O'Brien Eerdmans and Commentaries

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ. Based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the

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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and I�m glad to be here with Pastor Steve Coop.

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Thank you very much, Pastor. I appreciate that. Steve, how�

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I�m all about titles. Yes, that�s right. So, in the jail system, you are not an inmate, but you are a keeper.

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What was your title? Senior. Senior. Senior deputy. Okay. Yeah. And is there a difference between senior deputy and junior deputy?

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There�s no such thing as a junior. It just meant I had two stripes. So, you know, if you thought about me as a corporal.

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But, you know, it�s funny, because if you�re out in a patrol situation, you�re out in a radio car, and somebody has two stripes on, and they see you, and they call you senior, right away you know that person�s been in the jail before.

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You know? So, that�s a pretty good clue. Oh, that is interesting. Okay. And you got saved while you were not incarcerated, but working in the jail?

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Yes. Yeah, that was accurate. Yeah. And did you ever, as an unbeliever, while you were guarding the inmates, say to yourself, �You know,

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I�m such a wicked person. I could easily be in the other side of these bars.� Did that kind of stuff go through your mind?

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Never for a second. No. In fact, you know, I didn�t have a whole lot of regard for the inmates, and I had probably even less regard for the chaplains who would come in and waste their time, you know, trying to�

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Save people? Yeah. Now, as a backslidden Mormon, are they called

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Jack Mormons? Well, I mean, some people call them that, but I mean, we would just say,

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I mean, it�s more technically correct to say inactive. And so, you were there, and then these chaplains would come in.

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You have to let them in and assign them rooms or whatever, make sure they were safe. But in the back of your mind, you�re thinking, �This guy�s wasting his time.�

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Wasting his time. And so, you know, sometimes I would even like� I couldn�t set up physical obstructions, but I would do what

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I could to, you know, hinder them in whatever way, you know, possible. Did you ever know of an inmate that got out and had a nice transformation of life?

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I don�t mean spiritual, but, you know, it could be that, where he really kind of changed his life around, or you saw him again and thought, �Oh, you know what?

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There is hope for humanity.� Now or then? Then. I mean, then, not so much. I mean,

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I tell people, I go, you know, they�re saying the last things like, �Did you ever know an innocent person ?�

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And I�m like, �I think I knew one And so, they just turned the� you know, they just turned the law loose on him, and he was in for some kind of a� basically, what�s the word

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I�m looking for? When you defy a judge�s authority. And I had a hard time believing him until I checked it out, but he was actually� it wasn�t really his father -in -law, but his father -in -law�s best buddy was a judge, and he had problems with his wife.

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And so, they just turned the� you know, they just turned the law loose on him, you know, and he eventually got out.

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And he was actually a real estate developer, super nice guy, wanted to sell me a condo and all that. But� Wanted to sell you a condo.

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Oh, they were nice too. They were really nice condos. I mean, and he�s a super nice guy, but, you know, that didn�t work.

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Should have bought one. Yeah. Yeah, well. Back in California this summer, I took the kids and Kim past the

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Carpenter Ave North Hollywood house that we used to have the Bible sitting in. Yeah, those were the days.

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Steve, it�s unbelievable. Somebody fixed it all up? They made it basically into a castle.

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I don�t know what kind of zoning laws they broke, but it�s like twice as big as every other house. It�s brand new, this kind of gate in the front, and you think, what did they do to my house?

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It is unbelievable. Seriously. I just was in shock. You�re like, huh,

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I�d take it back. I know. I should have kept that house. Look how it�s grown.

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Steve, recently P .T. O�Brien, who we know,

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Peter O�Brien from his, I think he did the Ephesians commentary in Word. He did

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Philippians. In Word or it�s the pillar, the, oh, yeah, Philippians in IGTC, right?

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Sorry, he�s done Colossians in Word, Ephesians in pillar, Philippians in the

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Greek. Right. In IGTC. Then he has written some other things. I have his Hebrews 1, 2, the same one that you have.

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Pillar. Yeah. There�s an issue now with the recall of three of the commentaries or two of the commentaries.

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Recall. It just sounds funny, right? Yeah, recalling them because of an unknown plagiarism.

