• useful AI guideline (English) introduced and summarized by a Chinese article:

2026-08-12 基督教論壇報，編譯余友梅

教會使用AI須設界線　英國基督徒科技專家發布事工使用指南

 

AI Guidelines for Christian Ministry (The AI Christian Partnership & The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion) 

[Logos] 50% Off Word Biblical Commentary (till 25/8)

• my comments: note that there will be ongoing revisions in the coming years/decades (most notably, Jude, 2 Peter, Volume 50 by Richard Bauckham and Darian R. Lockett in 2027, Acts 9:43--28, Romans, Rev, 1 Pet). 
• two recent ones: Colossians by Clinton E. Arnold (Mar 11, 2025), Acts 1-9:42 by Steve Walton (Oct 29, 2024) and 1, 2, and 3 John by Stephen S. Smalley (2008) are NOT included.
• other revisions are included, like Daniel (2019) and 1 & 2 Thess (2023)

 

 50% Off 
Word Biblical Commentary

Hurry! Sale ends August 25 at 11:59 p.m. (PST). Plus an extra 5% off for subscribers.

 

Word Biblical Commentary | WBC: Old and New Testament (61 vols.)

by Duane L. Christensen; Frederic Bush; Ralph W. Klein; A. A. Anderson and 44 more

Publisher:Thomas Nelson; Word; Zondervan, 1983–2023

 

50% Off WBC 

Full Series

US$599.99 ($4,708.20 HKD) 

Regular price: $9,416.47 HKD 

Save $4,708.27 HKD (50%)

 

The Word Biblical Commentary delivers the best in biblical scholarship from the leading scholars of our day who share a commitment to Scripture as divine revelation. This series emphasizes a thorough analysis of textual, linguistic, structural, and theological evidence. The result is a judicious and balanced insight into the meanings of the text in the framework of biblical theology.

These widely acclaimed commentaries serve as exceptional resources for the professional theologian and instructor, the seminary or university student, the working minister, and everyone concerned with building theological understanding from a solid base of biblical scholarship. Contributors—all of whom rank among the leading Christian scholars of the English-speaking world—write authoritatively on the portions of Scripture in which they specialize. This collection also includes an enviable scholar’s array of Bible translations and Greek and Hebrew resources for in-depth research.

 

 

[Logos] Noteworthy books of the month (Aug)

•  Logos

A Cultural Handbook to the Bible

By: John J. Pilch

Many scholars take on the monumental task of interpreting the Bible in a way that deals with the cultural contexts of its original authors and audience. Others forget that studying the Bible is a type of cross-cultural encounter and instead read their own cultural assumptions into biblical texts. In A Cultural Handbook to the Bible, John Pilch bridges this cultural divide by translating important social concepts and applying them to biblical texts. In accessible chapters Pilch discusses 63 topics related to the cosmos, the earth, persons, family, language, human consciousness, God and the spirit world, and entertainment. Pilch’s fresh interpretations of the Bible challenge traditional views and explore topics often overlooked in commentaries. Each chapter concludes with a list of useful references from cultural anthropology or biblical studies, making this book an excellent resource for students of the Bible.

Save $243.03 HKD (100%)$30.99

$0.00 USD

($0.00 HKD)

 

• Verbum

 

The Church’s Mission in a Polarized World

Christians and other people of good will are longing for a response that can lead the way out of the divisiveness and vitriol of our times. I wrote this book to provide some assistance to readers to discern a way out of the toxicity in which we live, and to stimulate courage and hope, so that all people can see the age in which we live more clearly and respond with the grace necessary to follow more fully the call God has spoken—a missionary call to deepen Christ’s incarnational movement in our world.

Regular Price: $156.77 HKD

Save $156.77 HKD (100%)

Your Price: $0.00 HKD

ESV Bible Translation Update | Crossway (2025)

//Briefly summarized, the committee made text changes to 36 Scripture passages involving 42 verses, resulting in a total of 68 word changes. Given that there are nearly 757,400 words in the ESV, this represents a change of about one word per 11,000 words in the ESV text. In addition to the above text changes, a limited number of changes were made to 57 footnotes, and a few additional changes were also made to punctuation in 14 verses.//

ESV Text Edition: 2025
Complete List of Changes from 2016

 

Two Notable Changes

One notable revision in this update involves Genesis 3:16 and 4:7. The committee changed the ESV 2016 translation of the Hebrew preposition 'el from “contrary to” back to the original ESV 2001 translation “for” —which provides a more natural translation in continuity with the historic stream of formal equivalent English Bible translations (for example, the RSV, NASB, and NKJV), and which preserves the range of interpretive options in the Hebrew. The interpretive options can now be seen in the alternative renderings provided in the footnotes: “Or to, or toward, or against.” The conjunction “but” has been changed to “and” in Genesis 3:16 and 4:7 so as not to impose a contrast that is not explicit in the Hebrew text. As general editor for the ESV Bible, J. I. Packer (1926–2020) often reminded the committee, “We respect readers when we pass along to them the job of interpretive work, not going beyond what the linguistic details require and not foreclosing the interpretive options.”

Another notable update appears in John 1:18. “The only God” has been updated to “God the only Son,” with “God” corresponding to theos and “only Son” to monogenēs (as in John 1:14). This translation incorporates the concept of descent (which is an implication of monogenēs in context) and maintains concordance with the other occurrences of monogenēs in the New Testament. The idea of sonship is evoked by monogenēs in the context of “Father” in John 1:18 and 1:14. The rendering “only son” for monogenēs in several ancient translations of the New Testament for Luke 7:12, 8:42, and Hebrews 11:17 indicates the propriety of a similar rendering in the verses referring to the Son of God. The footnote for John 1:18 has also been revised to reflect more clearly the manuscript variations, including alternative renderings such as “the only God who” and “the only Son,” allowing readers to engage with the full textual tradition.

 

Diagram of Synoptic Relationships (David Pawson)

 

 https://www.davidpawson.com/synopticrelationshipdiagram/Synoptic_Relationships.pdf

NA29----Updates from the German Bible Society

Novum Testamentum Graece (Nestle-Aland 29th edition)---pls. wait until the end of 2026

excerpts from the German Bible Society:

		The Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece (NA) and the UBS Greek New Testament (UBS) are sister editions, with the Editio Critica Maior (ECM) serving as their "mother" (to continue the metaphor). While a new UBS edition, incorporating the research findings from the latest ECM volumes, has been published (UBS 6), we are still awaiting the publication of NA29. And there is good news here: all the data has now been processed, and typesetting of the edition is scheduled to begin within the next few days. The subsequent stages—typesetting, proofreading, corrections, and printing—will, however, still require several months. We hope that NA 29 will become available towards the end of the year. General information on the Nestle-Aland edition can be found on our website.

Zotero 9 is out now

 Download Zotero 9 now.

What's new to me: 

• Read aloud function---but it works on PDFs, EPUBs, and webpage snapshots only, not your notes and others. You can pause and skip to the next paragraph. This is not bad at all! 
• Using less memory