On reading books

Catching up on my reading lists:

I have been reading quite a bit lately. Up until 1998 I would read 4-5 fiction books, 2-3 historical books, plus 3-4 theological books every week. But since then have not read many historical works. Now I read 2-4 fiction books per week and always have 3-5 theological books in progress. So here is my update on theological and historical reading.

Theological books to review:

Soon I will post book reviews of the following theological ones. I have finished reading the first two.

Brunn, Dave. One Bible, Many Versions: Are All Translations Created Equal? IVP Academic, 2013.

Bateman, Herbert IV. Charts on the Book of Hebrews (Kregel Charts of the Bible and Theology). Kregel Publications, 2012.

Kierspel, Lars. Charts on the Life, Letters, and Theology of Paul (Kregel Charts of the Bible). Kregel Publications, 2012.

Harvey, John. Interpreting the Pauline Letters: An Exegetical Handbook (Handbooks for New Testament Exegesis). Kregel Academic, 2012.

And a change of pace

I have read many history books over thepast 45 years. Usually I will read several books on a specific topic or time period, then move on to another. In early adulthood, I read much on World War II; my father, uncle, and father-in-law all served in the Pacific, so it was close to my heart and family. A neighbor had been a survivor of the Bataan Death March. When I went into the Navy in the early 1970’s Watergate was becoming big news. So for a few years that topic interested me.

World War I also fascinated me, because several of our neighbors had fought in the War. I helped several of them with their farming, etc. They never talked about it, but one had suffered miserably from it. I had read a few books over a period of 4-5 years, but eventually quit reading anything on it.

The futility of WWI and the stupidity of many leaders finally overwhelmed me. The stubbornness of leaders sending hundreds of thousands of troops into certain death just did not set right with me. This last week when I was looking for more books to read, my wife picked up one on display. She looked at it and I checked it out.

Groom, Winston. A Storm in Flanders the Ypres Salient, 1914-1918: Tragedy and Trumph on the West. New York, NY Atlantic Monthly Press, 2002.

Cover via Amazon

And so I begin another journey into this war. My heart still aches at the senseless suffering and death. But this book is so well written that I am drawn into it. The author does more than present the agony of death; he invites us into a better sense of it throughout the 4+ years of fighting.

Voskamp on Depression

Ann Voskamp has a way with words and images. Her post from Monday looks at the need and opportunity for the Church to minister to those who hurt. She challenges the Church to be Church for those who suffer and the families who endure.

What Christians Need to Know about Mental Health

I once heard a pastor tell the whole congregation that he had lived next to the loonie bin and I looked at the floor when everyone laughed and they didn’t know how I loved my mama. I looked to the floor when they laughed, when I wanted them to stand up and reach through the pain of the flames and say:

Our Bible says Jesus said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick.” Jesus came for the sick, not for the smug. Jesus came as doctor and He makes miracles happen through medicine and when the church isn’t for the suffering, then the Church isn’t for Christ.

Thanks, Ann, for setting before us once again to be what Christ has called us to be.

Here is today’s post: so good!

When Life Burns… What We Could Do for Each Other

Desperation of prayer

Depression—a pleasant surprise

This post is one that I thought I would never write. Not because it is bad, but the opposite. I have battled severe depression for at least the past 30 years, always between the end of January to the beginning of April (except for 1997-1999 when it went on for three full years and three more years to recover). You can read about some of that in these posts.

Depression—the triggers that surprise

Depression and Memory

 The blessings of family and friends

Sometimes it is hard

Have you hugged your porcupine today?

So what has happened this year? I have not sunk to the depths of despair and depression as in the past (with no medicine!). It is so unusual that each night for the past 12 weeks, I have gone to sleep thinking: will tomorrow bring that pit? Will this day end with the plunge into depression tomorrow? It’s almost as if this is too good to be true. Will the “other shoe drop”?

And yet, it has not! There has not been the crash, the loneliness, the isolation, that I keep expecting. This is so unusual that I am still getting used to this. Right now I can’t even point to something that changed in my life. I am very thankful to God that I have gone through this period without depression. I don’t remember the last time that was true.

