Weblog

On the web: Steve Caruso connects one of the recently-discovered Jordanian codices to a coin from the era of John Hyrcanus I (HT: Jim Davila) Brian LePort surveys interpretations of ἡ κτίσις in Rom 8:19–22. John Byron notes a “music video” that particularly appeals to doctoral students. Dirk Jongkind considers Margaret Sim’s Marking Thought and Talk in New Testament Greek: New Light from Linguistics on the Particles ἵνα and ὅτι. Klyne Snodgrass has an article in Bibliotheca Sacra where he re-presents some of the issues he discussed in his 2010 lecture series at Dallas Seminary (HT: Brian Tucker).

On the web: Stirling Bartholomew considers Ezek 37:1b. Yonatan Adler lectures on “The Tefillin of Qumran: Archeology and Halacha” this Friday (HT: Jim Davila).

Alison Babeu has a new ebook freely available in PDF format: “Rome Wasn’t Digitized in a Day”: Building a Cyberinfrastructure for Digital Classicists (Washington, D. C.: Council on Library and Information Resources, 2011). According to the publisher, The author provides a summative and recent overview of the use of digital technologies in classical studies, focusing on classical Greece, Rome, and the ancient Middle and Near East, and generally on the period up to about 600 AD [ sic]. The report explores what projects exist and how they are used, examines the infrastructure that currently exists to support digital classics as a discipline, and investigates larger humanities cyberinfrastructure projects and existing tools or services that might be repurposed for the digital classics. ...

On the web: James McGrath reflects on the value of liberal arts education. Emily Runde comments on the British Library’s ongoing exhibition of “illuminated” manuscripts from the “Dark” Ages, providing several stunningly vibrant page scans.

Logos releases a new collection for medieval historical theology, which includes: Aidan Nichols, Discovering Aquinas: An Introduction to His Life, Work, and Invluence and Lawrence Cunningham, Francis of Assisi: Performing the Gospel of Life. For more information, please see the product page.

Van Til’s perspective resembles Kuhn’s. One major difference is that, where Kuhn has mutable paradigms, Van Til has a reality-constituting mind of God.

On the web: Alan Bandy discusses faith and scholarship. Tim Henderson discusses the possibility that σωτήρ was a late-developing nomen sacrum ( part 1, part 2). Dirk Jongkind highlights some of Philip Davies’ recent comments on the Jordanian lead codices. Robert Woods reflects on reading Cicero’s On Old Age with college freshmen.

James Tucker considers Timothy McLay’s comments regarding memory and textual variation in the use of Septuagintal texts, particularly 2 Kgdms 7; Amos 9:11 in conjunction with Acts 15:16. ...

James Garland has an insightful article, “The Value of Humility in Academe (No Kidding)” at the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Recently, on the web: The Centre for Public Christianity has a three-part interview with Lynn Cohick about women in the Greco-Roman world (HT: Michael Bird, John Byron). Brian LePort discusses the future of seminary education. Tim Henderson comments on a selection from Justin Martyr’s Dialog with Trypho. Joel Willitts discusses elegance in writing.

C. S. Lewis’s introduction to Athanasius’s On the Incarnation has since been reprinted under the title “On the Reading of Old Books” as, for instance, in Walter Hooper’s edited collection of Lewis miscellanies, God in the Dock. This introduction’s text is, however, also available at Silouan in HTML format (HT: Michael Hyatt). ...

Recently, on the web: Tim Henderson discusses what information Celsus provides about heresy and orthodoxy in early Christianity. Libby Nelson summarizes the state of financial aid after the removal of federal student loan subsidy for graduate students.

[caption id=“attachment_7680” align=“alignright” width=“80” caption=“Marcus Tullius Cicero”] [/caption] In his classic on The Nature of the Gods, Cicero identifies the key problem facing him as being “the question whether the gods do nothing, care for nothing, and take their ease detached from all concern with the care and government of the world: or whether on the contrary all things have been created and formed by them from the dawn of time, and will be ruled and governed by them to all eternity” ( 69–70). ...

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“100” caption=“Image via Wikipedia”] [/caption] Since May 2007, there has been a pretty healthy discussion among Ubuntu Linux users about installing and operating Logos Bible Software under that operating system. About a month ago now, I finally switched from Windows XP (SP3) to Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty), and since then, I’d been running Logos 3 (Libronix) inside a virtualized Windows XP machine using VirtualBox. ...

