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Google Books has available the full text of Sanday and Headlam’s commentary on Romans in the International Critical Commentary (5th ed.; 1899).

von Carolsfeld, Jésus est oint à Béthanie In his Dialog with Trypho, 86, Justin Martyr suggests that οἱ βασελεῖς πάντες καὶ οἱ χριστοὶ ἀπὸ τούτου μετέσχον καὶ βασιλεῖς καλεῖσθαι καὶ χριστοί (all the kings and messiahs had, by this one [= Messiah Jesus], a share in being called both kings and messiahs [i.e., anointed ones]). Yet, Matt 26:6–13 (cf. Mark 14:3–9; Lk 7:37–39; John 12:1–8) seems to ask its readers to connect Jesus to messiahship via a rather surprising route—namely, by an un named female character (France, Matthew, 361; Keener, Matthew, 618; Thiemann, “The Unnamed Woman,” ThTo 44.2 [1987]: 183–86; cf. John 12:1–8; Barrett, John, 2nd ed., 409; Gundry, Matthew, 522; Köstenberger, Theology, 232–32; Lightfoot, Commentary, 2:341; Platt, “Ministry,” ThTo 32.1 [1977]: 30–32). Irrespective of whether this unnamed woman understands the full significance of her action, including how Jesus connects it to his upcoming burial ( Matt 26:12),* Jesus’ response to the disciples’ objection ( Matt 26:8–13) clearly vindicates the woman’s actions also in connection with the proclamation of τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦτο ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ κόσμῳ ( Matt 26:13; this gospel in the whole world; Coakley, “The Anointing at Bethany,” JBL 107.2 [1988]: 243, 249, 255; Ford, “Matthew 26:6–13,” Int 59.4 [2005]: 401; Thiemann, “The Unnamed Woman,” ThTo 44.2 [1987]: 183–86; cf. Matt 24:14; 28:18–20). Jesus thus sets the woman’s memorial in the context of her fitting, if perhaps dimly anticipatory, recognition of his soon-coming death and all of the messianic significance with which he himself viewed that sacrifice ( Matt 16:13–28; Ephraim, On Our Lord, 47 [NPNF2 13:326–27]; Keener, Matthew, 618). ...

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“102” caption=“Nicolo di Pietro, “The Saint Teaching Rhetoric” (Image via Wikipedia)”] [/caption] In an article this past Sunday in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Dan Berrett digests the results of a recent conference at Harvard University about learning and teaching. The article contains several insightful observations, but in one key paragraph of his article, Berrett summarizes: ...

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“174” caption=“Gustave Dore, “The Children of Israel Crossing the Jordan” (Image via Wikipedia)”] [/caption] Within the narrative of Exodus, identifying the referent of the term מלאך (angel, messenger) in Exod 23:20 is somewhat nettlesome (Ausloos, “The ‘Angel of YHWH,’” VT 58, no. 1 [2008]: 7–10; Enns, Exodus, 473–74), but one reasonable reading is to understand this term as a reference to Joshua (Augustine, Faust., 16.19 [NPNF1 4:226]; Justin, Dial., 75 [ANF 1:236]; Tertullian, Adv. Jud., 9 [ANF 3:163]; Tertullian, Marc., 3.16 [ANF 3:335]; see also Ausloos, “The ‘Angel of YHWH,’” 9n43; cf. Exod 33:12; Gowan, Theology in Exodus, 227–28; Stuart, Exodus, 542–43). Yet, this Joshua does not pardon sins because the name of the God of Abraham is only in him ( Exod 23:21; i.e., he acknowledges this God’s renown; cf. 1 Kgs 5:11 [Eng.: 4:31]; see also Mal 1:11; Ps 8:2 [Eng.: v. 1]; 1 Chron 14:17; 2 Chron 20:9). Rather, such forgiveness comes by him who has received this God’s name as his own ( Mark 2:1–12; Luke 5:17–26; John 17:11–12; Phil 2:9–11; cf. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, 272–74, 631–45) and in whom Abraham’s offspring inherit not one region only by conquest ( Exod 23:24, 31) but the whole world by meekness and rest ( Matt 5:5; Rom 4:13; Heb 4:8–10; see also Pao and Schnabel, “Luke,” 300–3). ...

