For renowned scholar Daniel Block, Deuteronomy is the “Gospel according to Moses.” In his farewell addresses, Moses calls God’s people to remember divine grace in salvation and their covenant relationship with him, as well as his revelation of a way of blessing in a lost world.

Tune in as we speak with Daniel Block about the third and final volume of his commentary on Deuteronomy.

Daniel Block is the Gunther H. Knoedler Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Wheaton College, and the author of numerous articles and papers, both scholarly and popular, and has written commentaries on Ezekiel, Judges, Ruth, and Deuteronomy.

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How can war stories, farming proverbs, and strange visions draw you closer to Jesus? In Four Mountains: Encountering God in the Bible from Eden to Zion, Michael Niebauer shows how to see the Bible's big story and meet with God in his word.

Four mountain-top encounters with God (Eden, Sinai, Tabor, and Zion) unify the Bible's grand story. The earliest Christians read Scripture with attentiveness to symbols and images like mountains and trees. Learning this method of reading helps us connect seemingly disparate stories and encounter God in his word. Gospel-rich, and Scripture-saturated, Four Mountains reveals how we can see Jesus on every page.

Open my eyes that I may see

the wondrous things of your law.

--Psalm 119:18 (New Coverdale Psalter)

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In her book, Deciphering the Worlds of Hebrews, Gabriella Gelardini reads Hebrews within its context of Second Temple Judaism, writing about the structure and intertext of Hebrews, sin and faith, atonement and cult, as well as space and resistance.

Join us as we speak with Gabriella Gelardini about the Book of Hebrews!

Gabriella Gelardini is Professor of Christian Religion, Worldview and Ethics at Nord University in Norway.

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How does the metaphor of Jesus as king unify the message of the Gospel of John?

Tune in as we speak with Beth Stovell about her monograph, Mapping Metaphorical Discourse in the Fourth Gospel. Beth's study shows how John’s Gospel describes the just character of Jesus’ kingship, the subversion of power implicit in his crucified form of kingship, and the necessity of response to Jesus as king and his reign.

Beth Stovell is Professor of Old Testament at Ambrose University, and is working on commentaries on Ezekiel, the Minor Prophets, Hosea, and the Gospel of John.

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Elijah is a zealous prophet, attacking idolatry and injustice, championing God. He performs miracles, restoring life and calling down fire. When his earthly life ends, he vanishes in a whirlwind, carried off to heaven in a fiery chariot. Was this a spectacular death, or did Elijah escape death entirely? The latter view prevailed. Though residing in heaven, Elijah revisits earth--to help, rescue, enlighten, and eventually herald the Messiah. Because of his messianic role, Jews open the door for Elijah during each seder--the meal commemorating liberation from slavery and anticipating final redemption.

Tune in as we speak with Daniel C. Matt about his recent book, Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation.

PLEASE NOTE: For a limited time, anyone can order the title at a 25% discount with free shipping, by using the code ELIJAH during checkout, at this link.

Also here are several video links related to Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation:

1) A conversation about Becoming Elijah between Daniel Matt and Barry Holtz at an event sponsored by the Center for Jewish History, in Manhattan, March 3, 2022:

2) A conversation between Daniel Matt and Estelle Frankel, sponsored by Chochmat HaLev, in Berkeley, March 31, 2022.

3) A talk by Daniel Matt on Becoming Elijah, sponsored by New Lehrhaus, in Berkeley, Sunday, April 3, 2022.

Daniel C. Matt is a leading authority on Jewish mysticism. He served as professor at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, and has also taught at Stanford University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His publications, in addition to the The Zohar: Pritzker Edition (12 vols.), include The Essential Kabbalah (1995), God and the Big Bang (1996), and Zohar: Annotated and Explained (2002). Daniel also teaches an online Zohar course: www.sup.org/zohar/course

Michael Morales is Professor of Biblical Studies at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and the author of The Tabernacle Pre-Figured: Cosmic Mountain Ideology in Genesis and Exodus(Peeters, 2012), Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord?: A Biblical Theology of Leviticus (IVP Academic, 2015), and Exodus Old and New: A Biblical Theology of Redemption (IVP Academic, 2020). He can be reached at [email protected]

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Some time ago, we spoke with Daniel Block about volume 1 of his Deuteronomy commentary, Hearing the Gospel According to Moses. Tune in as we hear from Dan now about his second volume, on chapters 12-23 of Deuteronomy, which he characterizes as “Responding to the grace of the LORD with righteous living.”