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include: Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies Ehud Ben Zvi and Diana V. Edelman, eds., The Production of Prophecy: Constructing Prophecy and Prophets in Yehud, reviewed by Bob Becking Joel M. LeMon, Yahweh’s Winged Form in the Psalms: Exploring Congruent Iconography and Texts, reviewed by Jeremy M. Hutton Daniel O’Hare, “Have You Seen, Son of Man?”: A Study of the Translation and Vorlage of LXX Ezekiel 40–48, reviewed by Francis Dalrymple-Hamilton New Testament and Cognate Studies ...

Edzell Castle, Angus, Scotland Last fall, the Great Books Honors College at Faulkner University launched the Christian Institute for the Study of Liberal Arts and welcomed the Institute’s first class of Master of Letters students. The Institute will also soon add Bachelor and Doctor of Letters programs. These highly interactive and integrative programs are entirely online and powered by Google Apps for Education, in conjunction with Skype and Blackboard. ...

Recently, in cyberspace: Princeton Seminary announces that it will host “Creation, Conflict, and Cosmos,” a conference on Rom 5–8, May 2–5, 2012. The British Library adds 24 new manuscripts to its online collection. Robert Woods reflects on some of Mortimer Adler’s comments on education. Mark Bauerlein discusses Stanley Fish. Peter Williams reviews the SBL Greek New Testament. Brian LePort posts a brief video clip of N. T. Wright pondering sacrifice. Jim Davila notes the online availability of Jared Calaway’s dissertation, “Heavenly Sabbath, Heavenly Sanctuary: The Transformation of Priestly Sacred Space and Sacred Time in the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice and the Epistle to the Hebrews” and mentions the online availability of Frederick Field’s 1875 edition of the then-extant portions of Origen’s Hexapla. Tim Gombis starts blogging (HT: Joel Watts). Zotero releases its own plugin for WordPress.org users.

Recently in the biblioblogosphere: Brian LePort discusses the value of the humanities. Jim Davila notes some new Rabbinic Studies resources by Tyndale Tech. The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (re)discovers four New Testament manuscripts (HT: Tommy Wasserman). Matthew Malcolm notes a free article by Anthony Thiselton, “Wisdom in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures: Wisdom in the New Testament.” Matt Emerson, another Southeastern spring PhD graduate, has freshly started blogging at Intertextual Interpretation.

Recently in cyberspace: Logos Bible Software is nearly ready to produce an electronic edition of the Eerdmans Biblical Resources Series. Todd Bolen finds an ancient “Lego” from Cos. Logos Bible Software launches a new trade ebook app, Vyrso, and expects to offer 25,000 ebooks through this app by the end of the year. Through June 3, Logos also has the Chesterton Collection on sale (60% off). Cynthia Nielsen discusses the Confessions as “An Augustinian Improvisation on Bakhtin’s Two Categories of Discourse.” Roger Pearse discusses “Greek text critical marks as described by Diogenes Laertius” (HT: Tommy Wasserman). Charles Jones digests some recent news from the Perseus Project. B-Greek has moved (HT: Stephen Carlson). Mark Stevens relaunches his blog as the Parson’s Patch. Leonard Kish discusses “Socrates, social media and the new dialectic.”

Joel Watts has up May’s “unsettled” biblioblog carnival, and last month, Joel Watts et al. unseated Jim West in the Alexa biblioblog ranking. Among this past months top 50 biblioblogs by Alexa rank, the top 10 student biblioblogs are: ...

[caption id=“attachment_7519” align=“alignright” width=“80” caption=“Craig Blomberg with Jennifer Markley”] [/caption] In Saturday’s mail arrived Craig Blomberg’s Handbook of New Testament Exegesis, with Jennifer Markley (Baker, 2010), which I’ll be reviewing this summer for the Stone-Campbell Journal. The text is just over 300 pages, and the back cover includes recommendations from Thomas Schreiner, Jeannine Brown, Grant Osborne, and Mark Strauss. At first brush, this introductory text also includes some discussions that should push its readers in a more technical direction. So, I’ll certainly be interested in working through the book in detail in the coming weeks. ...

On Tuesday, Brian Croxall compared Zotero and EndNote. At least until a stable release of Zotero standalone arrives, the review has the two platforms standing fairly on equal terms. Recent updates to Zotero’s SBL citation style have included some additional issues, but hopefully, those problems will soon be remedied also. ...

The Society of Biblical Literature style for Zotero has recently been updated (8:16 pm, May 11, 2011). Since I had last visited the style repository, development versions of the following styles have also been added: Currents in Biblical Research INTER. Romanian Institute for Inter-Orthodox, Inter-Confessional and Inter-Religious Studies Universidad Evangélica del Paraguay Wheaton College PhD BITH For some time Zotero, had only supported SBL style, but the addition of CurrBR as another major field journal format is certainly positive. ...