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Any comments about this whole issue? You can read about it on the Aquila Report. You can go to Erdman�s.

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If you want your money back, you can get them, but I just think the commentaries are excellent and I think this is in no way, shape or form in the same vein as the

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Driscoll stuff. Yeah. I have a message for Logos. Don�t even think about removing these from the sets because I will come and hunt you down.

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Yeah. If some of this turns out to be true, if PT O�Brien comes out,

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Peter O�Brien comes out and says, �Yes, I plagiarized.� Well, shame on him, but it�s some of the best plagiarism ever.

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I mean because what he�s done is he�s kind of eliminated the need, especially in Ephesians, to almost read anything else because he�s � if there�s a tricky thing or something, he�s really � usually always winds up on the right view and he explains things really well.

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Steve, I�ve been putting together messages for over 20 years and if I go back to some of those early documents on the computer,

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WPS documents, right, .WPS works and see how

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I footnoted things. I think most of the time I tried to say who it was.

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Like if it was a MacArthur quote, I try to probably write M or MAC or MSB for MacArthur Study Bible.

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But I�m sure a bunch of those I didn�t write down properly are right at all. And what if this was

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O�Brien and he�s got an old desk with a bunch of paperwork and he doesn�t really use the computer much and he just �

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I don�t know. There�s just something in me that wants to say in a commentary, which at its best in my mind is a compilation of everybody else�s quotes within a synthesis saying which one is right.

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I just really want to give him the benefit of the doubt. Trevor Burrus Well, especially � I�m with you 100 percent and especially when you just think, well, what if he was putting forth novel ideas or novel doctrines?

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We�d say, guy is a heretic, right? Because nobody has ever known these things for a couple of thousand years and now

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Peter O�Brien does. But the fact is, like you said, I don�t want to read anything new.

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When I read things in � if I read � like I remember reading Lincoln�s commentary in Word about Ephesians and page after page about how

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Paul didn�t write the book of Ephesians and I�m like, I don�t think he wrote this book.

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What do you think about that? Well, it�s got my name on it. Well, it�s got Paul�s name on it. What are you talking about? There�s a blog,

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Green Baggins and it�s obviously some kind of play on Lord of the

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Rings. It says, �On the other hand, plagiarism might just be the easiest thing to do in commentary writing.

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Indeed, it seems in some ways, it seems endemic to the genre. I read my commentaries in chronological order so that I can get a sense of the history of interpretation on a particular passage.

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Unattributed references to ideas introduced by previous commentaries are everywhere. Honestly, I�m fairly certain that I see this every week.

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Sometimes they fall into the category of things that they all say and can fairly be categorized as forming part of the common stock of knowledge.

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Many other times this is not true.� It�s just like by osmosis, right? I mean, because you�re just steeped in all these things, so how else would you, you know, say some things?

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I mean, it�s just like, you know, well, I mean, when we preach the gospel, are we ripping

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Paul off or are we ripping, you know, Jesus off? No. We�re just, excuse me, we�re just repeating what is true and right and biblical, and I think, you know,

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I�m confident that most of what he did was exactly the same. I mean, the question could be, did he do it for money?

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Did he do it for fame? I don�t, I mean, Peter O�Brien, where�s the money and where�s the fame?

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By the way, you know, I�m not really getting rich on the royalty checks from the books in Christian publishing.

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Well, let me think about that. Who even knows if you�re probably listening going, �I have no idea who

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Peter O�Brien is ,� right? Why are you guys even talking about him? But in our circles, Peter O�Brien is pretty big.

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If you�re of a reformed mindset and you�re a pastor, you know who

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Peter O�Brien is. There are thousands of commentaries on every book of the

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Bible, at least hundreds. And so what Steve and I have done over the years, you gravitate to one particular commentary on every book that you�re preaching from.

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So Steve�s preaching through the Gospel of John now, I�m preaching through Hebrews, and you have lots of commentaries.

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There�s exegetical, expositional, devotional, and a bunch in between. And Steve, isn�t it true you think if I could only have one commentary on that particular book of the

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Bible, for me, with Ephesians, it would be O�Brien because he gets it right so often.

