_____________________Tom Schreiner's New Testament Theology searches for Scripture's unifying themes.
Interview with Tom SchreinerIn this interview Schreiner explains his approach to writing this New Testament Theology, shares some of the challenges he faced along the way, reveals some of sources that influenced his understanding of NT Theology (Ladd, Wright and Piper to name a few), and recommends a few other titles that he found to be very helpful. My compliments to Andy Cheung for a job well-done conducting this interview.
Monday, 24 March 2008
Last Week, Midlands Bible College and Divinity School Tutor Andy Cheung interviewed New Testament scholar Tom Schreiner (professor of New Testament interpretation at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) on his forthcoming book, New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ.(read the full interview here)
Bryan W. Smith (PhD, Bob Jones University) is Bible integration coordinator at Bob Jones University Press. I had the privilege of studying Greek for my first semester under the instruction of Dr Smith. I later had the privilege of getting to know Bryan better as we worshiped together at Mt Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, SC. I now have the privilege of worshiping with his parents and sister and keeping tabs on him through them.A Reader's Hebrew Bible. Edited by A. Philip Brown II & Bryan W. Smith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008. Italian Duo-Tone™, 1,680 pages.Q&A with Dr Bryan Smith on A Reader's Hebrew Bible
A: Anyone who has had a full year of Hebrew can benefit from A Reader's Hebrew Bible. We gloss words that occur 100 times or fewer. Most first year programs get students to that level in their vocabulary knowledge. I encourage those in seminary to use this tool. Their teachers may not allow them to use it for their translation assignments, but they can use it at church, for sermon preparation, and for personal reading and study. Unlike an interlinear (or computer programs like BibleWorks), A Reader's Hebrew Bible gives the student just enough information to keep him reading but not so much information that his reading skill is not developed. Pastors, teachers, seminary professors should use this tool. The best way to make responsible use of the original languages is to be very familiar with them. The best way to get familiar is to read them regularly. Some do this with Greek. Very few do it with Hebrew, and I think the main reason is that unknown Hebrew vocabulary makes regular reading too difficult.
Q: What are your thoughts on the finished product?
A: I'm very pleased with how the project has turned out. The volume is attractive, durable, and affordable. I think it's considerably nicer than the Greek volume. We've taken our glosses from the two standard lexicons: HALOT and BDB. All of our glosses are also context specific. The page layout is also, I think, cleaner and easier to read than the Reader's Greek Bible. We have noticed some errata and we're working toward correcting that for the next edition. I'm sure Philip will tell you more about that. He has a website that keeps track of these errata items (see this post). To this point, none of the errata is--in my opinion--a reason not to purchase the volume.
Q: One of the questions I asked Phil was "Is it necessary for preachers to know the biblical languages in order to be effective interpreters?" How would you address this? Should preachers be concerned with proficiency in the biblical languages or is a working knowledge adequate for most?
A: Should preachers be concerned to know the Bible in the original languages? Absolutely. One consequence of being committed to plenary, verbal inspiration is being committed to knowing as much as one can about the original languages. Of course, not everyone has the opportunities (or the gifts) to get comfortable with Greek and Hebrew. Those who have the opportunities, however, are obligated to take advantage of them. By the way, A Reader's Hebrew Bible is a great opportunity.
This concludes my interview with the editors of A Reader's Hebrew Bible. I would like to express my gratitude to both of these men for taking the time to talk a bit about this project. This has stirred me up to continue working on my language skills. I hope that this will do the same for you. Oh, and don't forget to order your copy right away!