At this time I understand a little better and appreciate what Paul wrote:

Our bodies are made of clay, yet we have the treasure of the Good News in them. This shows that the superior power of this treasure belongs to God and doesn’t come from us. In every way we’re troubled, but we aren’t crushed by our troubles. We’re frustrated, but we don’t give up. We’re persecuted, but we’re not abandoned. We’re captured, but we’re not killed. We always carry around the death of Jesus in our bodies so that the life of Jesus is also shown in our bodies. (2 Corinthians 4:7-10 GW)

In quiet thankfulness and humility, I praise God for this respite! But still I am sensitive to those who battle depression. We can pray for them, asking God to bring relief. Thank you for family and friends who have walked both the good and bad. This is one of the good times.

Related articles

• The Depression Epidemic (christianitytoday.com)

Book Review: Jesus the Messiah

Jesus the Messiah: Tracing the Promises, Expectations, and Coming of Israel’s King is a monumental work with a breadth of coverage and detail that is not often matched; it is not intended for a casual read nor quick study of Scripture. It is a fine volume and will be a valuable addition to many personal libraries. The audience is for “anyone seriously versed in Scripture” (p. 35). Specifically, “it is written for all those who wrestle with how the messianic portrait and claims of Scripture for Jesus work within human history and divine revelation” (p. 35), and it helps “nudge others to consider moving beyond the notion that all First Testament readings about ‘messiah’ were fixed and only spoke directly about Jesus” (p. 35). Obviously that is a tall order. The authors do an admirable job of presenting material to lead them to this goal. While there may be individual points to disagree with, the book achieves its purposes.

Jesus the Messiah: Tracing the Promises, Expectations, and Coming of Israel’s King

The book follows the subtitle, as each author presents one major section: Promises (Johnston), Expectations (Bateman), and Coming (Bock).

1. Promises of Israel’s King: Johnston follows the promises from Genesis through Zechariah. He covers the major messianic figures, especially the Davidic trajectories in chapters 2 and 3. I was surprised, though, that nothing was mentioned in regard to Joshua and the commander of the army as potential messianic background and promise (Josh. 5). The extended discussion of Isaiah was excellent. However, the absence of Isaiah 7 and 8 in any of the discussion left untouched another perspective of promises.

Extensive material is available for detailed study in these critical areas. The move of Genesis 3 discussion to an appendix was not convincing; the more I read the book and followed the arguments, it seemed even more critical that it should have been within the first section.

2. Expectations of Israel’s King: This section covering the inter-testamental period and the development of the Messianic expectations during the second temple period. He notes three challenges for studying this time period: 1) limited resources, 2) blurred vision (familiarity with Second Testament and early church opposition to Judaism), and 3)lack of historical and social sensitivities.

This is the section that is least familiar to most readers. Therefore, the extensive tables and maps and lists of leaders, writings, etc. are extremely helpful. This section alone makes the purchase of the book worthwhile.

3. Coming of Israel’s King: Bock’s presentation looks at the New Testament documents as presenting the fulfillment of the promises and expectations. He offers many details and valuable summaries. I think the strongest part of this section is his work with Galatians, 2 Corinthians, and Romans

The major disagreement I have with this section does not relate to content, but rather methodology. In the first two sections there was a strong emphasis on following the chronological development of the promises and expectations of Israel’s King. Yet in this third section, Bock does not follow that. Thus, he starts with Revelation and the Catholic Epistles, then proceeds through Paul’s letters, and finally the Gospels.

Despite his attempt to justify that approach it goes contrary to everything presented to that point. That moves Revelation and the Catholic letters out of chronological sequence as well as canonical sequence. And these writings have the least to offer in the Second Testament in this whole project (see the number of times “Christ” is used compared to Pauline letters). Note: This criticism does not subtract from the actual information and argument he provides

Layout and Typeface

The typeface is very readable even though smaller than most books of this kind. There are sufficient headings and subheading to facilitate finding something or reference it later. Unforunately the subtitles in the chapters are in a light orange color, which is not nearly as easy to read, especially in low light conditions.

The tables are easy to read and provide important information in a condensed format. This becomes important when consolidating newer material (for many readers) regarding the inter-testamental period (i.e. see p. 326). The maps are excellent with vivid colors and decent contrast. However, the font size could have been a little larger for easier readability (see p. 242, and especially the legend).

Noticed one typo on p. 254, second paragraph, second line: the second sigma in χριστοσ does not have the final form, which should be: χριστος.