Recently in cyberspace: Sofiya Melnykova notes that Open Culture is collecting lists of free ebooks and audiobooks. Matthew writes that Amazon is preparing to release its own line of Kindle tablet devices. Uniting Church Theological College (Melbourne, Australia) seeks a Professor of Old Testament (HT: Tyndale House). Jeremy notes the availability a Hebrew Bible, according to the Westminster Leningrad Codex, for Kindle ( part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4). Tommy Wasserman reports that Evangelical Textual Criticism is now on Facebook. Stephen Carlson lists errata for Swanson’s collation of G and 1735 in Galatians and discusses “The Position of με in Acts 20:23” Georgia State University seeks a Visiting Instructor of Hebrew. Logos Bible Software has released a free Czech Study Bible, is almost ready to ship the Evangelical Exegetical Commentary, and for a limited time, they are also offering the Baker Theology Collection (11 vols.) for about 31% off with the coupon code “AEBTC9621.” John Meade reflects on recent funding issues for humanities and Biblical Studies projects. Nijay Gupta highly recommends Croy’s Prima Scriptura and discusses “The Question of Coherence in Philo’s Cultic Imagery: A Socio-literary Approach” in the current issue of the Journal for the Study of Pseudepigrapha. Evernote’s extension for Google Chrome gets a substantial update: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFOiCOmgXmc&w=450] Cynthia Nielsen considers Augustine and non-modern autobiographical confession ( part 1, part 2, part 3). Rob Bradshaw (May 4, 2011) posts George Mavrodes, “The Inspiration of Autographs,” Evangelical Quarterly 41.1 (1969): 19–29 (HT: Peter Head). Trevin Wax reproduces and reflects on some of N. T. Wright’s comments about Rob Bell’s Love Wins (HT: John Byron), and Josh Graves posts the original video of Wright’s comments (HT: Matt Dabbs). Concordia University seeks an Assistant Professor of Theology (Old Testament, Hebrew Scriptures, or Hebrew Language Emphasis).

[caption id=“attachment_7423” align=“alignright” width=“80” caption=“Steve Moore”] [/caption] Amazon currently has the Kindle edition of Steve Moore’s Who Is My Neighbor?: Being a Good Samaritan in a Connected World ( NavPress, 2011) available for free. ...

Recently in cyberspace: Logos Bible Software adds the Major Works of Justin Martyr in Greek to their pre-publication program and the Desiderius Erasmus Collection to their community pricing program. Brian LePort celebrates six years of blogging. Walmart begins selling Amazon’s Kindle 3G+WiFi and Kindle with Special Offers (HT: Matthew). James McGrath reviews Earl Doherty’s Jesus: Neither God Nor Man. Ben Myers lectures on Augustine’s De Trinitate (HT: Brian LePort). Larry Hurtado discusses monotheism and worship. Exploring Our Matrix and Euangelion are moving to Patheos.com. Michael Bird discusses the Johannine purpose statement ( part 1, part 2). Marybeth Gasman identifies some “Roadblocks to Doctoral Success.” Kathleen Fitzpatrick discusses Digital Humanities. ...

The latest issue of Themelios includes the following: Carl Trueman, “Minority Report: Know Your Limits: The Key Secret of Theological Controversy” Keith E. Johnson, “Trinitarian Agency and the Eternal Subordination of the Son: An Augustinian Perspective” Uche Anizor, “A Spirited Humanity: The Trinitarian Ecclesiology of Colin Gunton” Stephen Dempster, “Review Article: Magnum Opus and Magna Carta: The Meaning of the Pentateuch” Robert H. Gundry, “Pastoral Pensées: The Hopelessness of the Unevangelized”

April DeConick points out that the Clairmont Colleges Digital Library has put online a number of images of the Nag Hammadi codices.

On Friday, Southeastern Seminary’s Graduate Studies faculty accepted my dissertation, “The Hermeneutical Roles of the Teacher of Righteousness and of Jesus of Nazareth in the Qumran Sectarian Manuscripts and in the Epistle to the Romans” ( abstract). This acceptance followed Wednesday’s oral defense where the committee had passed my project with minor revisions (i.e., correcting some remaining errata, describing a few further implications). The Southeastern committee members included Andreas Köstenberger and Benjamin Merkle, and I was also privileged to have James Charlesworth as the project’s external reader. ...

The Society of Biblical Literature has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to produce a new website that will “invite[] general audiences to engage with biblical scholarship.” The website is currently scheduled for a full launch in 2013. For the full SBL press release, see here. ...