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He�s the trustworthy kind of tiebreaker. And that�s why we�re talking about him because I�m preaching through Hebrews now and O�Brien is my go -to guy.

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Yeah, so I mean this whole thing, and you know, the trick is, and it�s talked about a little bit there, when

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Eerdmans released this statement, they didn�t really give specifics. They didn�t lay out, you know, a table.

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Like I think I recall seeing things like this with the Driscoll thing, you know. Here�s what Driscoll wrote and here�s where he took it from and it�s like word for word, you know, just a copy.

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And they haven�t done that with O�Brien�s commentaries. And you know, even his statement is like, it really does read more like the absent -minded professor, you know, where he just had post -it notes or whatever and, you know, just didn�t get it done.

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And I�m like, at this point, I�m not all that motivated to, you know,

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I�m not enraged at all. Steve, I�m working with S. Lewis Johnson stuff. When I�m sitting around at night,

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I think, oh, you know, let me look through his Colossians deal or I was waiting for a lunch appointment yesterday and so I had my iPad and I could just make little notes and kind of, you know, make sure

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I could�I was going to say redeem the time but there�s a chapter in my new book about how that�s not the right kind of use for redeeming the time.

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Trevor Burrus So you can no longer use that phrase, right? Steve McLaughlin And sometimes there�s�I�m looking at S.

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Lewis Johnson, I mean, a scholar, I mean, no one challenges from his family to even the liberals his impeccable life.

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I mean, of course, the Lord knew he was a sinner but just a stand -up guy all around. Sometimes he doesn�t have end quotes and I�m thinking

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I�ve got to go back and now research that because he just didn�t put the end quote where it should have been and he makes these mistakes and I really think with Peter O�Brien, it�s the same thing.

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It makes me want to take my final Word document when I�m writing a new book and paste the entire 60 ,000 words into the

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Google search bar to see where else this stuff comes up in case I�ve made a mistake.

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Trevor Burrus Would that work? I don�t think that would work. Steve McLaughlin No, but I mean, how do you do that? I think there is some kind of tool. I was watching something,

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I saw some clip about plagiarism and they were like there are tools, you know, to � you wouldn�t do it in Google but there are places where they will examine, you know, and run it through some kind of database.

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Peter O�Brien But back to your point, Steve, about we�re dealing with the same biblical corpus and many times you and I might come up with the exact same comment or tidbit or insight because we have the same

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Spirit of God illuminating us both. We have the same biblical data and we end up almost saying �

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I mean, there are certain passages where you just have to outline them the exact same way because it is the passage.

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Steve McLaughlin Yeah, somebody came up to me once several years ago and said, �You know, your outline on that was remarkably close to John Piper.�

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And I said, �Well, that just tells me one thing. John Piper is a pretty smart guy, you know You know, it just goes to show that you�re probably on the wrong side of the road, you

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So, I�m just like, I don�t even look at Piper, I don�t read his, you know, so I have no idea.

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You know, I�m like, there�s only so many ways, like you just said, there�s only so many ways to outline a passage and if you really study it long enough and you think about it long enough, you know, there may be two or three different ways or four, but it�s not going to vary that much and if your words are similar, well, is that shocking?

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No. You know, it just goes to show that you�re probably on the right track, you know, so I� Years ago,

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I too was preaching and someone came up to me and they said, �You know what? That outline that you used, that�s basically

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John MacArthur�s outline.� And the funny story was that I was reading of all people,

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Wearsby, and I think it was Wearsby and Ephesians, and he had this little outline that basically was from the text and you could tell

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John MacArthur read the Bible passage.

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You could tell that he�s thinking along the same lines as Wearsby and I�m thinking, okay, which one�s got the earlier copyright date?

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Well, answer is the Bible�s got the earliest one and so I�m not picking, I�m not, you know,

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I�m not copying John. John�s not copying Wearsby. Wearsby, I�m sure, read it from somebody else.

