Pennington, Jonathan T. Heaven and Earth in the Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007.

Pennington challenges the commonly accepted idea that in Matthew’s phrase “kingdom of heaven,” “heaven” stands as a reverential circumlocution for God. He notes that though this view is commonly stated in virtually all commentaries on Matthew, it rests on a single article by Gustaf Dalman, which is methodologically problematic. It is difficult to establish from contemporary writings that the Jews consistently or widely adopted reverential circumlocutions for God.

He argues that instead Matthew uses the phrase “kingdom of heaven” as part of a larger heaven and earth theme in the Gospel. He notes four distinctive ways in which Matthew develops this theme. First, Matthew purposely uses the singular of the Greek word for heaven to refer to the terrestrial heaven and the plural of heaven to refer to the divine dwelling place. Second, he will pair heaven and earth as words and thematically. Third, he refers to God as Father in heaven both because Father conveyed kingly overtones and in contrast to earthly fathers. Finally, the phrase “kingdom of heaven” refers to a kingdom from heaven and/or a kingdom characterized by heaven. The terminology is developed from Daniel 2-7, and the point is to contrast the earthly kingdoms in rebellion against God (see also Psalm 2) and God’s heavenly kingdom.

Pennington himself summarizes the theme and its significance: “behind it all is an intentional focus on the theme of heaven and earth, specifically highlighting the current contrast or tensive relationship between the two realms, between God and humanity. Yet Matthew does not only emphasize the contras, but also the fact that this contrast or tension will be resolved at eschaton when heaven and earth are reunited through Jesus (6:9-10); 28:18). In fact, only by recognizing the intensity of the tension that currently exists between heaven and earth can we fully appreciate the significance of the eschaton in which the kingdom of heaven will come to earth” (342-43).

This is a tightly argued, well-written, stimulating book. I found it’s thesis compelling. The one major development that I would like to see is a sharpening of the referent of the kingdom of heaven/God in the Gospels. Pennington, and seemingly the literature he interacted with, took the kingdom of God to be the kingdom God rules. I would argue, however, that what is announced in the Gospels is not only a fuller manifestation of God’s reign on earth (though it is that). I would argue that the kingdom theme finds its roots in Genesis 1:26-29. Mankind is given rule over the earth, and it is the Son of Man who brings the heavenly kingdom to earth so that the rule of man is no longer bestial and in rebellion against the heavenly King but is a ruler under God’s greater rule. This understanding of the kingdom better recognizes the importance of the incarnation, the Davidic covenant, the key passages in Daniel 4 and 7, and the seminal nature of Genesis 1:28. What is more, I think the development harmonizes well with Pennington’s thesis and even strengthens his argument.

For Augustine this passage [Gen. 17:14] meant that ‘even infants are born sinners, not by their own act but because of their origin’—their origin being the primal fatherhood of Adam. And here we see what is meant by original sin, peccatum originalis in Augustine’s Latin: sin that’s already inside us, already dwelling in us at our origin, at our very conception.

Alan Jacobs, Original Sin: A Cultural History (HarperOne, 2008), xiii.

Stuart, Douglas K. Exodus. New American Commentary. Edited by E. Ray Clendenen. Nashville, B&H, 2006.

If you buy only one Exodus commentary, buy this one. At over 800 pages, Stuart has room for extended comment, and he uses his space judiciously. His positions on the text are sensible and well explained. It is this combination of fullness and sense that make this commentary stand out. In addition to verse-by-verse commentary, Stuart has included a number of interesting and helpful excurses. Those on various aspects of the law, in particular “The Paradigmatic Nature of Biblical Law,” are especially helpful.

Garrett, Duane A. A Commentary on Exodus. Kregel Exegetical Library. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2013.

Garrett’s commentary ranks right up with Stuart’s. Garrett has the more detailed introduction (his discussions of the location of Sinai and the date of the exodus are especially valuable, even if one reaches a conclusion different from Garrett). Garrett’s comments are briefer than Stuart’s, but he gives more attention to the Hebrew text. Garrett also diaplays good sense, but I’d give Stuart the edge. For instance, Garrett seems unaccountably taken with the idea that the plagues were providentially guided natural events rather than strictly supernatural, leading him to make some unpersuasive interpretations of certain of the plagues. Even so, this is a commentary to get.

Hamilton, Victor P. Exodus: An Exegetical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011.

