Pisteuomen - πιστευομεν - T. Michael W. Halcomb

So, I just registered for my last 3 courses (+ 1 audit) of PhD work and on the one hand, it's a relief but on the other hand, I kind of feel lost. Essentially, I've been in higher education for 12 years and by the time I finish the PhD, it will have been 14-15 years, which is longer than the time I spent in K-12!!! Anyway, I am looking forward to my classes, here's what I'm taking: * Summer: Historical Geography of Israel : (Studying in Israel at Jerusalem University College; proctored by Lawson Stone) * Summer: Socio-Rhetorical Criticism of the New Testament (Ben Witherington, III) * Fall (audit): Acts of the Apostles (Ben Witherington, III) * Fall: Revelation (Craig Keener)

Well, that's what Asbury Theological Seminary's president, Dr. Tim Tennent, suggests. But probably not for the reasons you might expect. Anyway, you can check out the 4-part review of Bell's Love Wins at Tennent's blog by clicking the following link (only the first part is posted so far): Tennent's Blog . In my opinion, it is this type of fair-handed treatment that Christians should be offering up, not the reductionistic, judgmental, close-minded and hateful reviews/interviews like those HERE and HERE .

It is official, the news has been announced, Dr. Craig Keener is joining the faculty of Asbury Theological Seminary. Keener , a renowned author, respected scholar and globally reputable teacher will migrate from his post at Palmer / Eastern and relocate to Kentucky. Keener will be working with graduate and post-graduate students alike, mainly in the department of New Testament studies. There are many reasons Keener will be a good fit, not least being his diversity in the Gospels & Acts, his extensive knowledge of Historical Jesus & Pauline studies, but also because he is globally and missionally minded, which is a huge part of Asbury's ethos. Though I will probably only get to take one class with Keener, I still have several years left at ATS and look forward to getting to know him. So, let me just say, "Welcome, Dr. Keener. We're blessed to have you among us and we look forward to advancing the Kingdom with you." For those of you who, for some odd rea...

So, it is now official, this spring I will be a TA (Teaching Assistant, which mainly means grading papers and being available to students) for Dr. Ben Witherington. Also, my application for a TI position (Teaching Intern, which consists of delivering 7 of 13 class lectures, grading and being available to students) to work with Dr. Fred Long was accepted, which means I have been hired to work with him. I'm super excited about these opportunities. For Dr. Witherington, I'll be working with the NT520 class (NT Theology) and with Dr. Long, I'll be instructing in the BS505 class (Intro to Biblical Studies / NT) and assisting with NT634 (Exegesis of Galatians) and NT901 (NT Research Methods).

One of Wesleyanism's most beloved and formative exegetes, a mover and shaker in the field of biblical studies, methodism and among the community of Asbury Theological Seminary, Robert A. Traina passed away this week. While Traina was known among many for his influential teachings / works on Methodical Bible Study , it is probably fair to say that his reach extended far beyond those who ever met him. Indeed, Traina's IBS (Inductive Bible Study) methodology has influenced generations of great scholars and has infiltrated the core of many seminary curricula. Many of my current professors such as David Bauer, Joe Dongell, Fred Long and Lawson Stone have sat at the feet of Traina and all of them have influenced me greatly. The maxim that we all stand upon the shoulders of others is certainly true! Lawson Stone tells a great story about his time at Yale University studying with Brevard Childs. He says that Childs always kept a copy of Traina's work handy and that in fact, it...

This news just out from ATS , my doctoral supervisor Ben Witherington has just filmed a special that will air in April. Here's the dl: Dr. Ben Witherington, Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies has just returned from Jerusalem where he was filming a Jesus special for the BBC called The Jesus Quest , to be aired next April. His book The Christology of Jesus was named one of the top five books on the historical Jesus in the most recent issue of Christianity Today .

