accessible Q&A format, biblical counselor and former financial consultant Jim Newheiser presents financial wisdom that is grounded in faithful biblical exegesis and rooted in sound theology. How can you create and balance a budget? How can you get out of debt? What insurance do you need? He answers these questions and more, providing a go-to resource for laypeople and those who counsel them.
The Trinity is one of the most essential doctrines of the Christian faith.
The eternal God existing as three distinct persons―Father, Son, and Spirit―can be difficult to comprehend. While Christians often struggle to find the right words to describe this union, the Bible gives clarity concerning the triune God’s being and activity in nature (creation), grace (redemption), and glory (reward). In this concise volume, theologian Scott Swain examines the doctrine of the Trinity, presenting its biblical foundations, systematic-theological structure, and practical relevance for the church today.
A variety of views and nuances of covenant theology exist within the Reformed church and the broader evangelical world. This book seeks to explain covenant theology as presented in the Westminster Confession of Faith as a starting point for discussions of covenant theology and as a foundation to evaluate other views. Some variations of covenant theology are minor and do not impact the system of doctrine of Reformed theology, but other variations are major and impact important doctrines associated with justification by faith. Attention is also given to the views of confessional Baptists, as well as those who are evangelicals and operate with a covenantal approach to Scripture. This book combines a straightforward explanation of basic covenant theology followed by more detailed analysis of other views.
Reflections on Keeping Your Faith in College
Preparing for college is exciting for young adults―but are they truly prepared for the intellectual challenges they will face in and out of the classroom? College is not just a time filled with new and formative experiences; it can also be an intense season of testing for a young Christian’s faith.
Writing in the form of a letter to his college-age daughter, Michael Kruger reflects on some of the biggest stumbling blocks Christian students often encounter at secular universities. Answering questions such as How can Christianity be the only right religion?; How can we know the Bible is really from God?; and Wouldn’t a loving God save everyone?, Kruger offers biblical, theological, and logical support for the Christian faith and provides students with the tools to navigate these challenging topics. College students wrestling with these issues will be encouraged to find security in God’s unfailing word even in the face of difficult questions.
