The Conversation Inside of the Bible: Dr. Matt Swale’s Recently Published Book and Future Projects

The life of a faculty member can be very busy. You may not realize that outside of teaching classes full-time, Warner’s faculty members are usually working on other academic projects year round. These projects aren’t normally easily accessible to the public; they are published in academic journals or they take the form of presentations at an academic conference. These accomplishments are exciting and very important, but because of their niche audience, they are hard to spotlight. So, it is all the more exciting when a faculty member publishes a project that anyone can access.

This is the case with Dr. Matt Swale, Warner’s Assistant Professor of Bible and Church Ministry. Dr. Swale was recently able to publish Recollection to Recommitment: The Rhetorical Role of Allusions to Judges in Psalms 68, 83, and 106 in August of this year. The book was published by Gorgias Press as a part of their Bulletin for Biblical Research Dissertation Series. Though this book is technical in its details, Dr. Swale believes that an invested layperson would be able to benefit from his work. When asked to explain his book to those not in his academic field, Dr. Swale shared the following ideas: Most Christians who read the New Testament will see that it consistently references the Old Testament; however, most Christians don’t realize that in a more subtle way, the Old Testament is also consistently referencing other parts of the Old Testament. The book of Psalms is the best example of this, as it often brings up stories of Israel’s history found in other parts of the Old Testament. Dr. Swale was interested in the fact that the book of Judges is hardly ever referred to by other parts of the Old Testament, so he wanted to track down when it was referred to and study those references.

But that’s not all for Dr. Swale in this field. Projected for release in January of 2026, Dr. Swale will be publishing another, currently untitled book on Old Testament references to the Old Testament. It is set to be published by B&H Academic. This book will be a handbook on the topic, specifically designed for lay people who want to learn more. He hopes to take material on the subject that is normally reserved for academics and filter it down to be understandable and useful for undergraduate students, pastors, or any interested reader. Though there have been other scholarly works on the Old Testament use of the Old Testament, this will be one of the first to be designed as a handbook for the non-specialist.

What is particularly exciting about publications like these is that they serve not only as an accolade for the faculty member’s resume but as a real benefit to the students at Warner who are being taught by these faculty members. Dr. Swale believes that the work he did for both of these projects will affect his classroom, as he hopes to help students hear the conversation going on inside of the Bible. In small pieces, this will show up in the general education course, BST 3005: Understanding the Old Testament. More specifically, the more in-depth research will really benefit students in the Bible, Theology, and Ministry major. In fact, it already has! Dr. Swale was able to teach the course BST 3045: Special Topics in Biblical Literature—Scripture’s Use of Scripture in the spring semester of 2024. That class mutually benefited the students taking it and Dr. Swale. Speaking about how grateful he was to teach that class, he said, “Warner is small and personal enough that in the midst of writing this book I was able to teach a class to pilot some of these concepts.” He says that he is blessed to be able to teach at a university that allows its faculty members to pursue their passion projects.

Check out From Recollection to Recommitment here at the publisher’s website. For a limited time, it is on sale at 40% off! If you want to learn more about the work that Dr. Swale and our other Ministry professors are doing, check out the page on Bible, Theology, and Ministry major here.

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