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The Logos Academic Blog

The OUP Handbook Interviews: Timothy Lim on the Dead Sea Scrolls

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The Oxford University Press Handbooks are renowned as go-to volumes for students and scholars alike when embarking on research in new topics, or for seasoned scholars who desire efficiency when seeking to grasp the essential bibliographies for any number of issues within biblical and religious studies.

The second interview in our series is with Timothy Lim, Professor of Hebrew Bible & Second Temple Judaism at the University of Edinburgh, and editor of The Oxford Handbook of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

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Academic Jobs in Biblical Studies and Theology: 1 Jan–5 Mar, 2021

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The Academic Jobs post is back after a hiatus due to the pandemic. We’re back now, playing a bit of catch-up from the first of the year, with the aim of posting the latest jobs in biblical studies, theology, and related fields within academia on a weekly basis. Available posts are currently accepting applications from Wales to Texas, Cologne to Manitoba. Happy hunting.

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The OUP Handbook Interviews: John Collins and Apocalyptic Literature

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The Oxford University Press Handbooks are renowned as go-to volumes for students and scholars alike when embarking on research in new topics, or for seasoned scholars who desire efficiency when seeking to grasp the essential bibliographies for any number of issues within biblical and religious studies.

Over the next few weeks, the Academic Blog will publish a series of interviews with the editors of a number of the OUP Handbooks, which have just been made available for pre-order on Logos.

Our first interviewee is John J. Collins, Holmes Professor of Old Testament Criticism and Interpretation at Yale University, who is the editor of the OUP Handbook on Apocalyptic Literature.

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Hell: What Will You Infer? (Part II)

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by Kris Brossett

In Part I of Kris Brossett’s series he discussed three views of hell, including Eternal Conscious Torment (ECT), Annihilationism/Conditional Immortality (ACI), and Christian Universalism (CU). In this second section, Kris investigates the biblical evidence to analyze these three positions according to his matrix of “mysterious” and “definitive.”

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African Hermeneutics: Extensive Interview with Elizabeth Mburu

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I recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Elizabeth Mburu about her fascinating book on biblical interpretation, African Hermeneutics (Hippo Books/Langham Publications). In this groundbreaking work, she lays out a fresh interpretive methodology, rooted in the rich soil of the African experience. I highly recommend our readers get a hold of this book and digest it slowly, even as the work is a delight to read thanks to her considerate prose.

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What is Hell? Three Views (Part 1)

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Photo by Paul Bulai on Unsplash

by Kris Brossett

What does God say about hell? What is left to mystery and what is definitively revealed in the biblical texts? Not everyone arrives at the same place when they survey the Scriptures, so how are we to respond? Different conclusions have eternal ramifications. I believe the differences lie in disagreements surrounding that which is definitive and that which is mysterious.

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Lockdown Diaries: Anthony Royle, University of Glasgow

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As a father of four children between the ages of 6 and 13, it was challenging during the early stages of the lockdown period to engage with my studies as a PhD student as well as assist my children with their learning.

In hindsight, knowing now the uncertainty of the pandemic and future lockdowns, I would have deferred my studies for six months. Yet, by grace and much support from my wife and my parents who now live with us, I have managed to sneak away for short periods of the day and have managed to make some progress with my work including some extra circular projects.

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On the Biblical and Historical Doctrine of the Trinity: A Response to Wayne Grudem

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Image: © Tavis Bohlinger

by Matthew Y. Emerson and R. Lucas Stamps

Wayne Grudem, Professor of Theology at Phoenix Seminary and highly influential evangelical theologian, has recently released the second edition of his best-selling Systematic Theology (Zondervan Academic, 2020). While many of us have read Grudem with benefit, assigned his textbook in classrooms, and recommended it to others, some of us have also expressed serious concerns about his treatment of doctrine of the Trinity. So, one of the big questions surrounding this new release was whether or not Grudem would qualify any of his previous teachings on the eternal functional submission of the Son to the Father. Having read the revised chapter on the Trinity, it is apparent that Grudem has attempted to make a couple of noteworthy adjustments/clarifications: he now affirms the eternal generation of the Son (though on fairly narrow lexical grounds and without any significant reference to or defense of the eternal procession of the Spirit) and admits (in some sense) that there is one divine will (although it’s difficult to see how these admissions cohere with his broader understanding of the Trinity; more on this later in the essay). But rather than retract any of his former writings on EFS, he actually doubles down. He still believes the Son is functionally subordinate to the Father, not just in terms of his incarnate mission, but in the eternal life of God himself, even speculating (with only a little caution) that this relationship of subordination in function is precisely what distinguishes the persons as persons. 

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The Cliffs of דֹּבֵר: Steep Interpretive Differences in the Book of Jonah

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by Philip Morrow

Many of us know Jonah as the story of a rebellious prophet and a repentant people. We know its protagonist is no hero, acting in defiance of God’s will. Looking closer, even the pagan characters appear more devoted to Israel’s God than His own messenger. But each reader of this story will walk away with a different impression of just how stark these contrasts are. There are just enough gaps in the story to make it a dangerous one, as the interpreter is tempted to retell it with commentary on Jonah’s psychology. For many, Jonah seems to rebel in fear (1:3), repent under distress (2:2–9), and eventually relapse into unjust anger (4:1). For others, he is obstinately merciless all the way through (4:2–3) and even the sincerity of his prayer is questionable (2:10).1

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Why Verbal Aspect Improves Preaching, Part 3: Case Study

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By Donald C. McIntyre

See also Part 1 and Part 2.

A Case Study in Matthew 2:1–12

There are forty-seven verbal forms in this pericope; all but 10 verbal forms are perfective aspect. Of those ten forms that are not perfective, one is stative, two are future, and the remaining six are imperfect or present tense. Porters method combines the aspect found in the tense of the verbs with associated elements that are attached to the mood. Applying his theory will begin with the most basic argument of his theory, that imperfective aspect is “defined foreground” information, and then proceed to his views on the perfect tense, where he finds the aspect to be stative, and “well defined foreground information” for discourse purposes. The analysis will end with a discussion of Porter on mood before explaining the future tense, since Porter does not give the future tense an aspect but leaves it as a mood of expectation. It should be noted that since the aorist is “main line” to the discourse, the aorist tense verbs should be seen as the basic plot structure, which is slowed down by the foregrounding devices.

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