Thursday was a day filled with meetings, sales, papers, and special events for the Zondervan Academic team. Here are a few snapshots of what we were up to:
Our annual author breakfast: this is a fun event we host every year at ETS. It's a great time to catch up and swap stories. (Can you name the authors pictured below? :-)
Continue reading "ETS update #3: Highlights from a busy Thursday" »
Another highlight from the first day of ETS was a visit from Dr. Hal Poe, co-author of The Inklings of Oxford. He stopped by just to chat and ended up signing an autograph for another of Z Academic's scholars: truly, it was an Inklings-like meeting of the minds.
Continue reading "ETS Update 2: An Inklings meeting at the Conference" »
Dr. Andreas Kostenberger visited the Zondervan Academic booth today for a special reception celebrating the release of A Theology of John's Gospel and Letters - the first volume in the new Biblical Theology of the New Testament (BTNT) series. Dr. Kostenberger will be giving away copies of the book, today through Wednesday, at this link. Here are some pics from the reception this morning.
A tower of Johannine theology! :-)
Continue reading "ETS Update #1: BTNT reception with Andreas Kostenberger" »
John Hannah was recently interviewed about his new book, An Uncommon Union: Dallas Theological Seminary and American Evangelicalism, by Justin Taylor on "Between Two Worlds."
For any DTS alumni planning to attend ETS next week, be sure to attend the annual DTS breakfast for information about an alumni exclusive promotion for An Uncommon Union.
The conversation about internet church services continued this week in an article on CNN.com, "Online Churches draw Believers, Critics." Koinonia contributor, Douglas Estes, was quoted in the article as well as another Zondervan author, Craig Groeschel.
Read a chapter of Estes' book, SimChurch: Being the Church in the Virtual World, here.
I want to continue the conversation from last week when I was talking about verbal, plenary inspiration but this time from the formal side. The question is whether functional translations betray a lower view of Scripture since they don’t translate every Greek word.
Let’s take a passage from the NIV that has long been an issue of debate, and that is the “absence” of translating all the occurrences of γαρ. Here are the relevant parts of Rom 3:9-19 (NIV’s paragraphing). Paul begins by expressing his thankfulness for them and then says:
(8) First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. (9) γαρ God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you (10) in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.
(11) γαρ I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong …. (13) I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.
(14) I am obligated both to Greeks and Non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. (15) That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome.
(16) γαρ I am not ashamed of the gospel, because (γαρ) it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. (17) For (γαρ) in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
(18) γαρ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness ….
The charge can be made that the NIV does not translate the γαρ in vv 11, 16, and 18, and in some people’s minds this raises the issue of verbal, plenary inspiration. “If God inspired the biblical writers to say γαρ, then we should translate every one of God’s words.” The argument is that γαρ is an explicit indicator of a causal relationship that should likewise be explicit in the translation.
Continue reading "Words, and the Word of God—γαρ (Monday with Mounce 49)" »
This is as good as it gets.
At the ETS, IBR, SBL annual meetings next week, we're offering a generous 60% discount on several new resources! (Note: you can see all events and specials here.)
Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament
Only $99.99 (Wednesday and Saturday only)
Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible
Only $120.00 (Thursday and Sunday only)
A Theology of John's Gospel and Letters
Only $16.00 (Wednesday only)
Four Views on Moving Beyond the Bible to Theology
Only $8.00 (Thursday only)
Dr. Andreas Kostenberger and his team at www.biblicalfoundations.org are giving away copies of A Theology of John's Gospel and Letters. Here's a link to the latest winners. Watch that space for more chances at a free copy of the book!
Here's some of the buzz online:
Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth
One of the interesting issues that come up in discussions of translation theory is what I would call the mixing of the idea of a “word” and the “Word of God.” Some say that because Scripture is the Word of God, then we are required to translate word for word.
I believe in verbal plenary inspiration. This means that God’s inspiration extends to all (“plenary”) the words (“verbal”) of Scripture. But I do not think that this mandates the type of translation theory.
A charge from the formal against the functional camp is that the latter cannot believe in verbal plenary inspiration since they “leave out” words. Take, for example, the translation of και, especially in John.
Continue reading "Words, and the Word of God (Monday with Mounce 48)" »
For the entire month of November, enjoy browsing the entire commentary on Judges for FREE on Scribd. We'll be posting additional commentaries from ZIBBCOT over the next 5 months.
Last month, John Walton's commentary on Genesis was available.
Enjoy!
Judges - Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary
