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The Journal of Textual Reasoning is an open-access publication from the Society for Textual Reasoning.

The Lying Pen of the Scribes has a growing index of online information about “post-2002 Dead Sea Scrolls-like fragments.”

Biblical interpreters must always be alert to when the text begins to disappoint the fore-meanings they bring to it.

To the standard and academic basic editions, Logos Bible Software has now added free access to “Cloud Basic.”

Whether scholarship “is” or “should be” a meritocracy could be discussed, but even when it falls short, one should still act as though it is a meritocracy.

Scripture can speak for itself. But, those with Christian education vocations are specially bound to pass on its testimony and interpretation for their milieux.

From the morass of the unfamiliar and strange, humans seem to acquire language or other forms of understanding by known quantities.

Due out this November is Randall Price and Wayne House’s “Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology.”

The free book of the month from Logos Bible Software is David Garland’s commentary on Mark in the NIV Application Commentary series.

Mark Hoffman has updated his list of “free Bible software and trial versions” to include more recent additions, as well as a number of online resources.

Due out from Baker Academic in February 2018 is Ian Levy’s “Introducing Medieval Biblical Interpretation: The Senses of Scripture in Premodern Exegesis.”

Due out from Baker Academic in January 2018 is R. W. L. Moberly’s “The Bible in a Disenchanted Age: The Enduring Possibility of Christian Faith.”

Forthcoming this November from Baker Academic is Mary Veeneman’s “Introducing theological Method: A Survey of Contemporary Theologians and Approaches.”

Logos Bible Software offers syntax graphs for “the LXX Deuterocanon/Apocrypha.”

Tristan Harris, former design ethicist at Google, discusses at TED the interplay between technology, attention, and distraction.

Dirk Jongkind reflects on harmonization triggers, especially in the Pauline corpus.

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include:

• James Aston and John Walliss, eds., Small Screen Revelations: Apocalypse in Contemporary Television, reviewed by Sylvie Raquel
• Joseph A. Bessler, A Scandalous Jesus: How Three Historic Quests Changed Theology for the Better, reviewed by Mary K. Schmitt
• Daniel Bodi, ed., Abigail, Wife of David, and Other Ancient Oriental Women, reviewed by Benjamin J. M. Johnson
• Jared C. Calaway, The Sabbath and the Sanctuary: Access to God in the Letter to the Hebrews and Its Priestly Context, reviewed by Carl Mosser
• Ohad Cohen, The Verbal Tense System in Late Biblical Hebrew Prose, reviewed by Bálint Károly Zabán
• John Granger Cook, Crucifixion in the Mediterranean World, reviewed by Charles L. Quarles
• Jerome F. D. Creach, Violence in Scripture, reviewed by Pieter G. R. de Villiers
• Arthur J. Dewey and Robert J. Miller, eds., The Complete Gospel Parallels, reviewed by Thomas J. Kraus
• Matthew Drever, Image, Identity, and the Forming of the Augustinian Soul, reviewed by Cheuk Yin Yam and Anthony Dupont
• Diana V. Edelman, ed., Deuteronomy-Kings as Emerging Authoritative Books: A Conversation, reviewed by Trent C. Butler
• Shawn W. Flynn, YHWH is King: Development of Divine Kingship in Ancient Israel, reviewed by Michael B. Hundley
• Steven J. Friesen, Sarah A. James, and Daniel N. Schowalter, eds., Corinth in Contrast: Studies in Inequality, reviewed by Thomas R. Blanton IV
• Matti Friedman, The Aleppo Codex: In Pursuit of One of the World’s Most Coveted, Sacred, and Mysterious Books, reviewed by Paul Sanders
• Cornelis den Hertog, The Other Face of God: ‘I Am That I Am’ Reconsidered, reviewed by Richard S. Briggs
• Christl M. Maier and Carolyn J. Sharp, eds., Prophecy and Power: Jeremiah in Feminist and Postcolonial Perspective, reviewed by Andrew Shead
• Heinz-Günther Nesselrath and Florian Wilk, eds., Gut und Böse in Mensch und Welt: Philosophische und religiöse Konzeptionen vom Alten Orient bis zum frühen Islam, reviewed by Michael S. Moore
• Jonathan Miles Robker, The Jehu Revolution: A Royal Tradition of the Northern Kingdom and Its Ramifications, reviewed by Aren M. Maeir
• David C. Sim and James S. McLaren, eds., Attitudes to Gentiles in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, reviewed by Avram Shannon
• Mirjam van der Vorm-Croughs, The Old Greek of Isaiah: An Analysis of Its Pluses and Minuses, reviewed by Randall X. Gauthier
• Stephen Westerholm, Justification Reconsidered: Rethinking a Pauline Theme, reviewed by David J. Neville

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies has its articles openly accessible online.

Freedom has a helpful tutorial about being “more productive in the afternoon.” The same principles apply to whenever is one’s preferred time for focused work.

In a helpful 2003 essay, David Aune discusses “the use and abuse of the enthymeme in New Testament scholarship” (New Testament Studies 49, no. 3, 299–320).

Kristina Malsberger discusses managing oneself and one’s commitments amid a hectic whirlwind of activity. A time-honored key is the daily to-do list.

E. M. Cope’s 1867 introduction to Aristotle’s Rhetoric (London: MacMillan) is available via Internet Archive in several different scans.

Jake Mailhot discusses “how to juggle ministry while attending seminary.” Learning to live well in this season requires healthy boundaries for various demands

Logos 7 academic basic is available for free. Resources included are sufficient to get one’s feet wet in how biblical language research works in Logos.

Cal Newport outlines the basics of how he reads when working on a project. According to Newport, “The key to my system is the pencil mark in the page corner.”

Digital devices and media can make focus difficult. Freedom provides helpful of “training wheels” to foster better focus amid such distractions.

Logos Bible Software supports reopening closed tabs both via panel menus and keyboard shortcuts.

Valerie Bisharat shares some helpful reflections on “how to avoid focus-stealing traps.”

Over on his blog, Richard Middleton abstracts his essay “A Psalm against David? A Canonical Reading of Psalm 51 as a Critique of David’s Inadequate Repentance in 2 Samuel 12” from Explorations in Interdisciplinary Reading: Theological, Exegetical, and Reception-historical Perspectives(Pickwick, 2017).

For additional discussion of the volume, see Castleman, Lockett, and Presley, eds., “Explorations in interdisciplinary reading” and “Explorations in interdisciplinary reading” is out.

Texas Christian University’s open, online thesis repository contains John Burkett’s treatment of Book III of Aristotle’s Retoric. The project is a commentary-style work on that book that strives to complete the project that William Grimaldi began with Books I and II. According to the abstract,

This new commentary on Aristotle’s Rhetoric III serves the purpose which the text held at the Classical Lyceum: elucidating Aristotle’s theory of style (lexis) and arrangement (taxis) for scholars, teachers, and practitioners of rhetoric. This commentary provides a much needed update because the last commentary, written by Cambridge classicist E. M. Cope in 1877, is now understood as a misinterpretation that reads Aristotle Platonically, takes seriously only rational appeals, assumes a mimetic theory of language that depreciates style, and misdefines central concepts like the enthymeme and common topics. Providing a new interpretation, this commentary may be summarized by three adjectives: Grimaldian, rhetorical, and accessible. First, this Grimaldian commentary applies the new rhetoric philosophy of William M. A. Grimaldi, S.J., which he explicates in Studies in the Philosophy of Aristotle’s Rhetoric (1972) and in his two-volume Commentary (1980-1988), wherein Grimaldi develops an integrated and contextual interpretation of the Rhetoric. Second, this rhetorical commentary observes the rhetoric in the Rhetoric since Aristotle typically practices what he teaches: writing with enthymemes, defining by metaphor, clarifying by antithesis, and arranging units by thesis, analysis, and synthesis. This commentary observes how Aristotle applies his three rhetorical appeals (êthos, pathos, logos), his theories of propriety (prepon), exotic (xenos), and virtue (aretê) in style, and the systems of Greek imagery, all of which develop a unified and interactive theory of invention, style, and arrangement. Attention is given to Aristotle’s creative theory of metaphor, being a tropos (turn) and a topos (place) of invention, functioning as a stylistic syllogism for creating knowledge with quick, pleasant learning. Arrangement also functions creatively with localized topical procedures for responding to the particular needs of each part of a composition. Third, this accessible commentary features text, translation, comments, and glossary for readers who may not be familiar with Aristotle’s idiom but who have an interest in his rhetorical theory and technical terms. Finally, incorporating recent scholarship, this commentary provides insights from classical rhetoric and new rhetoric, showing their interrelationship and how contemporary research in rhetoric builds on and helps to elucidate Aristotle’s expansive rhetoric as a general theory of language.

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