Blog

On the Web:

• Phil Gons digests Tony Reinke’s suggestions for reading more.
• Logos Bible Software has added the 12-volume Clarendon edition of Aristotle’s works (1908–1952) to their community pricing offerings.

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

• Michael Avioz, “I Sat Alone”: Jeremiah among the Prophets, reviewed by Wilhelm Wessels
• Steed Vernyl Davidson, Empire and Exile: Postcolonial Readings of the Book of Jeremiah, reviewed by Bob Becking
• Joëlle Ferry, Isaïe: “Comme les mots d’un livre scellé”, reviewed by Wilson de Angelo Cunha
• Jean-Daniel Macchi, Christophe Nihan, Thomas Römer, and Jan Rückl, eds., Les recueils prophétiques de la Bible: Origines, milieux, et contexte proche-oriental, reviewed by James M. Bos
• Shalom M. Paul, Isaiah 40–66: Translation and Commentary, reviewed by Roy E. Gane
• Deborah W. Rooke, Handel’s Israelite Oratorio Libretti: Sacred Drama and Biblical Exegesis, reviewed by Helen Leneman
• Robb Andrew Young, Hezekiah in History and Tradition, reviewed by Ibolya Balla

New Testament and Cognate Studies

Logos Bible Software is now taking $0.00 pre-orders for their upcoming edition of Codex Bezae. Among the manuscript’s noteworthy characteristics,

It is the oldest-known manuscript containing the story of the adulterous woman found in John 7–8, as well as a longer ending of the Gospel of Mark. There are also several apparent additions, including a story found nowhere else of Jesus addressing a man found working on the Sabbath.

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On the web:

• Nijay Gupta provides the table of contents for the latest issue of the Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters.
• Robert Woods reflects on significance and dissonance in Great Books.
• Abram K-J discusses the Göttingen Septuagint ( 1, 2, HT: Tommy Wasserman).

The latest issue of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society arrived in today’s mail and includes the following:

• Matthew Akers, “What’s in a Name?: An Examination of the Usage of the Term ‘Hebrew’ in the Old Testament”
• G. K. Beale, “The Use of Hosea 11:1 in Matthew 2:15: One More Time”
• Joseph Greene, “The Spirit in the Temple: Bridging the Gap between Old Testament Absence and New Testament Assumption”
• Moyer Hubbard, “Kept Safe through Childbearing: Maternal Mortality, Justification by Faith, and the Social Setting of 1 Timothy 2:15”
• Peter Davids, “What Glasses Are You Wearing?: Reading Hebrew Narratives through Second Temple Lenses”
• Bryan Litfin, “Eusebius on Constantine: Truth and Hagiography at the Milvian Bridge”
• Steven Cowan, “Does 1 Corinthians 10:13 Imply Libertarian Freedom?: A Reply to Paul A. Himes”
• Paul Himes, “First Corinthians 10:13: A Rejoinder to Steven Cowan”
• Luke Van Horn, “On Incorporating Middle Knowledge into Calvinism: A Theological/Metaphysical Muddle?”

On the web:

• Mark Hoffman notes that Google Maps’ street view now includes several additional locations of significance around Israel.
• Charles Jones identifies several publicly accessible dissertations from the University of Pennsylvania.
• Dirk Jongkind reflects on Acts 17:3 in connection with the two latest Nestle-Aland texts.

The next issue of the Biblical Theology Bulletin includes:

• David M. Bossman, “Politicization of Theological Claims Is (Still) Local”
• Victor H. Matthews, “Taking Calculated Risks: The Story of the Cannibal Mothers (2 Kings 6:24–7:20)”
• Brian Schmisek, “The Body of His Glory Resurrection Imagery in Philippians 3:20–21” Simon J. Joseph, “‘Love Your Enemies’: The Adamic Wisdom of Q 6:27–28, 35c–d”
• Matthew Y. Emerson, “Arbitrary Allegory, Typical Typology, or Intertextual Interpretation? Paul’s Use of the Pentateuch in Galatians 4:21–31”

Google Drive’s Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps are scheduled to cease supporting exports to Microsoft’s older Office 97–2003 formats at the end of the month. According to the Google Apps blog,

In September, we added the ability to export Google documents to the newer Microsoft Office formats that rely on open standards (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx). . . . As we announced in October, after January 31, 2013, users will not be able to export files to the older Office 97-2003 formats [e.g., .doc, .xls, .ppt]. For users who still use Office 97-2003, we recommend installing the free compatibility plugin from Microsoft, which will allow them to open the modern Office file types.

