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[caption id=“attachment_7680” align=“alignright” width=“80” caption=“Marcus Tullius Cicero”] [/caption] In his translator’s comments on Cicero’s Nature of the Gods, H. C. P. McGregor makes the following observation about the task of translation: One can . . . choose verbal accuracy at any price, translate each sentence word for word, and so produce a safe bud deadly crib. In an opposite extreme, one may throw all scholarly impedimenta overboard, let vocabulary and syntax go, seeking only to preserve in English dress the sense and argument of the original. . . . A third method goes beyond translation altogether and creates a new work in the image of the old, as Pope and Chapman did with Iliad and Odyssey. ( 64) ...

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.

The latest issue of the Biblical Theology Bulletin includes: Gary Stansell, “David and His Friends: Social-Scientific Perspectives on the David-Jonathan Friendship,” 115–31 Santiago Guijarro and Ana Rodríguez, “The ‘Messianic’ Anointing of Jesus (Mark 14:3–9),” 132–43 Melanie Baffes, “Christology and Discipleship in John 7:37–38,” 144–50 Pieter F. Craffert, “Shamanism and the Shamanic Complex,” 151–61 Among this issue’s book reviews is also my review of Mark Given, ed., Paul Unbound: Other Perspectives on the Apostle (166–67). ...

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.

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“80” caption=“New Testament Studies”] [/caption] The latest issue of New Testament Studies includes: Simon Joseph, “‘Blessed is Whoever is Not Offended by Me’: The Subversive Appropriation of (Royal) Messianic Ideology in Q 3–7” Douglas Campbell, “Galatians 5.11: Evidence of an Early Law-observant Mission by Paul?” Stefan Nordgaard, “Paul’s Appropriation of Philo’s Theory of ‘Two Men’ in 1 Corinthians 15.45–49” Christine Gerber, “Leben allein aus Gnade. Eph 2.1-10 und die paulinische Rechtfertigungsbotschaft” Peter Arzt-Grabner, “Gott als verlässlicher Käufer: Einige Papyrologische Anmerkungen und bibeltheologische Schlussfolgerungen zum Gottesbild der Paulusbriefe” Michael Martin and Jason Whitlark, “The Encomiastic Topics of Syncrisis as the Key to the Structure and Argument of Hebrews” Paul Trebilco, “Why Did the Early Christians Call Themselves ?” ...

Zotero 2.1.7 is now available with a number of performance improvements and bug fixes over the previous stable version. The current version is available from the Zotero homepage.

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: ...

The latest issue of Currents in Biblical Research includes: Geoffrey D. Miller, “Intertextuality in Old Testament Research,” 283–309 Paul Foster, “The Gospel of Peter: Directions and Issues in Contemporary Research,” 310–38 Mark Batluck, “Religious Experience in New Testament Research,” 339–63 Daniel Johansson, “The Identity of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark: Past and Present Proposals,” 364–93 C.D. Elledge, “Future Resurrection of the Dead in Early Judaism: Social Dynamics, Contested Evidence,” 394–421

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include: Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies Alejandro F. Botta, The Aramaic and Egyptian Legal Traditions at Elephantine: An Egyptological Approach, reviewed by Aaron Koller Eric M. Meyers and Paul V. M. Flesher, eds., Aramaic in Postbiblical Judaism and Early Christianity: Papers from the 2004 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar at Duke University, reviewed by John Engle Dvora E. Weisberg, Levirate Marriage and the Family in Ancient Judaism, reviewed by Obiorah Mary Jerome New Testament and Cognate Studies ...

[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. ...

Courtesy of Stanford University, Google Books has available the full text Pinkhos Churgin’s Targum Jonathan to the Prophets(Yale, 1907; Google eBook; PDF). ...

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 latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include: New Testament and Cognate Studies James K. Beilby and Paul Rhodes Eddy, eds., The Historical Jesus: Five Views, reviewed by Pieter F. Craffert Jeremy Corley, ed., New Perspectives on the Nativity, reviewed by Mark R. C. Grundeken Laura Nasrallah and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, eds., Prejudice and Christian Beginnings: Investigating Race, Gender, and Ethnicity in Early Christianity, reviewed by Hal Taussig Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies ...

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. ...