Conclusion:

Well done to Kregel Academic for offering this book to the Church. This book adds considerably to the library of those who want to study and teach this information. It seems that the ideal target is a pastor or theologian who could use this as a reference to teach the topic in a congregation or college course. My reason for the 4 stars and not 5 relates to the movement of Genesis 3 discussion to an Appendix and the odd pattern that Bock followed in the third section of the book.

Thanks to Kregel Academic for providing a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Worthwhile reading

This past week there have been some excellent blogs to get us thinking, reflecting, praying. I may not agree with everything the bloggers post. That’s okay, because these people have some important things for us to read/hear. We cannot hide our heads in the sand and pretend they don’t exist.

Thanks to the bloggers:

Rescue is coming: The Exodus Road by Jessica

The Secret Pain of Spiritual Abuse by Anna

A Lovely Note by Emily

Revelation One by Rev Fisk

The Crisis of Evangelical Christianity: Reformation Essentials by Michael Horton

Revenge or Restoration? Why I Told My Story by Joy

Facebook, Memes and Christlikeness by Dustin

Not my will, but yours be done

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As you will note those blogs cover the full spectrum of the Christian life, from the lows of spiritual abuse to the joys of a note to a mother. Behind all these, we find Christ: sometimes hidden in the agony and sorrow of our sin or the sin of others, sometimes evident in the love between God’s redeemed people, sometimes evident in speaking the truth. No matter where you are on this spectrum, this week is special.

This week is Holy Week. We follow Jesus from the cheering crowds of Palm Sunday to the jeering crowds on Good Friday. We participate in the Lord’s Supper on Maundy Thursday. We see the awful cost of Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. We hear the words of abandonment expressed by Jesus. He endured all that out of love for us. We never have to experience the fullness of that despair. Even in our worst times. We know that Jesus has been there, done that, and is still there for us, and will be for us.

Romans 8:38-39 GW

I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love which Christ Jesus our Lord shows us. We can’t be separated by death or life, by angels or rulers, by anything in the present or anything in the future, by forces or powers in the world above or in the world below, or by anything else in creation.

An Unexpected Consequence

I am about ⅔ through the book by Dave Brunn, One Bible, Many Versions. The more I read, the more I appreciate his approach and how he presents the material. And it hit very close to home in an unexpected way. While he does not formally advocate it, he very much demonstrates humility in this whole process of translating and evaluating translations.

As I teach seminary classes I remind the men that humility is critical in pastoral ministry. That characteristic goes a long way toward opening doors for bringing God’s Word to people in all circumstances. But it extends beyond even local pastoral care.

Humility goes a long way for all who want to evaluate translations; and so I am speaking to myself as the first subject who needs to be reminded of this.

I am humbled by the fact that while I know Greek and Hebrew, the people who are involved in all aspects of translating the Scriptures are experts in their individual fields. The fact that Dr. Micah Carter (HCSB), Dr. Ray Clendenen (HCSB translator/editor), Dave Brunn, Dr. Ernst Wendland (translator in Zambia), Wayne Leman (reviewer of translations, Cherokee, at betterbibles blog) and others have visited this blog is humbling. They have been kind and gracious in their responses to my questions and concerns. Likewise, Rod Jantzen and the team at Baker Publishing (for God’s Word translation) have been very helpful and responsive over the past year. I am humbled by their approach and willingness to read, listen, and write.

A little history

In late 1980, as I was finishing my nine year commitment to the Navy, but couldn’t leave until the summer of 1982 for seminary, I decided to teach myself Greek. I had taken two years of Latin, three years of German before college, and then a one year evening course of Russian while on active duty. So I had a sense of language structure. And I was able to go through Machen’s book at a decent clip, finishing almost a year ahead of our move.

When it came time to move to the seminary, I was asked to take the Greek qualifying exam. As it turned out I could have easily completed and passed the exam. But instead I opted to take the seminary Greek course with Dr. Robert Hoerber (obviously no credit, but did have to pay the tuition). Best decision I ever made. While it could have been an easy class (it was for me), it was far more. As he taught, my grasp of Greek deepened over that year. It wasn’t about passing a test to get out of a class, it was to better learn the language.

Even more, I began to appreciate how Dr. Hoerber exhibited humility in his teaching. He was a world class Greek and Latin scholar, and still helping young(er) men learn and appreciate the importance of Greek for pastoral ministry. Dr. Jonathan Grothe and Dr. Erich Kiehl were scholars yet gentlemen in the best sense of the word. And I am humbled to have been one of their students.

What does this mean?

