Pisteuomen - πιστευομεν - T. Michael W. Halcomb

Hi Friends, I just wanted to point you in the direction of a recent interview I did about my book Entering the Fray . Thanks to Matt Montonini for doing the interview on his "New Testament Perspectives" blog and encouraging others to dig into the book. Check it out HERE . If you'd like to get a print or digital copy of the book you can do so on Amazon.com .

I am pleased to announce today, the release of a new language resource for students.  The title of the project is: Start Here! Grammatical Foundations for Students of New Testament Greek (A Student-Friendly Video Series) . As the title suggests, this resource is video-oriented.  It is divided up into 6 main lessons and contains around 5+ hours of grammatical instruction (see image to the left - click an image to enlarge it).  Each lesson consists of a number of short, user-friendly / student-friendly videos and takes note of nearly 200 grammatical concepts that English learners / speakers who want to venture into learning Koine Greek should find helpful.  The videos are available for purchase ($80)  HERE .  Once the purchase has been confirmed, buyers will be sent a download link.  I hope that these videos will assuage some of the fears that students, especially beginners, have when journeying into learning Koine Greek.

In Kentucky, school gets called off, delayed, or ends early for many weather related events.  My kids have missed more school this year than I think I ever missed in one year during my time as a student in K-12.  It has been a crazy winter for KY and my kid's school has actually extended each day by 15 minutes to make up the lost time!  I also saw just last week that the school in my hometown was put on a 1-hour delay because of a rainstorm (which presumably caused some roads to flood).  But today I witnessed another first, that is, delaying school tomorrow (Tuesday) because of the UK Wildcats game tonight (Monday)!  Check out the note to the left, which I just received from my kid's principal/school!  (No, this is not a joke!)  Yeah, the rumors are true, we're pretty hardcore about our college basketball around here!  Go cats!  #bbn

Recently I had an opportunity to sit down with a friend and colleague, J. Klay Harrison, to discuss the newly launched (International) Ancient Greek Honor Society. The name of the society is Gamma Rho Kappa ( GRK ; see the logo to the left).  In the interview we discuss the purpose of GRK among other things.  You can listen to it for free HERE (scroll to the bottom of the page to download it for FREE).  You can also learn more about GRK and read some relevant documents HERE .  Chapters are already forming in academic institutions.  Why not bring a GRK chapter to your school?  Download the audio and click the above link to learn how.

Before too long we will be celebrating the birthday of one of our children.  We look forward to birthdays in the Halcomb household for several reasons, including the ones that most people enjoy:  We celebrate each other and with each other, we get to play with family and friends, and we give gifts to the birthday boy/girl.  But there's another reason that we enjoy birthdays in our family:  We get to be missional!   As is the case with many American children, our kids have more toys than they need.  Birthday parties tend to compound this problem.  So, beginning with our daughter's third birthday, my wife and I decided that we would begin being missional by, instead of asking those coming to the birthday party to bring presents for the child, they would help us do mission work locally.  Now, I'm not saying that we forbid our kids from receiving gifts on his/her birthday or that we, as parents, don't even give gifts--we do.  But what...

I just got word that my second paper (which is the limit for presenters) was accepted for the 2014 annual Society of Biblical Literature meeting in San Diego. This paper will be presented in the "Applied Linguistics for Biblical Studies" section and is titled "Setting Students Up To Fail Biblical Languages: An Assessment of Assessment." My other paper, which was accepted in the Global Education & Resource Technology section, is titled "ἡ καινὴ σχολή· Communicating Ancient Greek Via Modern Technologies." The Greek here (ἡ καινὴ σχολή) means "The New School," which is actually how it will appear in the SBL program because their platform, interestingly enough, is not able to handle Greek characters. Anyway, this is good news and I look forward to participating in both of these fine sections!

Hi friends, I want to draw your attention to two FREE good videos, one of N.T. Wright and one of Greg Boyd, which you can see below.  In addition, I want to draw your attention to a free article by Steve Runge which you can download HERE .  Hope you find these resources helpful.

