Over the past few months, I have been busy conducting several Christian education seminars in a number of churches. A few things amazed and surprised me.

First of all, the response to these seminars had been overwhelming. For example, more than 200 people filled the hall at the Klang Chinese Methodist Church for the session on the the History of the Bible held on March 6, 2019.

Secondly, there is great hunger in wanting to delve into reading the Bible. There were many great questions raised in all the sessions, and some of them I do not even have any answer. Through these questions, I was able to reflect further and think through many issues as well.

Finally, the level of commitment shown by those who came for the classes is very commendable. I taught a consecutive 5-nightly sessions from 730-1030pm in early April at Sidang Injil Borneo Kuala Lumpur. About 90 people signed up for the class and they braved the massive traffic jam to the classes every night after a long day at work. This level of dedication brought much encouragement to me.

Below are some photographs taken at some of the sessions I taught over the past couple of months.

Image: Associated Press. The newly renovated library

After 3 years of renovations, the ancient library of St Catherine Monastery located at Sinai has reopened its doors to the public. This is good news indeed as the library houses the world's second largest collection of early codices and manuscripts. It is claimed that the collection of ancient manuscripts at St Catherine Monastery is  outnumbered only by the Vatican Library! 

One of the highlights of the collection is Codex Sinaiticus, the earliest complete New Testament dated back to the 4th Century. 

​I hope to visit St Catherine Monastery again in the future!

A new Greek New Testament produced at Tyndale House, Cambridge, has finally been published by Crossway. A labour or more than 10 years, this edition of New Testament Greek "seeks to make a distinctive contribution by providing a text of the Greek New Testament that is based on the most recent scholarship and is rooted in the earliest manuscript witnesses, dating primarily from the fourth and fifth centuries and earlier." Edited by Dr. Dirk Jongkind (St. Edmund's College, University of Cambridge) and Dr. Peter Williams (Tyndale House, Cambridge) and their team of scholars, they adopt a philological approach to reevaluating the manuscripts available by reexamining spelling and paragraph decisions, and scribal habits to inform editorial decisions.

Why is there a need for another Greek New Testament? Aren't the NA-28 and SBL Greek New Testament sufficient for scholarly work? Click on this link to find out why there is yet a need for this edition. 
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The good news is that this edition of Greek New Testament published by Tyndale House is not only available in the print edition but also available FREELY FOR EVERYONE digitally. Click on this link to start reading the Greek text immediately. There are a number of options of reading this text - in Greek, in original language interlinear, and in reverse English interlinear. 

There is no reason not to read the Bible in its original language and the Greek New Testament published by Tyndale House is a welcome addition to the tools already available for students and scholars.  

P46 is one of the oldest manuscripts of the New Testament written on papyrus containing the letters of Paul we have today. Dated to approximately 200CE, these leaves are now held in Chester Beatty Library in Dublin and University of Michigan.

For those of you who are interested to find out more on this very important manuscript, Peggy Daub, Curator of the Hatcher Graduate Library, takes us through a brief but informative journey on discovering this collection.

The link to the video can be found by clicking here. 

P46 has now been digitalised, and can be viewed online. There is even an app (called PictureIt:Ep by the University of Michigan at App Store) that you could download to view the manuscripts in your devices such as iPad and iPhone. Check out this clip for the cool features of the app. Now you can read (and almost touch) the earliest collection of the letters of Paul we have today!