On the web: Andrew Criddle comments on an excerpt from Ephrem about the Gospels’ composition. Justin Milhoc reviews Andrew Cain’s The Letters of Jerome: Asceticism, Biblical Exegesis, and the Construction of Christian Authority in Late Antiquity (Oxford, 2009). Charles Jones notes the Roman Provincial Coinage Online database. Eric Sowell highlights the availability of much of J.-P. Migne’s Patrologia graeca online. Jim Davila mentions a list of biblical verses cited in the Talmud, an update about the Afghanistan manuscripts, Devorah Dimant’s recently released Dead Sea Scrolls in Scholarly Perspective, Lina Broydo’s discussion of the Dead Sea Scrolls online and in Israel. Nijay Gupta briefly reviews Joel Green’s Practicing Theological Interpretation.

Logos 4.5 (SR3) is now available with a couple minor bug fixes. For the change log, see here. Also, February’s free resource is now available: The Works of B. B. Warfield (Vol. 1: Revelation and Inspiration).

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include: Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies J. Andrew Dearman, The Book of Hosea, reviewed by Heinz-Dieter Neef Károly Dániel Dobos and Miklós Köszeghy, eds., With Wisdom as a Robe: Qumran and Other Jewish Studies in Honour of Ida Fröhlich, reviewed by Korinna Zamfir Bruce Louden, Homer’s Odyssey and the Near East, reviewed by Charles L. Echols Jason Radine, The Book of Amos in Emergent Judah, reviewed by Daniel C. Timmer Shemaryahu Talmon, Text and Canon of the Hebrew Bible, reviewed by August H. Konkel William A. Tooman and Michael A. Lyons, eds., Transforming Visions: Transformations of Text, Tradition, and Theology in Ezekiel, reviewed by William R. Osborne New Testament and Cognate Studies ...

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“75” caption=“Image via Wikipedia”] [/caption] Theodor Zahn’s Kommentar zum Neuen Testament volume on Romans (1910) is available freely in several formats from Internet Archive, and his volume on Galatians (1905) is available freely in PDF format from Google Books. The bibliographic information for both is available here (BibTeX). ...

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“175” caption=“Image via CrunchBase”] [/caption] The stable release of Zotero 3.0 is now available: Zotero 3.0 marks a major departure from previous versions, most notably with the new ability run outside the Firefox browser. Available for Mac, Windows, and Linux, this standalone version of Zotero contains all the great functionality of the old Firefox-based Zotero but now enables users to integrate Zotero into browsers other than Firefox like Google Chrome and Apple Safari. To all you Firefox lovers out there, no need to worry! Zotero continues to work within Firefox, and even if you choose to run the standalone version, it will talk to Firefox, too. ...

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“200” caption=“Depiction of the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (Image via Wikipedia)”] [/caption] The interchange in Matt 18:21–22 looks back to Jesus’ immediately preceding comments on handling a community member (ἀδελφός) who sins ( Matt 18:15–20; Chrysostom, Hom. Matt., 61.1 [NPNF1 10:357]; cf. Matt 18:21; 19:1). Read within this context, Peter’s question ποσάκις ἁμαρτήσει εἰς ἐμὲ ὁ ἀδελφός μου καὶ ἀφήσω αὐτῷ; ( Matt 18:21a; How many times* shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?) addresses a very plausible ambiguity in Jesus’ preceding comments. Judging from this question, Peter presumably thinks it inappropriate for a community member endlessly to sin and repent, but as long as some repentance was involved, Jesus’ instructions could seem never to allow further action to be taken. As many times as the community member would sin and repent, this member would also be restored ( Matt 18:15b; Chrysostom, Hom. Matt., 61.1 [NPNF1 10:357]). ...

On the Web: Alin Suciu provides a PDF of the now public-domain R. Draguet, Julien d’Halicarnasse et sa controverse avec Sévère d’Antioche sur l’incorruptibilité du corps du Christ(Louvain: Smeesters, 1924). The bibliographic entry is available here (BibTeX). Google Books has Adolf Deissman’s Bible Studies(trans. Alexander Grieve; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1903) available for download in PDF format. The bibliographic entry is available here (BibTeX). Logos 4.5 (SR1) is available with some minor bug fixes, and Evernote for Windows gets a major update for its PDF handling. Jim Davila notes a couple updates about recent stories of Jewish manuscript finds in Afghanistan ( 1, 2), as does John Byron. John Byron reflects on a selection from Thomas à Kempis and lectures on rewritten Bible. Marc Cortez discusses “How to Reject a Rejection Letter,” announces a series on the value of blogging, and begins this series by considering how blogging can improve writing. Richard Hays delivers lectures on “Torah Reconfigured: Reading Scripture with Matthew” and “The One Who Redeems Israel: Reading Scripture with Luke” (HT: Kerry Lee). Matthew Montonini notes some new Durham University dissertations that are available and collects links to audio resources by Rikk Watts. Charles Jones mentions the website of the Berliner Papyrusdatenbank, which includes some papyrus images. Robert Woods discusses C. S. Lewis’s “Reading of Old Books.” For links to the essay’s full text, please see here. Larry Hurtado considers “Bousset and ‘Early High Christology.’” Brian LePort notes an interview with Peter Williams on the Gospels’ reliability. Greg Goswell has the latest article in the Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism, “An Early Commentary on the Pauline Corpus: The Capitulation of Codex Vaticanus.” For the full text of the article, please see the JGRChJ’s current volume page.

