4th century synagogue, Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee

I will be conducting a short course on Archaeology and the New Testament as part of the Christian Education and Development programme for Petaling Jaya Evangelical Free Church.

This seminar, together with visual presentation, invites you to take an unforgettable journey to various archaeological sites and examine various inscriptions, numismatics, and other artifacts related to the New Testament. We will investigate the connection between archaeological evidence and the New Testament and how an understanding of the cultural and historical background of the 1st century can help us understand the Scripture better. For example: What was the significance of the city of Caesarea Philippi in which Jesus asked his disciples the crucial question of who he was? How would our understanding of the typical layout of a Roman house help us understand the problems and abuse of the Lord’s Supper in 1 Cor 11:17-34? What did archaeological evidence reveal about the city of Laodicea and the letter to this church in Rev 3:14-22?

There will also be practical sessions of how we could appropriately apply what we have learned in reading selected passages in the New Testament.

So, come and see, feel, and walk with Jesus in Galilee and Paul in the Mediterranean cities.
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Date: January 16 & 30, 2016 
Time: 9.30am-12.30pm
Venue: Petaling Jaya Evangelical Free Church, Petaling Jaya.

For the first session on January 16, I will touch on Archaeology and the Ministry of Jesus while the next session on January 30, I will be covering Archaeology and the Ministry of Paul to the Gentiles.
 
For registration, please contact Petaling Jaya Evangelical Free Church by clicking here, or contact Pastor Melissa Chan (Tel: 03-7957 4341). There is a registration fee.

Over a period of 5 evenings from June 29-July 3, about 40 leaders from SIBKL attended my lecture on NT Survey, which was one of the courses offered through the church's SOLID (School of Leadership Interning Disciples) leadership training proagramme. This was my second time teaching this course for the church (the first time was in 2013). It was a real privilege for me to be part of the team in training and discipling the leaders of tomorrow for the church. I wish more local churches in Malaysia could have programmes or courses like this to train many more leaders. 

T&T Clark Handbook to Social Identity in the New Testament edited by J. Brian Tucker and Coleman A. Baker, has been recently reviewed by Jacobus Kok, and publised in the Review of Biblical Literature. The reviewer is overall very positive about this publication, and is generous is his praises for the book. 

The summary of his review is reproduced below:

"...this is an excellent handbook for scholars and students alike interested in the exciting field of social identity in the New Testament and social- scientific theoretical approaches in general. It is a comprehensive volume with significant value for the academic community. What I found especially helpful is the many questions and new research gaps, if you will, that were opened by reading this book. Another strong point of the book is that in the footnotes one finds a wealth of references to secondary literature of both New Testament scholars and social scientists that will help the reader to be able to delve deeper into the research areas or topics in which one is interested. This book is not only highly recommended but also a pleasure to read."

I am honoured to play a small part in this volume where I contributed an essay on 2 Corinthians that received a generous review from Kok:

"Chapter 16 (289–310), written by Kar Yong Lim, engages with the Pauline concept of “new creation” (2 Cor 5:17) and the implication thereof for social identity formation in 2 Corinthians. Importantly, Lim deals with the temporal-comparison (cf. Susan Condor) aspects that deal with social identity and the fact that the earlier work of Tajfel did not accommodate the enduring nature of identity formation over time. Identity is fluid and changes over time. Thus Lim correctly argues that SIT also has its limitations due to the fact that it cannot fully illuminate a “diachronic process” of identity formation over an extended period in time (291). Lim considers the need for and importance of temporal comparison in social-identity formation in 2 Corinthians, which is a good test case in which the development of social identity over time is to be seen."

For those who are interested to read the full review, please click here. The book is available at Amazon, Bookdepository and other reputable online book retailers.