We have already covered a lot of ground this semester.

• We have tried to get a sense of the place of the NT within the wide range of biblical and biblically-related literature in the first few centuries BCE and CE. This has included looking at biblical versions (and text critical issues as well), intertestamental literature (OT Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha), NT Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, Early Xn Fathers, Philo, Jospehus, and rabbinic literature.
• We have looked at the exegetical methods of the Jewish and Christian authors of the first century.
• We have considered what is actually happening or being accomplished when a NT author cites or alludes to an OT text. Prophecy? Typology? Analogy? Simply using biblical language? Fulfillment?
• We have examined many OT and NT texts to see firsthand how this OT in the NT stuff works.

As we come to the last few weeks of the semester, what questions still remain for you?

Are their topics or issues you had hoped we would cover and haven’t?

Please leave a comment!

At the last class, we examined the “Following Rock” issue of 1 Cor 10.4. (Here is the Following Rock presentation used in class.)

At the end of our work, I presented the following observations:

• The water rock incidents are mentioned in Exodus 17.6 and Numbers 20.7-11 and another incident in Numbers 21.16-20. >> How many water rocks can there be?!?
• The LXX of Ps 78 (LXX 77).15f. could be taken as understanding that there was only one rock. The Targums of Num 21.19 also envision the rock/well “springing” up and accompanying Israel as well as PsPhilo 10.7.
• There are traditions which clearly envision two separate rocks/incidents: Ps 114/3.8 and WisSol 11.4.
• Philo seems embarrassed by the incidents and minimizes or allegorizes. Leg.2.86: “… the sharp rock is the σοφια / wisdom of God”
• The early Xn Fathers (eg, Tertullian, Baptism 9.1) affirm the Pauline reading and beginning combining with other OT/NT

Great… but so what? Was this a purely academic exercise with no bearing on faith, life, and practice in ministry? Please provide a comment (one sentence is fine) indicating how or why this kind of work is important for persons looking ahead to serving in the Church.

How Much Christ in the Old Testament? « For His Renown

I would agree with some of the things these speakers claim (and note that they are all from a conservative Baptist background), but…

Even if you don’t bother to listen to the audio (it’s about 30 minutes), a key issue that arises is this:
Must we approach the OT with a Christian/Messianic understanding?

E.g., the claim is made that Ps 1 (which on the surface certainly doesn’t seem to have any messianic reference) is a Davidic psalm about the ideal righteous person/King, Jesus is the ideal righteous person/King, and thus Ps 1 was written with a definite messianic reference to Jesus. Do you see anything wrong with this logic?

If you don’t read the NT with a Xn understanding, how do you treat the relationship between the OT and the NT?

Here is a good example of something we have begun to touch upon in class. In light of that example, here’s a seven question quiz that will provide a gauge of where you stand on the OT in NT issues. Takes all of a minute to do. When you are do, you will get a response back something like this:

NT Use of the OT — Test Your View!

Fuller Meaning, Single Goal view You seem to be most closely aligned with the Fuller Meaning, Single Goal view, a view defended by Peter Enns in the book “Three Views on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament” (edited by Kenneth Berding and Jonathan Lunde, Nov. 2008). Since the NT writers held a single-minded conviction that the Scriptures point to and are fulfilled in Christ, this view suggests that the NT writers perceive this meaning in OT texts, even when their OT authors did not have that meaning in mind when they wrote. It should be noted, however, that advocates of this view are careful not to deny the importance of the grammatical-historical study of the OT text so as to understand the OT authors on their own terms. For more info, see the book, or attend a special session devoted to the topic at the ETS Annual Meeting in Providence, RI (Nov. 2008); Walter C. Kaiser Jr., Darrell L. Bock, and Peter Enns will all present their views.

Fun quizzes, surveys & blog quizzes by

If you can figure out how to do, embed your results on your web page on this blog.

Mindless Meandering: Exegeting Stop Signs

Well, this is a bit off-track, but explanation 7.2 by the rabbis is really pretty accurate to some of the exegesis we will see in this course! You will like!