Yesterday I started reading a book that I'm reviewing for a journal, a book that I'm already finding quite interesting.  This new (2013) work by Michael J. Thate is published by Mohr Siebeck in their WUNT series and is titled Remembrance of Things Past?: Albert Schweitzer, the Anxiety of Influence, and the Untidy Jesus of Markan Memory .  What I've read thus far is very well-written and thought-provoking.  I am keen to continue reading the rest of the volume. Before I get to Thate's thoughts on Chris Keith's work (as well as those who contributed to the anti- or post-criteria work he edited ), two things should be mentioned.  First, the end-goal of Thate's work should be noted.  He says that this volume of his attempts "to (re)situate the historische Jesu Frage within the wider discussion of secularization both in terms of its history of interpretation as well as its contemporary constructions" (14).  Further, it is an "experimental critiqu...

In the first post of this series, which you can read HERE , I talked about the notion of being wrong as a Bible scholar.  In my discussion I considered the dangers of feeling like one always has to be right as well as the fears of being wrong.  I noted that these fears can sometimes causes learners to freeze up, to stop in their tracks, and to not just "go for it" and put themselves and their work out there.  This leads into today's post, which is concerned with being bold as a Bible scholar. From the start, I should say that when I think about boldness I do so in relation to humility.  One can be both bold and humble at the same time; these two things are not necessarily in opposition to one another.  Being bold is not the same thing as being cold or being a jerk.  Being bold has to do with finding the courage to maintain and share one's values without compromising in the face of pressure.  It is not bandying to the whims or views of others ...

Today I'm starting a series built around the theme "On Being A Bible Scholar." In each post of this series I am basically going to use some noun or adjective to help describe certain types of Bible scholars or certain characteristics of Bible scholars. I write these posts, of course, from the perspective of being "in the know" or within the circle; I also write as one who has often observed some of the traits in myself, so, when there are critiques, I'm definitely not exempt. So, to start the series off I want to talk about being "wrong" as a Bible scholar. Being wrong is not something any of us, scholar or not, tends to aim for or to enjoy. Indeed, it would be rare to embark upon a goal with the hopes or intentions of being wrong. That, of course, is different than embarking on a goal with the realized possibility of being wrong. But there is a sense within the field of biblical studies that being wrong is to lose face, to lose socia...

Here's a portion of the flyer for the upcoming " Theological Educators Forum on Orality " that I'll be participating in.  In this presentation, which comes on the heels of one I gave at a conference last week titled "Never Trust a Greek...Professor: Revisiting the Question of How Koine Was Pronounced," I will really focus in on the so-called "Erasmian pronunciation" and the damage it has caused both inside and outside of the academy.  The paper at the Forum on Orality is titled "Erasmian's Role in Linguistic Genocide: Issues Concerning Morality, Orality, and the Pronunciation of Koine Greek."  There will be an audio version of this presentation available in an upcoming episode of the "Get Greek! Podcast" hosted by the Conversational Koine Institute . (The previously mentioned presentation will also be available in a forthcoming episode of the podcast.)  In addition, Asbury Theological Seminary will be making a 7-minute ...

Hello friends, I am pleased today to announce the release of my newest book, co-authored with Dr. Fred Long, titled Speak Koine Greek: A Conversational Phrasebook .   Speak Koine Greek contains over 240 sayings, expressions, phrases, idioms, and figures of speech from ancient (Koine) Greek. This work has been strategically arranged into simple categories (Getting in the Conversation, Staying in the Conversation, Ending the Conversation) with each entry ordered alphabetically by English glosses and followed by both a phrase that is similar or comparable in Koine as well as a source citation. Speak Koine Greek is a user-friendly compilation of expressions meant to help learners progress in fluency and knowledge of Koine while having fun doing so. You can purchase the book on Amazon.com HERE or HERE .  As a further add-on, companion audio files for this book are available for purchase and download at the GlossaHouse website HERE . Here are a couple of blurbs from the bac...

Here is a performance that I recorded of Dr. David Rhoads performing Philemon at the 2013 SBL pre-conference Performance Criticism event in Baltimore, MD. Enjoy!

Despite having finished the Ph.D., life has not slowed down; indeed, I'm still just as busy as ever...maybe even more so.  In addition to teaching 8 classes at the Conversational Koine Institute this semester and launching the CKI podcast, among other things, I am preparing to deliver several papers.  As a well-known presenter once said, "I'll keep doing it until I die or the audiences die."  Hopefully, neither will be the case this time around but on the off-chance that you might be interested in what's on the horizon, here are some of the titles (with at least two more, which are not listed here, waiting to be confirmed): * " Never Trust a Greek...Professor: Revisiting the Question of How Koine was Pronounced " (Stone-Campbell Journal Conference, Knoxville, TN - March 14-15) * " Acknowledging an Overlooked Element in Markan Christology: 'Preparing the Way' for a Reconsideration of Mk 1:1-4 " (Stone-Campbell Journal Confere...

