Παραλειπομενα on J. David Stark

TEDification How To

Mon, 02 Feb 2015 18:50:42 +0000

TED curator Chris Anderson has an article in Harvard Business Review (2013) that seeks to digest key presentation advice derived from the past several decades of TED’s work. Perhaps not all Anderson’s advice is appropriate to the genre of the academic conference paper, but doubtless a good many would substantially benefit from a healthy dose of some of the advice he offers.

Fujimura's Illuminated Gospels

Tue, 27 Aug 2013 14:48:03 +0000

To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the King James Version in 2011, Crossway released an edition of the English Standard Version’s Gospels illuminated by Makoto Fujimura ( cloth, leather). A short introduction to the project is available below (HT: Bryant Owens):

Review of Biblical Literature Newsletter (August 6, 2013)

Wed, 07 Aug 2013 21:36:56 +0000

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

Christoph Dohmen, Studien zu Bilderverbot und Bildtheologie des Alten Testaments, reviewed by Sven Petry
Jan Joosten, The Verbal System of Biblical Hebrew: A New Synthesis Elaborated on the Basis of Classical Prose, reviewed by Jerome Lund
Granville J. R. Kent, Say It Again, Sam: A Literary and Filmic Study of Narrative Repetition in 1 Samuel 28, reviewed by Andrew Steinmann
Yoo-Ki Kim, The Function of the Tautological Infinitive in Classical Biblical Hebrew, reviewed by Hubert James Keener
R. Reed Lessing, Isaiah 40–55, reviewed by Alphonso Groenewald
Rüdiger Lux, Hiob: Im Räderwerk des Bösen, reviewed by Urmas Nommik
Andrew G. Shead, A Mouth Full of Fire: The Word of God in Jeremiah, reviewed by Hallvard Hagelia

New Testament and Cognate Studies

Penguin-Random House Merger

Mon, 01 Jul 2013 15:23:01 +0000

According to the New York Times,

Random House and Penguin completed their planned merger Monday morning, creating the biggest and most powerful book publisher in the world.

The new company, called Penguin Random House, will control more than 25 percent of the trade book market in the United States, giving it unmatched leverage against Amazon.com, a growing force in the industry.

Pope Benedict XVI to Resign on February 28

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:30:48 +0000

After about an 8-year term, Pope Benedict XVI is apparently set to resign on February 28, citing health difficulties. For more information and the NBC report from earlier this morning, see here.

Get Codex Bezae for Free in Logos

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 10:09:46 +0000

Codex Bezae with text Luke 23:47–24:1 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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.

New Testament Interpretation Has Moved

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 19:52:06 +0000

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/.

Circumcision (Clearly) Uncircumscribed in Germany

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:21:10 +0000

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.

If You Are an SBL Member . . .

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:39:13 +0000

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.

The Imaging Papyri Project

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 13:13:20 +0000

University of Oxford (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Oxford University Classics Faculty’s PINAX “is a digital library comprised of collections of displayed papyrus images and texts at Oxford.” Texts include papyri from Antinoopolis, Herculaneum, and Oxyrhynchus, as well as magical texts (HT: Charles Jones).

Cologne Court Circumscribes Circumcision

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:17:07 +0000

ABC News (HT: Michael Bird) and the AFP (HT: Jim Davila) are reporting that the regional court in Cologne, Germany, has rendered a verdict that makes involuntary circumcision on religious grounds illegal, although the practice remains permissible if done for medical reasons. The decision follows on the treatment of a four-year-old Muslim boy for post-operative bleeding and the prosecution of the doctor who had performed the procedure.

On the Web (June 25, 2012)

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:03:45 +0000

On the web:

Joseph Kelly discusses biblical theology and history of religion research.
Cary Nelson considers ownership issues for faculty-developed intellectual property.
Rod Decker comments on ζῶ.
Allison Friederichs discusses grade inflation.

Congratulations, Dr. Copenhaver!

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 11:50:18 +0000

Via Michael Bird:

I’m glad to announce that my Ph.D padwan Adam Copenhaver has passed his doctoral viva. His thesis was: “The Colossian Heresy? An Investigation of the Christological Polemics and Socio-Cultural Background in Colossians.” Adam boldly argued for M.D. Hooker’s position that there was no specific “heresy” or “heretics” in Colossae, and Colossians was written as a general exhortation against a variety of possible religious encroachments against a cluster of house churches in the interior of the Lycus Valley.

