Phil Gons

Bible & Tech

Hundreds of Free ETS Papers at RMM!

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reclaiming-the-mind-ministries.jpgReclaiming the Mind Ministries has just announced the launching of their online Theological Library, which contains hundreds of ETS papers from the last five years. The papers are (1) free, (2) fully searchable with selectable text for copying and pasting (most of them),1 and (3) available for viewing online2 or downloading and viewing as PDFs. There’s a wealth of helpful material there that I’m sure you’ll want to take advantage of!

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  1. I stumbled across one out of a couple dozen that didn’t have selectable text. It appears that the vast majority do. [↩]
  2. They currently have a problem displaying superscripted text; an inch of blank space appears before every footnote. [↩]

Packer’s Forthcoming Systematic Theology

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j-i-packer.jpgThe Wikipedia entry for J. I. Packer says that “he is now at work on his magnum opus, a systematic theology.” This was the first I’d heard about this. I’d love to find out more. Can anyone verify that this is true and perhaps share some additional information like (1) the expected length, (2) how far along he is, (3) the expected publication date, and (4) the publisher?

A Google search didn’t yield anything concrete. The best information I found was from a couple of comments on Mark Dever’s blog post “Where’d All These Calvinists Come From? Part 7 of 10” (J. I. Packer):

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Packer on the History and Theology of the Puritans

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rts-virtual.jpgRTS Virtual at iTunes U just recently added J. I. Packer’s (Regent | Wikipedia) 16 lectures on the History and Theology of the Puritans. It looks like a great series of lectures. Packer’s adeptness in Puritan history and theology is evident in his helpful book A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (Wheaton: Crossway, 1994).1

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  1. This book is available for Libronix. [↩]

Google Reader Gets Search

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For all you Google Reader users out there, you’ll be glad to know that you can finally search your feeds—both read and unread items! This is especially handy if you don’t tag an item and can’t remember where you read it. I use Google’s Web History to look up stuff like this, but it doesn’t work with feeds unless you actually visited the site. I will put this feature to good use.

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The Merit of Faith: Genesis 15:6 in JPS

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jps.jpgI just received the JPS Bible and Torah Commentary Collection (9 volumes) from Logos and started “thumbing” through a couple of the volumes. I’m glad I picked it up. It looks like a valuable series—primarily for what it reveals about modern Judaism’s understanding of the Tanakh.

As I expected, though, I’m going to disagree with many of the interpretations that it defends. Nahum Sarna’s interpretation of Genesis 15:6, for example, is disappointing on several levels.1

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  1. Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis, The JPS Torah commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 113. [↩]

David Instone-Brewer Reviews SESB 2

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sesb.jpgDavid Instone-Brewer (also here and here), the Technical Officer and Senior Research Fellow in Rabbinics and the New Testament at Tyndale House, has posted his review of version 2 of the Stuttgart Electronic Study Bible (SESB).

Here are some selections from his section “Overall Usefulness: much better than paper”:

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My First Attempt at Building a Computer

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Due to some problems I was having with my three-year-old Dell Inspiron 5150, I decided to get a new computer. Instead of buying from Dell or elsewhere, I ended up building my own computer from scratch. I purchased all the individual components, assembled them, installed the OS and drivers, and then installed all my software. I thought I’d share my experience as a first-time builder for those of you who have considered doing the same thing.

Hardware

Here are the components I purchased:

$778 total (includes shipping and after rebates)

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The Pronunciation of “Propitiation”: The Mystery Solved

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This is my final post on the pronunciation of “propitiation.” I promise.

The Oxford English Dictionary, “the definitive record of the English language,” has the answer to the mystery behind Carson’s unusual pronunciation of “propitiation” as prō-pĭs-ē-ā-shŭn. As I suspected originally,1 it is an older pronunciation formerly used in England and France. Here’s the relevant portion from the pronunciation section: “Anglo-Norman propiciatiun and Middle French propiciation, propitiation (French propitiation, †propiciation).”2

No doubt, then, Carson picked it up in French Canada or during his studies in England at Cambridge University.

See also the previous two posts:

HT: Mark L. Ward Jr., who sent me a PDF of the entry.

  1. In my original post, I said, “Just a guess, but I wonder if it is British or reflects Carson’s knowledge of French. (Carson grew up in French Canada and studied in England.)” [↩]
  2. Cf. also this: “Forms: lME propiciacioun, lME-15 propiciacion, 15 propiciacyon, 15 propiciatyon, 15 propitiacion, 15 propycyacyon, 15-17 propiciation, 15- propitiation.” [↩]