Christianity Today is reporting that Bill Mounce, who was a key figure in the ESV, has joined the NIV translation committee. Bill is a good friend from Aberdeen days and has interacted with Mark Strauss, another good Aberdeen friend, over these translations as well as the TNIV for the last several years. This includes an exchange of papers that will be a part of the ETS meetings this year.

In one of the more unusual theories to come out about Genesis, a professor of Old Testament in the Netherlands claims that Genesis 1:1 is not about creation of the material world but separation within it, removing God from being the Creator in line with the rest of the Bible and the literature of Mesopotamia. The view was announced in the London Telegraph last week. The URL is:

ABC just opened a series on Nightline on whether the 10 Commandments are relevant in today's world.

I do not often promote from the blog site, but today I make an exception.

This entry is an mp3. A few months ago I did an interview with Preaching Today, a wing of Christianity Today, on the gospel. I am working on a book on the gospel. So this is a piece of the point I will be making in the book.

Listen, enjoy, and if you wish, respond.

Here is the link:

I am in New York at the Transform World meeting that is looking at an initiative to have the believing community and organizations concentrate on children ages 4/14, called the 4/14 window. There is much to say here and much that can be misunderstood about this effort. Today I only want to use three statistics that were cited today.

I finished my 7 nation, 10 city tour today with two lectures at Ridley College in Melbourne (Home in the past of Leon Morris). It was a great close to a wonderful trip that had me away for almost two full months. So tomorrow will be spent all day on a plane working my way back to Dallas.

Last Friday I interviewed with John Dickson of the Centre for Public Christianity in Sydney (a lovely city by the way). John and I discussed the historical Jesus. That interview (both podcast and video interview) will be released shortly. For now, this interview of Christopher Forbes on the Jesus fragments in Josephus is worth viewing.

I had the chance to visit a church in Taichung, Taiwan that has a marvelous ministry model. The Thank God for Grace Church there has worked out a deal at the request of a elementary school to help at risk kids. These kids do not have a father or have a mother who does not speak Chinese or is being raised by grandparents.

Last Thursday I received the sad news that Martin Hengel, my Humboldt Scholarship host in Germany, had died after a battle with cancer at the age of 82. My three sabbaticals in Tübingen were special because of him. He was a mentor in every sense of the word. He pushed for thoroughness and excellence. He encouraged. He dialogued. He cared about the state of Christianity in the world.

It has been a while since I discussed Bible tools for the Mac (Sorry PC folks, only Apple is worthy). My tool of choice for years has been Accordance, which is an excellent search resource. I still use it regularly.

I am in Berlin to lecture tonight and tomorrow at a Messianic community here on the gospel. Yesterday I was roaming around Berlin, a fascinating city. I went back to one of my favorite spots, the Kaiser Wilhelm church. It stands in semi-ruins as it was struck by bombs one night during the World War II, The new sanctuary, built to its side, is modest but stunning.

The opening of the Enoch Conference on 2 Enoch and various Jewish mediatorial figures opened in Naples today. We heard a lecture on new Coptic manuscript fragments (4 total) of 2 Enoch discovered in Southern Egypt in the 1970's but just now identified. This are the first manuscripts of this book not to be in Slavonic.

Friday I leave for a two month trip to various locales.

I start at the Enoch Seminar in Naples, Italy (I know, someone has to do it). This group meets every other summer and brings together experts in Second Temple Judaism, Early Christianity and Rabbinics from around the world.

My time in Jordan is almost done. It has been a great time. The students are eager to learn and the issues here are fascinating. I have seen two ministries up close here.

I am headed to Jordan and Israel for the next three weeks. I will try to report on any relevant biblical news I pick up. I know the blogs have been few and far between lately, a combination of getting ready for the summer's travel, finishing a semester on a tight clock, and responding to previous posts.

Just a quick note to point to a fine detailed review of Ehrman's latest by my friend, Ben Witherington. It is at:

http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2009/04/bart-interrupted-detailed-analysis-of.html

I was in New York City this week, speaking at Kings College in Manhatten. It was a great time. I also was able to visit some of my media friends there. I was asked constantly about the Newsweek piece this week on the Fall and Decline of Christian America. It reports on a recently released poll showing that those identifying themselves as Christians has declined 10% in the last two decades.

The Essenes are one of four groups attested as a Jewish sect by the first century Jewish Historian in Antiquities 18.18-22 (Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots are the others).

Easter approaches and so do stories about our Judeo-Christian roots. Time has a story on an Israeli scholar denying the Essenes existed (of course the other groups noted in Antquities 18 existed and were not legendary as she claims). There are numerous references to such a group and her "renegade sons of Zadok" are very much what the Essenes are described as being.

Bart Ehrman's Jesus, Interrupted by his own admission says nothing new. It packages what scholars have been saying in a very public way for two decades (As Ehrman points out, these issues go back centuries-- and the positions he defends have been advocated for a few centuries. In fact, folks like Augustine and Origen were aware of the kinds of issues he raises).

Well everyone I am headed to Indonesia to lecture on the Historical Jesus over the next week. It takes 30 hours to get there with connections. I am reading the new Bart Ehrman book which is more of the same. His juxtaposing of devotional reading with historical reading is a kind of straw man contrast (he opens the book here with his repeated biography of his journey from evangelicalism).

This blog will be brief. Day of Discovery is broadcasting a series on the IBR Jesus Group's work on the historical Jesus. This is a decade long project involving several evangelical scholars. We filmed these shows last summer as we were wrapping up our work for publication later this year. It is eight shows, two of which are now up on the net for streaming broadcast.

Christianity Today.com has just posted a podcast that is an interview I did on the gospel with Preaching Today. It deals with what the gospel is or is not.

The link is: http://blog.preachingtoday.com/2009/02/darrell_bock_on_small_or_large.html