Extra-Curricular Activities 07.27.13

Christopher Wright - Learning to
Love Leviticus

"What we usually mean by "Old Testament law" comes from the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. The word Torah does not really mean "law" in the sense of legislation. It means "guidance." And the Torah guides its original recipients, and us, by setting the laws and commandments within the framework of a story."

Tim Gombis - Philemon &
Onesimus: Brothers in the Flesh

"My main contention in these posts is that commentators must take Paul’s reference to Philemon and Onesimus as adelphoi en sarki with greater seriousness.  It is highly unlikely that Paul regards the two as sharing in a common humanity.  It is far more likely that they are actual brothers."

Randy Boyagoda - Faith in Fiction

"serious literary fiction largely occupies its very own naked public square, shorn of any reference to religiously informed understandings of who and what and wherefrom we are, which represents a marked break from centuries of literary production informed by Christian beliefs, traditions, and culture."

Scot McKnight - Sometimes We Just
Don’t Know

"when I was in high school we read the KJV and it had “giants.”  We see the same in the NLT today. The ESV has “Nephilim” as do the following translations: JPS, NAB, NASB, NIV, NJB, and the TNK."

Joshua Mann – an Interview with Ben Witherington III on Academic Blogging

"I think academics in my field have an obligation to blog and make their work more widely known and readily available to those interested in the Bible. My own experience has been that this doesn’t hinder proper publication of scholarly works, it in fact provides a wider audience for those very works."

Jonathan Pennington - Gospels as the Archway into the Canon

"The keystone of an archway fits in such a way that it holds both sides of the structure in place, thereby enabling an entryway. On the one side of the keystone are the Old Testament Scriptures; on the other side are the rest of the New Testament writings. It is the Gospels that uniquely are shaped, formed and placed to hold together these two major sections of the canon."

Andy Naselli - A 1-Sentence Summary of Each of Screwtape’s Letters

"Make him disillusioned with the church by highlighting people he self-righteously thinks are strange or hypocritical."

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Extra-Curricular Activities is a
weekly roundup of stories on biblical interpretation, theology, and issues
where faith and culture meet. We found each story interesting,
thought-provoking, challenging, or useful in some way – but we don't
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