Greg Boyd on the Nephilim:

If we take the narratives seriously, we can't deny there were some incredibly large people (and grapes!) in the land of Canaan.

N. T. Wright on heaven:

Our culture is very interested in life after death, but the New Testament is much more interested in what I've called the life after life after death — in the ultimate resurrection into the new heavens and the new Earth. Jesus' resurrection marks the beginning of a restoration that he will complete upon his return. Part of this will be the resurrection of all the dead, who will "awake," be embodied and participate in the renewal. John Polkinghorne, a physicist and a priest, has put it this way: "God will download our software onto his hardware until the time he gives us new hardware to run the software again for ourselves." That gets to two things nicely: that the period after death is a period when we are in God's presence but not active in our own bodies, and also that the more important transformation will be when we are again embodied and administering Christ's kingdom.

Read the whole thing.

(HT: evangelical outpost)

An interview with Leland Ryken about the ESV Literary Study Bible that he co-authored with his son.

Ben Witherington: Is God a narcissist?

God it would appear is not merely a glory grabber, but rather a glory giver.

HT: Michael Spencer

Some good thoughts from Owen Strachan on extended adolescence and the need for vision:

We need a generation of men to teach themselves to have vision. We need these young men to set out to do something big with their life, something challenging, something calculated to bless and help as many people as possible according to their gifting and interest. We need these young men not to drift around and fool with girls' hearts and play at life, but to assume responsibility, seek out challenges, and strategize to mature as men.

From Michael Spencer: The Sanity Verses.

Michael Spencer is excited about the new ESV Literary Study Bible. [amazon] My thinline has even fewer frills, dispensing with the book and chapter introductions.

Here's a challenging red letters quiz at Kingdom People. Head on over and see how you do.

Trevin Wax shares his past experience with and present feelings about eschatology. Some days I think Trevin and I were separated at birth, except that he's about 6 years older than I am. In any case, I'm in a very similar place on this topic.

What I do know, though, about Revelation is that the focus of the book is not ultimately a “theology of the end times” designed to fascinate us with details we can chart on a map. The focus of the book is on the unveiling of Christ and his bride. Read Revelation to find out about the end of the world and you might miss Christ - the center and focus of all Bible prophecy.

Maybe one day I will better understand Revelation. Until then, I’m satisfied to leave the eschatological speculation to the pro’s. Better yet, I’m going to keep my eyes on Jesus - the One who is coming soon.

A visual journey through John 1:1-14:



Learn how to draw cartoons, comics, and anime at Sketchfu!



(HT: Garrett)

Dan Edelen has drawn an interesting distinction between what he terms "NT" and "OT" Christians. I'm not sure I've heard it put exactly like this, but I know what he's getting at. Unlike him, I'm not sure it is Spiritually necessary - or even logically possible - to reconcile the two Covenants, as the one was designed to fulfill and replace the other.

C. S. Lewis on Gender Language in the Bible:

When you turn from the New Testament to modern scholars, remember that you go among them as a sheep among wolves. Naturalistic assumptions, beggings of the question . . . will meet you on every side—even from the pens of clergymen.

Observing the ESV's growing popularity. I've certainly been enjoying mine. (HT: Trevin Wax)

Here's a cool tip via KP of The Christian Mind about searching faster in Firefox:

Preferrers of Firefox and the ESV may be interested in this tip on how to use your address bar as a command line to go directly to the ESV text.

1. Go to http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/.
2. Right-click in the search box and choose “Add a Keyword for this Search.”
3. Enter a Name of your choice and the Keyword “esv” into the box that appears.
4. Enter “esv” followed by a passage in the address bar to go to that passage.

(HT: ESV Bible Blog)

With features like this I wonder why it took me so long to switch from Internet Explorer!

Instead of using the site linked in the post, I headed over to Bible Gateway and rigged a few searches, using the version acronyms as the keywords. Pretty slick stuff.