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You�re looking at the text and you think, okay, now if I find something that�s a really obvious one, I�ll say, you know,

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I was going to come up with an outline today, but I just couldn�t figure out my own because there�s a great one that already exists and it�s

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John MacArthur�s. That�s fine, but I�m just like, again,

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I say this all the time. If somebody comes up with something new, run, you know, and so something like this,

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I�m just like, it doesn�t surprise me at all. Now, if O�Brien comes out and says, you know, well, you know,

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I chumped it. I had this contract and I just, you know, I didn�t want to expend the time and, you know,

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I was working on my tan or whatever. Well, then, okay, then I�ll want to burn my commentary with everybody else, but I seriously doubt that�s going to be the case.

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Trevor Burrus Green Baggins, he�s got a name. I forgot what this guy�s name is. He said, what I would rather have from Eerdmans is a chart listing the instances that I can make up my own mind so that I can make up my own mind about it because there�s no way

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I�m giving my O�Brien commentaries back to Eerdmans for a refund. Yeah, they can pry it out of my cold, dead hand, right?

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It�s just not happening. Peter O�Brien We don�t want to plagiarize, but I would admit that Peter O�Brien, to a lesser degree, me to a greater degree, we are sinful and we are frail and we are lazy and we make mistakes and if I�m proven wrong, then

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I�ll say so on the radio, but for right now, I�m going to still use my Peter O�Brien commentaries.

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Pete Amen. Okay, what else is on the list here today? Do we have anything else on this list? Anything else we want to say about plagiarism?

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I don�t. Well, you know what, let me just say when, and I think you sort of alluded to this, but when

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I�m preaching, if I find something in my study and I think, oh, that�s a really good quote, then I�ll put the quote in there and I�ll say,

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I may say something like one man says or Kistemacher says or Hendrickson says or O�Brien said or Machen said or whoever it is.

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I might just attribute it or I might just say one man said or one theologian said or whatever, but I typically will give it some kind of attribution because I don�t want anybody to think that I came up with it on my own, right?

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Now, if I come up with something on my own, I don�t give attribution because it was mine. And don�t you think,

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Steve, that there�s some grace period for an occasional slip up here or there or occasional non -attribution in a sermon?

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Stevenson Yeah, because, I mean, if you just go, you know, let�s say you have six good quotes in there in your sermon.

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Well, if you just say, you know, MacArthur said, Hendrickson said, well, you know, so yeah.

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I mean, I just don�t, I don�t think it�s that big of a deal. If you download the whole sermon, then yeah, I think that�s a big deal.

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Pete There was a pastor here probably 15 years ago and he was preaching through the

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Psalms, if I remember correctly, and there was someone in the congregation, and now this part is my own opinion and speculation and probably lack of memory, someone who wasn�t really thrilled with him as a pastor, at least that�s how the story seems to be in my mind.

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And they thought, well, I�ve heard these sermon outlines and these sermons somewhere else, and they found out that they were from James Boyce�s commentary.

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And then they sat there and instead of saying to the pastor, did you get that from Boyce? You know, it sounds really familiar.

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They just went week after week documenting that very fact to get enough info on the pastor to then get him fired.

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And in fact, here in Central Mass, he was for not just one non -attribution, but for many weeks in a row.

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And so that would be a problem. There�s lots of problems within that story. Pete Yeah, I mean, like who would do such a thing?

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You know, I figured out your MO and I�m going to nail you to the wall. Paul Yeah, instead of going to the pastor saying, you know, is there something going on in your life or is your wife sick or, you know, why are you doing this?

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For me, Steve, I�ll read a comment by someone and let�s say it�s Peter O�Brien and he uses the word spike.

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And so I�ll just kind of have that quote in my notes for my sermon and then I�ll highlight the word spike because it brings back the quote to mind.

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And I also think that�s exactly the kind of language that I would use to describe what

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Paul is talking about here or, you know, our sister in jail.

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And then if somebody says, well, you know, that commentary said spike and you said spike,

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I mean, it�s a little much. Steve How about a spike to the head? Paul Steve, when I preach,

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I don�t want to have anything new. Now, if I�m quoting people all the time and I don�t give them, you know, credit, you know, given where credit is due, then shame on me.

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But we talk about all the time. You don�t want your pastor coming up with anything new. I have just an okay

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IQ. That�s how I like it. I�m a Marine. God dropped me off here in Massachusetts and said preach the

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Bible every week. Okay. I can�t think of anything� Trevor Burrus By the way, he�s not really a Marine. So don�t try to debunk that.

