theLAB

The Logos Academic Blog

The Influence of the LXX

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by Tavis Bohlinger*

Yesterday we celebrated International LXX Day by publishing an essay on The Origin of the LXX. Today we are pleased to present the second half of that essay, because, well, we just love the Septuagint here at Logos (this proves it).

Plus, this gives us the chance to extend the 30% discount on select LXX resources, so you can boost your Logos digital library (see list below; if you don’t yet have Logos Bible Software, check this out). Don’t forget that today is the last day of the sale. [Read more…]

The Didache: what lies beneath

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by the Revd Dr Alan Garrow

Alan’s work recently enjoyed attention as the focus of the $1,000 Synoptic Problem Challenge—as taken up by Mark Goodacre on Bart Ehrman’s blog (we covered the debate here, here, and here). While having an interest in the Synoptic Problem, the primary focus of Garrow’s research is the Didache, or The Teaching of the Lord by the Twelve Apostles to the Gentiles. This article offers an overview of how his research impacts questions about that identity of this infamously enigmatic early Christian document. [Read more…]

Big Data: the Best Way to use your Commentaries and Lexicons

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Using a commentary like you use a lexicon —  it’s not really a far-fetched idea. There are scads of context-sensitive discussions of Greek and Hebrew words locked away in commentaries. [Read more…]

Interview: Williams and Jongkind on the Tyndale House Greek New Testament (THGNT)

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We are honored to have Drs. Peter Williams and Dirk Jongkind of Tyndale House, Cambridge,  join us on theLAB to discuss the Tyndale House Edition of the Greek New Testament (THGNT). [Read more…]

Is the Messiah ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ in Mark 1:24?

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The fuller version of this article was just published in the Journal of Biblical Literature as “The Messiah Is ‘the Holy One’:ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ as a Messianic Title in Mark 1:24” JBL 136, no. 2 (2017): 417–433.

The Messiah is the Holy One of God

I. Introduction

It has become almost obligatory to begin a discussion of ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ (“the Holy One of God”) by conceding that it “was not a messianic title in Judaism.”1 The title never occurs outside the New Testament and, outside of Mark 1:24, it only occurs in two other places (Luke 4:34; John 6:69).2 In light of such paltry attestation, some scholars reach the conclusion of Edwin Broadhead, that ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ is a “largely inconsequential description.”3 Such pessimism is perhaps further warranted by the fact that, despite the efforts of a number of scholars, no compelling explanation for the derivation of this title has been offered.4 Rather, it would appear that the best one can offer is a range of possible connotations that ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ might evoke. [Read more…]

How to read Josephus in Greek like a boss

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It is inevitable that every student of ancient Greek will find a time when they feel out of their depth. Greek literature, as with literature in any language, ranges from relatively easy to read to frustratingly complex. And, since literary Greek syntax is anything but intuitive to native speakers of most modern languages, there will come a time when every student stares at a sentence in a text without even knowing where to start.
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Why the Apostles Rarely Mention the Kingdom

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Why the Apostles Rarely Mention the Kingdom

You may have noticed that “kingdom” language is frequent in the Gospels and in Jesus’ teaching particularly, but that it almost disappears in the rest of the NT. After examining every instance of βασιλεία in the NT, I compiled the following data. [Read more…]

Fighting the Good Fight: When Translations Differ over a Metaphor

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Ἀγωνίζομαι is a Greek word commonly abused by Bible interpreters; and I think it raises an interesting test case for what to do when major Bible translations differ. In this post, I want to try to discern what that word is used to mean in its various contexts. [Read more…]

Practice Greek Like a Master Violinist

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I daily contemplate how I can improve my reading ability in Greek and Hebrew (as well as Latin, German and French). These languages are essential to my career as a biblical scholar. But like muscles without exercise, language abilities atrophy without use.

The problem is this: nobody ever taught me in seminary, in my MA program, nor in my doctoral studies how to properly go about studying the ancient languages on a daily basis. What are the best practices I should employ every day to master, not simply “maintain,” ancient Greek (or any other “dead” language)? [Read more…]

A Strategic Approach to Reading Background Texts of the New Testament

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While many NT scholars may know a whole lot about Matthew–Revelation, many lack the ability to pick up and read Josephus and Clement in the original Greek, or Seneca and Cicero in Latin. This reveals not just a severe lack of language ability, but, more importantly, a lack of familiarity with the ideas and historical contexts of Early Jewish, Greco-Roman, and Early Christian authors and texts.

My belief (and I’m not alone in this) is that, as a NT and Early Christian scholar, I must do more than be mindful of the vast body of literature outside the NT; I actually have to read it. [Read more…]