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Related Sources:
HEBREW
A Reader's Hebrew Bible. Edited by A. Philip Brown II & Bryan W. Smith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008. [WTS | CBD | Amazon]
Armstrong, Terry et al. A Reader's Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testatment, 4 volumes in one. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989. [WTS | CBD | Amazon]
Koehler, Ludwig &Walter Baumgartner. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2002. [Amazon]
Holladay, William. A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1972. [WTS | Amazon]
Brown, Francis et al. Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon. Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1996. [WTS | CBD | Amazon]
GREEK
Kubo, Sakae. Reader's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975. [WTS | CBD | Amazon]
Goodrich, J., Richard & Albert L. Lukaszewski. A Reader's Greek New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003. [CBD | Amazon]
Bauer, Walter, Frederick Danker, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature.. Third Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. [WTS | CBD | Amazon]
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Related Post:
The first series of questions dealt with some of the details of A Reader's Hebrew Bible. The following questions probe the usefulness of studying the Scriptures in the original languages. I wanted to hear Dr Brown's take on this subject in light of some of my previous posts beginning with the discussion of John Piper's chapter, "Brothers, Bitzer was a Banker."A Reader's Hebrew Bible. Edited by A. Philip Brown II & Bryan W. Smith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008. Italian Duo-Tone™, 1,680 pages.Q&A with Dr Philip Brown on A Reader's Hebrew Bible | Part Two
QUESTION: Would you be willing to share a lesson or two you learned from working through the Hebrew texts so closely, for so long? I'm wondering how this project has affected your estimation of the Hebrew text and/or how this project has affected your preaching and teaching. ANSWER: As Dr. Michael Barrett said on more than one occasion, "The niftiness of an exegetical insight is often inversely proportional to its exegetical accuracy. " I can't think of any "brand new" lessons, but my work has reinforced and provided experiential backing to numerous principles I learned in grad school.
Much of language learning is the erecting of exegetical guardrails to keep the exegete out of ditches and on the straight and narrow. A person, who merely dips into selected Hebrew texts and fails to expose himself to large segments of Hebrew prose and poetry (books!), is much more prone to discover "new (invalid) insights never before seen" than the person who has expended the effort to read widely.
For example, I was reading a book on child rearing recently, and the author asserted that the Hebrew verb gadal "really" means "to twist into greatness." Really? I've certainly never seen that. Where is he getting this? I checked Holladay, HALOT, BDB, DCH, NIDOTTE … nobody supports his contention. Then I thought to check Strong's Hebrew lexicon. It reads,
"A primitive root; properly to twist (compare H1434), that is, to be (causatively make) large (in various senses, as in body, mind, estate or honor, also in pride): - advance, boast, bring up, exceed, excellent, be (-come, do, give, make, wax), great (-er, come to . . estate, + things), grow (up), increase, lift up, magnify (-ifical), be much set by, nourish (up), pass, promote, proudly [spoken], tower."
I'm sure the author was well-intentioned, but not only did he assert something that is flatly untrue about the Hebrew word, he also misread Strong's entry, which I would argue is incorrect as well. Strong does not say that the word means to "twist into greatness." His phrase "properly to twist" most likely is a statement about his view on the etymology of the word. Even if Strong were right about the etymology of the word, its etymological meaning has nothing to do with its usage as a verb in the Hebrew Bible. Much less is there an implicit theological message that in order to be great in God' s eyes one must be twisted against the sinful nature!
Having issued the above caveat, here's one discovery I've made that has been significant to me:
Deut. 6:7 reads in the NASB "You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up." The concept of "diligent teaching" in my way of processing English calls to mind images of classrooms or tutorial sessions, earnest voiced exhortation, careful analytical explanation. As a father of a 1 year old and a 3 year old, with attention spans of 15 seconds (slight exaggeration), I was frustrated most every time I tried to put into practice my understanding of this verse.
When I read this in Hebrew, I discovered that instead of the standard Hebrew verbs for "instruct, teach" like lamad or yarah, Moses used the verb shanan. This is the only place where this lemma occurs in the piel. HALOT regards it as the only occurrence of this lemma and glosses it "repeat." This verb in combination with the verb dabar "talk," HALOT suggests means "to speak, or to recite again and again." Without addressing the question of whether this is really homonym 2 (Cf. NIDOTTE's discussion), this completely changed my conception of what I was supposed to do.
I take Moses' primary point to be that we are to repeat the commands of God constantly to our children. This implies Scripture memorization for the parents and children. As parents constantly recite the Word of God, it is ingrained in the children. As the children get old enough to ask questions about the meaning of Scripture, teaching will be the natural consequence. In response my discovery, we have embarked on a Scripture memory program for our 3 year old. We quote the verse together in the morning, my wife works on them through the day with Allan, and I pick up the mantra at supper and bedtime. I've been making up bedtime stories to illustrate the verses we are learning: Proverbs 3:5-7.
As to how this has affected my preaching and teaching: I now require this as a textbook for my Hebrew I students! If I were not very proficient in Hebrew, I imagine this would encourage me to check the Hebrew more frequently and carefully as I prepared. As it is, the most significant change has been the ability to sit down in my easy chair and read Isaiah. Without RHB, reading Isaiah would be a task to be tackled and worked at. With RHB, it is much less of a chore and more a joy and delight.
