The Books of James & First and Second Peter: Faith, Suffering, and Knowledge by Mal Couch and Ed Hindson has a useful listing of the injunctions from James (“The commands of James are these:”); I’ve included a few additions in boldface and brackets: James 1 Consider it all [that is, all trials] joy. Let endurance … [Read more…]
The takeaway here is that the heterosexual love between a married couple is a divine gift and to be treasured. It’s a straightforward book. Some other, random and unprofound, thoughts: This book is also called the “Song of Solomon”; note the third-party reference to King Solomon in 3:9. In addition to hot passages (see, e.g., … [Read more…]
God cares about our physical actions (including sexual perversions). He wants us to help one another and obey Him: Hate the sin, but rescue/show mercy on the sinners. God loves us. We are to be servants/slaves of Christ. Those who act immorally will be punished (in this life or the next). Don’t brag, grumble, or … [Read more…]
These are the two books in the Bible named after women. There’s an obvious message here (whether or not the titles were themselves inspired by God): Not only men are worthy in God’s eyes. The eponymous women are admirable in many ways, including their being bold and brave and smart, but it’s interesting that both … [Read more…]
This post will try to distill from each minor prophet’s book what he says God wants us to do or not do. This unsubtle approach can be taken with any book of the Bible, but seems particularly appropriate for these fellows, who were by and large pretty straightforward in what they wanted to communicate and … [Read more…]
In deciding to read this book I recalled the author’s excellent Acts commentary (discussed elsewhere on this site), and learned that an admired polymath law professor had read the author’s history of Christian thought (five volumes or so) and endorsed it. There were some occasional insights in this book, and not a lot I actually … [Read more…]
I plucked this nugget from the Weekly Standard (Wray Herbert, “Faith of Their Fathers,” December 7, 2015, reviewing Private Doubt, Public Dilemma: Religion and Science Since Jefferson and Darwin by Keith Stewart Thomson): William Gladstone, the longtime British prime minister, responded to the emerging fossil record by noting that “the order of origins was identical … [Read more…]
This is an interesting book, but I should note that a lot of it is more about the secular times than about anything directly relevant to the Word. The author’s basic thesis is that King James wanted the translation to be an inclusive, unifying work, drawing together Protestants ranging from establishment bishops to near-Separationists. But … [Read more…]
What a find! I stumbled onto this book in the stacks at the public library; it would be worth buying as a reference and re-reading. The author starts with Alexander the Great and ends with the late first/early second century. The basic idea is to put the New Testament texts in their historical context. The … [Read more…]
Bloom is a traditionalist when it comes to criticism, but he is not a believer. He takes issue with C.S. Lewis a few times; Lewis apparently objected to the whole enterprise of reading Scripture as literature. I read only the introduction and the New Testament part (not the Old Testament or Apocrypha, which are by … [Read more…]