-
Nestorius B.I.G.
Read more: Nestorius B.I.G.I’ve recently watched a documentary show and some movies about the rise (and in some cases, the demise) of famous late 20th century CE hip-hop artists. Conflicts between American East-coast and West-coast artists and their supporters contributed in many ways to the popularity, but also to the controversy and eventual ruin of some rappers. For…
-
Preserving Ladino: The Conservation of a Sephardic Jewish Language
Read more: Preserving Ladino: The Conservation of a Sephardic Jewish LanguageYou’ve heard of Yiddish, but what about Ladino? Many people are familiar with Yiddish, a German-Hebrew language (a blend, if you will) developed and spoken by Ashkenazi Jews from Europe. Ladino or Judeo-Spanish, a Sephardic Jewish language, is a parallel to Yiddish, though much less known.1 The language goes by other names, such as Judesmo/Djudezmo…
-
Manchester Honours Alan Turing
Read more: Manchester Honours Alan TuringAlan Turing (1912–1954) is kind of a big deal around Manchester, especially at the University. Whenever I have guests visiting me here, I always make it a point to tell them about Alan Turing and to show them some his old office on campus. I’ll give a (very) brief bio about Alan Turing before mentioning…
-
Greece: I perceive in all things that you are very religious
Read more: Greece: I perceive in all things that you are very religiousLast Spring I attended an academic study trip to Northern Greece with some of my colleagues, faculty and postgraduate research students from two other universities (Liverpool Hope and KU Leuven), and some independent researchers. We visited Thessaloniki, Philippi, Kavala (Neapolis), Amphipolis, Thasos, Pella, Veria (Berea), Vergina, and Dion. We had the wonderful opportunity to visit…
-
German and Theology Summer School
Read more: German and Theology Summer SchoolJohannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz Summer School 2017 I recently returned from three weeks in Mainz, Germany at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz for their International German and Theology Summer School 2017. I heard about the summer school from my colleague who attended the summer school last year in 2016. He had a great experience and recommended the program….
-
Experiencing Eastern Orthodoxy and a Recommendation
Read more: Experiencing Eastern Orthodoxy and a RecommendationMany years ago when I was new to biblical faith and largely unaware of other belief systems outside of my own (or at least of the couple congregations I had attended), I met a co-worker who described himself as ‘Eastern Orthodox’. At the time I met him I had been a Christian for only a…
-
A Snippet of Wisdom
Read more: A Snippet of WisdomBefore we left for the UK my wife and I joined one of my graduate professors (and dear friend) for dinner with his family at his home. He gave me lots of needed advice about working on my PhD as he himself worked through his at the University of Aberdeen many years ago. One piece…
-
The Art of Translation: An Example from Luke 2.49
Read more: The Art of Translation: An Example from Luke 2.49The Text that Started It All I received this text message from a friend: “Quick…need a translation/explanation of Luke 2:49.” I found the necessity of a hurried response to be a bit peculiar. Who would need a translation of a verse so promptly? Nevertheless, I supplied my quick, and rather ‘wooden’, translation from the Greek…
-
Rule of the Community, the Prophet, and the Two Messiahs
Read more: Rule of the Community, the Prophet, and the Two MessiahsIn the Qumran text Rule of the Community it states, “They shall be judged by the first judgements in which the men of the Community began to be instructed, until the coming of the prophet and the Messiahs of Aaron and Israel” (1QS 9.10–11).1 We have here “the locus classicus for Qumran messianism.”2 Although this…
-
Excising the Experts
Read more: Excising the ExpertsThe Root Issue: Failure to Listen In my previous blog post, The Art of Listening, I discussed the important and wise lesson behind one of my favorite biblical versus—Proverbs 18:13: “He who gives an answer before he hears, it is folly and shame to him” (NASB). If you have not already done so, I highly…