The ATS postgraduate assistant just mentioned in an email that my PhD advisor, Dr. Ben Witherington, III, will be offering a course this summer titled "Socio-Rhetorical Criticism of the New Testament". I could finish my coursework in the spring but it looks like I'm going to go ahead and wait and take this class in the summer! Here's the description: NT903 offers a post-graduate/doctoral level course studying the use of rhetoric, social history, and social scientific critical methods to interpret and apply the New Testament. Reviews the various methodologies that fall under the headings mentioned above, with a focus on the main currents of thought and main contributors to these various disciplines. Students develop competencies in both the rhetorical side and the social historical or social scientific investigation of the New Testament. The course is taught in seminar format, with lectures by the professor, student paper presentations, and detailed critiquing by the...

Here are the courses, professors and books I will be spending my upcoming semester with and even though I'm looking forward to it all, 12 hours at the PhD level while trying to be a family-man isn't easy! * BS 999 - Exegesis of Romans (Independent Study): Dr. Ben Witherington, III - Ian Scott, Paul’s Way of Knowing: Story, Experience and the Spirit ; Peter Oakes, Reading Romans in Pompeii: Paul's Letter at the Ground Level ; Thomas Tobin, Paul’s Rhetoric in Its Contexts: The Argument of Romans ; Christopher Bryan, A Preface to Romans: Notes on the Epistle in Its Literary and Cultural Setting ; Douglas Moo, Encountering the Book of Romans: A Theological Survey ; Ben Witherington, III, Paul's Letter to the Romans: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary ; Robert Jewett, Romans (Hermenia) * BS 999 - Exegesis of 2 Corinthians (Independent Study): Dr. Fred Long - David Bauer, An Annotated Guide to Biblical Resources for Ministry ; Murray J. Harris, The Second Epistle to the Corinthia...

Here's a compilation (a little dated but still funny) of some Asbury Theological Seminary profs, that I think you'll enjoy:

Here's a list of my summer and fall courses that are coming up, all of which I'm looking forward to with great anticipation!!! * Summer - Interpretation of Mark - Dr. David Bauer * Fall - Exegesis of Romans - Dr. Ben Witherington * Fall - Exegesis of 2 Corinthians - Dr. Fred Long * Fall - Exegesis of Deuteronomy - Dr. Lawson Stone * Fall - Old Testament Research Methods - Dr. Lawson Stone

This spring semester, I'm taking 4 courses (12 credit hours). As I look at my syllabi, I'm a bit overwhelmed already. Here's the list of my 30+ "Required Textbooks" for each class, yes, you read that correctly, 30+ "Required Textbooks"!!! Not only is that a lot of reading, that's a lot of money! Thankfully, I already owned some of these items. Anyway, here they are, arranged by course: Advanced Greek: Readings in the LXX * Rahlfs, Alfred. Septuaginta . * Lust, J.A. Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint . * Jobes, Karen H. & Moises Silva. Invitation to the Septuagint . * May, Herbert and Bruce Metzger, eds. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. Revised Standard Version . * Conybeare, F.C. and St. George Stock. Grammar of Septuagint Greek: With Selected Readings, Vocabularies, and Updated Indexes . * Wallace, Daniel B. Greek Beyond the Basics: an Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament . Aramaic: * Jastrow, Marcus. A Dict...

I'm glad to be done with my first semester. I've told myself from the start: If I can make it through the first year of this PhD program, I'll be able to make it all the way through. As it stands, I'm halfway done with the first year. I'm pretty sure I secured an "A" in all 3 classes and I know that I passed my German comps. Next semester is going to be much tougher though. I have Advanced Readings in Greek (Septuagint), Aramaic, New Testament Research Methods, Hebrew Comps & French Comps. Add 1 more kid in the family to that equation and it's not only going to be stressful, it's going to be nuts. I'm going to really have to hunker down for the next few months and dedicate myself to excellence. It's going to take a lot of focus, clarity and planning but I think I can do it. Thus, while say "So Long" to to first semester of PhD work, I post a picture here of one of my last class sessions (Seminar on the History of Bib...

