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A very helpful resource for reading the Greek New Testament

Michael H. Burer & Jeffrey E. Miller, A New Reader’s Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2008; ISBN 978-0825420092; £23.99 (list price). I’m a bit behind in discovering this book, but now that I have, I recommend it warmly to friends who have learned Greek in the past and are puzzling over ‘keeping it up’. The New Reader’s Lexicon gives you the meanings of Greek words found less than 50 times in the New Testament, verse by verse through the whole NT. There are just over 300 Greek Continue reading →

A fun book: thanks, Ben Witherington III!

I’ve greatly enjoyed reading this little (158 pages) book  by Ben Witherington III over the last few days. It’s a novel in which he tells the story of a week in the city of Corinth, but it’s no ordinary week. The story features a former slave, Nicanor, who has returned from Roma after a business trip for his ex-owner, now friend, Erastos. Nicanor meets various people, and finds himself in the midst of political intrigue, for Erastos is standing for the office of aedile in Continue reading →

Two scintillating links

Here are two scintillatingly good links to pieces I’ve really enjoyed watching (the video) and reading (Joel Green’s article). The video is a short (12 mins) talk by Ian McGilchrist, author of The Master and His Emissary, one of the most interesting books of recent times. McGilchrist is a neuroscientist who reflects seriously, and non-superficially, about the relation of the two hemispheres of the brain, and rejects the popular ‘left brain = rational, right brain = creative’ approach. He draws fascinating implications for the dominance of Continue reading →

A cracking conference is coming!

The Centre for Social-Scientific Study for the Bible (of which I’m an affiliate) announces an excellent conference on ‘Evil in Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity’ which we shall be holding at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham on Friday 23 and Saturday 24 May 2014. We have a top-notch slate of speakers and a major (and neglected) topic to study—open to all interested. There is a reduced fee for students, including research students—and there is the chance to offer papers if you are doing research Continue reading →