Video Interview with Klyne Snodgrass

Today I had the privilege to interview Klyne Snodgrass, the Paul W. Brandel Professor of New Testament Studies, on the 3rd floor of Nyvall Hall, in an office he has occupied for four decades, where many a conversation has taken place. It was truly a joy to do this and to celebrate with a mentor, colleague, and dear friend a lifetime of faithful service to North Park Theological Seminary and the Evangelical Covenant Church. 

Nyvall Hall with its steeple in the background
from the Johnson Center on the North Park University campus

The questions I asked of Klyne were as follows (with the time stamp): 

1. How did you feel to have received a Festschrift in your honor? (0:33)
2. How does a scholar and pastor "do theology for the church"? (2:14)
3. What kind of scholar and teacher have you tried to be? (3:34)
4. What legacy and challenge do you leave with us (= the seminary and the church)? (5:17)
5. What has been the greatest joy and greatest struggle of your vocation? (6:48)
6. What are your immediate and long-term plans, vocationally and personally? (8:51)
7. Any last words you would like to share with us, and especially to your family? (10:49)

The entire interview is a lean 13:20 minutes long. Feel free to watch the video below or click the youtube link where it is posted. 

   I hope you will all be blessed as much as I was from hearing Klyne's testimony and words of exhortation. 

Post-script: I have to confess it was more work than than I thought to pull off the video interview, especially with the media equipment at hand (= Logitech HD 615 videocam; lapel mic, laptop). Many thanks to Zach Martinez, my teaching assistant, for his help in doing the camera work. He did a fantastic job. Production was all done by myself using Audicity software to improve the audio, and Microsoft Movie Maker to edit the video, add music and captions, and the like. Fun to do, but I'm not sure if I can make a career from this. MJL

A Festschrift for Klyne Snodgrass Honoring 40 Years of 'Doing Theology for the Church'

It's been a while since my last post (and many apologies for the delay!) but as soon as I got back from SBL-San Diego, I ran into the notorious 100-yard dash to final exams: wrapping up lectures, grading last-minute papers and assignments, writing the final exams, giving the final exams, and now... sigh... grading the final exams. But I hope to get back to my weekly posting once I turn in the grades (and then Christmas... but wait a minute! what happened to Advent? I missed it?)
   But for this post, I wanted to give a shout-out to the recently published Festschrift dedicated to a colleague (and in many ways also a mentor) at North Park Theological Seminary: Dr. Klyne Snodgrass, the Paul W. Brandel Professor of New Testament Studies. The collection of essays celebrates Klyne's 70th birthday. 

   The book was announced first as a genuine surprise back in May 2014 at North Park's graduation ceremony. NPU wrote a nice article celebrating Klyne's 40-year ministry of teaching, scholarship, and discipleship of the next generation of Christian leaders for the church, and Klyne's family flew in from different parts of the U.S.A. to surprise him when a framed photo of the Festschrift cover was presented to him. 
   At the Friday night session of IBR (= the Institute of Biblical Research) in San Diego, we handed Klyne the first printed copy of the Festschrift hot off the press from Covenant Publications and Wipf & Stock. Here is a photo of Klyne at IBR surrounded by colleagues and friends, including myself: 

Presentation of a Festschrift to Dr. Klyne Snodgrass on the occasion of
his 70th Birthday at IBR in San Diego (Nov. 21, 2014)

Now for the details about the book, entitled: Doing Theology for the Church: Essays in Honor of Klyne Snodgrass (2014). The book is divided into 5 sections (17 essays total), all featuring the varied interests and areas of research of Klyne: I. Gospel and Parables, II. Paul, III. OT in the New (= Inner-Biblical Intepretation), IV. Women and Ministry, and V. Identity. The list of contributors include colleagues at North Park, former students now either in doctoral programs or teaching as professors themselves, and an international array of friends who have interacted with Klyne's work and known him personally for years, including: N.T. Wright, Darrell Bock, Richard Longenecker, Jan du Rand, John Painter, Scot McKnight, Robert Hubbard, Jr., Robert Johnston, James Bruckner, Paul Koptak, Stephen Chester, Jay Phelan, Max Lee, Rebekah Eklund, Jo Ann Deasy, Hauna Ondrey, and Ekaterina Kozlova, with a comprehensive bibliography compiled by Stephen Spencer. Here is a preview of the table of contents (below): 

