A Tribute to Larry Hurtado: Scholar, Doktorvater, and Friend
I woke up today to the very sad news that my Doktorvater and friend, Larry Hurtado, had passed away after a long bout with cancer. So, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the impact he had on my life.
In the fall of 1999, I moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, to begin my Ph.D. work in New Testament and Early Christianity. My move was motivated in part by the great history of the divinity faculty at New College, but primarily by the desire to study with one particular scholar, Larry Hurtado.
Although I was already aware of Larry’s excellent scholarship (that’s why I came, after all), … Continue reading...
Off to San Diego for the Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society
Next week, I head to beautiful San Diego for the 71st Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, the largest gathering of evangelical scholars in the world. The theme this year is “Christ in All Scripture.”
This year I will be delivering the presidential address at the Thursday night banquet. The title of my lecture is “2 Peter 3:2, the Apostolate and a Bi-Covenantal Canon.” Yes, I know. Not that exciting. But, that’s just what we scholars do…
For more exciting lectures, you may want to check out the three plenary speakers we have lined up: Greg Beale (Westminster Seminary), Jeannine Brown (Bethel Seminary), and Stephen Wellum (Southern Baptist … Continue reading...
Were Early Christian Scribes Untrained Amateurs?
In the ongoing debates about the reliability of early Christian manuscripts, and whether they have been transmitted with fidelity, it is often claimed that early Christian scribes were amateurs, unprofessional, and some probably couldn’t even read.
In Michael Satlow’s book, How the Bible Became Holy (Yale, 2014), this same sort of argument appears. Satlow’s book argues that both the OT and NT canons were late bloomers, and that they bore no real authority until the third or fourth century CE. And part of the evidence for this claim comes from Satlow’s assessment of the NT manuscripts. He states:
…The copies of early Christian manuscripts from around the second century CE
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What about the ‘Lost’ Books of the Bible?
In modern studies of the NT canon, there is a lot of discussion (maybe even obsession!) with so-called ‘lost’ books of the Bible. So, we have recent book titles like Lost Scriptures, Forgotten Scriptures, and The Lost Bible.
In fact, scholar Philip Jenkins even wrote a whole book documenting (and critiquing) the academic community’s fascination with this theme: Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus Lost Its Way.
So what do we with these other books of the New Testament? A few quick thoughts.
First, most of these books weren’t really ‘lost.’ The early church fathers were very much aware of these other books. Indeed, they … Continue reading...
Book Notice: Can We Trust the Gospels?
I recently received an advanced reader copy of the new book by Peter J. Williams, Can We Trust the Gospels? (Crossway, 2018). Peter is the Principal of Tyndale House, a study center (mainly focused on biblical studies) out of Cambridge, England.
Although similar books have been written in the past (curiously Mark Roberts wrote a 2007 volume for Crossway with the exact same title!), this new volume has some excellent features:
– It does not presuppose prior knowledge of the Gospels, even having a chapter entitled, “What are the Four Gospels?” Thus, it would be great to give to a new Christian or a non-Christian.
– There’s an intriguing … Continue reading...