I find the quality if Hamilton’s comments to be better in his Exodus commentary than in his Genesis commentary. Nonetheless, he does not rise to the level of Stuart or Garrett. There is a fair bit of white space in the layout, and this results in the comments being briefer than one would expect in a commentary of this size. Nonetheless the comments are helpful, and Hamilton does comment on the Hebrew.

 

Currid, John D. Exodus. 2 volumes. Webster, NY: Evangelical Press, 2000.

At the turn of the century there was a paucity of evangelical, exegetical commentaries. Currid was at the top of my list then. Now, because of the brevity of his comments, I would not rank Currid as high. Nonetheless, this is still a valuable commentary.

Other commentaries worth considering are Houtman in HCOT, though it is expensive, Kaiser in the (R)EBC and possibly Carpenter in EEC (I’ve not yet lookd at Carpenter). Childs’s commentary is often highly recommended, but I’ve found that there is a lot of critical chaff to wade through. Peter Enns’s NIVAC volume also has received high recommendations. But I wonder if it was overvalued because of the general lack of Exodus commentaries at the time. Enns does have some helpful literary observations, but his skepticism also leads to poor interpretations. For instance, he comments on Exodus 33:3:

The Lord does not know how he might react at some point in the journey; he does not seem to trust himself to control his anger. Thus, it is better that he does not go at all. We should resist the temptation to gloss over this description of God. This is God’s Word and this is how he is described. We should not dismiss it on the basis of what we “know” God to be like.

God makes this statement precisely because he knows exactly what the people will do (as recounted in Numbers) and that he will in righteousness consume them on the way (but not due to any loss of control!).

 

 

Logos 7 is a mature program. When first installed it will look similar to Logos 6. To  my mind a stable interface is good. It indicates that the focus of the upgrade is on content, and users are not forced to re-learn the program.

There is one area, however, where Logos 7 could have improved the interface: tablet mode in Windows 10. Often Logos does not display correctly when launched in tablet mode. The user must exit tablet mode, minimize the program, and then maximize it to correct the display error. Also, if a user is in tablet mode and attempts to move a tab to a separate pane by dragging the tab to the side of the screen, the operation will fail. The user must exit tablet mode in order to perform this operation. In addition, some of the newer interactive features work poorly with touch interaction. They will not scroll by swiping up or down on the screen (as with Bible or book text). And finally, a niggle. Windows 10 reduced the borders of windows to one pixel. Logos, which uses its own custom interface, still sports the wider window border.

These criticisms aside, I’ve enjoyed the following features in Logos 7.

Multiple Resources

Numbers of resources have a new multiple resources button |||. This tool allows users to create parallel resources under a single tab. For instance, an English Bible translation could be paired with a Greek text and/or a commentary. As the user moves through the English Bible, the other resources will stay in sync.

Why not open these resources in their own tabs and link them? That is still an option, but Multiple Resources is a better option in certain cases. For example, say that you want to have both your English Bible and either the Greek or the Hebrew text open while in church. Using link sets you had to open all three resources in separate tabs. The English Bible might be open in a pane on the left and the original language Bibles might be open on a pane on the right. If the pastor switches between the Old and the New Testament, you have to switch resources. Doable, but an additional step. Using Multiple Resources, open the English Bible, click on the multiple resources button and select both a Greek and a Hebrew Bible. If you are in John, the English will display on the left and the Greek on the right. If you move to Deuteronomy, the pane with the Greek NT will switch to the Hebrew Bible. Or if you selected the Greek New Testament, a Hebrew Bible, and LXX text, then moving to Deuteronomy will display English, Hebrew, and Greek side by side. Moving back to the New Testament will automatically revert to just the English and the Greek New Testament.

Another benefit of Multiple resources is that the synchronization only happens when the left-most text is scrolled (or a reference or page number is entered). Scrolling one of texts to the right does not move the left-most text. Why does this matter? Say that you want to view an English Bible and a commentary side-by-side.  Using link sets, moving through the commentary will scroll your English Bible as well. But you may want to keep verses 1-6 all visible in the Bible even though you’re moving to verse 2 in the commentary. At the same time, you do want the commentary to move to chapter 4 if you move there in the Bible. Linked sets won’t work that way, but Multiple Resources do.

This is one of those little changes that makes a big difference in the usability of the program.

