What Makes One A True Philosopher?

 “Now if wisdom is identical with God, by whom all things were made, as we are assured by divine authority and divine truth, then the true philosopher is the lover of God.” Augustine, The City of God, 8.1

New Video on Jesus’s Second Coming Predictions and the “Delay of the Parousia”

I recently gave a two-hour presentation on Than Christopoulos’s YouTube channel, Exploring Reality, about the objection that Jesus falsely predicted the timing of his Second Coming and that the early church had to cope with the “delay” of his return.  You can find it here. I cover some material that I’ve written about on here (see here, here, and here) but I cover lots of new information as well. 

Numbering the Psalms in the Septuagint

This will be an informational post. When reading academic literature, it is common to see references to the Psalms given twice. For example, in his commentary on 1 Peter, Craig Keener cites "LXX Psalm 33:9 (ET Ps. 34:8)" (126). "LXX" here refers to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, and "ET" refers to the English translation, derived directly from the Hebrew Masoretic text. So what is the difference between these two numbering systems?

Psalms 1-8 and 148-150 are numbered the same in each system. Psalms 9 and 10 are combined as Psalm 9 in the LXX. This conflation means that Psalms 10-112 in the LXX are each shifted forward one, covering ET Psalms 11-113. Thus, Psalm 33 in the LXX is Psalm 34 in the ET. At this point the divisions get more complicated. ET Psalms 114 and 115 are conflated in the LXX as Psalm 113. The first nine verses of ET Psalm 116 form LXX Psalm 114 and the final ten verses form LXX Psalm 115. ET Psalms 117-146 appear in the LXX as Psalms 116-145, resuming the familiar pattern of being one chapter ahead. The first eleven verses of ET Psalm 147 form LXX Psalm 146, and the final nine verses form LXX Psalm 147. The chapter numbers now aligned, Psalms 148-150 are the same.

These differences can be visualized in the following table:

ET Psalms 1-8 -> LXX Psalms 1-8
ET Psalms 9-10 -> LXX Psalm 9
ET Psalms 11-113 -> LXX Psalms 10-112
ET Psalms 114-115 -> LXX Psalms 113
ET Psalm 116:1-9 -> LXX Psalm 114
ET Psalm 116:10-19 -> LXX Psalm 115
ET Psalms 117-146 -> LXX Psalms 116-145
ET Psalm 147:1-11 -> LXX Psalm 146
ET Psalm 147:12-20 -> LXX Psalm 147
ET Psalms 148-150 -> LXX Psalms 148-150

There is scholarly debate as to which numerations are correct. For example, Psalms 9 and 10 appear to be a Hebrew acrostic poem that is best read as one continuous psalm. On the other hand, LXX Psalms 146-147 are often argued to be one poem, correctly captured in the ET as Psalm 147. One might also notice a difference in verse numbers. This is partially due to dispute over whether to count the title of the Psalm as a verse or rather to start the numbering with the actual text of the psalm. 

When citing the psalms, a single unlabelled reference will usually be taken to mean a reference to the English text. Usually, that will be sufficient, though more scholarly work may call for the double reference.

Andrew Loke's New Youtube Series

 Christian philosopher and theologian Andrew Loke is starting a series on YouTube called "What's wrong with the skeptics' arguments." Andrew Loke is one of the best apologists out right now, so his channel is well worth checking out. 

Bibliography For Exploring Reality's Resurrection Stream

 A few months ago, some of the staff here at ThinkChristianTheism participated in a live stream presenting a case for the resurrection of Jesus. There have been a lot of technical issues that involve posting some of the sources we cited. Given that, I thought I would just post them here. Some of the titles mentioned below are papers, so if you don't have access to them and would like to, don't hesitate to comment or email me. I also may have missed some material, so feel free to ask about that as well! 

• Richard Swinburne, The Resurrection of God Incarnate 
• NT Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God
• Caleb Jackson, Undead
• Dale Allison, Resurrecting Jesus
• __. The Resurrection of Jesus: Apologetics, Polemics, History 
• Craig Keener, Christobiography 
• Michael Licona, The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach 
• Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A Transdisciplinary Approach
• JD Atkins, The Doubt of the Apostles and the Resurrection Faith of the Early Church
• Christopher Bryan, The Resurrection of the Messiah 
• Sean McDowell, The Fate of the Apostles: Examining the Martyrdom Accounts of the Closest Followers of Jesus 
• All of the sources discussed for the burial (and some for the appearances) section of the stream are linked on my previous post.