Exegetically Speaking

Amy Nichole Allan, adjunct Professor of Theology at Trinity Christian College, is working on her Wheaton Graduate School PhD dissertation, “Anthropomorphic and Anthropopathic Depictions of God in Hosea, Amos, Micah, and Zephaniah: Rhetoric, Interpretation, and Theology.” In this episode of Exegetically Speaking, Amy weighs carefully the last thing Job says in response to God’s long speech in chapters 38-41. Is Job 42:6 about ­self-loathing, or a retraction of Job’s words?

Dr. John Walton, Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton Graduate School, author of many books and articles relating to the background, literature, and theology of the Old Testament, has contributed several episodes to this podcast. In this conversation with David Capes he discusses a passage widely thought to be about the fall of Satan. Where did that tradition originate, and what does the context of Isaiah 14 tell us about the intended referent of the taunt?

Dr. Jon Laansma, the Gerald F. Hawthorne Professor of New Testament Greek and Exegesis at Wheaton College, co-authored with Randall Gauthier, The Handy Guide to Difficult and Irregular Greek Verbs. He discusses how this tool, combined with healthy doses of reading practice, helps students advance more quickly to “putting roots down” in the language of the Greek NT. Once over the hump of initial learning, daily reading is efficient and doable, from which point the student can expand beyond the NT and circle back to figure out why some verbs have the tense stems that they do.

Dr. Scott Callaham is Lecturer in Hebrew and Old Testament at Baptist Theological Seminary, Singapore. In this conversation with David Capes he introduces the podcast Daily Dose of Aramaic, which, along with his new book, Biblical Aramaic for Biblical Interpreters, helps users build knowledge of this third biblical language. They go on to look closely at the one Aramaic verse in the book of Jeremiah. Dr. Callaham demonstrates how knowledge of Aramaic grammar enables Bible readers to grasp the meaning of Jeremiah 10:11 more accurately than is possible through referring to English Bible translations alone.

Jason Barney, the principal of Coram Deo Academy, is an alumnus of both Wheaton College’s Classical Languages major (’09) and its MA in Biblical Exegesis program (’14). He has published two books, A Classical Guide to Narration and The Joy of Learning, and blogs on ancient wisdom for the modern era at www.educationalrenaissance.com. He enjoyed learning Latin during high school and then Greek and Hebrew at Wheaton, and loves the opportunity to lead within the growing classical schools movement where students can receive a deep grounding in the classical languages and their literary heritage. He has been thinking about Aristotle’s intellectual virtues, especially intuition, and he discusses how this might help us understand Paul’s point in 1 Corinthians 2 and elsewhere.

Dr. Chris Fresch is Lecturer in Biblical Languages and Old Testament at Bible College SA in Adelaide, South Australia. He has authored A Book-by-Book Guide to New Testament Greek Vocabulary (Tyndale House, 2019) and co-edited with Steven Runge The Greek Verb Revisited: A Fresh Approach for Biblical Exegesis (Lexham, 2016). After recalling his early years learning the biblical languages, he explains how a Hebrew particle used in Genesis 1:31 and 6:12 functions to underline and bold two key pronouncements.

Dr. George Kalantzis is Professor of Theology and Director of The Wheaton Center for Early Christian Studies at Wheaton College. Among his many publications are Theodore of Mopsuestia: Gospel of John (Australian Catholic University, 2004) and Caesar and the Lamb (Cascade, 2012). Having grown up in Greece, he recalls learning classical and Koiné Greek from within modern Greek, before going on to discuss the meaning and significance of the word the KJV translated as “only begotten.” Philology and theology vindicate the traditional translation.

Dr. Amy Whisenand Krall is Assistant Professor and Assistant Program Director of Biblical & Theological Studies at Fresno Pacific University. Her doctoral research (Duke Divinity School) was in New Testament with an emphasis on theology and music. In this conversation with David Capes she recalls that as a middle-schooler she learned Greek from her father and enjoyed it so much she kept with it through high school, college, seminary, and doctoral studies, eventually branching out to other biblical and modern languages. She sheds some light on the Greek sentence structure of Col. 3:16 and the significance of these lines in the context of Paul’s letter to “God’s holy people in Colossae.”

Matthew Norton is an alum of Wheaton College’s Classical Languages major and its MA in Biblical Exegesis. He is presently enrolled in the School of Medicine at Louisiana State University Health Shreveport. His journey with the classical languages took him from high school through college until he determined that he would serve through a career in medicine. He remains a student of the languages, and in this episode he unpacks a commonly cited line of Paul: I can do (endure) all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Dr. Ray Van Neste is dean of the School of Theology & Missions and Professor of Biblical Studies at Union University. He has written Cohesion and Structure in the Pastoral Epistles (T&T Clark, 2005) along with many other essays and edited volumes. He recalls what first excited him about learning Greek and then reflects on what Paul’s language in 2 Tim. 1:6-7 indicates that he has in mind by the “gift of God” and the “spirit of cowardice” in this letter.