Table of Contents (click photo to zoom)

   It was edited by a former student of Klyne and NP alumnus, Dr. Rebekah Eklund, currently an Assistant Professor of New Testament at Loyola University Maryland, and Dr. Jay Phelan, Senior Professor of Theological Studies at North Park Theological Seminary. Dr. Paul Koptak, the Paul and Bernice Brandel Professor of Communication and Biblical Interpretation at North Park, also did much editing work for the volume with the fantastic staff and team at Covenant Publications led by managing editor Jane Swanson-Nystrom. The book is co-published by Covenant Publications and Wipf & Stock. You can purchase a copy at the W&S website or on amazon. 
   I will be doing something adventurous next week: I will be video-interviewing Klyne (disclaimer: using very modest equipment with the help of my TA) and posting that interview here on this blog. I will ask him for his response about receiving the Festschrift as well as to reflect on his past 40 years of scholarship, teaching, and ministry for the church. So more to come and stay tuned! 

Back from SBL-AAR 2014

It's been a week since the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion conference in San Diego. I went to some very informative, some inspiring, sessions. I also caught up with many colleagues and friends whom I don't get to see except at the annual meeting. There was also the Festschrift presentation to Klyne Snodgrass during the Institute of Biblical Research gathering on Friday evening (11/21). The book, Doing Theology for the Church, was ready for the book tables of Wipf & Stock by the the time of the meeting. It looked like they were selling well, too. 
   I'll post separately on the Festschrift for Klyne and on some of the sessions which I thought were particularly helpful for the study of Paul in his wider Mediterranean context. But as a prelude to the fantastic time I had at SBL, here are some photos of the jogging route I took while I was there. Chris Spinks over at the Wipf & Stock blog Running Heads posted a map of a jogging path as a way to enjoy the boardwalk and ocean air of San Diego. His group was going to start running at 7am on Saturday (11/22) but I needed to meet someone at 8am, so I followed his suggested route at 6am. It was glorious! I made it a prayer run and it really fed my soul. Here are some pics below and I'll follow up with a succession of posts on my time at SBL in the days ahead.

Photo of the Sun Rising on the San Diego Boardwalk

Here was the route I took as suggested posted by Chris: 

I made it passed the pier, the Midway aircraft carrier, and the "pirate" ship before having to head back to catch my 8am meeting. About 4 miles round trip. Perfect!

Preview of Fire in My Soul: Essays in Honor of Seyoon Kim

At the request of Wipf & Stock, I am dedicating a post on the newly published Festschrift entitled: Fire in My Soul: Essays on Pauline Soteriology and the Gospels in Honor of Seyoon Kim. Here is a fantastic ad and flyer that W&S put together to showcase the book: 

