Introduction Although Christians have never fully agreed on the meaning and application of Jesus’ sayings in the Sermon on the Mount, few have applied them as drastically as Origen applied Jesus’ saying in Matt. 19:12. The church historian Eusebius... Read More »

Introduction Discovering sermons in the Sermon on the Mount, or any other portion of scripture, is not the primary task of the preacher. The primary task is to permit the scripture to speak, that the words of the Sermon on the Mount may become a living, dynami... Read More »

Introduction Servanthood is a prominent concept in Isaiah 40-55.[1]These chapters are generally seen as a literary unit. The majority of scholars relate their perspective to the exilic period; see William Sanford LaSor, David Allan Hubbard, and Frederic Willia... Read More »

Preaching from Isaiah promises to be an exciting and challenging experience. Studying the insights of God’s Word expressed in the ancient text of Isaiah becomes insight and God’s Word for the modern preacher. The book of Isaiah provides a rich trea... Read More »

The history of critical studies in Isaiah dem­onstrates the triumph of the historical-critical method of Bible study. At no point has a stronger consensus of scholarship been reached than in the division of Isaiah into three separate literary sections. In jus... Read More »

The book of Isaiah is a giant among the Old Testament prophecies, great in quantity and quality. Historically, it has been highly revered in both Jewish and Christian communities. For example, in the Jewish Mishnah it was the most frequently quoted book, in th... Read More »

Historians and Speeches In classical historiography an important role is regularly filled by speeches ascribed to leading characters in the narrative. A speech in the ap­propriate context could sum up a situation, draw a moral from the immediately preceding s... Read More »

One of the most important questions that determines how we read Luke-Acts concerns the kind of literature we think it is, the genre. There are two proposals about the genre of Luke-Acts that are being actively discussed: A) Charles Talbert, a great Southern Ba... Read More »

Al Fasol, associate professor of preaching at Southwestern Seminary, has furthered his prodigious reputation as one of Southern Baptists’ most prolific writing homileticians with his latest contribution. Designed as “a primer to introduce the begin... Read More »

I am honored to have an opportunity to contribute to a volume dedicated to the memory of my friend and teacher, Dr. Virtus Gideon. Dr. Gideon’s willingness to receive and support each person as an individual greatly touched my life. He accepted me as a &... Read More »