The Logos Bible Software Blog
Do you remember when you first became a Christian? The joy of being introduced to Jesus is probably one of your most treasured memories. But do you also remember feeling overwhelmed by this completely new life? You probably had so many questions: What’s the Bible really about? What’s God like? And what does all this mean for how I live? These questions form the foundation for a healthy relationship with God and a strong Christian faith.
There are only so many hours in the day, and every one counts. For pastors, this tension is particularly difficult. According to research conducted by Thom Rainer of Lifeway, pastors spend around 13 hours per week on sermon preparation. With all the other church and ministry responsibilities on their plate, that’s a sizable chunk of time devoted to research and writing. How much of your time and effort would be saved by making the research process easier and more accessible? Just think about all the other things vying for attention that could be prioritized with all the time that was previously wrapped up in research.
We are greatly blessed to live in a time when so many riches from the past are made available to us. Books that cross the centuries and the continents are becoming available to the average reader for the first time.
We here at Lexham Press are hoping to do our part to bring the best of our Christian heritage to modern readers with a new series: Lexham Classics.
Imagine you’re sitting in a coffee shop with your Bible in front of you. You’ve been reading and re-reading a particularly challenging passage and have a number of unanswered questions bouncing around in your mind. Then imagine a friend sits across from you—but not just any friend: they’re an expert in Biblical Studies.
You could ask them all of your difficult questions as you studied the Bible. When a passage mentions some ancient city, you could ask them for the cultural context and they would give you all the relevant details. Or if you’re wondering about Jesus’ life, your friend could show you a detailed event timeline so that you can put all the gospel stories into perspective.
Throughout this Christmas season, we’ve been encouraging Christians to commit to look closer at God’s Word. We believe Scripture has the power to open our eyes to the wonder and power of the Christmas story.
That commitment to looking closer doesn’t have to end with the conclusion of the Christmas season. The start of the new year is the perfect opportunity to commit (or recommit!) to making Bible study a daily habit. As you meditate on the Word of God, new insights and reflections will be illuminated as you immerse your daily life with Scripture.
With Christmas just a few days away, all the preparations should be complete. The tree has been decorated, the stockings hung, the presents wrapped, and all the dinners planned. Amidst all these arrangements, take a moment to pause and reflect on the Christmas story.
This Christmas, we’ve been encouraging Christians around the world to look closer at God’s Word. Because when we study it, reflect on it, and meditate on it, we can get fresh insight and discover new meaning within this familiar story.
This Christmas, Logos Bible Software is encouraging Christians around the world to look closer at the Bible.
The transformative power of Scripture is central to the mission of Lexham Press, too. We’ve been deeply transformed by the Bible, and publishing allows us to accomplish change through the world of words and ideas.
Are you looking for ways to share the wonder of God’s word with your friends and family this season? It can be difficult to give a digital book as a gift so we’ve placed the print editions of some of our best books on sale. Give the gift of Bible study this Christmas and help your friends and family focus on Scripture.
For the past 25 years, debate regarding the nature of tense and aspect in the Koine Greek verb has held New Testament studies at an impasse. Originally presented during a conference on the Greek verb supported by and held at Tyndale House and sponsored by the Faculty of Divinity of Cambridge University, the papers included in The Greek Verb Revisited represent the culmination of scholarly collaboration. The outcome is a practical and accessible overview of the Greek verb that moves beyond the current impasse by taking into account the latest scholarship from the fields of linguistics, Classics, and New Testament studies.
Scholars have recognized the importance of this collaborative effort. Constantine Campbell has said, “This is an important volume that deserves careful consideration. It will no doubt occupy a significant position within modern discussions of the Greek verbal system, and rightly so.” The Greek Verb Revisited not only offers a rare glimpse into the background of the debate over the Greek verb, but also explains the significance of this discussion and provides a linguistically-sound way forward.
Here’s an excerpt from the foreword by Andreas Köstenberger:
This is the critical juncture of the debate as it presents itself at the moment. What is more, this new paradigm needs more than one or two doctoral dissertations arguing it. It needs a broader consensus undergirding it by a critical mass of scholars who use a collaborative approach that focuses, not on personalities, but on issues, and that keeps trying to find solutions until the new paradigm has coalesced and is ready to be tested and validated by the data as they present themselves in the available Koine Greek literature, including the New Testament.
The Greek Verb Revisited represents the product of years of such collaborative efforts to move past the stalemate of previous debates and to make real progress in understanding how the Greek verb works. I will not go into detail here, because I want the contributions of the authors of the various essays included in this volume to speak for themselves.
What I will do, however, is commend this volume to you as a new way forward beyond the impasse in New Testament Greek studies, particularly with regard to verbal aspect. If you’re like me, and you’ve tuned out of the debate surrounding the use of the Greek verb for a while, or even if you’ve never been a part of the debate at all, now is the time to tune back in and to listen and learn from this team of scholars who, I’m convinced, have managed to arrive at a deeper level of understanding of how the Greek verb was used by first-century New Testament Greek writers, in a balanced and cogent way.
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Readers of The Greek Verb Revisited will find an accessible introduction to the foundational issues, and more importantly, they will discover a way forward through the debate over the Greek verb. This important volume is now available in print and digital formats.
“How can God be three and one? How can God take on a human nature? If God planned everything, how can I be responsible? Do my prayers make any difference in God’s plan? Will we finally know everything when we get to heaven?
“These are questions that recognize some of the mysterious tensions that Scripture presents to us. They are good questions, but wrong answers to good questions can rob us of a full and fulfilled Christian life, and they rob God of his proper glory. Proper answers—answers that allow the mystery of God and His ways to shine brightly—will evoke in us proper worship.”
Imagine if you could peer inside the mind of a young theologian, before he penned his most influential works. What would we find? Would his later works be illuminated further by an understanding of his foundational thoughts? What connections could you draw between these two periods? For Geerhardus Vos, the “Father of Reformed Theology,” we now have a chance to address these “what if” questions.
With the release of the final volume of Vos’ Reformed Dogmatics, English readers can explore the relationship between Vos’ early thought and his subsequent work in biblical theology. Whatever differences such comparisons may bring to light, the end result will confirm a deep, pervasive and cordial continuity between his work in systematic theology and in biblical theology.
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