Benjamin L. Merkle and Rober L. Plummer, Greek Word Studies for Everyone: An Easy Guide to Serious Study of the Bible. Brentwood, TN: B&H Academic, 2025.

This book is basic, but its topics are very important.

For those who have some Greek, the greatest temptation is to think that they have the key to unlock the secrets of the Bible. Knowing some Greek may help in understanding more of the biblical message, but it can be dangerous, too. Just like AI, knowledge about Greek should be handled with care. One should be aware of its usage, how to use it, and its limitations.

Chapter 2, “Word Studies can be Dangerous,” is a must-read especially nowadays, when you can find decent websites that give you basic information about any given Greek word in the Bible. Suppose one word has ten meanings; it does not mean that all meanings are there when the word is used in a particular passage in the Bible. Context determines the reading. Context means more than literary context. It also means the time frame of the passage, because we all know languages change, and Greek is no exception.

Chapter 7 proposes a template for word study, which should be helpful when one has some knowledge of Greek and access to basic tools, etc.

Case studies, such as agape vs. phileo, and examples like those in Comos and James 1:5 on prayer, are very helpful. The tools recommended are up-to-date. The methods and processes are sound and standard.

All in all, Greek is a tool. If it makes one feel pride and judgmental, it brings more harm than good. Liars who know Greek and lead people away from faith should be judged severely by God.

Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1948.

My mentor and friend introduced Merton to me a long time ago. However, I began reading his books only months ago.

The Seven Storey Mountain was Merton’s autobiography. The title of the “Seven Storey Mountain” may come from Dante Alighieri’s Purgatorio, where each terrace corresponds to one of the seven deadly sins. (Probably not from the Seven Mountains of Revelation 17, and definitely not from the so-called Seven Mountains Mandate.) Merton recalled the idea of getting baptized and said: “I was about to set foot on the shore at the foot of the high, seven-circled mountain of a Purgatory steeper and more arduous than I was able to imagine, and I was not at all aware of the climbing I was about to have to do.” (p. 221) The book ended when he was formally accepted into the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance as a Trappist monk. Merton’s father was an artist from Christchurch, New Zealand. His mother went to the Quakers. His mother died when he was very young. And his father was painting everywhere and often was not home. He did bring him along from time to time, so he was educated in France and in England. Somehow, he was sensitive to desolation, emptiness, and abandonment. He was educated at the University of Cambridge and Columbia University. I guess his conversion to the Catholic faith draws the attention of many readers, including me. How on earth did someone who could live well in the secular world give up all and become a monk? That’s the interesting part. Merton’s later life was somewhat controversial, especially his embracing Eastern religions, but this is not included in this book.

He read the Bible in Latin. It was the interior peace that he found in the Bible and the holy places that drew him into Catholicism. However, he was interested in mysticism and Eastern mysticism. His definition of mystical life is “the life of sanctifying grace and the infused theological virtues and the gifts of the Holy Ghost­.” (p. 229) But he had a high view of the Scriptures: “God often talks to us directly in Scripture. That is, He plants the words full of actual graces as we read them, and sudden undiscovered meanings are sown in our hearts, if we attend to them, reading with minds that are at prayer.” (pp. 293–94)

He lived a contemplative life. “First comes the active life (practice of virtues, mortification, char­ity) which prepares us for contemplation. Contemplation means rest, suspension of activity, withdrawal into the mysterious interior solitude in which the soul is absorbed in the immense and fruitful silence of God and learns something of the secret of His perfections less by seeing than by fruitive love. Yet to stop here would be to fall short of perfection. According to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, it is the comparatively weak soul that arrives at contemplation but does not overflow with a love that must communicate what it knows of God to other men.” (p. 415)

He had a very high view of St. Thérèse of Lisieux: “She kept everything that was bourgeois about her and was still not incompatible with her vocation… [she was] the greatest saint there has been in the Church for three hundred years–even greater, in some respects, than the two tremendous reformers of her Order, St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila.” (355–56)

Merton is famous for his writings on spirituality and interfaith dialogue. I am not a big fan of interreligious dialogue, because there are fundamental differences between religions that will never be settled. For example, does a Creator exist? A Zen Buddhist and a Christian will disagree with one another. I think, but I am not so sure now.

As to spirituality, it is more than feeling good in the nature. True spirituality must be seen in how one views God, his life, his family and friends, and the world. Nature, contemplative life, and life in a monastery may shape one’s spirituality. However, at the end of the day, spirituality is not just between you and God.

Nijay K. Gupta, A Beginner’s Guide to New Testament Studies. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2020.

Gupta selected 13 topics in New Testament Studies and outlined different scholarly opinions on each topic. He is even-handed and gives some points for thoughts as concluding remarks on each topic. The topics are:

1. The Synoptic Problem
2. The Historical Jesus
3. The Fourth Gospel and History
4. Jesus and Paul
5. Paul’s Theological Perspective
6. Paul and the Jewish Law
7. Interpreting the Book of Revelation
8. Pseudonymity and the New Testament Letters
9. The New Testament and the Roman Empire
10. Women in Leadership in the New Testament
11. Justification by Faith and Judgment according to Works
12. The Old Testament in the New Testament
13. The Application and Use of Scripture

This book is helpful for those who want to read about the history of interpretation on a specific topic and highlight the key differences between various views of interpretation. Gupta also provides a suggested reading list, which categorizes significant books on the subject into beginner, different perspectives, and advanced levels.

All essays are helpful; I am particularly interested in the topics of Pseudonymity and the New Testament Letters, and The Application and Use of Scripture. If I could use one word to describe the book, it would be “complicated.” When one says “the Bible says,” he had better qualify his words. But on the other hand, it makes biblical studies an interesting discipline. Can I find a good topic for a PhD? This is the question.

I have The Interpretation of the New Testament 1861-1986 by Stephen Neill and Tom Wright. Now this book is dated. But as a history of interpretation, it should still be readable.