Click here to order a print edition at Wipf & Stock online

I was a part of the editorial team who helped plan and prepare the festschrift for publication. It is a wonderful collection of essays in honor of a truly great scholar and person of Christian integrity, Dr. Seyoon Kim, Professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, now retired from full-time teaching and re-writing F.F. Bruce's commentary on 1-2 Thessalonians for the Word Biblical Commentary series into a new (sure to be a game-changing!) volume (see a preview here). 
   Let me highlight just some of the essays. First up are my own two essays which I hope to turn later into chapters for my next monograph after the WUNT manuscript is complete under the same title: Greek Words and Roman Meanings. Anyone familiar with David Hill's classic book on righteousness language in the New Testament can see from my title the appreciative nod I give to his 1967 book Greek Words and Hebrew Meanings. In his work, Hill argues that the Greek words δικαιοσύνη, δικαιόω, and their cognates function as linguistic shells for the Hebrew words tsedeq(ah)/tsadaq. But I argue in my essays that Greek words do not have Hebrew meanings, but (Greco-)Roman ones as part of the common (Κοινή) vernacular of Paul's day. To make a long story short, I have remapped the lexicon on righteousness language so Septuagintal influences on the definitions have been removed. In this way, when we examine Septuagintal echoes in Paul concerning his language of justification, we have a starting or reference point by which to gauge the strength of an OT echo and how much it extends or changes the semantics of the δικ(αιο)- word group as it was commonly employed in the every day discourse of the Greco-Roman world.
   If we look at the key players in the current debates on justification (e.g., N.T. Wright, Douglas Campbell, Michael Gorman, Michael Bird, Douglas Moo, and others), all these scholars attribute a unique definition of "righteousness" to Paul based on a different set of OT texts to which they think Paul refers in his letters. I argue that the more "unique" Paul's use of righteousness language is from their typical Κοινή usages, the greater burden is placed on the NT scholar to prove that the supposed OT echo is there in the Pauline text, and the echo changes the meaning of  the δικ(αιο)- word group in the way they think it does. I've discovered, for example, that forensic language in Paul need not have to appeal to the LXX for its source material but there are numerous Greco-Roman juridicial texts which provide working definitions for how Paul used righteousness/justification language in his letters.
   But enough about my essays, here are some other gems. In Chapter 6 (The Internal Integrative Motive Running through 2 Cor 11:23-12:10), Brian Kim argues that the opponents of Paul in 2 Corinthians take OT traditions concerning the false prophet and use these traditions to accuse Paul of being a false apostle. Paul, however, takes this moment to reflect on what does it mean to be an apostle of Christ? He takes his opponent's accusation that physical illness is a sign of God's judgment against a false prophet and turns it into a theology of weakness which identifies an authentic apostle. 
   In Chapter 7 (Matthew's Use of the Septuagint and its Implications), Jin Hwang (a fellow editor) has studied Philo's practice of quoting Scripture as an analogue for how Matthew employs OT echoes in his gospel. Hwang not only offers a comprehensive analysis of Matthew's use of the Septuagint but also demonstrates that Matthew's citation practices align well with the methods of other Hellenistic Jews like Philo. Hwang also provocatively suggests Matthew's audience might be Greek-speaking Jews of the Diaspora who would appreciate the transliteration of Hebrew/Aramaic words. 
  One last example. In Chapter 15 (Methodological Similarity between Xunguxue and Biblical Exegesis), Hyeon Woo Shin offers a comparative study of the gospel genre with the long-standing history of critical exegesis in China called Xunguxue. Shin argues that the rhetorical devices used by the gospel writers might find better analogues in Chinese exegetical practices (e.g., huwen, or synonymous parallelism; hexu, or word order; and even hermeneutical principles as "scripture interpreting scripture") than Western literary models. Shin's essay helps illustrate how one methodological approach can serve as a comparative foil for another to reveal the strengths and weakness of each. 
   I hope you get a chance to pick up the volume and read the rest of the essays. Many thanks again to all the contributors and staff at W&S for all their hard work. Soli Deo gloria!

Festschrift for Seyoon Kim Is Now in Print!

Guess what came in the mail today? 

After a year of planning, writing, editing, proofing, and indexing, finally the Festshrift in honor of Dr. Seyoon Kim, Fire in My Soul, is not only in print, but available to order from Wipf and Stock. Many thanks to John Wipf, Chris Spinks, Ian Creeger and the W&S team for all that they have done to make this possible.

It's also nice to see endorsements on the back cover from dear friends of Dr. Kim: Dr. Don Hagner from Fuller Theological Seminary, Dr. Chan Hie Kim from the Claremont School of Theology, and Dr. Klyne Snodgrass from my own home institution North Park Theological Seminary - they all shared some wonderful words about the volume and their congratulations.
   Needless to say, I'm just elated to see the Festschrift in print. I only hope that it can convey the deep appreciation I and so many of his past students have for a beloved mentor, teacher and friend. 

