Exegetically Speaking

Jon C. Laansma is the Gerald F. Hawthorne Professor of New Testament Greek and Exegesis in the Classical Languages program at Wheaton College, IL. Among other things he has authored I Will Give You Rest: The Rest Motif in the New Testament with Special Reference to Mt 11 and Heb 3-4 and The Letter to the Hebrews: A Commentary for Preaching, Teaching, and Bible Study. Today’s topic: What does the Greek wording of Heb. 4:1-11 tell us about the writer’s idea of God’s promise of entering into his resting place to celebrate the Sabbath?

Lucia Sanders, Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies and Director of the Academic Support Center at Life Pacific University (San Dimas, CA), is an alumna of Wheaton Graduate School’s M.A. in Biblical Exegesis and a current Ph.D. student at University of Birmingham. Today’s topic: Eccl. 2:24 is frequently translated something like, “A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink . . .” (NIV). It's the Hebrew preposition behind the words “better than” that deserves a second look, as it normally does not signal a comparison as appears in typical translations.

Dr. James Frohlich is Adjunct Professor of Old Testament, Dallas Theological Seminary-Houston, and the author of The Relationship between MT and LXX in Jeremiah 39(46):1-41(48):3 and 52 (Forschungen Zum Alten Testament 2.reihe). Today’s topic: The author of Ruth weaves some interesting Hebrew wordplays through the narrative which are frequently lost in translation, especially relating to “leaving,” “clinging,” and the protective covering of “wings.”

Rev. Dr. Vuyani Sindo is Head of Biblical Studies at George Whitefield College, Cape Town, South Africa. In an earlier episode of this podcast he discussed the translational choices of English “liberty” or “right” in 1 Cor. 9:4-5. Today’s topic is hospitality, or “love” of the “stranger.” This is the expectation of church leaders and all believers that, at cost to ourselves, we turn someone we might be afraid of into a friend. In so doing, we come to know each other and are equipped best to care for each other.

Dr. Adam E. Miglio is Associate Professor of Old Testament & Archaeology and Director of M.A. in Old Testament Archaeology at Wheaton College. His most recent book is The Gilgamesh Epic in Genesis 1-11: Peering into the Deep.  Today’s topic: Anyone listening in on the discussions of Old Testament specialists soon hears tell of the cuneiform script and the Akkadian language. Dr. Miglio provides a brief orientation to these and explains the importance of Akkadian to the in-depth study of the OT.

Rev. Dr. Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford is Emerita Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages at Mercer University. She is the Old Testament editor for the Word Biblical Commentary Series, and she has published, Psalms, Books 4–5 (Volume 22) (Wisdom Commentary Series), among other things. Today’s topic: The KJV’s translation of the Hebrew phrase behind Ecclesiastes 1:2 was “vanity of vanities,” a wording that derived from Jerome’s much earlier Latin translation, and it’s a wording that has stuck. But what is the actual idea and how else can it be translated?

Dr. Darrell Bock is Executive Director of Cultural Engagement and Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. Among his other roles and accomplishments, he has earned recognition as a Humboldt Scholar (Tübingen University in Germany), is the author of over 40 books, including well-regarded commentaries on Luke and Acts and studies of the historical Jesus, and he works in cultural engagement as host of the seminary’s Table Podcasts. Today’s topic: John the Baptist’s call to repentance in the face of the Kingdom of God assumes an unbreakable connection between the “vertical” relation with God in repentance and the “horizontal” relations to our neighbors, as is clear in the repeated emphasis on “doing.”

Dr. Amy Peeler is Associate Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College and Graduate School and a frequent contributor to this podcast. Her research has concentrated in the Letter to the Hebrews, Paul and Gender, and the Gospel of Mark. Her most recent book is Women and the Gender of God. Today’s topic: The conception of Jesus in Matthew 1:20 presents a delicate challenge for exegetes, theologians, and Bible translators. The event is neither sexualized nor “spiritualized,” but presents to us, without answering all our questions, the fullness of the incarnation of the Son of God, the child of Mary.

Dr. Amy Peeler is Associate Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College and Graduate School. Her research has concentrated in the Letter to the Hebrews, Paul and Gender, and the Gospel of Mark. She has contributed previous episodes to this podcast, and among her publications is Hebrews: An Introduction and Study Guide. Today’s topic: The presence and the selection of the women in Matthew’s opening genealogy is a call to reflection. How do their stories contribute to the story of Jesus and the world he came to save from its sins?

Dr. Jonathan More, Vice-Principal and Academic Dean at George Whitefield College, Cape Town, South Africa, focuses his research on the intersection between the intellectual world of the New Testament and its Graeco-Roman context. Today’s topic: Translation sometimes poses difficult decisions when there is no single word available to the translator in the receptor language. The NIV translates Phil 4:11 as, “. . . I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” The word “content” (αὐτάρκης) has a sense that is hard to represent with a single English word.