Review of The Mission of God by Christopher Wright

I would like to thank IVP for furnishing me with this review copy.

Wright, Christopher J. H. The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006.

The recent resurgence of younger evangelicals involvement in ministry and engagement of culture and produced much discussion on the Church’s mission.  Words like “missional” and “missiological” have become commonplace in churches looking to make in impact on their communities and the world.  While this renaissance of mission orientation has spawned welcome enthusiasm, but confusion has also followed.  What does it mean to be missional?  What is the mission of the Church?  Why should the Church be missional?  What does the Bible say about mission, both God’s and the His people’s?  Christopher Wright’s The Mission of God (MOG) provides the answers to these questions and many more.

The purpose of the MOG is not simply to show why mission is important or how mission is a vital part of the identity of the Church, but to show that mission, in many ways, is the purpose for the Church and the priority in its identity.  Therefore, MOG seeks to read the Bible as a story of God’s mission to restore creation and his people’s role and mission in that restoration.

 

Logos Bible Giveaway

Check this out from bible.logos.com.

You’ve never seen a Bible Giveaway like this before—we’re talking 72 ultra premium Bibles given away in just 6 months. That’s 12 winners every month! With so many Bibles to give away and the opportunity to enter up to 5 different ways each month for six months, your chances to win one of these 72 distinctive Bibles have never been better.*

Bible.Logos.com has partnered with 6 top publishers to give away over $11,500.00 of rare and ultra-premium Bibles over the next six months. We’ve made it even easier to win—you can enter up to five different ways every month. So what are you waiting for? Get started on your entries below and join us in celebrating the launch of the new Bible.Logos.com with the Great Bible Giveaway!

Also, don’t miss a single chance to enter. Sign up to get a reminder when the next giveaway period begins and enter again!

This looks great!  I already use bible.logos.com for comparing translations online, this is even more impressive!  Go here for the giveaway!

 

1 Peter Syntactical Diagram

Here is the full text of 1 Peter diagramed.  I updated the first two due to style concerns and I changed some of my exegetical decisions.  This pdf is my attempt to grammitically and syntactically diagram the entirety of 1 Peter.  Enjoy!

1 Peter Syntactical Diagram

 

Syntactical Diagram – 1 Peter 5

Here is the PDF for 1 Peter 5.

 

Syntactical Diagram – 1 Peter 4

Here is the PDF for 1 Peter 4.

 

Syntactical Diagram – 1 Peter 3.13-22

Here is the PDF for 1 Peter 3.13-22.

 

Syntactical Diagram – 1 Peter 3.1-12

Here is the PDF for 1 Peter 3.1-12.

 

Bible Works Giveaway

Check out Cal.vini.st for a great Bibleworks 8 giveaway.  Pretty sweet.

 

Syntactical Diagram – 1 Peter 2

Here is the PDF for 1 Peter 2.

 

1 Peter and Imperatival Participles

My work through 1 Peter this week has been highly rewarding and am excited to complete it with chapters 4 and 5 on Monday and Tuesday.  I have not been able to complete each section of the syntactical diagrams since we are moving at such a fast pace, but I will try to catch up this weekend and post the remaining diagrams.  

I have been using a few commentaries but the most helpful has been Achtemeier’s Hermeneia volume.  It has a great mixture of grammatical, cultural and theological comments, the best Hermeneia volume I have used yet.  One aspect of Achtemeier’s treatment I have found most intriguing is his discussion of Peter’s use of participles.  Most translations see a number of independent imperatival participles throughout 1 Peter, however Achtemeier does not see the participle as acting independently at all.  While he some of participles normally translated independent have an imperatival force, such a force comes from context and is not a semantic category and the participles are necessarily still dependent on finite verbs.  In my syntax courses we were taught the independent imperatival participle as a valid semantic category, but Achtemeier has caused me to rethink this a bit.  I am not yet fully convinced, but I am intrigued.