Deciding which religious books are going to rule your life is no small issue. In a word, it is called "canon" (kanon), the "measure" by which a religious community seeks to comply in its religious thought, ethics, life, and even discipline. Therefore, when a church discourses on such matters, it cuts to the very heart […]
Wednesday, 30 April, 2014 by Bryan D. Estelle
Gregory Beale has written a gem of a handbook for pastors, scholars, and all those concerned with a serious engagement of the New Testament's reading and use of the Old Testament. Beale is known particularly for his work on quotes and allusions of the Old Testament (OT) that appear in the New Testament (NT). This […]
Friday, 28 February, 2014 by Bryan D. Estelle
What The Iliad and The Odyssey were to the Greeks and what The Aeneid was to the Romans, the book of Exodus was to the Hebrews. It was the story within which they defined their own lives as a story. Let the reader understand: the Exodus event was paradigmatic or world defining for the […]
Thursday, 31 October, 2013 by Bryan D. Estelle
Scott Hahn has written a useful volume for the academic community with a well-researched book on the subject of covenant. The final product of years of sustained labor and reflection, this is a reworking of Hahn's doctoral dissertation and will be of immense interest to all students of the Bible, professional and otherwise, because it […]
Thursday, 01 March, 2012 by Bryan D. Estelle
Recovering the Message of Scripture In this special section of our "Rightly Dividing the Word" issue, nine pastor-theologians help shed light on some popular texts of Scripture that tend to lose their true redemptive-historical significance in a culture of interpretive narcissism. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. (Gen. […]
Wednesday, 01 September, 2010 by Bryan D. Estelle
Some years back, the late E. J. Young was speaking in a church and responded to a question asking for an overview of the Bible. Dr. Young's response was full, yet simple and edifying. In From Age to Age, Mathison has written a similar overview of the Bible with a focus on eschatology. The format […]
Tuesday, 01 September, 2009 by Bryan D. Estelle
Just how much history does the Bible contain? Not much, according to a productive group of scholars, who have earned the title of "minimalists" or even "nihilists" by some because of their skeptical views on the historicity of ancient Israel as recorded in the Bible. These academics, as one of them says, contend that, "theology […]
Tuesday, 15 May, 2007 by Bryan D. Estelle
Theory will always color the outcome of the analysis of texts, including the Old Testament. This is evident in two new important books by Kenneth Kitchen and William Dever addressing the historical reliability of the Old Testament. Dever, a well-respected archeologist, was inspired to write this book by the flurry of media attention accompanying his […]
Thursday, 03 May, 2007 by Bryan D. Estelle
In a publishing world where there is no shortage of books about the biblical creation account, especially from the early chapters of Genesis, add one more from P & R publishing by Old Testament Professor C. John Collins at Covenant Theological Seminary (St. Louis, MS). This book differs from many other recent books on creation: […]
Wednesday, 02 May, 2007 by Bryan D. Estelle