Facebook: Which Protestant denomination should you join?

Usually I don’t populate Facebook items here, but this was a recent quiz that I thought some might find interesting (HT: Mike Beidler) – not sure if it’s available in a non-Facebook format. My result is particularly interesting to me in that Disciples of Christ shares a common root with the quasi-denomination that I grew up [...]

In community on a desert island

As part of the ongoing thread on “best uses for different Bible versions“, Dave S. posted his various preferences (NASB, ESV, HCSB, NLT), then followed up with the following anecdote: I told my friend about my “favorite four” post above. He said, “That sounds good but which one would you choose if you could have [...]

Misled, duped and deceived

I was flipping through the prophets a few days ago and couldn’t resist this idiosyncratic rendering in the REB, which I offer compared to examples of traditional, median and functional translation. Jeremiah 20:7 REB TNIV You have duped me, Lord, and I have been your dupe; you have outwitted me and prevailed. All the day [...]

When Pharaoh was a woman…

The April issue of National Geographic has an interesting article on Hatshepsut, daughter of Thutmose I (ruler, 1504-1492 BC), and married to her step-brother, Thutmose II (ruler, 1492-1479 BC). When Thutmose II died,  his son (Thutmose III, by another wife) was still young and Hatshepsut acted as regent and then co-ruler of Egypt from 1479-1458 [...]

How much do you have to hate someone?

I don’t know if this video made it around the blogs in the last few months, but it was used as an illustration point a month or so ago at our church and I thought it was worth sharing. Regardless of what you think about Penn Jillette (Penn & Teller) as an atheist, his question [...]

The TNIV, sarx and the inclinations of the human heart

The Better Bibles blog is soliciting input on what types of changes would make the TNIV a “better Bible” – specifically, textual changes that could be reviewed by the Committee on Bible Translation rather than marketing changes better suited to Zondervan. While I tend to agree with the first commenter, Rick Mansfield, that the TNIV [...]

Maybe the question is not “what versions of the Bible do you use”…

Note: the following post contains some thoughts on Wayne Leman’s recent question on BBB as to “what versions of the Bible do you use and what is the most important use you have found for each of those versions?” In that post, my two-cent answer was: NLT’07 for everyday reading and study; HCSB or TNIV [...]

ESV Study Bible available for Kindle

According to the ESV blog, Crossway has released the ESV Study Bible for the Kindle electronic book reader. In keeping with Amazon’s attempt to keep Kindle book pricing low, the ESV Study Bible can be purchased and downloaded for less than $10! This looks like an introductory promotion until June, when the price increases to [...]

Lecher or lover: how do you live the Bible?

With a huge HT to Rick at This Lamp, I’ve been reading Eugene Peterson’s Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading and have found it captivating, at least the early chapters that I’ve been through. With the title taken from John’s experience of eating the scroll in Revelation 10, Peterson’s essential [...]

Easter: what did Satan intend?

Peter Kirk has written an eloquent Easter sermon on the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus, captured with three “V”s: validation, victory and vision. In the second section, Victory, he writes: Throughout Jesus’ time on earth he was attacked by evil, in demonic and human form. Eventually the devil thought that he won the victory, [...]