How should we understand φύσει in Romans 2:14? Does it mean that the Gentiles "naturally" do what the Law requires, as suggested by most translations (e.g. ESV)? Or does it mean that Gentiles do not "naturally" have the Law, as suggested in translations like the CSB? And how does this distinction change what Paul is trying to communicate about Gentiles? In this short explanation, Dr. Kevin Grasso looks at how φύσει functions adverbially in other biblical Greek texts, as well as broader ancient Greek texts. He uses this analysis along with the context of the verse to better understand the meaning of the verse and how it should be translated. This is a bonus episode for our series on Key Terms in Pauline Theology. Go to biblingo.org/podcast to learn more and subscribe to the Biblical Languages Podcast.

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso talks with Dr. John Collins about the meaning of νόμος (Law or Torah) in Paul. A native of Ireland, Professor Collins was a professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Chicago from 1991 until his arrival at Yale Divinity School in 2000. He previously taught at the University of Notre Dame. He has published widely on the subjects of apocalypticism, wisdom, Hellenistic Judaism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and he has numerous scholarly accolades that would take far too long to enumerate. Here, we primarily discuss his book “The Invention of Judaism: Torah and Jewish Identity from Deuteronomy to Paul.” Kevin and John discuss various scholarly positions on Paul and the Law/Torah, the significance of apocalypticism, the Law of Moses vs. the Law of Christ, diaspora Jews vs. Palestinian Jews on Torah, Torah for Jews vs. Gentiles, the Messiah and Torah, and much more! As always, this episode is brought to you by Biblingo, the premier solution for learning, maintaining, and enjoying the biblical languages. Visit biblingo.org to learn more and start your 10-day free trial. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast app and leave us a review. You can also follow Biblingo on social media @biblingoapp to discuss the episode with us and other listeners.

How should we understand the word δικαιούμενοι in Romans 3:24? It's often translated as "justified", but here we argue for the translation "made righteous." In this short discussion, we first look at recent proposals for what this word means. We then present some linguistic tools that you can use to think through what words mean and how to interpret them. In light of these tools, we will take another look at justification language in Romans 3:24 and in Romans more broadly.   The Meaning of δικαιόω (Justify) in Paul with James Prothro: https://youtu.be/rDZTV4m5TUA Basic Semantic Concepts: https://youtu.be/Ul_4JWrx0O4 Kennedy & McNally on Scale Structure: https://semantics.uchicago.edu/kennedy/docs/km-scales05.pdf This is a bonus episode for our series on Key Terms in Pauline Theology. In this episode, Kevin dives into Romans 3:24 to show how the Greek can help us better understand how these terms relate, and ultimately better understand the text.  Go to biblingo.org/podcast to learn more and subscribe to the Biblical Languages Podcast.

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso talks with Dr. James Prothro about the meaning of language related to justification and righteousness in Paul. James B. Prothro earned masters degrees in theology and in classical philology, and completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2017. He has worked in churches and parish ministries and as a professor, and currently teaches at the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology in Colorado. He has written on Greek and on textual criticism, but his main areas of research are in the letters of Paul and in methods of interpretation and biblical theology. His books reflect these interests. He is the author of Both Judge and Justifier: Biblical Legal Language and the Act of Justifying in Paul (2018), The Apostle Paul and His Letters: An Introduction (2021), and a forthcoming volume on Paul’s theology of justification and salvation called A Pauline Theology of Justification: Forgiveness, Friendship, and Life with God (2023). Reflecting interests in interpretation and biblical theology, he is currently finishing a biblical theology of confession and repentance for Baker Academic, and editing a collection of essays forthcoming with Eerdmans entitled The Future of Catholic Biblical Interpretation: Lagrange and Beyond. As always, this episode is brought to you by Biblingo, the premier solution for learning, maintaining, and enjoying the biblical languages. Visit biblingo.org to learn more and start your 10-day free trial. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast app and leave us a review. You can also follow Biblingo on social media @biblingoapp to discuss the episode with us and other listeners. Show notes available at: https://biblingo.org/blog/the-meaning-of-δικαιόω-justify-in-paul-with-james-prothro/

Almost every verse in Romans is hotly debated, but Romans 1:17 is one of the few where just about every word is contested. The phrase ‘righteousness of God’ has, of course, received a lot of airtime. Then there is the very condense ἐκ πίστεως εἰς πίστιν, usually woodenly translated ‘from faith for faith’ (ESV) or opaquely translated ‘by faith from first to last’ (NIV). These translations can be quite puzzling even for native speakers of English. What exactly would mean for the righteousness of God to be revealed ‘from faith for faith’ or ‘by faith from first to last’? And how is that connected to the quote from Habakkuk 2:4?  In this video, Dr. Kevin Grasso suggests a different understanding of the noun πίστις in this verse - one that makes sense of both the odd phrase ἐκ πίστεως εἰς πίστιν and the Habakkuk quote.  This is a bonus episode for our series on Key Terms in Pauline Theology. In this episode, Kevin dives into Romans 1:17 to show how the Greek can help us better understand how these terms relate, and ultimately better understand the text.  Go to biblingo.org/podcast to learn more and subscribe to the Biblical Languages Podcast. Teresa Morgan's "Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churches": https://global.oup.com/academic/product/roman-faith-and-christian-faith-9780198724148 Kevin Grasso's "A Linguistic Analysis of πίστις χριστοῦ: The Case for the Third View": https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0142064X20949385 The Meaning of πίστις (faith) in Paul with Teresa Morgan: https://youtu.be/fL227P1dD8w The Jesus-Christ-Faith: Galatians 3:22 and The Pistis Christou Debate: https://youtu.be/IfuX5fG1hB0