English: Walk on the water Deutsch: Rettung de… Matthew 14:22–33 narrates Jesus’ walking on water. Yet, unlike the parallel accounts in Mark 6:45–52; John 6:15–21, Matt 14:33 reports that the disciples’ conclusion, at the end of this episode, was ἀληθῶς θεοῦ υἱὸς εἶ (truly, you are the son of God). Apparently thinking along the lines similar to Heb 3:5–6, Archelaus, Disputation with Manes, 44 ( ANF 6:220; affiliate disclosure), relates this text to Jesus’ superiority to Moses. Perhaps more to the point here, however, is a chaos-versus-creation motif (Boring, “Matthew,” NIB 8, 327; affiliate disclosure) in which Jesus subjects the surrounding disorder (Graves, “Followed by the Sun,” RevExp 99, no. 1 [2002]: 92; Ladd, Theology of the New Testament, rev.ed., 163 [ affiliate disclosure]; Verseput, “The Faith of the Reader,” JSNT 46 [1992]: 14–16; cf. Augustine, Serm., 25.6 [ NPNF1 6:338; affiliate disclosure]; Jerome, Epist., 30 [ NPNF2 6:45; affiliate disclosure]). He does so, first, by walking on the sea himself and then all the more by causing Peter to do the same (Chrysostom, Hom. Matt., 50.2 [ NPNF1 10:311–12; affiliate disclosure]). In this framework, then, if Israel’s God is master of the seas (e.g., Job 9:8; Ps 89:9, 19–37; Hab 3:8, 15; cf. Gen 1:2 [LXX; LSJ, s.v. ἐπιφέρω, §§2–3PIFERW#lexicon)])—a kind of mastery not otherwise within the realm of human experience—Jesus’ walking on the sea is an eminently good reason for identifying Jesus as θεοῦ υἱός (son of God) and worshiping him as such (see Matt 14:33; Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, 6.51 [ NPNF2 9:117; affiliate disclosure]; cf. Mark 6:51–52; John 6:21; Aristotle, Poetics, 5.6, 6.2 [ affiliate disclosure]). ...

On the web: Duane Smith repeats Jim Davila’s recent excerpt about the availability of the Babylonian Talmud online ( English, Hebrew-Aramaic). The basic bibliographic entry for the Soncino version is available here ( BibTeX). Jim Davila notes the completion of Sheffield’s Dictionary of Classical Hebrew. Daniel Roth highlights five articles about SOPA, including John Gaudiosi’s report of the White House’s disapproval of the bill as it stands. ...

Abraham In Gen 17:13, God tells Abraham that his whole household was to be circumcised והיתה בריתי בבשׂרכם לברית עולם (and my covenant will be in your flesh as an everlasting covenant). Yet, Paul strongly opposes Gentiles’ submitting to circumcision in connection with their membership in the Christian community (Galatians) and asserts that ὁ ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ Ἰουδαῖος, καὶ {ὅτι} περιτομὴ καρδίας ἐν πνεύματι οὐ γράμματι ( Rom 2:29; the Jew is one who is such inwardly, and [that] circumcision is of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter). What then becomes of the בבשׂרכם []ברית עולם ( Gen 17:13; everlasting covenant in your [= Abraham’s household’s] flesh)? It is precisely there because of the circumcision of Abraham’s messianic seed ( Gal 3:16), ἐν ᾧ καὶ περιετμήθητε περιτομῇ ἀχειροποιήτῳ ἐν τῇ ἀπεκδύσει τοῦ σώματος τῆς σαρκός, ἐν τῇ περιτομῇ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ( Col 2:11; in whom you also were circumcised with an unhandmade circumcision in the removal of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of the Messiah; cf. Gal 3:23–29; Bede, Genesis, 284 [ affiliate disclosure]; Chrysostom, Hom. Col. 6 [ NPNF1 13:285; affiliate disclosure]; Cyril of Alexandria, Catena on Genesis[ ACCOT 2:56; affiliate disclosure]; Theodore of Mopsuestia, Colossians [ ACCNT 9:32; affiliate disclosure]). ...