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include: Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies John J. Ahn and Stephen L. Cook, eds., Thus Says the Lord: Essays on the Former and Latter Prophets in Honor of Robert R. Wilson, reviewed by Edgar W. Conrad Scott N. Callaham, Modality and the Biblical Hebrew Infinitive Absolute, reviewed by Brian L. Webster Jurrien Mol, Collective and Individual Responsibility: A Description of Corporate Personality in Ezekiel 18 and 20, reviewed by Karin Schöpflin Susanne Scholz, Sacred Witness: Rape in the Hebrew Bible, reviewed by Eve Levavi Feinstein and Agnethe Siquans J. Randall Short, The Surprising Election and Confirmation of King David, reviewed by Steven L. McKenzie New Testament and Cognate Studies ...

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. ...

This week in the cyberspace: Robert Woods discusses “Christian humanism.” Jeremy Thompson passes his oral dissertation examination. Congratulations! Mark Stevens points out that a new book on Jesus and a new translation of the New Testament are forthcoming from N. T. Wright. Jim Davila reminds us about the upcoming Metz conference on Paul and Qumran. Joel Watts and Matthew note Amazon’s announcement of a library lending service for Kindle. David Perry provides a major update to the Cardo font (1.04). The Connecticut House of Representatives approves a certificate program in Talmudic Studies (HT: Jim Davila). Ron Kubsch notes Amazon’s creation of a German Kindle store.

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include: Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies Ehud Ben Zvi and James D. Nogalski, Two Sides of a Coin: Juxtaposing Views on Interpreting the Book of the Twelve/the Twelve Prophetic Books, reviewed by Marvin A. Sweeney Katell Berthelot, Thierry Legrand, and André Paul, eds., Torah: Genèse, reviewed by Kristin De Troyer Paul D. Korchin, Markedness in Canaanite and Hebrew Verbs, reviewed by John Lubbe Jürg Luchsinger, Poetik der alttestamentlichen Spruchweisheit, reviewed by James Alfred Loader New Testament and Cognate Studies ...

The spring issue of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society arrived in the mail late last week and includes the following: Eugene Merrill, “Old Testament Scholarship and the Man in the Street: Whence and Whither?,” 5–17 Thomas Schreiner, “The Saving Righteousness of God in Christ,” 19–34 Frank Thielman, “God’s Righteousness as God’s Fairness in Romans 1:17: An Ancient Perspective on a Significant Phrase,” 35–48 N. T. Wright, “Justification: Yesterday, Today, and Forever,” 49–63 John Rhoads, “Josephus Misdated the Census of Quirinius,” 65–87 Mark Saucy, " Regnum Spiriti: The Role of the Spirit in the Social Ethics of the Kingdom," 89–108 William Dennison, “The Christian Academy: Antithesis, Common Grace, and Plato’s View of the Soul,” 109–131 The essays from Schreiner, Theilman, and Wright are versions of their plenary addresses at this past November’s annual Evangelical Theological Society meeting. So, those who were interested in hearing these addresses but were unable to attend the meeting may find these three articles particularly interesting. ...

This week in cyberspace: Tommy Wasserman mentions the discovery of a new, early papyrus fragment of Hebrews. James McGrath comments on Loren Stuckenbruck’s presentation at the recent Stone-Campbell Journal Conference. Amazon announces that an advertisement-sponsored Kindle WiFi is available for pre-ordering. Logos Bible Software releases a specifically academic training DVD set.

This year’s first issue of the Bulletin for Biblical Research arrived in the mail last week and includes the following: Michael Graves, “Scholar and Advocate: The Stories of Moses in Midrash Exodus Rabbah,” 1–22 John Lawlor, “The ‘At-Sinai Narrative’: Exodus 18–Numbers 10,” 23–42 David Lincicum, “Philo on Phinehas and the Levites: Observing an Exegetical Connection,” 43–50 Mark Matthews, “The Genre of 2 Peter: A Comparison with Jewish and Early Christian Testaments,” 51–64 Armin Baum, “Revelatory Experience and Pseudepigraphical Attribution in Early Jewish Apocalypses,” 65–92 In addition, among the other book reviews in this issue is my review of G. Walter Hansen, The Letter to the Philippians(Pillar New Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009) on pages 129–31. ...

Last evening, I was privileged to attend the second annual Prentice Meador Lecture at Lipscomb University. There, Weston Fields, the Executive Director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation, addressed what seemed very nearly to be a full house on the topic “The Dead Sea Scrolls Today.” ...