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The Nicene Creed is a fitting confession for those who accept Mark’s invitation to put their faith in God’s “beloved Son.” The “only begotten Son” of the Creed is an appropriate description of the “beloved Son” revealed through Mark’s narrative. The Creed, however, lacks one important characteristic of Mark’s “beloved Son.” The title “beloved Son”/“Son … Read more
This paper examines how the so-called formula quotations in the first section of Matthew’s Gospel (Matt 1:1–4:16) work together to portray Jesus as ‘fulfilling’ (πληρόω) key Old Testament (OT) themes. While scholarship often treats each of Matthew’s formula quotations in isolation, this paper argues that in 1:1–4:16 they function collectively to connect Jesus with Israel, … Read more
The task of this paper is to focus on one towering figure in Baptist theology, John Gill (1697-1771), to determine whether and to what extent his ecclesiology is in line with the four marks of the church found in the Nicene creed (one, holy, catholic, and apostolic). Therefore, this paper will examine the writings of … Read more
This paper will explore the citation of Psalm 118:25–26 in the Johannine entrance narrative (John 12:12–15). This is an especially significant passage, because of the ten explicit Psalms quotations in the Fourth Gospel, only four are paralleled in the Synoptics, and this is the only one quoted verbatim in all of them. Psalm 118 is … Read more
According to one award-winning biography, Sam Houston remains the singular figure “standing like a colossus astride the middle decades of the 1800s.” Remembered by Texans for his leadership during the war for independence, he was also a man with complex and developing understandings of Christianity and religious devotion. He carried misunderstandings of Christian theology and … Read more
Co-authored: Epic stories like The Odyssey, the Aeneid, or more recently The Lord of the Rings are universally accepted and beloved stories. But beyond mere entertainment, these fictional accounts engage humanity at deep formative levels, especially utilizing the genre of myth to interact with and promote metaphysical and ethical realities deemed key to human existence. … Read more
In recent years there has been increased attention on the potential benefits of applying Bayes’ Theorem to arguments in biblical studies. Scholars such as Christoph Heilig, Laura J. Hunt, and myself have, in different ways, appealed to Bayes’ Theorem—a fundamental formula used in statistics—in their research, while a small but engaged community has sprung up … Read more
The question of the genre of Luke and Acts (or Luke-Acts) is one that continues to bedevil Lukan scholarship. Proposals run the gamut, from the fairly standard (e.g., Bios and “general history”), to the esoteric (e.g., “eschatological kerygmatic biblical historical biography”). This paper will seek to cut through some of the confusion by employing a … Read more
As James Barr aptly demonstrated almost fifty years ago, a binary between literal and free is not a helpful lens through which to view Septuagint Translation Technique since a translation can be both literal and free at the same time, but in different ways (James Barr, The Typology of Literalism in Ancient Biblical Translations, MSU … Read more
Dotting the landscape of eastern Virginia are historic churches with churchyards containing the mortal remains of their people. Epitaphs and funerary inscriptions abound in these cemeteries, and they offer a look into a variety of societal, economic, historic, and religious lives and times of the people they represent. During the colonial period (1607-1783), it was … Read more