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“125” caption=“Image via Wikipedia”] [/caption] This year’s Faith and the Academy conference program is now available. The conference is hosted annually by Faulkner University. This year’s theme is “Money, Morals, and Missions,” and the plenary sessions will feature Shawn Ritenour of Grove City College and Monty Lynn of Abilene Christian University. In the last morning session, I am also privileged to be giving a paper on “Physical Humanities and Lettered Sciences: Thomas Kuhn’s Significance for Contextualizing Biblical Studies.” For more information about the conference and to register, please see here. ...

[caption id=“attachment_9094” align=“alignright” width=“80” caption=“Craig Keener”] [/caption] Ever helpful, the folks at the Westminster Bookstore have made available a PDF sample from Craig Keener’s Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts(2 vols.; Baker, 2011) on the book’s product page. The sample contains the work’s table of contents, introduction, and first chapter. ...

The folks at Logos Bible Software have started a monthly free book giveaway for 2012. This month’s title is volume 6 from their collection of the Works of John Owen. ...

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“150” caption=“Abraham and Melchisedek (Image via Wikipedia)”] [/caption] As Abram returns from rescuing Lot ( Gen 14:1–16), Melchizedek brings out bread and wine ( Gen 14:18), and so, fittingly does the priest do the same whom David says has been appointed in Melchizedek’s order ( Ps 110:4; Heb 7:1–26; Augustine, Civ., 16.22 [NPNF1, 2:323]; Augustine, Doctr. chr., 4.21 [NPNF1, 2:590]; Bede, Genesis, 269; Cyprian, Epistles, 62.4 [ANF, 5:359]). Melchizedek is without genealogy ( Heb 7:3), and his bread and wine are also without origin. Yet, he brings them to Abram and, in a way, to Abram’s seed ( Gal 3:15–29; Heb 7:9–10; cf. Bede, Genesis, 269; Cyprian, Epistles, 62.4 [ANF, 5:359]). The messianic seed, however, brings bread and wine as from himself, and he brings them to those also who are in himself as Abram’s other offspring ( Matt 26:26–29; Mark 14:22–25; Luke 22:14–20; Gal 3:15–29; Heb 2:10–18). ...

On the web: Andrew McGowan interacts with N. T. Wright about the nature of the narratives of Jesus’ birth, especially in Matthew. Robert Woods reflects on Desiderius Erasmus and Eva Brann’s Logos of Heraclitus. Chris Brady and Bob Cargill startup “Sacred Techs.” Chris Brady uploads a discussion of footnotes and endnotes. Tim Gombis considers Sherry Turkle’s Alone Together. Mark Goodacre notes that The Star of Bethlehem (1912) is available online. Rich Brannan mentions the availability of the Cascadia series’ Syntactic Analysis of the Septuagint on Logos Bible Software’s prepublication program. Joel Willitts comments on “Jewish Identity Markers in the Pre-exilic Period.” Michael Bird ponders the timing of Gal 1:4. John Byron and Jim Davila ( 1, 2) comment on some recent manuscript and archaeological discoveries. Matthew Montonini notes the possibility of a free Ephesians ebook commentary offering on Monday. ...

Online, things change. In the current version of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia with Westminster 4.2 Morphology in Logos 4, the “Text” section of the Preface refers readers to http://www.wts.edu/hebrew/whm.html for Al Groves’ “Supplement to the Code Manual for the Michigan Old Testament” (last rev. June 7, 1989). As of this writing, this URL redirects to Westminster Seminary’s homepage, but Groves’ supplement is presently still available here. ...

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“75” caption=“Julia Kristeva (image via Wikipedia)”] [/caption] With a hat tips to Carolyn Sharp’s Wrestling with the Word, 32n20, and Phillip Camp’s review of the book in the most recent RBL newsletter, Julia Kristeva has a website on which she has made available a number of resources, mostly in French and English. ...

On the web: Nijay Gupta excerpts Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Advent. Robert Woods reflects on Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, Bonaventure, and their relevance for liberal arts education. Jim Davila notes an announcement from the Israel Antiquities Authority about the recent discovery of a Second Temple era purity “voucher,” and John Byron picks up the same story from the Israel National News. Larry Hurtado discusses the dating of early Christian manuscripts. Tony Burke notes a couple recent 60 Minutes specials on Mount Athos and the Vatican Library. Jim Davila notes the availability of a new Talmud index. The index is currently available by subject in both Hebrew and English. Matthew Emadi discusses Augustine’s hermeneutic.