Daniel Block is the Gunther H. Knoedler Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Wheaton College, and the author of numerous articles and papers, both scholarly and popular, and has written commentaries on Ezekiel, Judges, Ruth, and Deuteronomy.

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For centuries, Jewish thinkers have asked two parallel questions. First, what is the reasoning behind an individual commandment and second, why bother heeding a command at all, something Dr. Brafman terms “reasons for” vs “reasons of” the commandments. In his newest book, Critique of Halakhic Reason: Divine Commandments and Social Normativity (Oxford UP, 2024), Dr. Brafman looks closely at the second of these questions. After considering answers from some of the most important Jewish thinkers of the 20th century, Joseph Soloveitchik, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, and Eliezer Berkovits, Dr. Brafman introduces his own system of thought. For him, the reasons for the commandments depend on a number of factors. We don’t follow them blindly. And they don’t always have to adhere to perfect and pure reason. Instead they are, to use a term he employs throughout is book, “constructed” based on any number of factors including our relationship with God and the norms that exist within our society. In conversation with some of the most important secular legal theorist and philosophers of the past 100 years, Dr Brafman charts a new course in Jewish theology, both defending and reimagining the place of our obligation to halakhah, Jewish law, for the 21st century.

Professor Yonatan Brafman is Associate Professor of Modern Judaism in the Department of Religion, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Literary and Cultural Studies at Tufts University.

Rabbi Marc Katz is the Senior Rabbi at Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, NJ. He is most recently the author of Yochanan’s Gamble: Judaism’s Pragmatic Approach to Life (JPS)

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Joseph and Aseneth: A Study in Manuscript Transmission (de Gruyter, 2025) expands a few verses from the book of Genesis into a novella-length work. It is increasingly used as a source for Judaism and Christianity at the turn of the Common Era. Scholarly attention has largely focused the work's provenance, the priority of a longer or shorter text version, and the implications for interpretation. But few have engaged with the work's manuscript witness and transmission.

This study returns to the sources. It considers how the redaction and translation of Joseph and Aseneth affected its interpretation, and looks at the interests of the redactors and copyists. Its findings warn against placing too much weight on details that lack such an importance in the manuscript tradition.

Important contributions made in this monograph include: a detailed study of the two earliest versions, the Syriac and Armenian translations; focus on the Greek manuscripts of the three longest families (f, Mc, a); analysis of four abridged versions (family d, E, Latin 1 and so-called "early modern Greek"); the first available synoptic edition of the Greek versions of the story, including the first edition of manuscript E.

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While books on a New Testament theology of mission abound, most of them focus on tried-and-true Scripture passages from the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles while ignoring the contribution of the General Epistles. Reading James Missiologically: The Missionary Motive, Message, and Methods of James (William Carey, 2025) addresses this gap in missiological and biblical scholarship. Eighteen scholars and practitioners from a variety of nations and cultural backgrounds give a global perspective to James’s call to action among the poor. Their writing aims to inspire the church toward holistic engagement with the world as “doers of the word, not hearers only.” Reading James Missiologically is part of a series that includes Reading Hebrews Missiologically, Reading 1 Peter Missiologically, soon-to-be-released Reading Revelation Missiologically and other projected volumes.

Dave Broucek is a lifelong student of and participant in the global mission of the church. He values research into the lesser-understood aspects of mission (singular) and missions (plural) as well as scholarship that addresses the big questions of mission theory and practice.

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In response to the Lutheran Formula of Concord, representatives of Reformed churches commissioned Girolamo Zanchi to draft a confession of faith acceptable to all Reformed churches. Zanchi patterned his Confession of the Christian Religion after the Apostles' Creed, giving it a broadly Trinitarian and redemptive-historical structure that emphasizes God's saving work for His people in His incarnate Son. It is a synthesis of his exegetical, doctrinal, and pastoral interests and stands out among his numerous publications as a useful and accessible overview of the entire Reformed theological system of doctrine. Although the project never attained confessional status at the ecclesiastical level as was planned, Zanchi's Confession proved influential in both the Reformed theological tradition generally and the development of Reformed dogmatics in particular.

Patrick J. O’Banion (PhD, Saint Louis University) is a historian, translator, and author of several books, most recently Girolamo Zanchi’s The Spiritual Marriage between Christ and His Church and Every One of the Faithful (Reformation Heritage Books, 2021). He teaches with Training Leaders International.

Crawford Gribben is a professor of history at Queen’s University Belfast.

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