theLAB

The Logos Academic Blog

Exclusive Interview with “The Chosen” Producers

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Leading up to Easter, my family was looking for something to watch. Our typical Easter plans were ruined by the quarantine, and we hoped to find a digital experience that would help to fill that void. My wife suggested The Chosen, which she’d heard about from the late Ravi Zacharias. I am not really a fan of media attempts to capture gospel stories. I was more interested in finding a lecture by a theologian. I was outvoted, however, and we settled on the chosen. I opened my laptop to absentmindedly peruse Facebook. There’s no way this show is any good. 

I was wrong.

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COVID-19 and The Mark of the Beast

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Watching the news a few days ago, I saw photos and videos of those protesting the COVID-19 quarantine on full display. I’m growing weary of how certain biblical texts are attached to certain political movements and demonstrations—texts that are, quite frankly, misused and misunderstood. Sadly, Christianity ends up getting misrepresented in the process.

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Logos Responds to COVID-19 with Thousands of Free Resources: the Remote Learning Library

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Logos has just created the Remote Learning Library in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Knowing that thousands of students are now restricted to studying from home, we are making thousands of resources freely available to faculty and students worldwide. Here are the details:

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Karl Barth Doctrine of the Word of God: Part 1 of 3

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by Justin Eimers

One of the most challenging areas to speak about earnestly is our treatment of the Holy Scriptures. Within the Evangelical community, words like inerrancy and infallibility have been weaponized to intimidate and silence people who are asking simple questions of the text and the Christian community for its adherence to it.

Many Christians know little about these words or their meaning, and even fewer understand how a believer and a non-believer can read the same text and yet come away with entirely different understandings of it. For this, I think it is essential that we look to one of the most formidable theologians in the church’s long history named Karl Barth.

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The Word’s Role in Creation in John 1:3

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Confusion at family devotions

Not long ago, a friend of mine was reading the Bible with his family. His kids had picked out some new Bibles – New Living Translations – so he brought home another copy he had at the office so they could all be on the same page. He started reading from John 1, but he didn’t get far before red flags began to fly. In verse 3 he read, “He [the Word] created everything there is.” Wait a minute, he thought. That goes against what I believe about creation and the distinctive roles of the members of the Trinity! The confusion only grew as his kids chimed in, “Daddy, that’s not what mine says!” (Their NLT said, “God created all things through him.”) My friend decided to check his Greek New Testament, and discovered that the word θεὸς did not even occur in this verse. What was going on here? Why were these two NLT versions so different from one another and from the other English versions he knew? And most importantly, do these differences reflect arbitrary translation choices, or are they theologically significant?

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Hearing the Scripture Reader’s Voice: Biblical Performance Criticism in the Classroom

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Biblical performance criticism is a methodology based on the assumption that much of the literature collected in the Bible represents oral performances that were at one time either told from memory or presented as prepared readings before audiences.1 The performance critic studies the biblical writings as oral performances with the aim to uncover certain conventions of orally performed texts—features often neglected when employing other biblical critical methodologies.

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Design Showcase: Crossway’s Catechism, To Be A Christian

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The latest Design Showcase instalment features an interview with the Rev Dr Joel Scandrett, the Executive Editor of “To Be A Christian,” in which we talk catechisms, Anglicanism, J. I. Packer, and the design elements of this exciting new resource for the church (and not just Anglicans).

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a prior: David Palmer’s Research on NT Rhetoric Tables

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A Priori is a newish series on the theLAB in which we put three simple questions to scholars undertaking important research in biblical studies, theology, ethics, and more. We love to hear from authors whose mission is the church, whose vocation is research. This week we hear from David Palmer and his work on rhetoric tables in the New Testament.

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Why Study Ezekiel? Interview with Ryan Boys

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The 17-hour Mobile Ed course on Ezekiel, taught by Daniel Block, is currently on pre-pub through Logos. This is a tempting offer; I love reading Ezekiel due to its cinematic visuals (the Valley of Dry Bones), but have never formally studied it. So I took the opportunity to chat with Ryan Boys about the book.

Ryan has the chops to speak on Ezekiel. He’s been swimming in the visions of the prophet for quite some time now, currently working on a manuscript under contract with Fontes Press. He also published an article in Christianity Today last year on the topic of preaching Ezekiel. Here’s what Ryan had to say about Ezekiel, and why you should study it.

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What if We Got the Temptation of Jesus Wrong? Part II

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Part 1 of this series dealt with understanding various issues surrounding the testing of Christ in Matthew 4:1-11 in terms of translation, syntax, and historical context. This present survey will examine the same passage in literary context, particularly Jesus’ use of Deuteronomy, as an exercise in intertextuality. You can read Part 1 here.

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Sown Natural, Raised Spiritual: The (Nevertheless) Physical Resurrection Body

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Many readers of 1 Corinthians 15:44 have puzzled over the language with which Paul contrasts the Christian’s body as it presently exists, on the one hand, and as it will exist after being resurrected, on the other hand. In the preceding verses, Paul says the former is “perishable,” exhibits “dishonor,” and suffers from “weakness,” but the latter will be “imperishable,” display “glory,” and enjoy “power” (vv. 42–43). So far, so good. Paul goes on, however, to confuse readers for generations to come, calling the Christian’s present body “natural,” and her future resurrection body “spiritual.”

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Questioning the Translation “At the Name of Jesus” in Philippians 2:10

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Image: © Tavis Bohlinger

For those of us involved in translation work, it is not uncommon for the text to surprise us as we wrestle with its meaning. At times, careful study shows us where familiar translations have led us astray. We find ourselves caught off guard, yet marveling at the truth of what the text is really saying. 

This is exactly what happened to me as I worked to produce my own translation of Philippians 2.

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