Q: Is it necessary for preachers to know the biblical languages in order to be effective interpreters? If not, why? If so, what argument(s) would you use to persuade a preacher of this need?
A: Is it necessary for a doctor to know human anatomy and physiology to practice medicine? Yes, of course, but intimate knowledge of the human skeleton, muscle names, layout of the nervous system, etc. probably won't play a significant role in diagnosing the common cold, stomach flu, or many other common ailments. But when a doctor has to deal with accident victims, infectious diseases, or strange symptoms, all of his/her knowledge of the human body becomes vitally relevant. The more doctors know, the less likely they will misdiagnose an illness or prescribe irrelevant remedies. There are good reasons for specialists in medicine—the scope of knowledge is too vast for a comprehensive knowledge of all relevant information. But a good doctor knows his limitations and refers his patients to those who know more.
Much of God's truth lies open to the diligent reader of good vernacular translations (English in our case). But when the pastor has to deal with the wreckage of sin in the forms of divorce, remarriage, homosexuality, incest, and the many ravages of sin, the more he knows of the original languages the more likely he is to provide an accurate remedy to the spiritually needy. God has not gifted all his servants equally with ability to learn languages. The good pastor will know his limitations and make good use of those who know more. But surely we should want the spiritual equivalent of an MD as the primary care physician of our soul. We should not be satisfied to have LPNs or RNs in primary care positions. Those who disdain knowledge of the original languages and sanctify ignorance do God and His Kingdom a deep disservice.
I would like to thank Dr Philip Brown for sharing these responses with me and allowing me to share them with you. Tomorrow, I will be continuing this discussion with Dr Bryan Smith. He has also responded to some similar questions and I will post them here for your consideration, too.
If you have any further questions or comments you would like to share, we'd love to continue the interaction on this subject. Please leave a comment below.
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Related Sources:
A Reader's Hebrew Bible. Edited by A. Philip Brown II & Bryan W. Smith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008. [WTS | CBD | Amazon]
Armstrong, Terry et. al. A Reader's Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testatment, 4 volumes in one. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989. [WTS | CBD | Amazon]
Kubo, Sakae. Reader's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975. [WTS | CBD | Amazon]
Goodrich, J., Richard & Albert L. Lukaszewski. A Reader's Greek New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003. [CBD | Amazon]
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Related Post:
A few weeks ago I posted a notice (here) of the forthcoming A Reader's Hebrew Bible edited by A. Philip Brown II and Bryan W. Smith (due out this coming May). I've since had the opportunity to make contact with Dr Philip Brown to ask him a few questions about this project. He has graciously responded to me and has given me permission to share these Q&A's with you.A Reader's Hebrew Bible. Edited by A. Philip Brown II & Bryan W. Smith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008. Italian Duo-Tone™, 1,680 pages.Q&A with Dr Philip Brown on A Reader's Hebrew Bible | Part One
QUESTION: What exactly is a reader's Bible?A: 1) I love Hebrew. 2) I want to be able to read the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew/Aramaic. 3) I especially wanted to read Psalms and Proverbs in Hebrew. I am in the young-child parenting stage of my life, and I'm convinced that Proverbs is the most extensive example of biblical wisdom-training for children in Scripture. I want to get all I can out of it, and that requires intimate acquaintance with the Hebrew text. 4) I want to read extensively in Hebrew, but my limited vocabulary (perhaps most words that occur down to 50x) requires me to make frequent reference to a lexicon, which slows me down sufficiently that it is easy to get discouraged. RHB eliminates all the lexicon-time, and frees me to use my Hebrew Bible anywhere I can carry it. 5) There is no way to gain a "feel" for Hebrew except by repeated exposure to the language across the length and breadth of the OT.
Q: Will this tool be useful to preachers who want to learn Hebrew, or is a working knowledge of the language required?____________________
Related Sources:
A Reader's Hebrew Bible. Edited by A. Philip Brown II & Bryan W. Smith. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008. [WTS | CBD | Amazon]
Armstrong, Terry et.al. A Reader's Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testatment, 4 volumes in one. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989. [WTS | CBD | Amazon]
Kubo, Sakae. Reader's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975. [WTS | CBD | Amazon]
Goodrich, J., Richard & Albert L. Lukaszewski. A Reader's Greek New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003. [CBD | Amazon]
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Related Post:
Forthcoming: A Reader's Hebrew Bible edited by Philip Brown & Bryan Smith