Nicholasville, KY, the bedroom community of Lexington and the sister town of Wilmore, where Asbury Theological Seminary is located, was voted by "Money Magazine" as the "Most Affordable" place to live in the whole United States!!! Here's the entire article (courtesy: LKR ): According to a recent report done by Money magazine, Nicholasville Kentucky has been named the most affordable small city in America. You can read the entire article in the August 2008 issue of Money magazine in the Top 100 Best Places To Live article. Some accolades in the article given to the area include its proximity to Lexington (its essentially a bedroom community), as well as a home town atmosphere, and a 3 bedroom home starts at approximately $100,000, while a median home price of approximately $70,000 (With a value of $70,000 as a median single home price, its likely that when compiling the data that the analysts considered townhomes as part of the contributing source data.) A ...

If you're an Asbury Theological Seminary student, alumni, faculty or staff member or someone who may be interested in ATS, here are some great blogs you can frequent and follow, as well as a few social networking sites you can join, to see what's taking place on campus: For a comprehensive list of blogs / bloggers, click the Asbury Bloggers Society image-link below: For a brief list of blogs detailing important events, click the image-link below: For a list of the Top 50 blogs on BLOGNETWORKS, click the image-link below: For another ATS blog link, Web Parish, click the image-link below: To follow ATS on Facebook, click the image-link below: To follow ATS on Twitter, click the image-link below: Here's ATS's president's blog (Tim Tennet) called "Global Talk", click the image-link below to visit: Here's Dr. Ben Witherington's blog, click the image-link below to visit it: Here's Dr. Lawson Stone's blog called "Stone's Fence", clic...

I just picked up a couple books from the ATS library for free. Both, after a brief thumb through them appear to be pretty good resources; I especially like the Classical & Byzantine reference work!!! William F. Lynch, Christ and Apollo D. R. Dudley & D. M. Lang, Classical & Byzantine, Oriental & African Literature

Here are my profs and the courses I'm taking in the Spring: * Biblical Aramaic (Dr. John Cook) * Advanced Greek: Septuagint (Dr. Joe Dongell) * Research Methods in NT (Dr. Fred Long)

Without a doubt, choosing a PhD program isn't easy work. In fact, a whole lot goes into making such a choice. In my case, there were many variables that shaped my decision to accept the offer to study at Asbury Theological Seminary. To be sure, I had other offers. I was given an offer to work with the renowned Dr. Philip Esler at St. Andrews, I was given a greater financial package from Aberdeen, I could have stayed in the States while doing a distance program with the respected Pauline scholar Dr. Bill Campbell, etc., etc. The point is: I had options. Some of the specific "variables" that I mentioned above centered around "family," "friends," "money / living expenses," "faith" and of course, "academics." Comparing ATS to other institutions when it came to family and friends was quite easy. I, of course, grew up in KY, so, we already had those types of connections here. My spouse studied at UK and worked at a hospi...

Every year, once a year, Asbury Theological Seminary makes room on its shelves for newer books by getting rid of the "less checked out" and / or donated books it has and / or receives. So, when the doors opened at 7:30am this morning for the sale, one other nerd along with me, stormed the gates and browsed through over 1,000 books. I went, mainly looking for resources that might possibly contribute in the future to my dissertation. Thankfully, I found quite a few things that were right up my alley. In fact, for $14.50, I brought home a box of 29 books, which are all valuable to current or future research projects. Here they are: * S. Moscati, Ancient Semitic Civilizations * E. Hamilton, The Roman Way * D. Carabine, The Unknown God: Negative Theology in the Platonic Tradition: Plato to Eriugena * C. R. Beye, Ancient Greek Literature and Society * H. J. Muller, The Uses of the Past: Profiles of Former Societies * E. Zeller, Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy * R. Sower...

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...