Given that it has been quite some time since my last post (COVID, etc.), I thought I’d do a quick synopsis of the various things I’ve had the privilege of working on over the past 12 or so months (rather than doing individual posts for everything).
New Book
In the latter part of 2020, my most recent book came out, entitled Is Jesus Truly God? How the Bible Teaches the Divinity of Christ. This was my first full-length project with Crossway, and it was a joy to work with Justin Taylor, David Barshinger, and several others on their team.
This book aims to distill the major work done on early “high” Christology over the past two decades or so into a form that is accessible to laypersons. There has been a lot of great scholarship by Richard Bauckham, Larry Hurtado, Richard Hays, Simon Gathercole, Chris Tilling, and numerous others on how the NT–contrary to many critical scholars’ opinions–conveys the full divinity of Jesus. It was not a later invention. However, most of this solid work has circulated mainly in journals and academic monographs.
Thus, this book is an attempt to convey all this information in a way that is accessible to laypersons. The answer to the question posed in the title is, of course, “Yes.” But the real point of the book is to teach regular churchgoers how the Bible reveals the deity of Christ. Here’s a glimpse at the table of contents, which shows the 6 lines of argumentation I pursue.
The book was endorsed by Scott Swain, Aimee Byrd, Bobby Jamieson, and Fred Sanders.
Journal articles and essays
Here’s a quick summary of shorter academic writings that appeared in 2020.
- “The Critical Editions of the Greek NT and OT: Stability, Change, and Implications,” Tyndale Bulletin 71 (2020).
- In this article I analyze the degree of change between older editions of the Greek OT and Greek NT and more recent editions, as a litmus test for the overall stability of both texts.
- “You Shall Observe His Heel’: On the Use of Τηρέω in Greek Genesis 3:15b,” Journal of Septuagint and Cognate Studies 52 (2019).
- Though technically a part of the 2019 issue, this didn’t appear in print until mid-2020. In it I trace how the violent conflict between the woman’s “seed” and the serpent’s “seed” was translated in Jewish and Christian circles.
- “Covenant in Johannine Epistles and Revelation,” in An Introduction to Covenant Theology. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021.
- This piece is part of the new collaborative RTS volume (edited by Waters, Reid, and Muether) on Covenant Theology. My chapter traces covenantal themes in the book of Revelation (mainly) and 1, 2, and 3 John.
- “Exploring the Paratextual Features of Minuscules: GA 1424 as a Case Study.” NT Canon, Textual Criticism, and Apocryphal Literature Section, Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, 18 November 2020.
- Though ETS was hosted strictly via Zoom in 2020, it was great to be able to participate that way. I shared my research on a fascinating manuscript of the NT (minuscule 1424). The formal version of this research (with sweet pictures of the manuscript) will appear in an edited volume with Brill in a few weeks.
Blogs, podcasts, etc.
Here are a handful of shorter writings on various topics (largely Christology, given the new book, but some other topics as well) that appeared at TGC or other venues in late 2019 and 2020.
- Is Jesus Truly God? Mortification of Spin
- Does the Virgin Birth Really Matter? Desiring God
- Why Don’t the NT Authors Explain the Trinity? TGC
- How Should the Preexistence of Christ Shape How We Preach the Old Testament? 9Marks
- What English Bible Translation Should I Use? RTS Wisdom Wednesday
- 10 Things You Should Know About Early Christology, Crossway
- Why Did Jesus Command Others to be Silent About Him? TGC
- Resurrected Saints and the Matthew’s Weirdest Passage, TGC
- The Parable of the Good Shepherd, Tabletalk Magazine
- Early High Christology and the Legacy of Larry Hurtado, TGC
Upcoming in 2021
I have three books coming out in 2021…
- An edited volume on textual criticism (to be announced soon)
- Corpus Christologicum: Texts and Translations for the Study of Jewish Messianism and Early Christology (Hendrickson).
- This book has been a labor of (mostly) love since at least 2015. It’s large, very technical, and hopefully beneficial long-term. It is endorsed by Richard Bauckham, Michael Bird, John Collins, Craig Evans, Simon Gathercole, Nijay Gupta, Matthew Novenson, James VanderKam, and Chris Tilling — all of whom I look up to greatly for their work.
- The Septuagint: What It Is and Why It Matters (Crossway), co-authored with Will Ross.
- This book aims to be a short introduction to the Greek OT (that is more accessible than the standard work by Jobes/Silva), with 7 chapters covering how it came about, why it matters for studying the NT and OT, and how modern Christians should think about it’s authority. It was great to work on another project with Will (this is our 3rd — a 4th is underway).
I also have an article on the use of the OT-in-the-NT coming out with JSNT, an introduction to Christology in the Gospels that will appear in Primer, and a few other shorter works in process. My main project I’m actively working on for 2021 is a commentary on Luke’s Gospel.
That’s pretty much it. If you want to take a look at any of the articles or presentations (that I cannot link directly to), contact me directly!
Greg Lanier 