This blog consists of a book I wrote several years ago about (spoiler!) Scripture, science, and the age of the universe. The blog address is simply the acronym of the title dot-blogspot-dot-com. I’ve never tried to publish it since I really wrote it for myself; I find that writing things out, then reviewing and rewriting, helps me sort out my thoughts on a subject.
The majority of it was written in a two-week period in May and June of 2001. After that, I continued to add to, subtract from, and fine-tune it for a few years. I added an entire section assessing some of the proposed scientific evidences for a young earth and universe, but then decided not to include it, as it goes beyond my intended scope and area of expertise (of course, I didn’t come to this realization until after I had written it). There are plenty of important books that go unmentioned, as after several years of writing it, I became preoccupied with other studies. My views have changed a bit in the last few years, and I depended too much on particular authors when I wrote this, but I think it still has some value.
The references in the notes at the bottom of each chapter include the author’s name, year of publication (or title in some cases), and page numbers where appropriate. The full details are in the Bibliography. At one point, I lost most of the references and had to re-look them all up. I got most of them, but unfortunately there are still a few empty footnotes. I’ll try to fill in the blanks when I can. All Internet links, most of which are in the Bibliography, were valid as of May 2009. Unless otherwise noted, Bible quotes are from the New International Version. The following abbreviations are used:
BDB: Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon.
DBI: Leland Ryken, et al. (1998), gen. eds. Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1998).
GHCL: Gesenius’ Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, Samuel Tregelles, trans. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1950).
NEDOT: Merrill F. Unger and William White, Jr., Nelson’s Expository Dictionary of the Old Testament (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1980).
OTWS: William Wilson, Old Testament Word Studies (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1978).
TDOT: G. Johannes Botterweck, Helmer Ringgren, and Heinz-Josef Fabry, Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990).
TLOT: Ernst Jenni and Claus Westermann, Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament, Mark E. Biddle, trans. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1997).
TWOT: R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody, 1980).
Some article titles or quotations include Hebrew and/or Greek terms. Since I don’t know how to use Hebrew and Greek fonts in blogger, I have simply replaced the terms with a transliteration in brackets.
I don’t know if blogs can be dedicated, but I’m going to do it anyway. This blog/book is dedicated to my wife.