Mark WardA while back I was working on a project, and I needed help. I was looking for insights Bible readers have gained into Scripture by comparing English Bible translations. The lone rule was that you couldn’t know Greek or Hebrew. I mentioned this...
I was absolutely shocked. At the top of my NT Introduction paper on Jewish Institutions of New Testament Times was a “B+”—but that wasn’t the shocker. I was only just starting seminary, and I didn’t have the hang of things yet. What shocked me was...
Pastor H. B. Charles Jr. began ministry at age 17 when he inherited the pulpit at his father’s church. Now with more than 30 years of ministry experience, Charles has written books on prayer, preaching, and ministry. He is a popular conference...
Learning how to write a funeral sermon is inevitable—if you are a preacher of the Word, you will one day have to preach a funeral. And that one day might be Tuesday. Even if you’ve heard a lecture in class on how to prepare for a funeral, it’s...
Is one Bible version enough for good Bible study, and if not, how is a person supposed to know how to choose a good Bible translation? An experienced pastor I greatly respect, a truly world-class Bible expositor whose series through Ephesians...
Some of the angriest comments I’ve ever received came on a post I wrote about Easter. I honestly forgot that some Christians are very upset about the use of a(n allegedly) “pagan” word to describe the preeminent Christian holiday. Here’s what one...
Word studies are a treasure trove . . . and a minefield. Somehow you have to weave through the dangers to get the treasures. Think for a moment: if you were about to enter such a field, what would you want to know about first? The gold or the bombs...
Do you want to know how we talk about you, Logos Bible Software users, inside the hallowed (but currently empty because of COVID) halls of Faithlife? We call you “pastors and other Bible nerds.” You are the people we love and the people we know how...
I was at Costco getting gas. The guy across from me had a tattoo that caught my eye—it was ancient Greek: ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ. And suddenly, the meaning of a famous saying of Jesus became clear in my mind. This kind of thing happens to me. It’s why I go to...
The ESV came out in 2001, just as I was starting seminary. I bought one that was made of paper—the iconic black hardcover with a big white pane on the front. My roommate grabbed it and promptly spilled tea on it. No problem: I now have probably 10...
I have lots of biblical commentaries. Which one do I look at first, and which one do I look at when I’m just quickly checking a cross-reference and want to make sure I’m not missing something? It used to be that I would just check the top-rated...
Every Christmas Eve growing up, my father read the Christmas story from Luke 2 in the King James Version. And every Christmas Eve, I thought I understood it. I largely did. But I now see little things I was missing—through no fault of my own, nor of...
If you go to seminary, there are certain tasks you will be asked to do. I don’t have to know which school you’re going to or what classes you’re taking. You’ll be doing these things. Three of them. Promise. I’ve used pretty much all the major tools...
Dirk Jongkind’s Introduction to the Greek New Testament Produced at Tyndale House, Cambridge is a short, simple, and excellent introduction to New Testament textual criticism. It has such a long title because it also tells a bit of the story behind...
Remember always to go on to theology. — Mark Ward In preaching and other Bible teaching, your big strength can become a weakness. If you are good at careful analysis of biblical texts, don’t stop there. Remember always to go on to theology. Analysis...
I was just having lunch with some pastors, and we were having a friendly disagreement over exegesis. One experienced expositor said, “The Holy Spirit chose precisely this word and not another, so it must have special significance.” I said, “Yes, but...
The new Theology Guide in Logos 8 will do something most people consider it impossible to do: it will change theologians’ minds. Theologians have long known that Logos is a good tool for the study of Scripture, but to some of them that’s all it was...
An editor once told me I could not say that a certain contemporary theologian “channeled” Jonathan Edwards. It felt too New-Agey to him. Usually I accept 100% of an editor’s suggested changes. I feel safer that way. But this time I protested. I felt...
I was looking for a Mother’s Day gift and I stumbled across a quotation on the website of a local massage therapist: I’m a huge Lewis fan, and I immediately said to myself, C.S. Lewis never said that. I just knew. First a techie lesson on how I...
Picking my favorite C.S. Lewis piece is like picking my favorite child. I can’t do it. I won’t. I love them all. But on any given day, one of them may be especially and noticeably good. Today, one is. It’s a sermon called “The Weight of Glory.”...
To learn Greek will require some drudgery. But, as they say, “No pain, no reading the Greek New Testament.” I well remember sitting at my desk in grad school, cramming vocabulary into my head like a duck willingly stuffing its body for foie gras. At...
In my recent book, Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible, I argued that there were two major kinds of archaic words in the KJV, not one. And in the most flagrant example I’ve ever seen of plagiarism by time machine, I just...
When you’re studying Greek or Hebrew, searching morphological forms with Logos is a huge timesaver. Ἀγάπη (agape) in the dative singular? Got it! A third-person singular Hebrew verb in Qal stem with a 3MS pronominal suffix? Bam! But Logos can see...
I love writing for sharp readers; they keep me on my toes. And recently, on my post “The Easy Way to Do a Responsible Bible Word Study,” after studying the word hilasterion, one of them presented me with a challenge: Can we do a high quality word...
I used to feel a lot of pressure to read must-read books. I felt guilty when I saw books on my friends’ shelves that I clearly should have read by that time. Things like Calvin’s Institutes, and whatever else my more advanced peers in biblical...
My first serious Bible software program (December, 2002) was BibleWorks, and as soon as I got it I was hooked. I persuaded dozens of others to get it, and I even became an unofficial BibleWorks trainer for about ten years. I taught multiple whole...
Oh man. They give me these topics sometimes. I’m supposed to make responsible Bible word studies “easy.” Next week: Middle East Peace Negotiations for Beginners. But no—we can do this. We can. Because the key word is “responsible,” and that mainly...
I’m in the middle of a series of posts on learning Greek, and each time I write I find myself wanting to start by holding up a warning sign. Here’s the last one, I promise (sort of): “Greek is not math.” The first thing you need to know about New...
Learning New Testament Greek is a fantastic idea, and perhaps an intimidating one. I don’t want to add to the difficulty. And I also kind of do. I have a suggestion that will help you in the long run: try learning about language more generally...
Salmon are anadromous. That’s a $25 word that feels how terms found in encyclopedias are supposed to feel: formal, scientific. It’s in a higher register of English. But if you know a little Greek, you’ll see immediately that all it means is “running...