Graeme Goldsworthy, in his excellent book According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible, provides a few brief, but helpful summaries of the various branches of theology. Make note of these summaries since they will likely prove to be useful in helping someone else understand the different theological disciplines.

Systematic theology asks:

What should Christians believe now about any aspect of Christianity? Its results: Christian doctrine.

Historical theology asks:

What have Christians believed about their faith at any given time? Its results: A record of the development of Christian doctrine.

Pastoral theology asks:

How should Christians minister to one another so that they grow to maturity in Christian living? Its results: Care and growth in the local church.

Biblical theology asks:

By what process has God revealed himself to mankind? Its results: The relating of the whole Bible to our Christian life now.

This week’s Friday photo is a shot of a portion of Romans 8 in my ESV Bible. I decided to go with a black and white treatment and a blue filter. I think it gives the photo a nice effect.

I think you *really* need to see the larger version of this photo to appreciate it. You can always browse more of my photos on my Flickr photostream.

Recently I began reading and discussing Behind the Scenes of the New Testament by Paul Barnett with a group of friends. In chapter 2 Barnett suggests that Jesus may have known at least 3 different languages; Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek. The first two seem fairly obvious. 1. Aramaic was the common language of 1st century Israel. The Gospels even record a few of Jesus’ statements in Aramaic. 2. As a Jewish boy growing up in 1st century Israel Jesus would have learned to read the Hebrew Scriptures. In the Gospels we read of Jesus reading aloud from the Hebrew Scriptures in the synagogue.

I’d never really thought about the possibility that Jesus would have known Greek though. Barnett says that Jesus’ conversation with a Greek woman (Syro-Phoenecian by birth) is often regarded as evidence that Jesus could speak Greek (see Mark 7:26). We don’t know for sure whether Jesus knew Greek, but it’s interesting to think about nonetheless.

We’ve begun a series through I Samuel at church. In this morning’s sermon the pastor pointed out that the first occurrence of the phrase “Lord of hosts” is in I Samuel 1:3. Now go dazzle your friends with that bit of Bible trivia.