Boldly professing the obvious since 2009
My wife and I make a practice of reading together every night before we go to bed. We’ve recently been going through the autobiography of George Müller—the guy who built several orphanages despite having no paycheck, never directly asking for money, and never going into debt—and I thought there were a couple passages worth noting [...] Read more »
This month’s Biblical Archaeology Review includes a nice piece by Doron Mendels on Why Paul Went West (subscription required), highlighting the difference between the Jewish diaspora communities of the (Roman/Hellenistic) west and the (Babylonian) east, explaining that it only makes sense for Paul, with his fluency in Greek and roots in the culture of the [...] Read more »
I’m pleased to report that I have officially advanced to the rank of Ph.D. Candidate. I had my oral defense yesterday (following a nightmare of a week with four prelims in five days last week) and was a bit surprised afterwards to have been awarded “Honors” for my preliminary exams. My exams were as follows: [...] Read more »
Haven’t had much chance to blog lately as I’ve been feverishly preparing for my preliminary exams (took my Greek prelim on Monday, with my four main subject exams coming the week after Thanksgiving), but lots has been happening out there and I can’t stay away entirely. One notable bit of news is that the updated [...] Read more »
Stephen Carlson has put up a good post on why the translation of σάρξ as anything other than “flesh” in Gal 3:3 is “weak tea.” Carlson observes that Paul is making a point concerning literal flesh—the foreskin—but many translations unfortunately treat Paul’s language as metaphoric, translating σάρξ as “human effort” or other related phrases. I’ll [...] Read more »