That is a good Lutheran question! In humility I could go to a false sense of humility and stop the blogging on translations. Or in my case, this has caused me to reevaluate myself and recommit myself to further study of Hebrew and Greek. Not to nitpick translations, but to get a far better feel for those languages. To continue to learn even more about language structures, syntax, linguistics, etc.

Thank you to all for your encouragement in this process. And a special thank you to Dave Brunn for causing me to reflect on this important attitude when examining translations. An unexpected consequence of his writing. But just what I needed. May God grant this verse be true of me today.

This is the Lord’s declaration. I will look favorably on this kind of person: one who is humble, submissive in spirit, and trembles at My word. (Isaiah 66:2b HCSB)

Is “acknowledge” enough?

In my translation work for our Sunday morning Bible study (Matthew), I was working on 10:32-33 this morning. 

32 Πᾶς οὖν ὅστις ὁμολογήσει ἐν ἐμοὶ ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ὁμολογήσω κἀγὼ ἐν αὐτῷ ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ πατρός μου τοῦ ἐν °[τοῖς] οὐρανοῖς·  33 ⸂ὅστις δ᾿ ἂν⸃ ἀρνήσηταί με ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἀρνήσομαι ⸉κἀγὼ αὐτὸν⸊ ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ πατρός μου τοῦ ἐν °[τοῖς] οὐρανοῖς.

My first step in translating is to examine each word, then the relationship between the words (where the real action takes place!). The two highlighted words indicate my focus in this post. Over the past 30 years I have always translated the word in most contexts as “confess” (see BDAG, #4 under ὁμολογέω).

Raphael, St Paul Preaching in Athens

As usual, after translating and thinking about it, I began looking at translations for these two verses. Then I discovered two primary English words to translate this word in the Matthew passage: confess and acknowledge.

Matthew 10:32

NAS  “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.”

NKJV “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.”

ESV “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,”

HCSB   “Therefore, everyone who will acknowledge Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before My Father in heaven.”

NIV “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.”

NET “Whoever, then, acknowledges me before people, I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven.” (“confess” in footnote)

NAB “Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.”

NLT  “Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.”

GW “So I will acknowledge in front of my Father in heaven that person who acknowledges me in front of others.”

NJB  ‘So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of human beings, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven.”

As I thought about this, I wondered whether “acknowledge” in English is strong enough to carry the sense of the word. The Greek word seems to have more intended than a recognition, especially in light of 10:33 where the opposite is denial. That is, are “acknowledge” and “denial” opposites?

For instance, If I walk into a room and look around and see someone I know on sight, I may acknowledge the person. That may be nothing more than a tip of my head to acknowledge that I recognize the person. But my denial would be unmistakable in the room. (Consider another illustration of how “acknowledge seems to be weaker: “acknowledgement of receipt.”)

I also observe that “confess” is used infrequently in this sense in every day English. While I might be understand the word, many may not. It appears that NJB offers a viable alternative for this verse.

Interestingly, when we examine other similar texts, such as Romans 10:9-10, several of the above translations then use “declare” as the translation of ὁμολογέω, and a couple switch to “confess” (ESV, HCSB, NAB, and NLT).

Romans 10:9-10

NAS that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

NKJV  that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

ESV because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart othat God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

HCSB If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.

NIV If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

NET because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation.

NAB  for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.

NLT  If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.

GW If you declare that Jesus is Lord, and believe that God brought him back to life, you will be saved. 10 By believing you receive God’s approval, and by declaring your faith you are saved.

NJB that if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and if you believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved. 10 It is by believing with the heart that you are justified, and by making the declaration with your lips that you are saved.

Interestingly, not one translation uses “acknowledge” in Romans 10:9-10. It appears that “confess” and “declare” are the preferred translations. It seems that either choice would also be better in Matthew 10:32–33. Jesus is preparing his disciples for the opposition they will encounter as he sends them out. The persecution will not be based on a simple or mere acknowledgement, rather on a positive statement: confessing or declaring Jesus before others.

If anywhere, the translation choice in Matthew 10:32 should be a stronger one than “acknowledge.” Notice I am not advocating the practice of having one Greek word translated identically everywhere. Rather, the two passages (Matthew 10 and Romans 10) offer very similar contexts. See also the following passages:

John 9:22; John 12:12; 1 Timothy 6:12

1 John 2:23; 4:2; 4:15; Revelation 3:5