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Paul Yeah, he said he was a Marine and I scoured the records and I cannot find him.

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He has no DD -214. When you are studying, my suggestion, and this is now very practical for the lay people out there, lay men and lay women, lay children, and what you should do is if there�s a great quote that you hear or read about and you�re making your notes, why don�t you put that in your notes and then instead of just writing at the end of your notes,

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Wearsby, just say, Wearsby, Ephesians, comma, 42.

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That�s all you would have to do. You know it�s in Wearsby, page 42, in that way forever and always you�ll remember it because what if in 30 years you�re some big shot and now you�re writing a book and you didn�t put the little

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Wearsby thing at the end? You�ll think you wrote it and you might�

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Trevor Burrus You know, I pretty much can find all that stuff anyway.

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So, a lot of times I�ll just put in parenthesis whoever it was who wrote it or what series it�s in and just continue to go.

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Paul Now, Steve, I haven�t written a lot of books. I�ve written some. Paul And sometimes

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I�ll think, oh, that was said okay. I mean, between the theological editor, the literary editor, and all the machinations, that was said pretty well.

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When I want to say it from the pulpit, I put M -A at the very bottom and then that makes me say to myself when

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I�m preaching, that�s okay to quote in its entirety without giving attribution. Steve You can rip yourself off all you want, right?

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Paul I know. It�s so true. Speaking of which, Evangelical White Lies is out.

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You can get it on Amazon by the time you hear this. Kindle will also be out, Evangelical White Lies.

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What about tithing? What about eco -friendly green earth days and all that?

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Steve When you get the Kindle version, do you get the cool cover too? Paul You actually do. Steve Are there optional covers or just, you know?

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Paul Well, I had Stephen do the covers and not you, Stephen. And this is the one that I kind of picked because it was a no -coat look.

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But there�s probably another older cover I could just upload if you want. You just upload the JPEG cover and you�re set.

22:50

Steve Okay. Sweet. Paul Steve Cooley wrote the foreword to this book and it even says on there, you didn�t put this part in.

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You put Steve Cooley and I put Steve Cooley aka Tuesday Guy. It was so good.

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I was so happy with myself. Steve I don�t run around, you know, very often thinking of myself as the

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Tuesday guy. Like if somebody says, well, you know, what we were talking about earlier, when somebody says, hey, senior, you know, then

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I kind of turn around because, and you know, it�s taken me a while, but now gradually I�ll turn around when somebody says pastor.

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But if somebody says Tuesday guy, it probably takes me an extra second or two. Paul Well, I�m going to tell you off air in a few moments of this idea that I have and I�m working on this little book project where I�ve got about 10 friends and they�re each going to write a chapter about something.

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We�ll put a larger umbrella and so I�m going to need not just a forward, but I�m going to be asking you for a whole chapter.

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Maybe we�ll list the things alphabetically so you�re closer to the front. Steve I�d rather be like, you know,

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I�d like to be in the part of the book that people are just like, okay, I�m done with this book now, you know, and just put it back up on the shelf. Paul If you have

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Peter O�Brien�s commentaries on Colossians, Hebrews, Ephesians, or Philippians, I say still use them and you can always say if you�re quoting from them, a scholar said.

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Steve An alleged plagiarist said. I just, you know, we�ll see.

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Time will tell. You know, this will run its course, but I think this might just be, you know, somebody just getting a little too carried away with their word search possibilities here.

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Paul When I read even the new Hebrews theology on the Bible, a biblical theology series edited by Carson, that silver series,

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IVP, I say to myself, the subject matter of Peter O�Brien, this devotional style of writing,

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I just say to myself, he cannot be trying to do this. You know, he�s not some kind of potty mouth.

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He doesn�t have all this agenda. He�s not wearing the skinny jeans, just not adding up. Steve Well, not only that, but DA Carson is a very, very smart guy, and if he�s reading this and he doesn�t see a problem, then my guess is this is being blown out of proportion.

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Abendroth, Steve Cooley, this is No Compromise Radio. You can write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com.