What is a prophet?

What is a Prophet? Many people today think of a prophet as any person who sees the future. While the gift of prophecy certainly includes the ability to see the future, a prophet is far more than just a person with that ability. A prophet is basically a spokesman for God, a person chosen by [...]

Introduction to Prophets 2: TV show

New Show About the Old Testament Prophets to Debut on CatholicTV in September 8/14/2009 – 11:53 AM PST Starting in September, CatholicTV will air a new show entitled “The Prophets and You”. This new show is hosted by Dr. John Clabeaux. Dr. Clabeaux earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University and is an associate professor of [...]

Hebrew: The forthcoming trial

Next week’s test will carry 40% of the total module mark, so please make careful preparation. We will be working from the MT of Exodus 3: 1-22 and you will be expected to translate, and make grammatical, textual, and exegetical comments. Please email any queries ( and no, you are not permitted to bring Bibles [...]

Using the Internet at Bible College

A recent photo of dr-baker-in-his-study.jpg reminded me of the usefulness of internet research. Here’s a few pointers. Important websites (“meta-sites”) See the relevant links for Biblical Studies on the useful links pages. A particularly useful site for New Testament work is the New Testament Gateway. For Old Testament / Hebrew Bible, the iTankakh site, Ralph [...]

Wisdom Literature: Welcome to the Matrix

Welcome to the Wisdom group. Here is a link to the schedule, (subject to approval) wisdom-maf.doc so that you can check the session titles. Today we looked at the powerpoint introduction-to-the-course.ppt and checked out the coursebook. Follow the hyperlinks to ourchase your copy from http://abebooks.co.uk or http://amazon.co.uk as you wish. Jean-Baptiste’s copy arrived the day after ordering, so [...]

Ready to go? The second semester looms…

Now that the next semester is looming (!) and the holidays all but gone, I present a short book list for those intending to take the courses I am offering in February. 1. PENTATEUCH This is a first year course: an over-all sketch study of the first five books of the Bible. The textbook is    [...]

Missiology: Looking at the Pentateuch

Here’s this week’s lecture on mission-in-the-pentateuch.ppt. Remember: I need to see your precis account of this appearing on your websites ASAP.

Pentateuch: Final Exam

A few thoughts from today’s seminar: During the first week of June you must now ready yourself for a ninety minute examination comprised of the following: 10 Short Answers questions (20%) 5 paragraph questions (50 %) on major theological themes., such as: The character of Moses, the Abrahamic Covenant, sacrifice, priesthood, law, tabernacle, plagues of [...]

The Documentary Hypothesis in Crisis

  After more than a century of the dominance of this theory in Old Testament studies, today there is no longer a consensus among scholars on the reliability and soundness of the theory. Some scholars propose to cancel out this theory for good, others continue to defend it, some modify it, while still others suggest alternative [...]

Pentateuch: Examining the Territory

 A recent email suggested that I sketch out the territory for the forthcoming Pentateuch examination. So here goes: Questions on the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, the “documentary hypothesis” and the present state of scholarly analysis. Questions on the character and flavour of each individual book: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Questions on major themes: such as [...]