Reading log

Biblical Archaeology Review
1. Interviews with scholars who have worked first hand with the Dead Sea Scrolls. Many scholars were afraid that if they published, they'd be out of a job, so they procrastinated! The scrolls were in Jordanian control for about 35 years before Israeli scholars were allowed to view them. Some scholars point to differences in the order of the text of Jeremiah, or that Qumran considered the books of Enoch and Jubilees to be authoritative, to claim that there was "no Bible as such - no list of canonical (authoritative) books." Hmmm. Right.

2. Review of an elaborate, Greek-style tomb for the Maccabees, who rebelled against foreign Greek rule of Israel. You read that right. Those who wanted to drive out the Greeks politically and militarily became like the culturally, tolerating and/or admiring the pagan Greco-Roman mythology. Those Maccabees were the ancestors of the Sadduccees in Jesus' day. By then they were in bed with Rome culturally, financially, and sometimes physically...

Luther's Bondage of the Will
Luther argues against free will from Romans 1:18; 3:9, 19, 21-26; 4:2-3.
If we are justified apart from works of the law, if God's righteousness comes to us apart from the law, then what good is our will in bringing us into favor with God? The answer is, none. God does it all FOR us.