When I first started this blog, I was not quite sure which direction it was going to take. Initially I just wanted a place to write about what I was thinking and reading with no particular focus. However, I’ve noticed that the posts on this blog have had a certain focus and that the title “Just Thinking” was too generic. For this reason, I decided to rename my blog “Ancient Wisdom Today.” Hopefully this is going to capture the spirit of the posts I have written and intend to write.

Although “Ancient Wisdom” can be understood broadly, here I am thinking specifically of the Judeo-Christian Ancient Wisdom which revolves around Israel’s writings and their interpreters, the person of Jesus Christ and the writings of His followers. I could have called it “Biblical Wisdom,” but I wanted the scope to be a bit broader as I am also interested in the wisdom (or even lack thereof) of extra-biblical materials.

The “Today” part seeks to emphasize the fact that I believe this “Ancient Wisdom” should not be studied for its own sake, but that it has something to say to people in our age. But it also means that if we are going to talk about that kind of wisdom today, we must engage with the people of the past and the present. In other words, how are we, 21st century Christians, to appropriate words that were written thousands of years ago? That’s where hermeneutics, the confessions and biblical scholarship come in.

Since I was changing the name of the blog, I thought I might as well change the look. For those who may be curious about the banner, here is some background. The first painting to the left is John and Mark discussing their writings. This was painted by Bernardo Strozzi and I first saw it on the cover of McGowan’s book The Divine Authenticity of Scripture. The next painting is Aaron and Hur supporting Mose’s hands while Joshua was leading the fight against the Amalekites (Ex. 17:10-12). And the last one is Daniel in the lion’s den. All images were chosen for their metaphorical possibilities, and I will let you guess what they might be as you read my blog.

The Hebrew text below the banner is Ecclesiastes 12:13. To understand why I chose this text, read Qohelet and the Human Experience.