New Testament Use of the Old Testament

Logos 7 has a number of new interactive tools. The one that I’m most interested in is the New Testament Use of the Old Testament interactive. When studying the New Testament, it is easy to discover whether the Old Testament is being quoted or in the New Testament.  But it is not quite as easy to find out if an Old Testament passage is used by the New Testament (though the back of the UBS GNT does have indices of quotations and allusions in the Old Testament order).

The New Testament Use of the Old Testament streamlines this task. Select an Old Testament source book and scroll to the chapter that interests you to see if there are any New Testament connections. These connections can be furthered narrowed. Perhaps you’re interested only in citations and quotations but not in allusions or echoes. You can further narrow your options.

One drawback at this point is that the interactive doesn’t allow users to select both citations and quotations at the same time. This may be possible, however, by drawing on the underlying database in a search.

Systematic Theology/Biblical Theology sections in Passage Guide

The passage guide now has nice Systematic Theology and Biblical Theology sections. When a verse or a passage is covered in a Systematic Theology or Biblical Theology it will appear in the Passage guide. The results can be sorted by resource or by theological loci.

This indexing is something that I do manually as I read theological books. If they have a significant treatment of particular passages, I place the bibliographic info in my notes on that passage. Logos 7 automates the process, which is nice. But, as with any automation, users need to be aware of the trade-off. It is better to read, understand a theological work, and index it for later use than to simply dip in and out of works because the software surfaced a link. On the other hand, the software could be used wisely to lead you to consider a theological work you may have otherwise missed.

Improved Grammar section in Exegetical Guide

The Grammar section in the Exegetical Guide has also been improved. It now divides up its results by kind. This may alert uses before they click  as to whether or not they’re really interested in something from that section of the grammar.

Pslams and Proverbs Explorer

The Psalms Explorer is another interactive that I think has great value. It displays the psalms as bubbles, with each bubble showing the relative size of its psalm. Each psalm is also color-coded by genre. The Pslams can be sorted by book, author, genre, etc. Different criteria can narrow what is displayed. For instance, you could sort by author and then narrow to the each of the five books of the Psalter. This would alert you to the distribution of Davidic Psalms in the Psalter. Or you could sort by book and look at the distribution of genres or of a theme within each book of the Psalter.

The Proverbs Explorer works similarly. You can explore Proverbs by theme or by the proverb’s formal structure or by type of proverb.

The caution with this kind of tool is that decisions were made on how to tag the individual proverbs and psalms. Different interpreters might make different decisions. I’d be happy to see in future versions options for users to create (and share) their own datasets.

Bible Outline Browser

When I’m studying the structure of a book, I’ll often use Excel to map out where different commentaries make major and secondary divisions in their outlines. The Bible Outline Browser automates this task with the books in one’s Logos Library. In the future it would be nice to give the user the option to deselect some sources. It would also be nice to be able to zoom in and out of the outlines.

Conclusion

There are numerous other features that could be highlighted, and users with other interests might have highlighted the various manuscript explorers or the Parallel Gospel Reader or other interactives. I’ve highlighted here the features that I’ve already begun to use.

Learn more about Logos 7 here.

I thank FaithLife for a review copy of Logos 7.

A simple desire to please God, to walk by the rule of his word, and to do all to his glory; like the famed philosopher’s stone, turns all the gold, consecrates the actions of common life, and makes everything that belongs to our situation in duty in civil in domestic life is part of our religion. When she is making our mending the children’s clothes, or teaching them, and when her maid (if serious) is cleaning the kitchen, or making a sauce, they may be as well employed, as when they are upon their knees or at the Lord’s Table. It is an unpleasant mistake to think all the time as lost which is not spent in reading, or hearing sermons, or prayer. These are properly called means of grace; they should be attended to in their proper season; but the fruits of grace are to appear in our common daily course of conduct. It would be wrong to neglect the house of God; it would be equally wrong to neglect the prudent management of her own house. It is chiefly as a mother in mistress of a family, that she can let her light shine to his praise. I would not have her think that she should serve the Lord better in any other station, than in the one to which his providence has placed her. I know that family cares are apt to encroach too much, but perhaps we should be worse off without them.

John Newton, Letters (Coffin), 159 in Tony Reinke, Newton on the Christian Life (Wheaton: Crossway, 2015), 169.

