Jim Hamilton's Challenge for Seminary Grads

Jim Hamilton writes, "This is a list of books that I think a person who is theologically educated should have read or be planning to read."

Then he drops the bomb: the Bible, of course, from front to back, including the entire New Testament in Greek and a substantial cross-section of the Old Testament in Hebrew. But wait, there's more! Let's throw in some, no, ALL of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1 Enoch, and the Apocrypha. Act now and we'll throw in the Apostolic Fathers, Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, and many, many more!

All joking aside, this is a significant and challenging list! Furthermore, Hamilton qualifies this list by saying that he did not succeed in meeting this challenge before he graduated with his Ph.D. He further clarifies his reasons for this difficult reading list in a comment later:

"I think it is healthy and wise to read primary sources. . . . I think that if more evangelical pastors and ministers read more primary sources, we would be less captive to the spirit of the age."

Well, I hope one day that I can claim for myself that I have accomplished this task, but with my Hebrew feeling as rusty as the hinge on my barn door, I'm not holding my breath.

Challenged...

Todd