Over the first few months of 2023, I plan to preach through the book of Esther. Below are my notes, resources I found worthwhile, and other things that I found useful. This is a work in progress – feel free to recommend resources to me! Structure Structure: On either side of the turning point are repeated phrases, some reiterated in reverse order and unusual idioms used three times (first half, second half, and in Esther 5:11-6:3. Note also that entire verses from Esther 3:10-15 are repeated in chapter 8. Recommended Reading Articles Duguid, I. M. (2006) “But Did They Live Happily Ever after? The Eschatology of the Book of Esther,”…
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CU Weekend Away
I recently had the pleasure of speaking at the weekend away of Bedfordshire, Brunel and Hertfordshire CU's...
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Logos 10 Review
Logos 10 is finally here, and there are some great improvements. Read on to find out the things that make me particularly happy with this release!
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Pentateuch Overview
Over the past year (September 2021 to July 2022), at our midweek small groups, I took my church through the Pentateuch. The plan was to cover as much of the key storyline as we could in the number of weeks available. This of course meant that bits that I would have loved to cover were cut. We also ran Topic Nights looking at some of the big themes that appeared, and review sessions at the end of each book. These were all filmed for members who could not make it, or who wanted to review (videos are at the bottom of this page). Passages Here are the passages we studied…
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How does the divine intention of a text relate to the intention of the human author?
In recent years, discussion around intentions has grown significantly. In evangelical circles, there have been many views of how the intentions of the divine author and the human author interact. In some senses, these fall along a spectrum from seeing the intentions as totally separate, through to completely identical. It is worth outlining what is meant by the human author’s intention. It can be very easy to overstate what is being said. This has caused many to mishear or talk past the other side. For instance, it would be ridiculous to claim we can infer everything about the author from reading what they have written. We cannot know their background,…
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Review: James (Big Greek Idea)
Over the past few months I have had the pleasure of looking over James: Big Greek Idea, the first in a new commentary series by Kregel Academic. I love the premise of this series! It provides a type of commentary that I have not seen before. It takes the benefits of a Greek language commentary (such as the NIGTC), and combines it with bits of an expositional commentary (such as the ProcTrust series), whilst also including details for teachers and language students. This makes the series, in my eyes, something to dip into regularly as I preach through a book. To make the most of this series you will need…
