Hi there, my name is Matthew Mangum. I am a husband to Miranda and father to six children. Our lives our very full.
I have interests in linguistics, church history, canonical and textual studies, and the history of the Bible. Much of what I write about will generally fall into one of those categories. I am also committed to pushing back against the commercialization of Christianity and consider my efforts here to be my own small contribution to that endeavor.
Most of my professional background stems from my time as an Arabic translator in the military, and I spent a couple of years in the parachurch ministry world. I am now beginning life as a teacher at a classical Christian academy. My background as an Arabic translator for the military shaped my love for languages and study, my time in the parachurch ministry world helped me to see the rampant commercialization of Christ, and my life in the local church helped shape my desire to be involved in Christian education and equipping the saints.
As far as my education goes, I hold a Master of Arts in Religion from Reformed Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts in Biblical Studies with a minor in Biblical Greek from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. My thesis at RTS was entitled “On the Coattails of the Apostles: How the Heterodox Appropriation of the Apostles Supports the Apostolic Origins of Christianity.” If that topic strikes your fancy, you may download a copy here.
It is my desire to produce resources that are useful for equipping the saints for the work of ministry. As such, I intend for this website to be a repository of resources for the Church. Everything that I produce is dedicated to the public domain and is freely shareable without requesting my permission. I am the author of a freely given book entitled God Spoke: The Story of How We Came to Have the Bible as We Know It Today, and hope to write more books in the future. My current plans for future writing projects include a church history for kids, a layperson’s guide to what the Council of Nicaea is and is not, and a book about the use of language and its importance for sound biblical interpretation.