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso talks with Dr. Teresa Morgan about the meaning of πίστις (faith, trust, faithfulness, allegience, etc.) in Paul. Teresa Morgan studied Classics at Cambridge, Theology at Oxford, and violin and viola in Cologne and London. After many years teaching Greek and Roman history at Oxford University, she has just taken up the McDonald Agape Professorship in New Testament and Early Christianity at Yale Divinity School. Her writing crosses the borders between ancient history, New Testament and early Christian studies and theology, and she is currently nearing the end of a four-volume project on the history of early Christian faith and its theological implications for today. As always, this episode is brought to you by Biblingo, the premier solution for learning, maintaining, and enjoying the biblical languages. Visit biblingo.org to learn more and start your 10-day free trial. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast app and leave us a review. You can also follow Biblingo on social media @biblingoapp to discuss the episode with us and other listeners. Show notes available at: https://biblingo.org/blog/the-meaning-of-πίστις-faith-in-paul-with-teresa-morgan/

Galatians 3:22 in Greek reads: ἀλλὰ συνέκλεισεν ἡ γραφὴ τὰ πάντα ὑπὸ ἁμαρτίαν, ἵνα ἡ ἐπαγγελία ἐκ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ δοθῇ τοῖς πιστεύουσιν. We can translate this as 'But the Scriptures shut up everything under sin, so that the promise from πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ might be given to those who are faithful.' The only phrase left untranslated in this sentence has led to a tremendous amount of scholarly sparring, which I myself have taken part in. It is the phrase ἐκ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, and the debate is called "the Pistis Christou debate". It centers around how to understand the relationship between the words 'pistis,' usually translated 'faith' or 'faithfulness,' and 'Jesus Christ.' Most translations translate this as 'faith in Jesus Christ.' This is called the objective genitive position. A significant portion of the scholarly world thinks it should be translated 'faithfulness of Jesus Christ.' This is called the subjective genitive position. Here, Dr. Kevin Grasso argues for a third view, translating the phrase as 'the Jesus-Christ-faith,' where it is the faith or message about Jesus the Christ that is being referred to. This is a bonus episode for our series on Key Terms in Pauline Theology. In this episode, Kevin dives into Galatians 3:22 to show how the Greek can help us better understand how these terms relate, and ultimately better understand the text.  Go to biblingo.org/podcast to learn more and subscribe to the Biblical Languages Podcast. For a longer, more scholarly treatment of this topic, please see Dr. Kevin Grasso's journal article "A Linguistic Analysis of πίστις χριστοῦ: The Case for the Third View" available for free here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0142064X20949385

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Dr. Kevin Grasso talks with Dr. Matthew Novenson about the meaning of Χριστός (Christ or Messiah) in Paul. Matthew Novenson is Senior Lecturer in New Testament and Director of the Centre for the Study of Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh. A scholar of religion in antiquity, in particular Judaism and Christianity, he is the author of Christ among the Messiahs (2012), The Grammar of Messianism (2017), and Paul, Then and Now (2022), among other studies. Kevin and Matthew discuss topics like: How linguistics and word analysis help us understand what Paul means by Χριστός What has been the historical interpretation of Χριστός in Paul? In what ways can previous scholarly consensus on the meaning of Χριστός be challenged? What is the predominant meaning of Χριστός in Paul? As always, this episode is brought to you by Biblingo, the premier solution for learning, maintaining, and enjoying the biblical languages. Visit biblingo.org to learn more and start your 10-day free trial. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast app and leave us a review. You can also follow Biblingo on social media @biblingoapp to discuss the episode with us and other listeners. Show notes available at: https://biblingo.org/blog/the-meaning-of-χριστός-christ-in-paul-with-matthew-novenson/

This is a bonus episode for our series on Key Terms in Pauline Theology. As we release the main episodes for this series where we interview top scholars in the field regarding their research on key terms, we're also going to release these shorter episodes where we dive into a specific biblical text that deals with that term. So in our previous episode, Kevin interviewed Joshua Jipp about the term Χριστός, or Messiah, and how it relates to other terms, such as νόμος, or Torah. In this episode, Kevin dives into Romans 10:4 to show how the Greek can help us better understand how these terms relate, and ultimately better understand the text.

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso talks with Dr. Joshua Jipp about the significance of Jesus as Messiah in Pauline Theology. Dr. Jipp has taught New Testament in a variety of settings, including as a Teaching Fellow at TEDS, before joining the faculty at Trinity. He has published essays in Themelios, Journal of Theological Interpretation, Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Bulletin of Biblical Research, New Testament Studies, Horizons in Biblical Theology, Journal of Biblical Literature, and Journal of Theological Studies. He loves reading novels, playing all kinds of sports (esp. baseball) with his kids, being outdoors, listening to music, and having great conversations with his wife. Kevin and Josh discuss a variety of questions, such as: How do we decide what terms are central to a Paul's letters, or any given corpus? How has recent scholarship changed our understanding of Χριστός ("Messiah")? If Jesus is the messiah, how does that affect Paul’s understanding of our response to him, specifically as it relates to πίστις ("faith")? Given Jesus as Messiah, how does that affect Paul’s understanding of νόμος ("the Torah")? How does the Messiah’s coming change the identity of Ἰσραήλ (“Israel”)? As always, this episode is brought to you by Biblingo, the premier solution for learning, maintaining, and enjoying the biblical languages. Visit biblingo.org to learn more and start your 10-day free trial. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast app and leave us a review. You can also follow Biblingo on social media @biblingoapp to discuss the episode with us and other listeners. Show notes available at: https://biblingo.org/blog/the-significance-of-jesus-as-messiah-with-joshua-jipp/