Postscript (edit 7/3/14):  If any of you are interested in getting your own copy ($32.80 web price; $41.00 retail), you can place an order now directly at Wipf & Stock via email (order@wipfandstock.com) or by phone (541-344-1528) or here: Fire in My Soul (W&S)

Post-Postscript 7/3/14: Just in time for the July 4th weekend, the Festschrift is now available online via Dove Books for a discounted price of $31.99 here: Fire in My Soul (DB). It is also available on amazon here: Fire in My Soul (Amazon)

Proof that the Life of a Scholar Is in the Mundane Details

Well, in case anyone is wondering why I have not posted a follow up yet on idol food at Corinth, here is the reason why: 

I just received the proof's for the Seyoon Kim Festschrift. All 312 pages (not including the front matter or indices). Wow! This is painstaking detailed work. Pardon the pun, but checking proof's is proof that the life of the scholar means doing the mundane well. I can't tell you how many odd breaks I'm finding between lines, sentences, paragraphs, and pages. Arghh! I have not focused this intensely on minutia since I spent a college summer working in an entomology lab counting spider mites on grape leaves for a U.C. Berkeley professor. 
    In any case, until the proof's are sent to Wipf and Stock, I won't be posting on idol food. But my TA and I are almost done. It's well worth the effort. Just need to dig deep for the final 100 yard dash!

Festschrift garnering international attention...

It turns out that I'm not the only one who posted about the Festschrift for Professor Seyoon Kim on his (or her?) blog. Someone who attended the presentation at the Baltimore SBL took the flyer back to Korea, scanned it, and posted it on a forum for book reviews. The responses have been positive to his post and it looks like people are eager to get a personal copy themselves. Kudos to the person who did this! Glad to see the Festschrift is already getting some international buzz.

Here's a link to the other blogger's post:

http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=hmaeng67&logNo=100200695263&redirect=Dlog&widgetTypeCall=true

Festschrift for Professor Seyoon Kim

Wipf and Stock produced a nice flyer of the Festschrift which I and the editors presented to Dr. Seyoon Kim in honor of his retirement from full-time teaching at Fuller Theological Seminary and on the occasion of his 68th birthday. Though the book will not be published until March-April 2014, we surprised Dr. Kim with a framed cover at the Korean Biblical Colloquium, an affiliate of the Society of Biblical Literature, at the meeting in Baltimore this November 2013. There was a celebration and banquet afterwards.

The cover, by the way, features an 1855 Maria Fortuny painting entitled: "St. Paul Preaching at the Areopagus." As far as I know, the Festschrift will mark the first time this painting has been published as a cover for an academic book in New Testament studies. It's simply a beautiful art piece, and many thanks go to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Spain for giving permission to publish it. Here is a copy of the flyer along with the book cover.

(Re)defining Righteousness Language

Right before the Thanksgiving holiday, I attended the Society of Biblical Literature meeting held in Baltimore. I gave a paper for the Biblical Lexicography section entitled: "Greek Words and Roman Meanings: (Re)mapping Righteousness Language in Greco-Roman Discourse as a Prolegomenon to Paul." The paper summarized the work I have done to remap the definitions for δικαιοσύνη, δίκαιος, and δικαιόω according to their Κοινή or "common" every day use in Greco-Roman discourse. The problem with BDAG and other lexicons like it is their dependence on Septuagintal uses for defining the δικ(αιο)- word group. Letting the LXX define major semantic classifications is putting the proverbial cart before the horse. First we should examine how the words are commonly understood in the everyday discourse of the 1st century Mediterranean world. Then we examine how Paul might modify the definitions by quoting the Septuagint and its dependence on the Hebrew correlatives tsedek/tsedekah to define what the Greek words mean. So the Greco-Roman usages become the baseline for evaluating the likelihood of an echo.

The more unique the definition, or in other words, the further away Paul's specialized usage of  δικ(αιο)- lexemes is from their "normal" Κοινή use, the greater burden is placed on the exegete that the OT echo does indeed extend the normal meanings of Greek words in that direction.

This is not to say that the LXX is not important to the understanding of Paul's soteriological terms in his letters. Paul likely uses Septuagintal echoes in his letters to redefine the meaning of the δικ(αιο)- word group. However, these definitions are specialized and should not constitute a major semantic classification. 

Here's a sample of what I did with δίκαιος . The left column are the definitions in my alternative lexicon based on Κοινή usages. The right column are the entries of BDAG. The full study will be published in the form of two essays in the forthcoming Festschrift for Dr. Seyoon Kim: Fire in My Soul: Essays on Pauline Soteriology and the Gospels in Honor of Seyoon Kim (eds. Soon Bong Choi, Jin Ki Hwang, and Max J. Lee; Wipf&Stock, Mar/April 2014).