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Bridget Almas notes the availability of a new syntax search utility that presently covers about 400,000 words of Perseus’s Greek and Latin texts (HT: Charles Jones).

As Anthony Le Donne and Michael Bird have already noted, N. T. Wright’s much-anticipated fourth volume in the Christian Origins and the Question of God Series, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, has now become three installments. Besides the series’ first three volumes, all three installments of the new fourth part are now available for pre-order via Logos Bible Software. The three individual installments’ contents are outlined there as follows:

Wright explores Paul’s worldview and theology in light of Second Temple Judaism [ Paul and the Faithfulness of God]. He also summarizes and explains all the key areas of debate in contemporary Pauline studies [ Paul and His Recent Interpreters]. The final part of this three-volume work [ Pauline Perspectives: Essays on Paul 1978–2012] brings together N. T. Wright’s most important and influential articles on Paul over the last 30 years.

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After several years’ blogging at jdavidstark.com, the site has now moved into its own domain at jdavidstark.com. All of the site’s links and RSS feeds should redirect automatically. But, you may see somewhat faster service by coming directly to jdavidstark.com or subscribing directly to jdavidstark.com/feed/rss/.

The Twitter handle has moved from @ntinterp to @jdavidstark, and the Tumblr feed has moved from ntinterp.tumblr.com to jdavidstark.tumblr.com. If we’ve connected on one of these networks, we should still be connected, but please look for future updates in the updated feeds. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Yahoo connections remain just as they have been.

Apparently, Baker Academic has now entered the blogosphere (HT: The Jesus Blog). Besides the initial announcement, the blog is kicking off with an interview with Craig Keener about his Miracles (2011).

Crossway has recently released The Kingdom of God, co-edited by Christopher Morgan of Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, and Robert Peterson, of Covenant Theological Seminary. According to Crossway’s description:

The kingdom of God is a very large biblical category indeed. Accordingly, a comprehensive understanding of the kingdom would illuminate many aspects of theology. With this in mind, Bruce Waltke, Robert Yarbrough, Gerald Bray, Clinton Arnold, Gregg Allison, Stephen Nichols, and Anthony Bradley have collaborated to articulate a full view of the kingdom of God across multiple disciplines. One of the most important books on the kingdom since G. E. Ladd, this volume offers a robust theology and is corroborated by the very series in which it stands. Fourth in the noted Theology in Community series, The Kingdom of God establishes the significance of the kingdom from the perspectives of biblical theology, systematic theology, history, pastoral application, missiology, and cultural analysis.

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The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

• Katharine J. Dell, Brian A. Mastin, and James K. Aitken, eds., On Stone and Scroll: Essays in Honour of Graham Ivor Davies, reviewed by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer
• Matthew R. Schlimm, From Fratricide to Forgiveness: The Language and Ethics of Anger in Genesis, reviewed by Phillip Sherman

New Testament and Cognate Studies

• Daniel Boyarin, The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ, reviewed by Mark A. Matson
• Craig S. Keener, Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, vol. 1: Introduction and 1:1-2:47, reviewed by Richard I. Pervo, by Daniel L. Smith, and by Joseph B. Tyson
• Lester Ruth, Carrie Steenwyk, and John D. Witvliet, Walking Where Jesus Walked: Worship in Fourth-Century Jerusalem, reviewed by Amy Donaldson

General Biblical Studies

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

• Eberhard Bons and Jans Joosten, eds., Septuagint Vocabulary: Pre-history, Usage, Reception, reviewed by Francis Dalrymple-Hamilton and by Daniel M. O’Hare
• Deborah O’Daniel Cantrell, The Horsemen of Israel: Horses and Chariotry in Monarchic Israel, reviewed by Raz Kletter
• Peter Enns, Ecclesiastes, reviewed by Gert T. M. Prinsloo