Books on the Web (June 14, 2011)

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 13:22:00 +0000

On the web:

The Society of Biblical Literature releases Christo Lombaard, ed., The Old Testament and Christian Spirituality: Theoretical and Practical Essays from a South African Perspective.
Brian LePort comments on Craig Evans, Joel Lohr, and David Petersen, eds., The Book of Genesis: Composition, Reception, and Interpretation.
Michael Kruger anticipates Carl Trueman, The Creedal Imperative.

On the Web (June 13, 2012)

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 17:39:54 +0000

On the web:

Stephen Carlson’s dissertation on Galatians’ textual history is now available online in PDF format.
Joel Willitts ponders “what to do with the story of Israel.”
Tony Peterson reviews the recent Tokens show at Lipscomb University that featured Miroslav Volf, Saeed Khan, and Fred Gray, among a number of musicians.
Brian LePort considers Everett Ferguson’s discussion of Tertullian.
Joseph Kelly reviews some recent discussion of the referent(s) of “Torah” when used in the Hebrew Bible.

Academic Stimulants?

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 20:01:59 +0000

Image representing New York Times as depicted …

Sunday’s New York Times had a disquieting article about a potentially dramatic increase in substance abuse among teens for the sake of improved academic performance:

The boy exhaled. Before opening the car door, he recalled recently, he twisted open a capsule of orange powder and arranged it in a neat line on the armrest. He leaned over, closed one nostril and snorted it.

On the Web (June 7, 2012)

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 13:37:13 +0000

On the Web:

Paul Barrett is now blogging (HT: Michael Bird).
The Israel Antiquities Authority issues a press release with further information about the recently discovered Bar Kokhba-era coin and jewelry cache (HT: Jim Davila).
Ray Bradbury has passed away. Robert Woods posts a brief tribute and considers how Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes sits within Mortimer Adler’s framework for identifying “Great Books.”
Richard Keeling and Richard Hersh argue for the importance of culture change in higher education.

On the Web (June 5, 2012)

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 18:06:50 +0000

On the web:

The new Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament is openly accessible online (HT: Charles Jones).
Keith Williams reflects on the “cloud ed” use of technology in the classroom.
Ancient World Online has a new plugin for WordPress.org users.
Stephen Carlson reflects on the placement of the “burden of proof.”
Mark Goodacre discusses Steve Walton and David Wenham’s treatment of the synoptic problem in their Exploring the New Testament.
Colin Kruse’s replacement for Leon Morris’s commentary on Romans in the Pillar New Testament Commentary is soon to be available (HT: Logos Bible Software).
Charles Jones notes the availability of a Christian Art index.
A Bar Kokhba-era cache of coins and jewelry has been discovered (HT: Jim Davila).

Volf to Lecture at Lipscomb

Thu, 31 May 2012 15:22:02 +0000

Amid a program with a number of other engaging-looking sessions, Miroslav Volf, founder and director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture will be lecturing next week at Lipscomb University’s Christian Scholars Conference. Further details about the lecture are as follows:

On the Web (May 30, 2012)

Wed, 30 May 2012 12:51:44 +0000

On the web:

Mark Goodacre responds to Micheal Bird’s recent post on the synoptic problem.
Brian Tucker reviews Trevor Burke and Brian Rosner, eds., Paul as Missionary: Identity, Activity, Theology, and Practice.
Michael Kruger comments on obedience and hopefulness.

Performance Improvements with LibreOffice 3.5.4

Wed, 30 May 2012 11:31:01 +0000

English: logo(type) of LibreOffice Deutsch: Lo…

From the Document Foundation Blog:

The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 3.5.4, the fifth version of the free office suite’s 3.5 family. LibreOffice 3.5.4 offers significant performance improvements over the previous versions of the product, which are the combined result of the many code optimizations executed during the last months and the bug and regression chasing activity performed regularly by volunteers and developers. As a result, LibreOffice 3.5.4 is the fastest version of the best free office suite ever, with up to 100% performance gains when opening large files (depending on operating system, hardware configuration and file contents).

On the Web (May 29, 2012)

Tue, 29 May 2012 12:00:51 +0000

On the web:

Michael Bird interacts with James Crossley’s response to his Evangelical Quarterly article on “Modernizing Jesus” and discusses the Holtzmann-Gundry (three-source) hypothesis.
Todd Bolen notes the discovery of a new boundary inscription at Gezer (HT: Jim Davila).