(Chris sent this to me some years ago, and I dug it up on the net.)

Ben Witherington: Relating the OT and NT Thought Worlds

Article is not tooooo long. Worth skimming over for this class.

This blog is especially designed for MGVHoffman’s course on the “Old Testament in the New Testament” at LTSG for fall semester, 2008. For class members, it will enable us to talk with each other, but we welcome the rest of the world to look over our shoulders. Please join in the discussion!

Members of the class will be able to start new posts. Everyone (i.e., the class and anyone else) will be able to comment on posts. When you start a new post, be sure to “categorize” your post by adding your initials. (This will allow us to quickly find the posts each person started.) Also try to provide another concise category (e.g., the Bible passage, a theme, …) so that we can keep the posts easily organized and more easily searched.

This is indeed a bit of an experiment, but let’s see how it goes!

UPDATE: BTW, I just figured out how to make this welcome post ’sticky’ and stay at the top. All other posts will appear chronologically with the newest one right under this one.

Community Clips is a Microsoft-sponsored but community driven site for posting videos to help learn how to use and enhance your work with Office 2007 products.

It won’t include every movie you’ve liked, but WingClips is a great way to find video clips related to particular themes. According to the site:

You can view inspirational movie clips from many of your favorite films. These WingClips™ can also be downloaded to use in your church, school or other non-profit organization for FREE.

Scot McKnight posted this Hermeneutics Quiz. It will return results showing where one is on the conservative > progressive scale with respect to biblical interpretation. As McKnight notes, the final label is probably not that helpful, but it is a good tool to get people thinking about hermeneutical matters.

One of the web sites to which I subscribe is the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies by Jane Hart. She has accumulated an outstanding list of tools and resources which have been nominated by “learning professionals.” (HERE is the top 10 list I submitted.) There is a very helpful E-Learning Handbook, and she has just released “25 TOOLS: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME.” You need a free registration to get into the program(me), but what makes it particularly valuable is that it deals with free tools and gives practical tasks for learning how to use them. Highly recommended.

As noted on Jane’s, htm2pdf is a fast and easy and free way to convert HTM pages to PDFs. It can even keep links enabled.

Still in beta, but SlideRocket looks like a great presentation tool alternative. As described on the site:

SlideRocket is a web application that provides everything you need to design professional quality presentations, manage and share libraries of slides and assets, and to deliver presentations in person or remotely over the web.

As noted on this blog, Mnemograph is:

a web-based timeline software application for creating, collaborating on, and sharing history and planning diagrams

Still in beta, but I can see it being used for creating any number of biblical timelines. I like the ability to zoom in and see more details or zoom out to get the big picture. It also works well as a web tool providing the ability to add pictures, link to web sites, etc.

Flypaper looks to be an interesting site for easily creating Flash ’stories.’ Free too!

The Wiki Way: Improving Your Class Notes Using the Internet for Online Student Collaboration by Carl N. Toney – Helpful article from the SBL site

 Ancient Languages are Still Around, But Do We Really Know How to Teach Them? by Rahel Halabe – Also from the SBL site

Remember Father Guido Sarducci? How might his Five Minute University apply to seminary education?

The Vision of ORE by Dan Cohen -  I think this will become significant for the humanities in general. The issue is the future of online publications where we should be thinking in terms of aggregates. I.e., when we publish an article, it is more than just the words we write, but it is also the links to the other data we incorporate. Zotero is mentioned as a good start in this respect.

• TooFast: Free, online, assessment summary tool. Use it to create course evaluations
• wetpaint: Free wikis for education
• MoFuse: Free; use this site to convert your blog or website to a mobile site (for phones, PDAs…)
• “The SplashCast service enables anyone to create streaming media ‘channels’ that mix together video, music, photos, narration, text, as well as RSS feeds, PowerPoint presentations and PDF documents. These user-generated channels can be played and easily syndicated on any web site, blog, or social network page.”
• VoiceThread: Collaborative commenting on pics, docs, video…