SPRING COHORT 1
BS 6008 ATONEMENT
Mondays at 7pm April 6 to May 18 via MS TEAMS (Link at bottom)
This course is limited to 12 students, students registered so far: Ryan Roberts, Joe WIlkin, Dylan Shower, Art Weber, Jen Bumbard, Mike Smith, David Hay
Please email DrRyan@tkc.education to join.
- April 6 introductions & discussion of latest x44 atonement article
- April 13 guest author Will Hess
- April 20 presentation night
- April 27 presentation night
- May 4 guest author Scot McKnight
- May 11 presentation night
- May 18 presentation night and wrap up
PLEASE Begin by reading this article: Atonement as Relational Victory | EXPEDITION 44
Syllabus:
Microsoft Teams meeting
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Meeting ID: 937 240 592 752
Passcode: UC6Cf7
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SPRING COHORT 2
CO 5005 Biblical worldview & the church: Hybrid Cohort (Click to download Syllabus)
discipleship, shepherding, kingdom of God, eschatology, soteriology. 15 New Testament Words of Life: A New Testament Theology for Real Life by Nijay K. Gupta
Dr. Will Ryan: Please email DrRyan@tkc.education to join. (There is no student limit on this course)
Class Dates: Sunday April 5, May 3 & May 17
- April 5 introductions & discussion
- May 3 Checkin and Book discussion have 2 highlights from the book ready to discuss
- May 17 presentation night and wrap up
Microsoft Teams meeting
Join on your computer, mobile app or room device
Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 935 749 309 928 5
Passcode: AQ9dE2
Download Teams | Join on the web
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SUMMER COHORT
Looking ahead:
July 2-5, 2026 is the PCNAK Generation to Generation Conference at Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schamburg, IL USA. John Bevere, from messenger International will be the keynote speaker. John is a parter with TKC. To be clear, this is a Pentecostal conference and not every TKC students “cup of tea.” But the opportunity is here for you.
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LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING FORWARD
Hebrews 4:12 famously characterizes the “word of God” as living, active, and incisive, capable of penetrating the deepest layers of human interiority. This text, however, invites not only theological reflection but also hermeneutical recalibration. If the logos tou theou is indeed dynamic and discerning, then the manner in which it is mediated—particularly through translation—becomes a matter of profound consequence. As Robert Alter has argued, modern translation practices often function not as representations of the Hebrew text but as interpretive filters that domesticate its complexity.¹ Such an approach risks flattening the literary and theological depth of Scripture, effectively substituting clarity for fidelity.
Alter’s work underscores that the Hebrew Bible operates within a literary world marked by ambiguity, repetition, and semantic density.² Rather than resolving tensions, the text frequently sustains them, inviting the hearer into an ongoing process of discernment. This is particularly significant when one recalls that these compositions were primarily oral-aural in orientation, crafted to be heard within a communal setting rather than silently parsed by individual readers.³ The “activity” of the word, then, is not merely ontological but performative; it emerges in the interplay between text, sound, and audience.
Moreover, the stylistic features of biblical Hebrew—its resistance to synonymic variation, its preference for lexical repetition, and its concrete imagery—are not incidental but constitutive of its meaning.⁴ Modern translations that prioritize readability or stylistic elegance often obscure these features, thereby diminishing the text’s rhetorical force.⁵ As Alter notes, the “music” and precision of biblical Hebrew have frequently been subordinated to other translational aims, resulting in a loss of texture and nuance.⁶
This challenge is compounded by the ancient conception of textuality itself. The Hebrew sefer does not correspond neatly to the modern notion of a bounded “book” but reflects a more fluid, accretive tradition in which texts could be expanded, edited, and recontextualized over time.⁷ Such a framework resists the static assumptions often brought to Scripture in contemporary contexts and calls for a more dynamic engagement with its formation and transmission.
If Hebrews 4:12 is to be taken seriously, then the vitality of the word is inseparable from the way it is encountered. A reductionist or overly explanatory approach to translation may inadvertently mute the very sharpness the text claims for itself. Recovering the living and active character of Scripture, therefore, requires a renewed attentiveness to its literary form, linguistic particularity, and ancient context. Only then can the word be heard with something of its original force—piercing, discerning, and alive.
Looking forward to the spring Cohorts!
Endnotes
- Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, Vol. 3: The Writings (New York: W. W. Norton, 2019), xv.
- Alter, Hebrew Bible, xv.
- Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, Vol. 2: Prophets (New York: W. W. Norton, 2019), xxiii.
- Alter, Prophets, xxvii–xxviii.
- Alter, Prophets, xxviii.
- Alter, Prophets, xxxix.
- Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, Vol. 1: The Five Books of Moses (New York: W. W. Norton, 2019), 3.
The King's Commission School of Divinity 
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