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War in the Bible: an Examination of Biblical Conflict and Violence
The Bible doesn’t flinch at portraying the world’s violence, especially during wartime. And while there is no such thing as a kind and gentle war, you might be surprised to learn t...
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Why Must Perseverance Finish? - James 1:4 (Monday with Mounce 94)
I saw the strangest wording today. The pastor was reading passages on joy out of the NIV (1984), and he came to James 1:4. “Persevera...
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Can Jesus Sanctify Himself? (Monday with Mounce 93)
Came across a great illustration in church today about the nuances and complexities of translation.
The pastor was preaching on John 17:17-...
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What’s a “Strong” Tower? - Prov 18:10 (Monday with Mounce 92)
In church today we sang the song, “the name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and they are saved.” I checked the upd...
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“Should” or “Will” Perish? - John 3:16 (Monday with Mounce 91
We teach students in first year Greek that the subjunctive mood carries the idea of “should” or might.” But then they come to a verse like ...
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Was Jesus’ Body “For” You or “Broken” for You? - 1 Cor 11:24 (Monday with Mounce 90)
My brother-in-law asked me a question that came up in his Bible study the other day, and it illustrates several interesting points of Greek...
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The Ehrman Project - Explaining not Attacking
I have to admit when I first heard about a project to address the works of Bart Ehrman I was a bit wary. There are more than enough attack b...
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“Are being saved” - 1 Cor 15:2 (Monday with Mounce 88)
Paul writes to the Corinthians, “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,...
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Are you Christian “Nice”? (Monday with Mounce 87)
I was in a strange situation the other day. I ran into a couple who had been part of a difficult situation in my past. For the wife’s part,...
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Is it “He” or “Which” that Sanctifies? Heb 2:11 (Monday with Mounce 86)
Someone asked me a while back about the word that begins Heb 2:11, ὅ (smooth breathing and accent). It looks like a relative pronoun, which...
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Can the Imperfect not be Continuous? (Monday with Mounce 85)
One of the dangers of learning Greek is that after a while you feel like you have a handle on things and don’t need to keep reviewing gramm...
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Is the Holy Spirit a She? (Monday with Mounce 84)
Heard a fascinating piece of bad exegesis the other day. The Holy Spirit is a she. 
The basis of this claim was that the Hebrew word ...
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Weird Passives (Monday with Mounce 83)
We normally teach passives in a straight forward way. The subject of a passive verb receives the action of the verb. "The answer was g...
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Thoughts on Keeping your Greek
I'm up early this morning, as usual. Today it is so I can practice the indicative forms of λύω for a quiz I'll be taking in a...
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Singing New Testament Greek?
Over the past few years Dr. Ken Berding has taken a new approach to teaching the grammar of New Testament Greek, singing it.
That's righ...
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“Gospel of Glory,” or “Glorious Gospel” in 1 Tim 1:11? (Monday with Mounce 80)
Functional equivalent translations are used to taking exegetical positions. After all, they are committed to trying to convey the meaning o...
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“With” or In” the Spirit - Mt 3:11 (Monday with Mounce 79)
In the early times of Greek, before Classical Greek, there weren't prepositions. Basic ideas were associated with the different cases, ...
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