I agree with you. I think I understood where Dr. Van Pelt was coming from, but commentaries can be very helpful provided they’re not used as a crutch. If nothing else, they help to make sure you have all your bases covered.

It seems to me that it is the bane of conservative Christianity (not excluding the Reformed world) to often miss the proverbial forest for the trees. One thing I have appreciated about theological liberal commentators is their sensitivity to theological themes that conservatives apparently miss. I know that even when I graduated from Westminster California, while I could translate a passage and do word studies from the Greek or Hebrew, I still struggled with recognizing structure.

For a list of commentaries, see Jim Dennison’s resource here: http://nwts.edu/commentaries.pdf What I appreciate about his list is (C) for conservative, (L) for liberal, (Disp) for dispensational, (Theonomic), (Very helpful on structure), and all the other editorial comments he makes. He seems to be asking the same question as John Fesko: “Where’s Christ?” – and he also seems to be looking for resources that will help preachers preach Him.

Keep up the great broadcasts!

Paul – as an example – seems to have no problem quoting the LXX rather than any exant Hebrew text.

Your guest answered a question I’ve had for a long time, and never got an answer for. I always wondered if “left him none that pisseth against a wall” in the KJV was accurate to the original Hebrew, and “killed all his male relatives” a modern obfuscation/translation/interpretation.

Seems a perfectly obvious expression to me.

Had 3 semesters of Koine, decades ago. Let it drop at some point, and am kicking myself now.