On the Web (May 28, 2012)

Mon, 28 May 2012 12:17:16 +0000

On the web:

Matthew Montonini and Chris Tilling highlight the availability of recordings from the recent King’s College conference devoted to Doug Campbell’s Deliverance of God.
Brian Tucker favorably reviews BibleWorks 9, especially commenting on the value of the:

BibleWorks Manuscript Project [that] allows the user to compare original manuscripts, with high quality digital images of the texts that are fully searchable. . . . BibleWorks 9 includes, among others, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, and Bezae. These have full transcriptions (and notes), digital images, verse tags, comparison tools, and, though incomplete, some morphological tags (with more to come). Furthermore, the New Testament Critical Apparatus from the Center for New Testament Textual Studies is also included, securing for BibleWorks a place as the preeminent electronic resource for detailed manuscript analysis and textual criticism.

Books on the Web (May 25, 2012)

Fri, 25 May 2012 12:52:23 +0000

On the web:

Mark Goodacre starts reviewing Brice Jones’s Matthean and Lukan Special Material.
Matthew Montonini comments on Frank Matera’s God’s Saving Grace, Murray Harris’s Prepositions and Theology, and the Evangelical Exegetical Commentary.
Brian LePort reviews Craig Evans’ volume on Matthew in the New Cambridge Bible Commentary.

On the Web (May 24, 2012)

Thu, 24 May 2012 12:15:11 +0000

On the web:

Michael Bird excerpts Oscar Cullmann on poor biblical interpretation.
Joel Willitts notes the discovery of a seal bearing the name “Bethlehem.”
Chris Brady continues discussing character and motivation in Ruth.
Rod Decker comments on a few Greek palindromes.

Metaxas Lecture on Bonhoeffer

Wed, 23 May 2012 19:17:02 +0000

Socrates in the City has made available Eric Metaxas’s April 9, 2010 lecture that digests his then newly released Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (Thomas Nelson, 2010). After the introductory farce, the lecture proper commences at about 12:45.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/11208555 w=400&h=300]

On the Web (May 22, 2011)

Tue, 22 May 2012 16:11:12 +0000

On the web:

Matthew Montonini notes the updated location for this fall’s Jesus, Criteria, and the Demise of Authenticity Conference.
Mike Aubrey considers some contemporary difficulties in receiving Stoic testimony about the Greek verbal system.
Rafael Rodrodríguez discusses referential consistency in uses of the phrase “the historical Jesus.”
Peter Williams and Simon Gathercole discuss faith and scholarship (HT: Michael Bird).

rollApp = OpenDocument Support for iOS

Sat, 19 May 2012 12:03:39 +0000

Image representing rollApp as depicted in Crun…

For iOS users, rollApp has now graduated into public Beta and is offering iOS-compatible versions of OpenOffice.org (now Apache OpenOffice) and LibreOffice. The LibreOffice app seems to have a bit of difficulty opening files stored on Dropbox, but my own tests thus far with the OpenOffice.org app seem to have worked quite well. Although these apps run entirely on rollApp’s servers, and so require a fairly decent Internet connection to function, they do offer extended support for additional file formats (like ODT) not natively readable in iOS.

Dan Wallace Comments on Recent Manuscript Discoveries

Sat, 19 May 2012 03:27:29 +0000

Via Michael Bird:

Hurtado on Jesus' Ascension

Thu, 17 May 2012 12:22:23 +0000

From Larry Hurtado:

[A]nother dreadful “thought for today” on Radio 4 this a.m., this one ostensibly taking as its pre-text (and I use the word advisedly) that today is Ascension Day, and opining that Jesus’ Ascension (portrayed solely in Luke-Acts in the NT) means that Jesus has deaked out and we’re on our own! So, children, the moral lesson is that we should just face up to it and learn to cope. Hmm. Well, just goes to show you what the exegetical equivalent of a drive-by-shooting can produce!

Homer and the Papyri

Wed, 16 May 2012 15:31:38 +0000

Homer was also called Melesigenes (son of Mele…

Charles Jones notes that

Homer and the Papyri, first created by Professor Dana Sutton of the University of California, Irvine, is . . . published [online] in a second electronic edition. The new edition consists of a fully searchable relational database of Homeric papyri.

Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric

Wed, 16 May 2012 13:13:15 +0000

It seems like I’ve seen the site before, but Gideon Burton at Brigham Young University has digested a good deal of information about classical and Renaissance rhetoric at Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric. The site “is intended to help beginners, as well as experts, make sense of rhetoric, both on the small scale (definitions and examples of specific terms) and on the large scale (the purposes of rhetoric, the patterns into which it has fallen historically as it has been taught and practiced for 2000+ years).”

iPad App for Greek Literature

Tue, 08 May 2012 17:11:14 +0000

There is now

an iPad app for introductory and intermediate Greek readers. Its name is Attikos and it includes a selection of familiar texts, including morphological information. The author is Josh Day, himself recently an intermediate Greek student.

Link to the app store page:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/attikos/id522497233?mt=8

. . .

Texts include the Iliad, some Lysias and Plato, and the Antigone. Some texts have been parsed completely; no translations are included, however.

Journal of Theological Studies 63, no. 1

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:07:50 +0000

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The latest issue of the Journal of Theological Studies includes:

Joanna Collicutt, “Bringing the Academic Discipline of Psychology to Bear on the Study of the Bible”
Charlotte Hempel, “Who Is Making Dinner at Qumran?”
Jonathan Knight, “The Origin and Significance of the Angelomorphic Christology in the Ascension of Isaiah”
Suzanne Watts Henderson, “Discipleship after the Resurrection: Scribal Hermeneutics in the Longer Ending of Mark”
P. Lorraine Buck, “Voluntary Martyrdom Revisited”
Geoffrey D. Dunn, “Innocent I’s Letter to Lawrence: Photinians, Bonosians, and the Defensores Ecclesiae”
Markus Vinzent, “Questions on the Attributes (of God): Four Rediscovered Parisian Questions of Meister Eckhart”
Andrew Ter Ern Loke, “Sanday’s Christology Revisited”

Michael Kruger Is Blogging

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 15:00:46 +0000

Apparently, Michael Kruger, Professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary, is now blogging at Canon Fodder and tweeting @michaeljkruger (HT: Lane Keister).

Busiest Months to Date

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 14:51:55 +0000

Although it’s a bit belated, I just noticed this morning that February and March have been the busiest months at New Testament Interpretation to date. Thanks so much to all of you who have been interested in visiting.

Passing the Piazza

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:12:17 +0000

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“125” caption=“Piazza (Image via Wikipedia)”] [/caption]

In his article Sunday in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Jeffrey Young comments:

[Pooja] Sankar, a recent graduate of Stanford University’s M.B.A. program, leads a start-up focused on finding a better way for college students to ask questions about course materials and assignments online. Her company, Piazza, has built an online study hall where professors and teaching assistants can easily monitor questions and encourage students who understand the material to help their peers.

Bray's God Is Love: A Biblical and Systematic Theology

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:15:58 +0000

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“80” caption=“Gerald Bray”] [/caption]

Fresh off the presses at Crossway this past month is Gerald Bray’s God Is Love: A Biblical and Systematic Theology. According to the publisher,

While there is no substitute for personal, faithful, and careful Bible reading and prayer, the Bible’s vast size and diversity can make distilling its truth a daunting task. Thus most Christians benefit from supplemental resources to help learn and apply what Scripture teaches. . . .

Logos Bible Software on YouTube

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:37:31 +0000

I hadn’t noticed it until now, but Logos Bible Software has a very nicely developed YouTube Channel with a number of helpful videos both about individual resources that they offer and about using the Logos 4 engine (HT: Josh Burdick).

2012 Oxford Society of Scholars Conference

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:13:55 +0000

This summer:

The Oxford Graduate School Society of Scholars is calling for papers related to the following theme: The Three Cultures: Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and the Humanities in the 21st Century, based on the book of the same title by Jerome Kagan. Papers should specifically relate the role of religion and theology to the scope of the Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and Humanities.

For more information and to propose a paper, please see here.

LibreOffice 3.5.1 Is Available

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 17:36:14 +0000

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“150” caption=“Image via Wikipedia”] [/caption]

LibreOffice 3.5.1 was released earlier this week. The version includes a number of important bug fixes ( RC1 change log, RC2 change log). Enabling experimental features in the 3.5 series, however, can apparently still cause difficulties with Zotero integration.

