Justin Taylor's Blog, page 334

ESV GreekTools

This online resource is now, in my opinion, the easiest way to interact with the Greek text of the New Testament with advanced searches, intuitive design, parsing, interlinears, etc. It's only $10 for lifetime access, and can do most of the things that you'd pay hundreds of dollars for elsewhere.

The price goes up to $14.99 on May 1.

You can try it for free at ESV Online, under the Content tab. Or you can purchase it at crossway.org/GRKTLS.

You can see a video introduction and some explanation below:

ESV GreekTools puts the original language of the New Testament into the hands of beginning and advanced students, as well as seasoned pastors, scholars, and laymen looking for an affordable and accessible Greek reference tool. Intuitive, easy-to-use, and fully customizable, ESV GreekTools is an online application available through the ESVBible.org platform. Now you can do serious work with the Greek text, at home or on the go, no matter your level of proficiency.

Features:

Complete NA27 Greek text
ESV interlinear and reverse-interlinear renderings of the text
Complete data set for each word, including lexical data, contextual and morphological information (including parsings), and Strong's number.
Powerful search tool that lets users search by Greek word, transliterated Greek word, Strong's number, English word, or any combination of those values
Complete English and Greek concordances
Customizable interface that works seamlessly with other ESVBible.org features, including study resources and notes.

Helpful documentation and instructions can be found here.

The Pastor and Personal Criticism

C. J. Mahaney's article "The Pastor and Personal Criticism" (PDF) is now available. You can read the PDF or see the individual blog posts below:

The Pastor and Personal Criticism
The Pastor's Temptations when Criticism Arrives
Learning Wisdom by Embracing Criticism
A Kind and Painful Bruising
The Pastor's Wife and Her Role When Criticism Arrives
Adding a Few Smudges to My Moral Portrait
Deal Gently with Your Critics
Why Faithful Pastors Will Be Criticized
Too High an Estimation
Distinguishing Criticism
How to Criticize Your Pastor (And Honor God)

An Interview with N.D. Wilson on Screenwriting The Great Divorce

[image error]Last year brought the welcome news that author N.D. Wilson had been tapped as the screenwriter for the film adaption of C. S. Lewis's classic The Great Divorce. Now that he's completed a first draft, he was kind enough to answer a few questions.

Tell us a bit about The Great Divorce. When did Lewis write it and why?

Lewis wrote the book near the end of WWII, and it was serialized by a Christian periodical. The title is Lewis' potshot at William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. (Lewis humbly claimed that he wasn't even sure what Blake meant—but he was apparently sure enough to contradict him.)

The book is set in the afterlife, but it isn't about the afterlife. In a series of episodes, we follow the narrator through Hell and onto a bus headed for the outskirts of Heaven.

The stories are fundamentally comedic and zoom in on the pettiness of sin, the narcissism of Hell, and the impossibility of goodness apart from Grace (among other things).

Lewis' genius also comes out in how he upends traditional Christian perspectives on Heaven and Hell—Heaven being radically physical and dangerous (as opposed to ethereal and fuzzy), and Hell is a boringly spiritual place full of soft—but false—comforts (whatever house you want, but it won't keep the rain out).

Throughout the work, Lewis' prose is absolutely lovely, and his characterizations are as potent as they are brilliant.

And, of course, in typical Lewis fashion, he drew inspiration for his vision of Heaven from an American pulp sci-fi story about time travel.

How do you take a set of episodes and turn them into a coherent story while being faithful and without ruffling too many feathers?

Oh, I'm not afraid to ruffle feathers. But any nervous fans out there should know that I'm as dog-loyal to Lewis and his vision as any writer could be. Where I'm adding and expanding and shaping, I am constantly trying to check myself against Lewis' broader imagination as represented in his collected works—not simply this little volume.

I will admit that when I began the adaptation, I felt like I was jumping off a cliff into (hopefully deep) mysterious waters—you can never completely predict what will happen on impact. But now that I've impacted and finished the first draft of the script, I can say that (as a Lewis fan), I'm really, really happy with it. And from here, I hope it only gets better.

How difficult is it to write mainly dialogue, leaving characterization and execution to a director and the actors?

Not difficult at all. Because what I'm seeing when I'm writing is the finished product. It's all shot, cut, and scored in my head, but that doesn't have to be on the page.

The strangeness will come when I watch real actors and a real crew take it out of my head and grow the thing with their own creativity. I'm making up a recipe that will still need to be cooked.

The Great Divorce has been referenced a fair bit lately in the Christian blogosphere, with the suggestion that there are similarities between Lewis's "supposal" and Rob Bell's "proposal." And Bell himself recommends the book in Love Wins. Any thoughts on that?

At times Rob Bell (like in the Love Wins video) sounds exactly like the kind of character that one could expect to find in the pages of The Great Divorce. He seems to enjoy chasing and massaging ideas and questions for the sake of the journey of it all and not for the arrival. Landing on objective concrete answers isn't exactly the goal. That's not meant as a comment on whether or not Bell is regenerate (we're graciously saved by faith not works, luckily enough), but it is a comment on where Bell would sit with Lewis in this whole discussion.

And, of course, Lewis put the universalist George MacDonald in Heaven and made him watch the unrepentant damned get back on the bus to Hell. A little wink and gloat at one of his favorite authors.

As for us, like Lewis, we should laugh at the absurdity of squishy thought wherever we find it. In that vein, let me plug the best response to Bell that I've seen. (Full disclosure: I am related to two of the people involved in making this little parody . . . but that doesn't make it any less funny.)

When can we expect The Great Divorce on the big screen?

