Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Andy Naselli

Carson’s Commentary on Matthew

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The second edition of Carson’s commentary on Matthew just became available this week:

D. A. Carson. “Matthew.” Pages 23–670 in Matthew–Mark. 2nd ed. Expositor’s Bible Commentary 9. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010.

It’s bound with the commentary on Mark by Walter W. Wessel and Mark L. Strauss (pp. 671–989).

It’s not drastically different from the first edition (1984), but the entire commentary is updated to some degree in both content and wording. It’s about fifty pages longer than the first edition because it adds new discussions that interact with secondary literature over the past quarter-century.

Related: Zondervan also just released a superb commentary on Matthew by Grant Osborne in the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary series, which uses a format that serves preachers extremely well.

Two New NT Books from Baker

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Two worthy additions to your library:

1. Frank Thielman. Ephesians. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2010. 520 pp.

Doug Moo: “This commentary will join Hoehner and O’Brien as the first references on Ephesians to which I turn.”

2. Craig L. Blomberg with Jennifer Foutz Markley. A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2010. 298 pp.

Grant Osborne: “Among the many discussions of the interpretation of Scripture that have appeared lately, this is one of the best and most helpful.” That’s high praise coming from the prof who wrote this.

Why You Should Organize Your Personal Theological Library and a Way How

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That’s the title of a 2600-word article (8-page PDF) I recently wrote for Reformation 21. (Pardon the formatting of the version on Ref21’s site; some of it didn’t transfer very cleanly in HTML.)

Here’s the outline:

  • Why You Should Organize Your Personal Theological Library
  • A Way to Organize Your Personal Theological Library
    • Enter the bibliographic information for each resource in Zotero.
    • Organize your resources in Zotero.
    • Arrange your print books on your bookshelves in alphabetical order by author.

I created this three-minute video to supplement the article:

And here’s the article: [Read more…] about Why You Should Organize Your Personal Theological Library and a Way How

A Former Slave-Trader’s Sanctified Self-Assessment

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John Newton (cf. Google books):

I am not what I ought to be. …

Not what I might be …

Not what I wish to be. …

I am not what I hope to be. …

[But] I am not what I once was, a child of sin, and slave of the devil. …

I think I can truly say with the apostle, ‘By the grace of God I am what I am.’

D. A. Carson: “That encapsulates Christian sanctification in pithy statements better than anything I know.”

Update (8/17/2015): Tony Reinke explains Newton’s statement in his book Newton on the Christian Life: To Live Is Christ, Theologians on the Christian Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), 267–69:

newtonTo explain the riddle of the Christian life in all its shortcomings and its hopes, John Newton penned what has possibly become the most famous sermon outline in church history. He had been asked to preach a little homily in the home of a friend, which he happily obliged. He chose for his text 1 Corinthians 15:10: “But by the grace of God I am what I am.” All that remains of Newton’s living-room message is an outline, written down by a nameless note taker in attendance. Over time, the sermon outline morphed and merged into this remarkably concise summary of the Christian life on earth:

I am not what I ought to be. Ah! how imperfect and deficient. Not what I might be, considering my privileges and opportunities. Not what I wish to be. God, who knows my heart, knows I wish to be like him. I am not what I hope to be; ere long to drop this clay tabernacle, to be like him and see him as he is. Not what I once was, a child of sin, and slave of the devil. Though not all these, not what I ought to be, not what I might be, not what I wish or hope to be, and not what I once was, I think I can truly say with the apostle, “By the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10).

[Note 5: My paragraph blends the two published versions of what Newton reportedly said. …]

The parallels and contrasts within Newton’s statement become clearer when decorated with visual cues to highlight corresponding clauses:

I am not what I ought to be.
Ah! how imperfect and deficient.

Not what I might be,
considering my privileges and opportunities.

Not what I wish to be.
God, who knows my heart, knows I wish to be like him.

I am not what I hope to be;
ere long to drop this clay tabernacle, to be like him and see him as he is.

Not what I once was,
a child of sin, and slave of the devil.

Though not all these,

not what I ought to be,
not what I might be,
not what I wish or hope to be, and
not what I once was,

I think I can truly say with the apostle,

“By the grace of God I am what I am.”

Related:

  1. John Piper wrote the foreword to Reinke’s book.
  2. Tim Challies interviews Reinke about his book.

Bob Bell’s Magnum Opus

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I’ve eagerly anticipated this 500-page book for several years:

Robert D. Bell. The Theological Messages of the Old Testament Books. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 2010. Amazon | BJU Press

It revises Bob Bell’s biblical theologies of each book of the OT that he has been working on for forty years. The table of contents is simple: an introduction to biblical theology and book theologies followed by thirty-three chapters on each book of the OT (Bell combines Judges-Ruth, treats 1–2 Samuel, 1–2 Kings, and 1–2 Chronicles as single chapters, and combines Obadiah-Joel-Zephaniah.) The book is

Dedicated to the scores of Advanced OT Theology students, who since 1970 have been writing outlines and papers on the book theologies of the Old Testament; especially to those OT PhD students who wrote book theologies as their dissertations [Read more…] about Bob Bell’s Magnum Opus

Differences between You and Others That God Uses to Reveal and Change Your Heart

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  1. “personal hardwiring that the Creator has formed in each of us”
  2. “viewpoints, instincts, and tastes that have been formed in us through the experiential, cultural, and relational influences that we have lived in and which have formed the way we see the world and respond to it”
  3. “personal sin and weakness” and “our growth in grace”

Paul Tripp lists those “tools of difference” with reference to marriage, but they apply more broadly to any relationship (What Did You Expect? Redeeming the Realities of Marriage , p. 215).

Malcolm Gladwell

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I recently listened to four fascinating audiobooks by Malcolm Gladwell, and it was time well spent. Gladwell writes well and offers accessible yet penetrating insights about human nature and the world we live in.

From his bio:

Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer with The New Yorker magazine since 1996. His 1999 profile of Ron Popeil won a National Magazine Award, and in 2005 he was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. He is the author of four books, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference (2000), Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005), and Outliers: The Story of Success (2008), all of which were number one New York Times bestsellers. His latest book, What the Dog Saw (2009), is a compilation of stories published in The New Yorker.

Amazon | Summary | Wikipedia [Read more…] about Malcolm Gladwell