New Testament and Cognate Studies

• Bruce W. Longenecker, Hearing the Silence: Jesus on the Edge and God in the Gap-Luke 4 in Narrative Perspective, reviewed by Michal Beth Dinkler
• Stéphane Saulnier, Calendrical Variations in Second Temple Judaism: New Perspectives on the ‘Date of the Last Supper’ Debate, reviewed by Helen Jacobus
• Jarvis J. Williams, Maccabean Martyr Traditions in Paul’s Theology of Atonement: Did Martyr Theology Shape Paul’s Conception of Jesus’s Death?, reviewed by Jan Willem van Henten

Miscellaneous

Courtesy of Logos Bible Software, Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections is available for free this month:

http://twitter.com/Logos/status/286528925717393408

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

• Georg Fischer and Dominik Markl, Das Buch Exodus, reviewed by Paul Sanders
• Peter Hon Wan Lau, Identity and Ethics in the Book of Ruth: A Social Identity Approach, reviewed by Timothy Stone
• Nancy C. Lee, Lyrics of Lament: From Tragedy to Transformation, reviewed by Ulrich Berges and by Leonard Mare
• John H. Sailhamer, The Meaning of the Pentateuch: Revelation, Composition and Interpretation, reviewed by Andrew Steinmann
• Simon P. Stocks, The Form and Function of the Tricolon in the Psalms of Ascents: Introducing a New Paradigm for Hebrew Poetic Line-form, reviewed by Gert T. M. Prinsloo

New Testament and Cognate Studies

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

• Moshe Bar-Asher and Devorah Dimant, eds., Meghillot [Hebrew]: Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls, VIII-IX, reviewed by George Brooke
• Abigail Pelham, Contested Creations in the Book of Job: The-World-as-It-Ought- and-Ought-Not-to-Be, reviewed by Norman Habel
• Beat Weber, Werkbuch Psalmen III: Theologie und Spiritualität des Psalters und seiner Psalmen, reviewed by Mark Elliott
• Ina Willi-Plein, Das Buch Genesis: Kapitel 12-50, reviewed by Wolfgang Zwickel

New Testament and Cognate Studies

In addition to John Barclay’s tribute to Friedrich Avemarie, the latest issue of New Testament Studies includes:

• Kelly R. Iverson, “Incongruity, Humor, and Mark: Performance and the Use of Laughter in the Second Gospel (Mark 8.14–21)”
• Izaak J. de Hulster, “The Two Angels in John 20.12: An Egyptian Icon of Resurrection”
• Isaac W. Oliver, “Simon Peter Meets Simon the Tanner: The Ritual Insignificance of Tanning in Ancient Judaism”
• Andrzej Gieniusz, “‘Debtors to the Spirit’ in Romans 8.12?: Reasons for the Silence”
• L. L. Welborn, “‘That There May Be Equality’: The Contexts and Consequences of a Pauline Ideal”
• Sigurd Grindheim, “Not Salvation History, but Salvation Territory: The Main Subject Matter of Galatians”
• Andreas Dettwiler, “La lettre aux Colossiens: une théologie de la mémoire”
• Régis Burnet, “Pour une Wirkungsgeschichtedes lieux: l’exemple d’Haceldama”
• Gyula Vattamány, “Kann das Salz verderben? Philologische Erwägungen zum Salz-Gleichnis Jesu”

The latest issue of the Journal of Biblical Literature includes:

