Gary Shogren's Blog
I just visited our seminary in Costa Rica and gave an address on "Christian Leaders and LifelongLearning." I suggested that "reading" was one of the best tools for building up brain power. And that reading broadly, including books we disagree with, will help rescue us from our social media echo chambers. Just on the level... Continue Reading →
David Daniels is the spokesman for King-James-Only and Ruckmanism, in its purist form, as promulgated by Chick Publications.Fortunately, renowned textual scholar Elijah Hixson has written a detailed critical review of Daniels's strange conspiracy theory. I defer to his analysis. People who love God's inspired Word - and who elevate it above faulty human theorizing -... Continue Reading →
I grew up with the King James Version, regularly use it and the New King James among others, and often teach and preach from the Reina Valera Revisada, all of which are based on the so-called Textus receptus. And I love and use them all; see my, “Me, a Hater of the Kdeiting James Version?... Continue Reading →
Who are we? I have been a seminary professor for many years. Every year I open a Facebook club, whose members can learn a new ancient language (we have done Aramaic, Latin) or to read Scripture in the original language (the whole Septuagint; the Hebrew Torah; the Greek New Testament). For this coming year we... Continue Reading →
(Some of this material will appear in my forthcoming book, Los mitos que los cristianos creen. Y comparten [Myths that Christians Believe. And Pass Along.]) This is a conspiracy theory that certain old manuscripts of the New Testament (principally the codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus) contain a rewritten gospel. And that therefore, non-KJV Bibles are perversions,... Continue Reading →
Paul writes in Rom 16:1-2 NIV – “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon [deaconess? servant?] of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the... Continue Reading →
This week, our special guest is cross-cultural worker Fernando Retana. He is also a student of mine. Thank you, Fernando! If the article seems technical, it is because this is the level of graduate study at Seminario ESEPA: we do our own research on the Greek text and the manuscripts that underlie it. Fernando addresses... Continue Reading →
I love books, and use the Goodreads app because it enables me to log what I have read. I project that mid-year 2022 I will have read 2500 books, although I’m sure I have forgotten some hundreds. Beginning in Christmas break 2015 I decided to join their Reading Challenge for 2016. I have been doing... Continue Reading →
The teaching known as Lashon Hakodesh (“the sacred language”) is multifaceted. It was originally a designation for Biblical Hebrew as such. But it later grew to have more implications that Hebrew is somehow a magical language. There are sub-legends that follow along with this: 1. That Hebrew is the language spoken in heaven. 2. That... Continue Reading →
Graduation speeches are a mixed bag at best. But I did hear a fine one at my high school in 1977; one of his counsels for the graduates was: “Extend your education, both formal and informal, as far as is possible.” This phrase has stuck with me ever since. Your brain is not a muscle,... Continue Reading →
Open Our Eyes, Lord! 