Frederick Danker Passes Away

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:10:32 +0000

Sadly, Frederick Danker passed away earlier today (HT: Peter Williams, Rod Decker). Danker’s contribution to contemporary New Testament Studies can hardly be overstated; the field will continue to be in his debt.

On the Web (February 2, 2011)

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:52:52 +0000

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.

Zahn on Romans and Galatians

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:16:04 +0000

[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).

On the Web (January 28, 2011)

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:24:36 +0000

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.

On the Web (January 20, 2011)

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:40:28 +0000

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.

Hays, "Unexpected Echoes"

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:46:22 +0000

Kerry Lee digests Richard Hays’ lecture, “Unexpected Echoes: Reading Scripture with Mark,” from Tuesday, January 17. Kerry’s previous lecture summary and comment are here.

2012 Faith and the Academy Conference

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:04:17 +0000

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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.

On the Web (January 7, 2011)

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 13:26:43 +0000

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.

On the Web (December 28, 2011)

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 19:43:02 +0000

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.

On the Web (December 22, 2011)

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:30:12 +0000

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.

The Great Books Honors College

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 19:00:08 +0000

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.

On the Web (November 17, 2011)

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:35:04 +0000

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).”

On the Web (November 11, 2011)

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:30:30 +0000

On the Web:

Cliff Johnson reproduces, with permission, C. S. Lewis’s keen essay “Meditation in a Toolshed.”
The Society of Biblical Literature releases Klaus Wachtel and Michael Holmes, ed., The Textual History of the Greek New Testament: Changing Views in Contemporary Research, about which Tommy Wasserman provides some additional information and links.
Andy provides the tables of contents for this year’s Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters ( spring, fall).
Courtesy of Broadman and Holman, the Evangelical Theological Society now has its own program apps available in the App Store and Android Market.
The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts has released a DVD of the recent Ehrman-Wallace debate (HT: Tommy Wasserman).
Jim Davila comments on a recent article about the Digital Dead Sea Scrolls Project.

On the Web (November 10, 2011)

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:30:06 +0000

On the web:

Larry Hurtado discusses historical Jesus research.
Brian LePort notes that Kevin Vanhoozer has returned to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
Jim Davila highlights a Jerusalem Post article on the significance of the Talmud for liberal arts education.
The bibliobloggers decide on a time and place to meet for dinner during the SBL Annual Meeting.
Through November 16, the Westminster Bookstore is offering Köstenberger and Patterson’s new Invitation to Biblical Interpretation(Kregel, 2011) for 50% off. A sample PDF containing, the endorsements, the table of contents, the first chapter, and part of the second chapter are available from the book’s product page.

On the Web (October 27, 2011)

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 05:51:53 +0000

On the web:

David Croteau compiles a recent Liberty University symposium on Bible translation, featuring Ray Clendenen (HCSB), Wayne Grudem (ESV), and Douglas Moo (NIV; HT: Rod Decker).
Michael Kruger discusses the Gospels’ authorship (HT: Brian LePort).
Tim Henderson highlights a new German edition of Hennecke-Schneemelcher’s Christian Apocrypha.
Charles Jones reflects on the first year of Ancient World Online.

News from the Society of Biblical Literature

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:39:47 +0000

Earlier today, the Society of Biblical Literature announced that (1) Adele Reinhartz has succeeded James VanderKam’s two-term tenure as the General Editor for the Journal of Biblical Literature and (2) the Annual Meeting app (AM11AAR&SBL) is now available via the App Store and Android Market and will allow attendees “to create and customize their own schedule, make notes about sessions, and share information and their schedule with colleagues and friends via built-in social networking.”

On the Web (October 25, 2011)

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:30:43 +0000

On the web:

The Nomad Podcast interviews N. T. Wright (HT: Brian LePort).
Michael Halcomb discusses “‘Appealing To The Greek’ or ‘How (Not) To Do A Word Study.’”
Tommy Wasserman considers Bart Ehrman and intrinsic evidence.
Michael Bird highlights a performance of Hebrews.
Robert Holmstedt comments on biblical Hebrew diachrony.
Charles Jones notes papyri images online at the University of Groningen.

On the Web (October 18, 2011)

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:30:16 +0000

On the web:

Matthew Montonini locates an archive of C. K. Barrett lectures at Asbury Seminary.
Robert Woods responds to Paul Gottfried, supplementing Jason Jewell’s earlier response.
Tommy Wasserman argues for the originality of the phrase υἱοῦ θεοῦ (son of God) in Mark 1:1 (HT: Mark Batluck).
Tim Gombis comments on Rom 3:27 as presenting different interpretive options for Torah and follows up by considering how Rom 3:21–31 relates God’s supremacy to the church’s unity.
Larry Hurtado freshly commends James Barr’s Semantics of Biblical Language in its 50th anniversary year.