Right now, I couldn't say exactly, and I shouldn't guess.

If I remember correctly, Tolkien would have hated the idea of turning his trilogy into a film. What do you think Lewis would have thought about book-to-film adaptations in general?

Lewis comments a little bit on film adaptions in his letters. While he was not a big fan of movies (or drama) in general, he didn't have a problem with adaptations.

His objections came at the willy-nilly introduction of female characters in short-pants, and at what he called a change in the types of danger. Different dangers and fears are different spices in a narrative experience. He didn't want the fear of a volcano swapped in for the fear of being trapped in a cave, etc. The two taste different.

I've kept his thoughts right in the front of my mind throughout this process.

Assuming you would have done things differently, can you summarize why the Narnia films have not had the same effect on children as the books?

No movie is going to have the same effect as a book (nor should it). Movies are transient singular experiences. They last longer than a stage production, but they should be viewed the same way—as a particular rendition of a fixed story. Someone else can do it again later (differently), but the book will be the same.

As for the Narnia movies in particular, I think they're doing service to the books (hundreds of thousands of additional units moved), but yes, I would have done things a little differently. But more power to them. . . .

Any other projects in the works that you can share?

A few! I have a new book launching with Random House this August (The Dragon's Tooth), and I'm currently working on a sequel.

A film companion to my nonfiction book Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl will be available very soon (I believe in May).

I'm working on another creative nonfiction book for Thomas Nelson, I've got a few other scripts in various stages (with various companies), and my novel 100 Cupboards is currently in development for its own film production.

Let's just say, I used to hate coffee, and now I don't. I've also gotten pretty good at deep breathing exercises and lying on the floor.

Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus

DG Live tonight is featuring Elyse Fitzpatrick, most recently the co-author (with her daughter) of the Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus, coming in May from Crossway.

In the foreword to the book Tullian Tchividjian writes: "It's the best parenting book I've ever read, because it takes the radical, untamable, outrageous nature of the gospel seriously and applies it to parenting. It's nothing short of revolutionary—not because the gospel theology in it is so new but because the gospel theology in it is so old."

You catch watch it tonight at www.desiringgod.org/live, from 7:00-8:30 PM (EDT).

David Platt's Radical Together

Jared Wilson has an excellent review of David Platt's new book, Radical Together: Unleashing the People of God for the Purpose of God.

(Note to other reviewers out there: this is a model for how to review a book. Jared appropriately sets the wider cultural context, summarizes the essence of the book without doing a chapter-by-chapter summary, then rightly discerns and applauds the vision while offering a gentle reservation or two. This is first-rate work and shows how a good review can serve potential readers of a book.)

What Does a Prayer of Faith Look Like?

David M'Intyre, The Hidden Life of Prayer: The Lifeblood of the Christian (original, 1891), chapter 6:

It is a divinely-implanted persuasion, the fruit of much spiritual instruction and discipline. It is vision in a clearer light than that of earth.

The prayer of faith, like some plant rooted in a fruitful soil, draws its virtue from a disposition which has been brought into conformity with the mind of Christ.

It is subject to the Divine will—"This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us" (1 John 5:14).
It is restrained within the interest of Christ—"Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:13).
It is instructed in the truth—"If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7).
It is energized by the Spirit—"Able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Eph. 3:20).
It is interwoven with love and mercy—"And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses" (Mark 11:25).
It is accompanied with obedience—"Whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight" (1 John 3:22).
It is so earnest that it will not accept denial—"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Luke 11:9).
It goes out to look for, and to hasten its answer—"The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working" (James 5:16, RV).

Where All True Delights and Pleasures Meet

John Flavel:

Christ [is] the very essence of all delights and pleasures, the very soul and substance of them. As all the rivers are gathered into the ocean, which is congregation or  meeting-place of all  waters in the world: so Christ is that ocean in which all true delights and pleasures meet. . . .

His excellencies are pure and unmixed; he is a sea of sweetness without one drop of gall.

—The Method of Grace, from Sermon XII.

The Secret to Dealing with Fear and Anxiety

The secret—according to 1 Peter 5:6-7—is to humble yourself. Ed Welch explains.

Differences Between Jesus and the Levitical High Priests

Reference
Difference
Levitical High Priests
Jesus the High Priest


7:23-24
quantity
many priests
only one priest


7:23-24; 9:12
duration
temporary
permanent, eternal


7:27; 9:12
frequency
sacrificed daily
sacrificed once for all


7:26-27
quality
sinful sinners
holy, innocent, unstained


7:26-27
focus
offered sacrifices also for themselves
offered sacrifices only for others


7:27; 9:11-14
object
offered sacrificial animals
offered up himself


9:11-12
sphere
entered a man-made tent
entered a greater and more perfect tent


9:11-12
means
entered by means of the blood of goats and calves
entered by means of his own blood

Hebrews 7:23-26

23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

Hebrews 9:11-12

11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

Differences Between the Jesus and the Levitical High Priests

Reference
Difference
Levitical High Priests
Jesus the High Priest


7:23-24
quantity
many priests
only one priest


7:23-24; 9:12
duration
temporary
permanent, eternal


7:27; 9:12
frequency
sacrificed daily
sacrificed once for all


7:26-27
quality
sinners
holy, innocent


7:26-27
focus
offered sacrifices also for themselves
offered sacrifices only for others


7:27; 9:11-14
object
offered sacrificial animals
offered up himself


9:11-12
sphere
entered a man-made tent
entered a greater and more perfect tent


9:11-12
means
entered by means of the blood of goats and calves
entered by means of his own blood

Hebrews 7:23-26

23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

Hebrews 9:11-12

11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.