Podcast Biblingo

Deuteronomy 6:5 is typically translated, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength." But what does it really mean to love the Lord with your "heart"? The word translated "heart" here is לֵבָב, which is a word that does, in fact, refer to the organ that we call "heart". Here, the word i…

Deuteronomy 6:4 is quite possibly the most well-known verse in Israel today. It is often referred to as "the Shema" because of the first Hebrew word: שְׁמַע However, this verse is also notoriously difficult to understand, and consequently, translate. A lot of the difficulty centers on the Hebrew word אֶחָד, which often just refers to the number "on…

Matthew Thomas read through the entire Septuagint and New Testament in 2022. In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso interviews Matthew about his experience and why others should consider doing it. *Note: in the episode, we repeatedly reference reading through the Septuagint, when in fact, Thomas' experience was reading thro…

This is a recording of a live discussion and Q&A with Dr. Kevin Grasso about our series on Key Terms in Pauline Theology. Kevin offers a summary and synthesis of what was covered in the series, offers more of his own analyses of Greek terms and key texts, and answers questions from the live viewers. In this series, we interviewed expert guests on t…

Who is truly a "Jew" in Romans 2:28-29? Does Paul essentially redefine what it means to be Jewish? And what do ellipsis and constituent negation have to do with circumcision? In order to better understand and translate these verses, Dr. Kevin Grasso unpacks three key characteristics of biblical Greek syntax: ellipsis, negated constituents, and cont…

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso talks with Dr. Jason Staples about the meaning of Ισραήλ (Israel) in Paul. Jason Staples is Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at NC State University. He’s the author of two books, The Idea of Israel in Second Temple Judaism, published wi…

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 Gent…

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 Notr…

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 interpre…

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 paris…

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 …

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 Univ…

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 …

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 partic…

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 epis…

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 Theolog…

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso discusses how to analyze word order in biblical Greek and biblical Hebrew. Show notes at: https://biblingo.org/blog/how-to-analyze-word-order-in-the-biblical-languages/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso talks with Dr. Chiara Gianollo about the syntax of negation in biblical Greek. Show notes here: https://biblingo.org/blog/the-syntax-of-negation-in-biblical-greek-with-chiara-gianollo/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso discusses topic, focus and question words in biblical Greek, and how each of these affects word order. Show notes available here: https://biblingo.org/blog/topic-focus-and-questions-in-biblical-greek/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso discusses the basic word order of biblical Greek. Show notes: https://biblingo.org/blog/basic-word-order-in-biblical-greek/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Nick Messmer talks with Alan Cossey about his experience learning biblical Greek and Hebrew, including how he has managed to practice 30 minutes nearly every day for 2 years. Show notes at: https://biblingo.org/practicing-the-biblical-languages-30-minutes-every-day-with-alan-cossey…

This episode is a recording of a livestream event hosted by the Ancient Language Institute. They invited Nick Messmer, co-founder of Biblingo and co-host of the Biblical Languages Podcast, to be a part of their roundtable discussion about how to learn ancient languages, specifically in light of modern second language acquisition research. The conve…

This episode is a recording of a livestream event hosted by the Ancient Language Institute. They invited Nick Messmer, co-founder of Biblingo and co-host of the Biblical Languages Podcast, to be a part of their roundtable discussion about how to learn ancient languages, specifically in light of modern second language acquisition research. The conve…

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso and Nick Messmer discuss the VS vs. SV debate in biblical Hebrew. Show notes at: biblingo.org/blog/the-vs-sv-debate-in-biblical-hebrew

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Nick Messmer talks with Teresa Kovac about her experience learning biblical Hebrew, including self-studying to pass a Hebrew competency exam and place out of first semester Hebrew. Show notes at: https://biblingo.org/blog/how-to-pass-a-hebrew-or-greek-competency-exam-with-teresa-kovac/…

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso talks with Dr. Daniel Wilson about some special clauses in biblical Hebrew: copula clauses and existential clauses. Show notes available at: https://biblingo.org/blog/copula-and-existential-clauses-in-biblical-hebrew/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso talks with Dr. Vince DeCaen about basic word order in biblical Hebrew. Show notes at biblingo.org/blog/basic-word-order-in-biblical-hebrew

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso talks with Dr. Paul Kroeger about the basics of word order. Find show notes at: https://biblingo.org/blog/introduction-to-word-order/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso shares core concepts that are essential for doing the task of pragmatics. Find show notes and a full blog post at: https://biblingo.org/blog/basic-pragmatics-concepts/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso shares core concepts that are essential for doing the task of syntax. Find show notes and a full blog post at: https://biblingo.org/blog/basic-syntax-concepts/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso shares core concepts that are essential for understanding morphology. Find show notes and a full blog post at: https://biblingo.org/blog/basic-morphology-concepts/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso shares six core concepts that are essential for doing the task of semantics. Find show notes and a full blog post at: https://biblingo.org/blog/basic-semantic-concepts/

