Pisteuomen - πιστευομεν - T. Michael W. Halcomb

Below is a short review I wrote up for a class presentation, which deals with Chrysostom's homilies (1 & 2) "On the Obscurity of the Old Testament". I interact here mainly with his first homily but if you want to get an idea of how he did exegesis and thought about the relationship of the New Testament to the Old, you may find some of this review helpful. Enjoy. + + + + + + If one of the overarching characteristics Diodore of Tarsus’ writings was reverence for the text (e.g. the Bible), strands of this can certainly be found in the works of his one of his students, St. John Chrysostom, whose works also advance a rigorous devotion to and a rather high view of Scripture. This is evidenced, for example, from the beginning of his “On the Obscurity of the Old Testament” by statements such as “the depths of inspired sentiments,” (8) “inspired authors” (10) and later in the same work “see how nothing is passed over by the divine Scripture,” “divine writings” (20) and “inspir...

When I first started my blog about a year and a half ago, I would occasionally Google my name or my website's name to see if it could be found. It was a great thing when, eventually, both were listed in the #1 spot. Well, yesterday, while I was doing research in Atla / Ebsco's scholarly database, I thought "what the heck" and typed in "Halcomb." To my surprise, 3 entries related to me popped up (even though my number of publications currently ranges somewhere in the double-digits). Regardless, I guess I'm on the scholarly map now (at least in another medium) which is quite cool. I imagine that in a few years I'll not be so impressed by it but yesterday, I admit, I was surprised. Click the photo to see the bibliographic information regarding the entries. If you have access to Atla / Ebsco, you can actually download one of the reviews!

Below is a short review I wrote up for a class presentation, which deals with Origen's Commentary on The Canticles (Song of Songs). I only interact here with his interpretation of the first few verses but if you want to get an idea of how Origen did exegesis, you may find some of this review helpful. Enjoy. + + + + + + Origen, an exegete nurtured in the Alexandrian spirit of interpretation, above all else in his reading of the Song of Songs, appears to value the notion of the unity of the Scriptures. Shaped by the “Rule of Faith,” the theological banner of his socio-religious context, he strives to show how passages of the “Divine” and “Holy Scriptures” (63-64) work in unison. For Origen, this seems most explainable by reading Scripture through a sort of dualistic lens: Literal (which also encompasses “literary”) and Spiritual. From the start, Origen makes it clear in his interpretation of the Canticles that there indeed, is a literal / literary sense to the text but that upon furt...

Yesterday, I added a fun slide puzzle to the "Getting German" site that explored 20 German Subordinating Conjunctions. Today, a new puzzle has been added but this one is a fun, interactive crossword puzzle. The crossword helps you learn 30 very common German verbs. To access the puzzle, click the image below:

I have created a fun way to learn 20 German Subordinating Conjuctions, which you can see screenshots of below. Go play it yourself and see if you can solve the puzzle and learn in the process. I completed the puzzle in 384 moves in 392 seconds. I also learned all 20 Subordinating Conjunctions. To access the shuffle / slide puzzle, click either of the images below:

Below is the text of a brief 2 chapter review of the Kugel & Greer book titled Early Biblical Interpretation, which I wrote to present to some of my classmates. If you've had any interaction with this text and would like to share your thoughts, please do. + + + + + Reviewed by T. Michael W. Halcomb. Early Biblical Interpretation (#3 LEC). By James L. Kugel & Rowan A. Greer, ed. Wayne A. Meeks. Philadelphia, PA: Westminster John Knox Press, 1986. 214 pp. $19.95 (paper). The third installment in a series of books edited by Wayne Meeks, Early Biblical Interpretation is a volume that focuses on “the interpretation of Scripture as practiced in Early Judaism and Christianity” (7). The first two chapters of this work—and the central points of emphasis for this brief review—explore the common backgrounds of early & later forms of biblical exegesis. Thus, the first two chapters of the tome aim to explain what prompted “The Rise of Scripture” (13) and subsequently, “The Need fo...

As my regular readers will have noticed, I've been doing a lot of German-oriented stuff lately. I'm doing most of this to prepare myself for my upcoming German exams in a couple of months (exams I must take for my PhD program). I find that when I spend time creating modules, I learn a lot, so, I have been making these modules available for free here at Pisteuomen. Well, now they can also be downloaded from a new website that I have developed: Gettin German. In addition to these free resources, this new site is vocab heavy and flashcard friendly. So, head on over to Getting German, download some free programs, use the flashcards and begin learning German. To go to the site, click the image below. After you've visited, feel free to pass the url on to others. Oh, and check the site frequenly as new flashcard sets will be added VERY frequently and new programs added on a regular basis. Enjoy! Note: The site can be accessed from about a dozen links: * www.gettinggerman.com * get...

Here's another easy-to-use English/German module that deals with 100 "VERY" Frequent Words that are found in German texts. This module includes terms, definitions & interactivity. This is free to download and share but is Tellware, which just means that if you download it, I ask that you tell at least 3 others about it. If you have any thoughts or questions regarding the module, feel free to get in touch with me. Enjoy! Download below by clicking the image and clicking "Save":

Here's another easy-to-use English/German module that deals with German Prepositions. This module includes terms, definitions, interactivity & audio. This is free to download and share but is Tellware, which just means that if you download it, I ask that you tell at least 3 others about it. If you have any thoughts or questions regarding the module, feel free to get in touch with me. Enjoy! Download below by clicking the image and going to the download page:

Several months ago, Dr. Bill Baker, President of the Stone-Campbell Journal Conference (and Journal) asked me to create & chair a new Focus / Study Group for the annual meeting. At his bequest, I happily obliged. The name of the new study group is: "Mark's Gospel in Mediterranean Context". For the first meeting, I believe we will leave open areas of exploration so that a variety of topics / interests may be covered & pursued. Following this, we will begin zeroing in on specific subjects. So, this year, persons could examine aspects of the Mediterranean context of Mark's story such as: Kinship, Purity, Patronage, Honor/Shame, Healing, Gender Roles, etc., etc. (Some details subject to change; papers offered this year which deal with "kinship" or "purity" will most likely have greater chance for being accepted). Laypersons, Undergrad, Grad, Post-Grad & Professors alike, may apply. This year's annual conference will take place April 9-1...

Here's another easy-to-use English/German module that deals with German Pronouns & Possessive Articles. This is free to download and share but is Tellware, which just means that if you download it, you tell at least 3 others about it. If you have any thoughts or questions regarding the module, feel free to get in touch with me. Enjoy! Download below by clicking the image and going to the download page: