Mark WardI was at Costco getting gas. The guy across from me had a tattoo that caught my eye—it was ancient Greek: ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ. And suddenly, the meaning of a famous saying of Jesus became clear in my mind. This kind of thing happens to me. It’s why I go to...
The ESV came out in 2001, just as I was starting seminary. I bought one that was made of paper—the iconic black hardcover with a big white pane on the front. My roommate grabbed it and promptly spilled tea on it. No problem: I now have probably 10...
I have lots of biblical commentaries. Which one do I look at first, and which one do I look at when I’m just quickly checking a cross-reference and want to make sure I’m not missing something? It used to be that I would just check the top-rated...
If you go to seminary, there are certain tasks you will be asked to do. I don’t have to know which school you’re going to or what classes you’re taking. You’ll be doing these things. Three of them. Promise. I’ve used pretty much all the major tools...
Dirk Jongkind’s Introduction to the Greek New Testament Produced at Tyndale House, Cambridge is a short, simple, and excellent introduction to New Testament textual criticism. It has such a long title because it also tells a bit of the story behind...
The new Theology Guide in Logos 8 will do something most people consider it impossible to do: it will change theologians’ minds. Theologians have long known that Logos is a good tool for the study of Scripture, but to some of them that’s all it was...
An editor once told me I could not say that a certain contemporary theologian “channeled” Jonathan Edwards. It felt too New-Agey to him. Usually I accept 100% of an editor’s suggested changes. I feel safer that way. But this time I protested. I felt...
I was looking for a Mother’s Day gift and I stumbled across a quotation on the website of a local massage therapist: I’m a huge Lewis fan, and I immediately said to myself, C.S. Lewis never said that. I just knew. First a techie lesson on how I...
Picking my favorite C.S. Lewis piece is like picking my favorite child. I can’t do it. I won’t. I love them all. But on any given day, one of them may be especially and noticeably good. Today, one is. It’s a sermon called “The Weight of Glory.”...
In my recent book, Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible, I argued that there were two major kinds of archaic words in the KJV, not one. And in the most flagrant example I’ve ever seen of plagiarism by time machine, I just...
When you’re studying Greek or Hebrew, searching morphological forms with Logos is a huge timesaver. Ἀγάπη (agape) in the dative singular? Got it! A third-person singular Hebrew verb in Qal stem with a 3MS pronominal suffix? Bam! But Logos can see...
I used to feel a lot of pressure to read must-read books. I felt guilty when I saw books on my friends’ shelves that I clearly should have read by that time. Things like Calvin’s Institutes, and whatever else my more advanced peers in biblical...
My first serious Bible software program (December, 2002) was BibleWorks, and as soon as I got it I was hooked. I persuaded dozens of others to get it, and I even became an unofficial BibleWorks trainer for about ten years. I taught multiple whole...
I’m in the middle of a series of posts on learning Greek, and each time I write I find myself wanting to start by holding up a warning sign. Here’s the last one, I promise (sort of): “Greek is not math.” The first thing you need to know about New...
Psalm 37:8 is one of the most important illustrations of the most important concept in my book, Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible. As I’ve been working on promoting the book, I’ve been talking about Psalm 37:8 in the KJV again...
Logos sells many different commentaries. Literally thousands. They all fall into different categories, and here’s one schema you could use to organize them (borrowed from here, though there are others): Devotional/practical commentaries (NIVAC...
You want to start studying New Testament Greek? In a previous post, I talked about good and bad motivations for the work. Now let’s get more practical and talk goals. If you set unrealistic goals you’ll never arrive at them. You’ll get discouraged...
You want to learn New Testament Greek? (If the answer’s yes, Dr. John Schwandt’s interactive Greek alphabet course is the place to start to get you going using Greek in Bible study, or his Biblical Greek Foundational Certificate Program.)...
I was looking for a Mother’s Day gift and I stumbled across a quotation on the website of a local massage therapist: You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. —C. S. Lewis I’m a huge Lewis...
February is Black History Month, and I took opportunity to pick up a Lexham Press title by the late African American theologian Charles Octavius Boothe: Plain Theology for Plain People. Our American culture has changed since this book was first...
The translators of the Revised Standard Version (1952; 2nd. ed. 1971) didn’t mince words when comparing their work to the King James Version. The KJV “has grave defects,” they said. Its underlying Greek texts were “marred by mistakes, containing the...
The following piece is a preview of my regular column in Bible Study Magazine. The tips here will come out in the next issue. If you’re not yet a subscriber to BSM, click here. Here’s a new skill you may not yet have, a tool you’ll want to stick in...
The title thou hast lately read art not a clickbait and switch. Verily, I believe it to be one of truth and importance. Let me put you at ease right away by telling you what I mean by it. God did not say, “Thou shalt not steal.” He said “You shall...
Over on the Logos Academic Blog (theLAB) there’s been a series of interesting pieces from biblical scholars answering the question, “What makes a good biblical scholar.” I thought I’d weigh in here on the Logos Blog, too. I cannot give a secular...
A book series I’ve heard a lot of talk about in recent years is James K. A. Smith’s “Cultural Liturgies” trilogy: Desiring the Kingdom, Imagining the Kingdom, and Awaiting the King (plus the one-volume popularization I really enjoyed, You Are What...
Some people doubt evangelicalism exists—it’s too fractured to be called an -ism. And in the last year the value of the label has been fought over more vociferously than ever. What is “evangelicalism”? Is it even a useful concept anymore? I believe...
We rarely think about thinking. Many very smart people fail to see the assumptions hidden underneath their reasoning. How often do news articles assume that the only really reliable way of knowing truth is the scientific method? I happen to believe...
Put yourself in the shoes of the original readers of the famous second Psalm: The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast...
What’s the difference between lament and complaint? Or is “lament” just a name we give to complaining when it’s in the Bible? Recently I attended the national meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, where I heard Tremper Longman deliver a...
The rear seating in our 2004 Yukon must have some kind of magnetic field that provokes good questions from kids. This week it was, “Why do we decorate trees at Christmas? What does that have to do with Jesus being born?” I don’t remember asking such...