• Jonathan Kaplan, “1 Samuel 8:11-18 as ‘A Mirror for Princes’”
• Nizzim Amzallag and Mikhal Avriel, “The Cryptic Meaning of the Isaiah 14 Māšāl”
• Mark Hamilton, “Isaiah 32 as Literature and Political Meditation”
• Mark Awabdy, “Yhwh Exegetes Torah: How Ezekiel 44:7–9 Bars Foreigners from the Sanctuary”
• Christian Stadel, “A Septuagint Translation Tradition and the Samaritan Targum to Genesis 41:43”
• John Meier, “The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds (Matthew 13:24–30): Is Thomas’s Version (Logion 57) Independent?”
• Andrew Simmonds, “Mark’s and Matthew’s Sub Rosa Message in the Scene of Pilate and the Crowd”
• Matthew Rindge, “Reconfiguring the Akedah and Recasting God: Lament and Divine Abandonment in Mark”
• Benjamin Lappenga, “Misdirected Emulation and Paradoxical Zeal: Paul’s Redefinition of ‘The Good’ as Object of ζῆλος in Galatians 4:12–20”
• Callie Callon, “Secondary Characters Furthering Characterization: The Depiction of Slaves in the Acts of Peter”

Jim Davila notes a report of a new German bill that explicitly permits the continued practice of infant male circumcision on religious grounds. The legality of the practice in Germany had been thrown into question by a related decision by the Cologne court earlier this year.

And you haven’t completed your optional profile information, you should. Apparently, doing so makes you eligible for a random monthly selection of two members to receive a year’s free membership dues.

Apparently, the Pope now has his own Twitter account from which he sent the following earlier this morning:

https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/278808536404852736

For a great deal more than 140 characters on the Pope’s tweet, see here.

J. P. Migne’s two massive compilations of Patristic literature have now made their way onto Logos Bible Software’s community pricing platform ( Greek, Latin). Also appearing there now is some of René Graffin, Francois Nau, and Max de Saxe’s compilation of other Patristic texts not included in Migne’s anthologies.

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

• John Barton, The Theology of the Book of Amos, reviewed by Tyler Mayfield and by Heinz-Dieter Neef
• Keith Bodner, Jeroboam’s Royal Drama, reviewed by Matthew Suriano
• Michael D. Coogan and Mark S. Smith, eds., Stories from Ancient Canaan (2nd ed.), reviewed by Henk Potgieter
• Frank Lothar Hossfeld and Eric Zenger, A Commentary on Psalms 101–150 (Psalms, vol. 3), reviewed by Thomas Kraus
• Alice L. Laffey, First and Second Kings, reviewed by Ginny Brewer-Boydston

New Testament and Cognate Studies

Christian Askeland highlights four PhD studentships available at the University of Aberdeen set to engage the topic of “Authority and Texts: Concepts and Use,” considering questions like:

What constitutes authority and provides authenticity to texts and what is the role of textual criticism? How should authoritative texts (including religious, legal, and other texts), be used and interpreted, and how is this issue determined? Is investigation of the contextual meaning of texts at their time of composition necessary to understanding and respecting their authority, or do different criteria exist which influence readings of texts?

...

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

• A. Graeme Auld, First and Second Samuel: A Commentary, reviewed by Phillip G. Camp
• Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum, Margarete van Ess, and Joachim Marzahn, eds.,  Babylon: Wissenskultur in Orient und Okzident, reviewed by Michael S. Moore
• Alan T. Levenson, The Making of the Modern Jewish Bible: How Scholars in Germany, Israel, and America Transformed an Ancient Text, reviewed by George Savran
• Hans-Peter Mathys, Das Astarte-Quadrat, reviewed by Sven Petry
• Vincent Sénéchal, Rétribution et intercession dans le Deutéronome, reviewed by Paul Sanders
• Marvin A. Sweeney, Tanak: A Theological and Critical Introduction to the Jewish Bible, reviewed by Jason M. Silverman

New Testament and Cognate Studies

The Google Drive mobile apps for Android and iOS now allows users to create and view spreadsheets:

Previous versions had allowed creating and editing of documents but only viewing of spreadsheets created elsewhere. For more information and links to download the appropriate apps, see here.

For Gmail and at least certain Google Apps Mail users who have opted into the “new compose” experience, Google is now rolling out the ability to attach Google Drive items to email messages:

Because these items are stored in and shared via Drive, email attachment size limitations don’t apply, and any updates to the attached item(s) will automatically be available to the message’s recipients. For more information about this update, please see here.

Dan Wallace digests the SBL meeting discussion of the recently announced Romans fragment in the Green collection.