Tavis Bohlinger"If we completely detach our modern-day applications from a text’s original, historical context, we risk misapplying the text—sometimes in embarrassing ways."
"even if your translation is correct because you by chance picked words in the target language whose concepts overlap sufficiently with those in the original, this correct translation is not of much use. For you will have *nothing but* the...
"As the Lucan Jesus states, the Christ-movement is the 'community amidst a violent world' (“lambs among the wolves,” Luke 10:3) which fights for harmony, peace, and welfare in the context of injustice and oppression."
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...
Didaktikos"My goal as a professor is for you to do what you need to do here at the church—not just always rely on, as you were saying, things from the West, but to have there be a mutuality."
"Most NT scholars are not well-acquainted with cognitive linguistics. (I’m certainly not.) That’s why I think we should be all the more careful when we immerse ourselves too deep in associative meanings."
A Priori is a recently launched series on the theLAB in which we put three simple questions to scholars undertaking important research in biblical studies, theology, ethics, and more. This week we hear from David McCollough and his social...
Nijay GuptaImage: © Tavis Bohlinger
One of the most important set of resources in which students of the Bible and pastors can invest is New Testament backgrounds and context. We will divide up our discussion into four categories.
Part 1: Introduction Why this blog post series? Beginning this April, I will work as an assistant at the University of Basel at the chair of Prof. Moisés Mayordomo. Already on my second work day, I was going to give a presentation in the...
A recent article detailed what higher education might look like after COVID-19. I agree with most of the observations in that article, if the goal is simply to return to the pre-pandemic status quo. But what if we took this disruption as an...
A Priori is a new series on the theLAB in which we put three simple questions to scholars undertaking important research in biblical studies, theology, ethics, and more. We seek out the authors whose work may be poised for future renown in this...
"I chose intentionally to forsake the possibility of reading broadly and chose to read much more narrowly instead."
Charles C. Helmer IV"Even in our isolation, we live as members of a divine reality, a community made real by God through Christ and by the Spirit."
Integrate Knowledge and Praxis Through Contextual Teaching and Learning Kristen Ferguson | Gateway Seminary If information automatically led to transformation, then it would be easy. We could upload our fact-filled videos, pour ourselves another...
Image: © Tavis Bohlinger Until a few weeks ago, COVID-19 was a distant problem that many discounted as superfluous to their life; it is a global catastrophe. No one today questions the relevancy of COVID-19 to their local community. The surge of...
A Priori is a new series on the theLAB in which we put three simple questions to scholars undertaking important research in biblical studies, theology, ethics, and more. We seek out the authors whose work you might otherwise never hear about, who...
A number of publishers and resource providers have made their journal articles and books available freely on the internet during the present coronavirus pandemic. Steve Walton has compiled those which are relevant to New Testament Studies into an...
Students and pastors should have a few really good introductions to the New Testament in their personal library. The good news is that there are lots to choose from. But with such a wide selection comes questions about preferred academic level...
Google Classroom . . . has great potential to meet several institutional needs and can be easily adopted for theological education.
"John the Evangelist was originally identified with a figure otherwise known as John the Elder, and that he only later came to be identified with John the son of Zebedee, the Galilean fisherman of the Synoptic Gospels."
Image: © Tavis Bohlinger by Andrew M. King, PhD Dr. Tavis Bohlinger penned a very thoughtful response to my recent FTC article on first-year language students leaving their Greek and Hebrew Bibles at home during corporate worship. I heartily commend...
"My goal was to imbibe Scripture in its original form in every conceivable situation where reading, even briefly, might be possible."
"I propose that biblical and theological scholars leave North America and learn a new language, then teach in their fields through the medium of that new language."
I thought, “If a nonbeliever can study theology, certainly believers should be studying theology with folks of different theologies.”
"If a Bible translation requires me to pull out my smartphone dictionary when it could just say broom, and if I won’t even know to look up false friends, then we’ve got a Bible that is no longer accessible to Tyndale’s plowboy."
"It is one of the most painful deficiencies of Biblical study at the present day that the reading of the Septuagint has been pushed into the background, while its exegesis has been scarcely even begun."
The prayer guide Operation World has taught me much over the years. By its estimates, only 16.7 percent of Christians lived in Africa, Asia, and Latin America in 1900. That figure rose to 63.2 percent by 2010 and is projected to reach 70 percent in...
"There is a sense in which we can say that men like Gerstner, and Edwards before him, 'lost' their battles with Culture."
"Don’t be shy about being your type of mentor. It’s your motive that counts, not the method or formula you use to mentor."
"Seminary students want to know and be known in their classes. If you are committed to caring for your students, they will respond and engage."