A FREE dramatic audio recording of Genesis 1:1-5 in Koine Greek has been posted over at the Conversational Koine Institute .  Check it out and even download it.  While you're there, have a look around the site and come learn to speak biblical Greek with us!

As many of you know, I have been serving in some capacity in a church for over a decade now.  I love the church.  I'm an advocate of "church renewal," which we good Methodists talk a lot about.  Not only do I think church renewal is needed, I believe it can happen.  I think it begins with education, specifically a robust theological education.  So, as you read this, know that I love the church.  If you don't keep that in mind, you'll certainly misread me. I have served in the children/youth pastor role, sr. pastor role, assistant pastor role, worship leader role and Bible study and Sunday school teacher role.  I've sat in board meetings and voted, I've led mission trips, I've planned events...I've worn many hats and assumed many roles in the church.  I love the church!  In spite of the many times I've been burnt, mistreated and criticized, I still love the church.  In spite of the fact that my wife was once mugged during a chur...

This week I made it into chapter 1 of Colossians Remixed and I must say, it was a bit more amenable to me than the preface.  Here, the authors do some of what they forecasted in the preface with regards to allowing the types of persons/students they engage to raise questions, particularly about Christianity and more specifically about the Bible.  The chapter is bracketed between the beginning and ending of a narrative about a fellow named William, a thorough-going postmodernist.  Although this book is a over a decade old and some have declared that we are currently in a Post-postmodern era (or metamodern, pseudo-modern, etc.), Walsh and Keesmaat offer an inviting overview and foray into the concept of postmodernism.  In fact, I was quite a bit surprised by the fact that they critiqued it as they did. For example, they describe postmodernism’s “grand tale of progress” as a “myth that requires faith,” whose “story’s foundational assumptions themselves require ...

A number of years ago I came across a book by Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat titled Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire . At the time, I didn't pick it up or give it much thought. Recently, however, I was invited to be part of a very small reading/discussion group that plans to read through this work. So, now I have the volume and am reading it and I plan to blog my way through it as far as time allows. I will strive do this in a way that comports with the schedule of our group's meetings, that is, once a week toward the end of every week. This morning we had our first meeting and we just spent a little bit of time discussing the preface, thus, that's where I begin my review. The preface of this book, which spans only five pages, raised a number of questions for me. Walsh and Keesmaat, who are spouses, begin by exploring the idea of a "remix," which is a word used in the main title. They consider "remixing" to be, at its best, a ...

During Christmastime, in the Christian tradition, we hear over and over that Jesus is God made flesh. To put it differently, Jesus is the "God-man". The traditional teaching in Christianity is that the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, she miraculously conceived a child as a virgin and gave birth to Him. Thus, He was "God's Son" or "The Son of God". In the opening verses of Mark's Gospel, the nomenclature is used: Jesus the Messiah, "Son of God" (Grk: υιος θεος). It also appears in Mk. 5 (Gerasene Demoniac story) and Mk. 15 (story of the Roman Soldier at the cross). Interestingly, this title is not unique to Christendom and it is certainly not unique to Jesus. Nearly 50 years before Jesus stepped on the scene, Octavian was already referring to himself as the divi filius (the Latin of υιος θεος). For the 30 years prior to Jesus' birth Augustus was also being called this. During the rule of Tiberius, we know that his ruling son, Germa...

What better time than Christmas to resurrect old arguments about the birth of Jesus, right? Let's take, for example, the dated notion that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was raped by a Roman soldier named Panthera. This, actually, is a viewpoint that the modern filmmaker (and member of theJesus Seminar), Paul Verhoeven, is attempting to make in a movie and write a book about. The title of the book is Jesus Of Nazareth: A Realistic Portrait . But is the notion that Mary was raped, actually realistic? Or better yet, is this an argument we can place any stock in? Not so much because it troubles me theologically but because I can find no good evidence that would cause me to subscribe it, leads me to say "No" to both answers. More on this in a moment! Let me digress a little bit here and ask another question, one that has also been around a while but also seems to get brought up at Christmastime: Did God rape Mary? Was the miraculous conception an act of interpersonal violence...