While these nineteenth century Christians [pietists] forgot the world for themselves, we run the danger of losing ourselves in the world. Nowadays we are out to convert the whole world, to conquer all areas of life for Christ. But we often neglect to ask whether we ourselves are truly converted and whether we belong to Christ in life and in death. For this is indeed what life boils down to. We may not banish this question from our personal or church life under the label of pietism or methodism. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, even for Christian principles, if he loses his own soul?

 

Herman Bavinck, The Certainty of Faith, 94 as cited in John Bolt, Bavinck on the Christian Life: Following Jesus in Faithful Service, Theologians on the Christian Life, ed. Stephen Nichols and Justin Taylor (Crossway, 2015), Kindle Locations 228-233.

There is no question whatsoever, that is of greater importance to mankind, and that it more concerns every individual person to be well resolved in, than this, what are the distinguishing qualifications of those who are in favor with God, and entitled to his eternal rewards? Or, which comes to the same thing, What is the nature of true religion? and wherein do lie the distinguishing notes of that virtue and holiness, that is acceptable in the sight of God.

WJE 2:84 (Preface to Religious Affections)

As a starting proposal, I wish to argue that culture is worldview exteriorized, and worldview is culture interiorized, and both stem from the religion of the human heart.

Daniel Strange, Their Rock Is Not Like Our Rock: A Theology of Religions (Zondervan, 2015), 68-69.

Note: This is an excellent book, and it is currently available in Kindle format for $3.99.

Youngblood, Ronald. “The Fall of Lucifer (in More Ways Than One).” In The Way of Wisdom: Essays in Honor of Bruce K. Waltke. Edited by J. I. Packer and Sven K. Soderlund. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000.

Youngblood argues that “Lucifer” in Isaiah 14 is not Satan. He insists that a contextual reading points toward a king of Babylon as the person under discussion. I would agree with the claim that the personage in view is not Satan, but I would argue that the context indicates an end-time setting which would lead to an identification with the Antichrist.

Wilson, Jonathan R. “Biblical Wisdom, Spiritual Formation, and the Virtues.” The Way of Wisdom: Essays in Honor of Bruce K. Waltke. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000.

Wilson’s essay examines how the wisdom literature of Scripture should shape a Christian approach to virtue ethics and spiritual formation. Wilson did a good job of distinguishing a Christian approach to virtue ethics from other approaches. For instance, he comments:

In much of the virtue tradition, reflection [on teleology] is directed toward the human community and often toward a particular conception of the polis (‘city,’ ‘political community’). In much contemporary spirituality, the concern is narrowed even further, to the individual. Such spirituality is guided not by a thirst for God but by a narcissistic preoccupation with the self turned in. Since the ‘incurved self’ is a classic Christian definition of sin, much contemporary spirituality perpetuates sin. . . . Biblical wisdom begins, continues, and ends with the fear of the Lord (Prov 1:7). Wisdom is deeply concerned with human life and issues of character, but those concerns have a larger setting. That larger setting is God’s redemptive purpose for all creation” (298).

However, he sees value in a Christian virtue ethics:

Too often we have thought that ethics is solely concerned with ‘moral quandaries’ or ‘boundary situations.’ Challenging this, the virtue tradition teaches us that ethics is concerned with the whole of life, with ordinary, everyday living. Too often we have thought that ‘spirituality’ had to do only with Sunday worship, times of prayer, a quiet time of Bible reading. Against this way of thinking, the recent recovery of spiritual formation teaches us that Sunday worship is training us for the rest of the week, that prayer is a way of life, and that ‘quiet times’ are nothing unless we live them out in our everyday relationships. Biblical wisdom provides biblical grounding and guidance for this ‘everydayness’ of our lives. In the book of Proverbs, for example, eating, drinking, laboring are all subject to the guidance of wisdom. . . . This everydayness of life is given theological grounding by the integral relationship between wisdom and creation (Prov 3:19-20; 8:22-31l Job 28, 38-39). Living wisely means living in accordance with God’s intention for the redeemed creation in our everyday lives” (301).

Hassell Bullock, “Wisdom, The ‘Amen’ of Torah,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 52, no. 1 (2009): 3-8.

Bullock sees the Wisdom literature as affirming the teaching of the Torah. He highlights the links between their creation theology, monotheism, and the covenantal foundation of the “fear of the Lord.”