In this episode, we share some personal updates from Nick and Kevin, as well as what we have planned for the podcast for the rest of 2022. Show notes: Kevin's dissertation: "Verbs of Judgment in Biblical Hebrew. A Lexical Semantic Analysis" (free download) Sign up for Biblingo's monthly newsletter

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso and Nick Messmer discuss the role of exegesis in studying biblical Greek and Hebrew, and how different pedagogical approaches do or do not prepare us for exegesis. Find show notes at: https://biblingo.org/blog/do-we-really-need-exegesis/ Get 30% off Biblingo through December 31, 2021. …

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso and Nick Messmer discuss the role of the biblical text in learning biblical Greek and Hebrew, and why you shouldn't get into it too soon. Find show notes at: https://biblingo.org/blog/the-role-of-the-biblical-text-in-language-learning/ Get 30% off Biblingo through December 31, 2021. Le…

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso and Nick Messmer discuss how to group biblical Hebrew verbs into classes and why that matters for our understanding of those verbs and the language as a whole. Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/biblical-hebrew-verb-classes-and-alternations/…

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso and Nick Messmer discuss the concept of deponency in Greek studies. Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/who-killed-deponency/

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Nick Messmer is joined by Esdras Oliveira Borges, Timothy Hughes, and Dan Olinger from Bob Jones University to discuss their recent Greek curriculum refresh. Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/how-to-refresh-your-greek-curriculum-with-bob-jones-university/…

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso and Nick Messmer discuss the how to do lexical semantics to determine the meaning of biblical Greek words by looking at specific examples. Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/how-to-know-what-biblical-hebrew-words-mean/ Register for our Linguist Lab on "How to do Lexical Seman…

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso and Nick Messmer discuss the importance of data, common fallacies, and objections to lexical semantics. Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/data-fallacies-and-objections-lexical-semantics/ Register for our Linguist Lab on "How to do Lexical Semantics" at https://biblingo.typef…

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso and Nick Messmer discuss how to do lexical semantics to determine the meaning of biblical Greek words by looking at specific examples. Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/how-to-know-what-biblical-greek-words-mean/ Register for our Linguist Lab on "How to do Lexical Semantics"…

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso interviews Keren Dubnov on the semantics of locative verbs in biblical Hebrew. Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/biblical-hebrew-word-study-with-keren-dubnov/ Register for our Linguist Lab on "How to do Lexical Semantics" at https://biblingo.typeform.com/linguist-lab…

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso talks with Nijay Gupta about his work on the Greek word πίστις. Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/biblical-greek-word-study-with-nijay-gupta/ Register for our Linguist Lab on "How to do Lexical Semantics" at https://biblingo.typeform.com/linguist-lab…

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso and Reinier de Blois discuss Biblical Hebrew Lexicography. Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/biblical-hebrew-lexicography-with-reinier-de-blois/ Register for our Linguist Lab on "How to do Lexical Semantics" at https://biblingo.typeform.com/linguist-lab…

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso and William Ross discuss Greek and Septuagint Lexicography. Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/greek-and-septuagint-lexicography-with-william-ross/ Register for our Linguist Lab on Lexical Semantics at https://biblingo.typeform.com/linguist-lab…

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso and Malka Rappaport Hovav discuss the foundations of lexical semantics. Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/foundations-of-lexical-semantics-with-malka-rappaport-hovav

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso and Nick Messmer discuss the key methods and outcomes of biblical language pedagogy and how to move forward as a field. Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/the-future-of-biblical-language-pedagogy Register for our webinar "How to Enhance your Biblical Language Program with Bib…

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin Grasso interviews Rob Plummer about current trends in biblical language pedagogy, Greek and Hebrew "apostasy", the living language approach, and resources like Beginning with New Testament Greek, Going Deeper with New Testament Greek, Daily Dose of Greek, and the Greek and Hebrew for Life Con…

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin interviews David Miller, author of "Greek Pedagogy in Crisis", about his doctoral research concerning the Grammar-Translation Method for teaching the biblical languages. Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/biblical-language-pedagogy-in-crisis-with-david-miller Register for our webina…

In this episode of the Biblical Languages Podcast, Kevin interviews Christophe Rico about total language immersion, dynamic language development, and speaking the biblical languages. These and other methods are incorporated into the Polis Method at the Polis Institute of Jerusalem. Find show notes at https://biblingo.org/blog/speaking-the-biblical-…