Volume 13, Issue 02

September 2014

Feature book review: James M. Hamilton Jr.’s ‘Exalting Jesus in Ezra and Nehemiah’

James M. Hamilton Jr., Exalting Jesus in Ezra and Nehemiah (Holman Reference 2014, $12.99) Review by S. Craig Sanders Would you preach sermons from Ezra and Nehemiah? I have spent my entire life in Southern Baptist churches, and only remember hearing five sermons from Nehemiah — three during revival week as a teenager and two…

Book reviews: ‘Politics and Piety’ overviews early Baptist activism

Aaron Menikoff, Politics and Piety: Baptist Social Reform in America, 1770-1860 (Pickwick 2014, $27) Review by S. Craig Sanders Despite the notion that early American Baptists were “so heavenly minded, they were of no earthly good,” their commitment to piety, evangelism, and activism demonstrated “that the transformation of society was a vital goal, an essential…

The Robertson Gospel Codex

Among the many treasures held by the James P. Boyce Centennial Library and Archives, the oldest and possibly the most distinguished is a fragile medieval codex, originally acquired by Adolf Deissmann, professor of philology at the Humbolt University of Berlin. In the aftermath of World War I, Deissmann had campaigned vigorously to protect the ancient…

Soul doctor: Jonathan T. Pennington aspires for transformational teaching

“I was long-haired, smoking pot, and in a heavy metal band all throughout high school,” he said. “I was miserable and didn’t know what to do with myself.” Jonathan T. Pennington, associate professor of New Testament interpretation at Southern Seminary, likes to joke that his conversion story would make an ideal support letter. “The before…

4 pillars in 40 years: The heritage of SBTS scholarship

EDITOR’S NOTE: Before A.T. Roberson published the first edition of his monumental A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in Light of Historical Research in 1914, Southern Seminary faculty had already produced four influential works that would shape the character of the Southern Baptist Convention. Seminary historian Gregory A. Wills, dean of the School of…

Experts reflect on the influence of A.T. Robertson’s grammar

EDITOR’S NOTE: A.T. Robertson’s A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research no longer appears as required reading in Elementary Greek or syntax courses. Nonetheless, his breathtaking scholarship has influenced those who are shaping the basics of New Testament Greek studies today, beyond the confines of Southern Seminary. Stanley E.…

100 years later, scholars indebted to Robertson’s ‘Grammar of the Greek New Testament’

A.T. Robertson’s magnum opus, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, first appeared in print in 1914. His comprehensive scholarship revolutionized the study of the New Testament, and his work belongs among the greatest ever produced by Southern Seminary faculty. To grasp the greatness of A.T. Robertson, we must…

‘Scholarship that helps men to preach’: The pastoral legacy of A.T. Robertson

Archibald Thomas Robertson was born Nov. 6, 1863, near Chatham, Virginia, where he spent the first 12 years of his life before moving to a farm in North Carolina. At the age of 12, he received Christ as his Lord and Savior and was baptized later that year. At the age of 16, he was…

Preaching Christ in Ezra and Nehemiah: James M. Hamilton Jr. discusses new commentary

EDITOR’S NOTE: Below, James M. Hamilton Jr., associate professor of biblical theology at Southern Seminary, discusses his new book, Exalting Jesus in Ezra and Nehemiah, with Towers editor S. Craig Sanders. CS: What is your process for turning a sermon series into a book? JH: I had been manuscripting my sermons to be published with…

Towers | September 2014