Apparently, the Gnome desktop environment for Linux systems has an issue with handling some user-specified default application choices. When using Zotero in Ubuntu, therefore, it may be necessary to edit /etc/gnome/defaults.list manually in order to have Zotero default to a PDF viewer besides Evince (e.g., Okular). Changing the “application/pdf=evince.desktop” line in this file to reflect the desired PDF viewer default (e.g., “application/pdf=kde4-okularApplication_pdf.desktop”) seems to do the trick, however. For more information, please see Zotero’s help forums and knowledge base. ...

Philosophical Hermeneutics According to Hans-Georg Gadamer, Prejudices [i.e., prejudgments] are not necessarily unjustified and erroneous, so that they inevitably distort the truth. In fact, the historicity of our existence entails that prejudices, in the literal sense of the word [i.e., prejudgments], constitute the directedness of our whole ability to experience. Prejudices are biases of our openness to the world. They are simply conditions whereby we experience something—whereby what we encounter says something to us.((Gadamer, Philosophical Hermeneutics ( affiliate disclosure), 9.)) ...

On the web: John Byron passes along some advice for seminary from a graduating seminarian. N. T. Wright reviews Benedict, Casey, and Fisk’s recent works on Jesus (HT: Michael Bird). Dove Booksellers has available, as of this writing, 133 volumes from Richard Longenecker’s library (HT: Michael Bird). Dirk Jongkind comments on Vaticanus’s regular preference for reading “Christ Jesus” rather than “Jesus Christ” in the Pauline letters. Google Books now supports offline reading in Google Chrome. Logos Bible Software adds online resource previews. Robert Woods reflects on Hugh of St. Victor’s Didascalicon. ARTStor makes images of Dura-Europos documents available online (HT: Jim Davila). Marc Cortez reflects on Augustine’s comments on “monsters.” Joseph Kelly digests the Hebrew Bible’s references to “extra-biblical literary sources.” Mark Goodacre discusses the Protevangelium of James.

I’m pleased to say that the new website for the Great Books Honors College at Faulkner University is out of beta. The site has been a work in progress for a while but has, at this point, come together fairly nicely and completely. Of particular interest here is the College’s Christian Institute for the Study of Liberal Arts. At present, the Institute offers an innovative Master of Letters program that heavily utilizes Google Apps for Education and other distance education media to help form students and faculty into a virtual learning community. In coming years, the Institute looks forward to adding Bachelor and Doctor of Letters programs also. ...

To complement the earlier pre-publication release of its Hebrew Bible counterpart, Logos Bible Software now has the first six volumes of the Baylor Handbook on the Greek New Testament Series available for order through its pre-publication program. Also noteworthy are the 12 Days of Logos promotions on Calvin’s Commentaries and the Pillar New Testament Commentary. ...

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“80” caption=“Grant Osborne”] [/caption] Today, the second edition of Grant Osborne’s Hermeneutical Spiral for Logos Bible Software has come on sale. According to Osborne, hermeneutics is a spiral from text to context–a movement between the horizon of the text and the horizon of the reader that spirals nearer and nearer toward the intended meaning of the text and its significance for today. ...

The first four volumes of the Baylor Handbook on the Hebrew Bible Series are now available for order from Logos Bible Software via their pre-publication program. In general, Rather than devote space to the type of theological and exegetical comments found in most commentaries, this series instead focuses on the Hebrew text and its related issues, syntactic and otherwise. The volumes in the series serve as prequels to commentary proper, providing guides to understanding the linguistic characteristics of the texts from which the messages of the texts may then be derived. ...

On the web: Logos Bible Software is developing their edition of Meyer’s New Testament commentary under development, and releases several plugins for Biblia.com. Robert Holmstedt and John Cook discusses “Genesis 1.1 and Topic-fronting before a Wayyiqtol.” Robert Woods discusses Stratford Caldecott’s Beauty for Truth’s Sake. Larry Hurtado highlights Ragnar Leivestad’s “Exit the Apocalyptic Son of Man,” New Testament Studies 18 (1971), 243–67. Tommy Wasserman discusses the new Parallel Pericopes of the Synoptic Gospels volume in the Novum Testamentum Graecum Editio Critica Maior series. Mary Crane and Thomas Chiles consider “Why the Liberal Arts Need the Sciences (and Vice Versa).”