This year I got a great collection of books for Christmas (because, unlike some people, I have priorities). Let me share with the blogosphere!

David Alan Black. (1998) It’s Still Greek to Me: An Easy-to-Understand Guide to Intermediate Greek. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. (Amazon.com)

I bought a used version of this little book. I want to make sure that I am thinking about my Greek Testament from more than a mere pragmatic “reading” approach. Often I do not think hard enough about the grammatical-syntactial aspects and that is no way to do scholarship. Along with several other books on my shelf, including the other book by Black mentioned just below, I will probably use a large part of January making sure I am thinking Greek when reading Greek rather than thinking English while reading Greek.

_______________. Learn to Read New Testament Greek: Expanded Edition. Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman. (Amazon.com, Third Edition)

I think this will be a helpful book to work through in order to accomplish what I mentioned above. Is there anyone out there who has used this book much? If so, what do you think of it?

Peter C. Bouteneff. (2008) Beginnings: Ancient Christian Readings of the Biblical Creation Narratives. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. (Amazon.com)

Since my Th.M. thesis is going to be titled, “The Creation Waits: The Epistle to the Romans as Pauline Interpretation of the Book of Genesis with Emphasis on 8.2-23″ it is going to be my goal to think deeply about the reception history of Genesis. Yes, the so-called “original context” of Genesis is interesting, but the Pauline reading is more important for what I am doing. While this book does not address the Pauline reading it does show a wide array of Christian readings which will be helpful in both (1) seeing how the church, since Paul, has read Genesis and (2) in helping create awareness of what is Pauline and post-Pauline as regards reading Genesis so that I do not transfer to much back into Paul. Bouteneff is an associate professor of theology at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary so I expect a wide and solid knowledge of Christian interpretive history to be presented.

Brevard S. Childs. (2004) The Struggle to Understand Isaiah as Christian Scripture. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (Amazon.com)

My only “in-class” class this upcoming semester will be on the Book of Isaiah. Child’s book traces the reception history of Isaiah from the early church to the modern era. As you may have noticed from the above paragraph one of my concerns is reception history, in part because, since reading Gadamer, I do not have much faith in so-called “objective, grammatical-historical” exegesis. We should aim for it, yes, but we should not be ignorant of our influences nor of those who have read the book before us. Child’s guide will people like Origen, Aquinas, Calvin and others, which I find helpful.

C. Kavin Rowe. (2006) Early Narrative Christology: The Lord in the Gospel of Luke. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. (Amazon.com)

As I understand it, Rowe is an up-and-coming star as regards scholarship in Luke-Acts. Luke-Acts has been very influential in my own thinking, mostly because of my Pentecostal background. In a time when the Christology of the Synoptics has been lowered at an alarming rate  in modern scholarship this should be a challenging read to that flow. Rowe examines how Luke changed various Markan passages that related to “the Lord” in his own gospel and in doing so examines the unique Christological contribution of Luke.

J. Ross Wagner. (2003) Heralds of the Good News: Isaiah and Paul in Concert in the Letter to the Romans. Boston, MA: Brill Academic Publishers, Inc. (Amazon.com)

As noted above Isaiah will be one of my studies from January through April. I asked for this book for two reasons: (1) to assist in my study of Isaiah, so that I can understand the Pauline interpretation of this book and (2) it is similar to my forthcoming thesis work in that it will be tracing how Paul interprets a particular book from the Old Testament in Romans.

I am very excited about these reads along with a handful of others that I have mentioned to be on the dock.