Lexeme	Lee*	BDAG
δίκαιος:	(A1): in accordance with the expectations, customs or decorum of the community; right, fitting, appropriate, customary[1] (A2): in accordance to the rules or civic laws which govern society; just, equitable, fair, lawful[2] (A2.1; as a substantive): the right to do something as guaranteed by law or custom; legal license or civic liberty; right, freedom[3] (A2.2; as a substantive): punitive action; punishment[4] (A3): in accordance to moral integrity; righteous, upright, honest[5] (A4): judged in the right; justified[6] unattested [[(A4.1): judged innocent; acquitted; innocent; free]][7]	(1) pertaining to being in accordance with high standards or rectitude, upright, just, fair (a) of humans (α) In Gr-Rom. tradition a δίκαιος person upholds the customs and norms of behavior . . . In keeping with OT tradition . . . δίκαιος like tsaddiq = conforming to the laws of God and people (β) of things relating to human beings . . . αἷμα δικαίου (Jo 4:19; La 4:13 = Pr 6:17 αἷμα δικαίον) blood of an upright, or better, an innocent man (b) of transcendent beings (α) God and deities are just or fair in their judgments (β) of Jesus who, as the ideal of an upright person, is called simply ὁ δίκαιος the upright one (2) obligatory in view of certain requirements of justice, right, fair, equitable

---

* Prototypical definitions are render in blue. Particularly juridicial or forensic use (marked) is rendered in purple. Unattested, rare, or highly specialized usages are rendered in red. Definitions are ranked from unmarkedness to markedness. The lower digit categories (1, 2, etc.) signify the lexeme’s unmarked meaning(s) that are the least context dependent, while the higher digit categories (3, 4, etc.) indicate increasing semantic markedness. Subcategories (2.1, 2.2, etc.) represent specialized or marked uses of the lexeme regardless of ranking. English glosses (or what Danker calls “formal equivalents”) are distinguished from the definitions by rendering the gloss in italics.

[1] See Homer, Od. 6.120–21; 9.172–76; 13.209–12; 14.89–92. The social meaning of δίκαιος during the Hellenistic and Greco-Roman eras is well-attested, and here I depend mostly on the citations listed in Spicq, “δίκαιος, κτλ.” 320–21; BAGD, s.v. δίκαιος, 246–47; Schrenk, “δίκη, δίκαιος, δικαιοσύνη, κτλ.,” 182–85; Olley, Righteousness in the Septuagint of Isaiah, 32–43; Hill, Greek Words and Hebrew Meanings, 99–100; Ziesler, The Meaning of Righteousness, 48–51; Reumann, “Righteousness: Greco-Roman World,” 743.

[2] Aristotle, EN 1129a6–9; 1129a34–1129b1; Demosthenes, Or. 3.21; Thucydides, Hist. 2.71.2; Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica 5.71.1; 12.45.1; 19.85.4; 40.11.1–2; 49.12.1; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Ant. rom. 10.2.

[3] UPZ II 16 col. 7 lines 22–27; P. Oxy. VI, 905.9.

[4] Dio Cassius, Roman History 40.19.2; 54.19.2; Josephus, Ant. 14.288; 15.213.

[5] Herodotus, Hist. 1.96; Epictetus, Diss. 3.14.13–14; Fr. 14; Fr. 28b; Musonius Rufus, Fr. 16 (= Lutz, p. 104, line 33).

[6] Demosthenes, Or. 44.4; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Ant. rom. 10.2. Cf. Aristotle, EN 1137a10–12 (ἄδικος ἡ κρίσις ἐστίν).

[7] The double brackets [[ ]] signify that definition of δίκαιος as “acquitted,” “innocent,” or “free” is unattested in Greco-Roman discourse. If found in Paul’s letters, this semantic classification denotes a unique Pauline use atypical of its κοινή usage during the early imperial period of Rome. However, the substantive use of δίκαιος as “punishment” is attested, though rare (see above def. A2.2). The denotation of the verb δικαιόω as “punish / penalize” is much more frequent and well attested (see below def. V3.2).