A feather in your theological cap.
The personal blog of pastor, grammarian, and runner Brent Niedergall
Book Review: Superheroes Can’t Save You
It’s pretty rare to find Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man in a book on theology. Theologians typically draw the line at Jesus Christ when it comes to who can save the world. So where do superheroes come in when it comes to theology? Well, Jesus Christ is, in fact, the...
Can You Return to Somewhere You’ve Never Been?
There are plenty of places I could conceivably return to. I could return to Canada, Afghanistan, or Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. I could return to those places because I’ve been to those places before. I could not, on the other hand, return to Cuba, Albania, or...
Birds, Bats, Hearts, and Love
An early Valentine’s dinner last night led to chicken parmigiana on the table. When you’re eating chicken parm, you probably don’t give lots of thought to the reality that you’re eating a dead bird. What other birds have you eaten before? Turkey, maybe duck, pheasant....
He or She? The KJV, the MT, and Gender Mismatch
Who is he, he is she, and me is who. That’s a phrase Hebrew students learn to remember how the Hebrew word pronounced WHO means “he,” the Hebrew word pronounced HE means “she,” and the Hebrew word pronounced ME means “who.” Slightly confusing (and this is probably the...
Book Review: Introduction to the Septuagint
We just can’t seem to get enough of the Septuagint. It appears to be approaching the levels of demand usually reserved for stuff like coffee, chocolate, friendship, and sunlight. It’s fair to say that I own more Septuagint-related books than I reasonably require. And...
Book Review: von Siebenthal’s Ancient Greek Grammar for the Study of the New Testament
How I wish I could say I’ve internalized Koine Greek! How nice it would be to sit down and read my Greek New Testament with the same level of proficiency I have with English! But the reality is, I haven’t spent the thousands of hours of immersion necessary to equip me...
Friday Favorites (31 JAN 20)
Findings From Around The Web to Butter Your Grits Joey McCollum offers an introduction to his work of producing an open-source implementation of the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method (CBGM) in a guest post at Evangelical Textual Criticism. The Biblical Studies...
Present, Past, and Purpose: The Historical Present in the New Testament
My TV stopped working. Or my TV remote stopped working. I couldn’t tell which because I could get the TV to do some things, but not others. Thankfully, there’s a simple test to see if your remote is working. Remotes emit infrared light. And although the naked eye...
Friday Favorites (24 JAN 20)
Findings From Around The Web to Butter Your Grits Timothy N. Mitchell at The Textual Mechanic explains how an ancient author could exercise control over a message by tasking their messenger to deliver an oral message along with their letter. Clint Archer at The...
Book Review: Preaching for a Verdict
After reading Preaching for a Verdict: Recovering the Role of Exhortation by J. Josh Smith, I have a new criterion for evaluating preaching. Is the preacher urging his hearers to action? On Sunday, I listened to two sermons. This morning, I read over my manuscript for...