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Biblingo with Nick Messmer

Biblingo comprises a suite of online resources for learning the biblical languages, including a variety of digital aids and the option of live cohort training. The unifying mission of Biblingo is to advance God’s Word in the world by making the biblical languages more accessible and easier to learn through technology. Here to talk about this is Nick Messmer, co-founder and Head of Growth of Biblingo and an alumnus of Wheaton Graduate School’s M.A. in Biblical Exegesis.

Did you know Wheaton College has a Classical Languages program? Learn more >

To hear the podcast (8 min) click here.

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A Visit to Tyndale House with Peter Williams

To hear the podcast (18 minutes) click here.

Cathy, my wife, and I visited Tyndale House recently when we were in the UK. 

It was our first time there, and we were welcomed warmly by many including Peter Williams. Peter is the Principal and CEO of Tyndale House Center for Biblical Research in Cambridge.

Tyndale House

Peter describes Tyndale House as “a residential research library and worshiping community.” 

It started in 1944, before D-Day, as a center for Bible research.  While Europe was engulfed in war, many with vision saw the need for such a center. And they imagined it in the shadow of one of the world’s great universities.

Peter has been with us before on The Stone Chapel Podcast to talk about Tyndale House.  To hear that podcast (18 minutes) click here.

A New Initiative

On this visit to Tyndale House Peter and I discussed an important plan the staff has to become a greater and greater resource to majority world scholars. 

The fact of the matter is that resources (like colleges, universities, libraries, accommodations, and lecturers) are not spread evenly around the world.

Most churches in the world are not staffed by trained pastors. And as the church in the west grows greyer, the church in the global south is younger and more energetic.

What Tyndale House is doing

So Tyndale House is making more space and greater resources available to church leaders from Madagascar, Egypt, Congo, Brazil and many other countries around the world.

Some of these church leaders and scholars come from war zones and countries where Christians are in a persecuted minority.

For them Tyndale House is an oasis in the desert, but inevitably all return home with friendships, connections, and learning that lasts a lifetime.

To learn more

To learn more about Tyndale House go to their website: Tyndalehouse.com.  They have podcasts, newsletters, and other resources available. 

Peter was one of our earliest lecturers at the Lanier Theological Library.  To watch his first lecture with us click here.

More resources

Would you like a transcript of this podcast? Click here.

And you can get more Stone Chapel Podcasts on some great topics. Just click here.

What’s more? You can get information on upcoming lectures at Lanier Theological Library. Just click here.

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Formatting the Word of God with Dan Wallace

In May 2023 Dan Wallace lectured at the Lanier Theological Library. His topic was “Formatting the Word of God.”  Before the lecture, he sat down to talk with David Capes for “The Stone Chapel Podcasts.”

Who is Dan Wallace? 

Dan Wallace is the CEO and executive director of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) in Plano, Texas.

Formatting the Word of God

From the beginning, people who hand copied the New Testament manuscripts put into the manuscripts features which made the reading of Scripture easier.  But these features led to certain interpretations.

The Bible has certain formatting to it. It has to. Every literary product has to. For example, how wide should the margins be for a text? How wide should the text be? Is it going to be on a three-foot papyrus roll? So, there’s some formatting.

Certain features, for example, make it easier to read in public.  Other features of copying indicate respect for and devotion to Christ. 

Dan’s lecture will be rich in imagery drawn from the thousands of photographs of these amazing manuscripts that this organization has taken over the last decades. (You can find a link to it below. It was a little over one hour long.)

Still thousands of manuscripts remain unphotographed.  But his organization has discovered many other manuscripts not previously catalogued. 

Even the form of the book itself—the codex not scrolls or rolls—has a certain interpretive significance. 

The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts

Because these manuscripts and inks are organic, over time they will decay, fade, and become unreadable.  That’s one reason Dan started the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts: to preserve these valuable artifacts. 

But there is another reason.  The goal of the center is to make high quality, digital images available to all people.  If the staff  meet their goal, then in the future anyone in the world with an internet connection will be able to view images of available manuscripts. 

Formatting Today

Modern Bibles continue the interpretive features.  Chapters, verses, columns, italicizing, page numbers, cross-referencing, and interpretive notes are employed by publishers and these guide readers to interpret the texts. 

For the website of the CSNTM, go to www.csntm.org

To hear the complete lecture click here.

To hear Dan Wallace’s previous podcast on the history and mission of the CSNTM click here.

Would you like a transcript of this podcast? Click here.

More resources

Want more Stone Chapel Podcasts on some great topics. Just click here.

What’s more, you can get information on upcoming lectures at Lanier Theological Library. Just click here.

To hear the podcast (22 minutes) click here.

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A Jesus Christ Apocalypse to His Slaves with Scot McKnight

A translator of the Bible into English must possess a sensitivity to the possible meanings of Greek words and grammar used by (or possibly not used by) the original author, and an equally sensitive awareness of how the English word choices of other translators have aided or hindered understanding. Prof. McKnight puts forward fruitfully provocative English renditions of Revelation 1:1. Dr. Scot McKnight is Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lisle, IL. He has authored numerous books and articles, among which are Revelation for the Rest of Us: A Prophetic Call to Follow Jesus as a Dissident Disciple and (forthcoming) The Second Testament: A New Translation. Prof. McKnight blogs regularly at Scot’s Newsletter.

To hear the podcast (11 minutes) click here.

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Who is the better Baal?

There are Hebrew word plays in 2 Kings 1 that are not apparent in English translations but are part of the original narrator’s intention, not without a touch of humor, to show that the Israelite prophet Elijah out-Baals Baal. Dr. Andrew Burlingame is a Wheaton College Classical Languages program alumnus and is now Assistant Professor of Hebrew at the same. He specializes in Northwest Semitic languages, including Hebrew, Aramaic, Phoenician, and Ugaritic, along with their history and texts. His recent publications are featured here. 

To hear the podcast click here.