On the Web (October 15, 2011)

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 11:18:59 +0000

On the web:

Larry Hurtado discusses the “staurogram.”
Jason Jewell considers Paul Gottfried’s recent article on the “Death of the Classics.”
Rod Decker notes an erratum in BDF.
Mike Aubrey survey’s G. B. Winer’s Greek Grammar (English trans., 1825).
LibreOffice announces a prototype web application version.
Amazon releases some key updates for how Kindle 3 and 4 handle personal documents.
Matthew Montonini considers some comments from Epictetus on the proper treatment of slaves.

On the Web (October 12, 2011)

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 18:54:44 +0000

On the web:

Michael Bird and Marc Cortez discuss comments from D. A. Carson and Tim Keller about confessionalism.
Mark Goodacre discusses “The Walking, Talking Cross in the Gospel of Peter.”
Brian LePort identifies some favorite scholar-bloggers and solicits thoughts about other academics who might be engaging to have in the biblioblogosphere.
Tim Gombis comments on an excerpt from N. T. Wright’s 1978 Tyndale lecture.

On the Web (October 7, 2011)

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 15:30:43 +0000

On the web:

Larry Hurtado discusses scholarly amnesia in Pauline Studies.
Charles Jones mentions Poorly Attested Words in Ancient Greek, the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations, and Digital Medievalist.
The Biblical Archaeology Review has launched a new website about the Dead Sea Scrolls, The Dead Sea Scrolls and Why They Matter (HT: Jim Davila).
The British Library’s Digitised Manuscripts site now has ten new 13th–17th century manuscripts (HT: Julian Harrison).

On the Web (September 30, 2011)

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:04:13 +0000

On the web:

Charles Jones notes two good resources for Greco-Roman numismatics: Roman Imperial Coin Hoards and the NUMIDAT.
Christian Book Distributors Academic blog features Miles Van Pelt’s new Basics of Biblical Aramaic grammar (Zondervan, 2011).

Move over Light Speed . . . ?

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:11:10 +0000

BBC and MSNBC have both reported that European scientists may have clocked neutrinos moving faster than the speed of light. The scientists involved are, however, being cautious while their test results are verified, and Bob Cargill considers this kind of caution in relation to the lack of it in certain instances in archaeological finds.

On the Web (September 22, 2011)

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 19:20:18 +0000

On the web:

Peter Williams picks up Alin Suciu’s story about the British Library’s Coptic leaf that corresponds to the text of Jer. 21:14–22:20 (LXX).
Charles Jones notes the Latin texts and database that the Packard Humanities Institute has newly made available.
Michael Bird includes about a 47-minute lecture of N. T. Wright “giv[ing] a C. S. Lewis-style apologetic of a Christian society filled with good Christians as being one of the best apologetics there are.”
Daniel Streett compares Greek curriculum requirements for MDiv students with modern language requirements for area majors at two other sample institutions.
Today sees the release of Seth Ehorn’s Philemon commentary in the Evangelical Exegetical Commentary series.

On the Web (September 13, 2011)

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 18:25:49 +0000

On the web:

Mel Gibson is apparently planning a movie about Judas Maccabee (HT: John Byron).
Google Docs adds a comment-only permission option for document sharing.
Alan Bandy discusses the phrase ἐκ πίστεως εἰς πίστιν in Rom 1:17 and Augustine’s eschatology.

On the Web (September 10, 2011)

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 20:20:43 +0000

On the web:

Daniel Streett comments on Gen 5:21–24.
Logos Bible Software will continue Logos 4 upgrade discounts only through the end of this month.
Jason Jewell comments on the open-source mindset and the virtue of charity.
Larry Hurtado discusses PhD studies in North America and the United Kingdom.
Holly pays tribute to Michael Hart, the founder of Project Gutenberg, who passed away this week.
Cynthia Nielsen continues discussing Dialectic of Enlightenment and its proposal about the relationship between demythologization and remythologization.

On the Web (September 9, 2011)

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 19:45:30 +0000

On the web:

Mike Aubrey notes Daniel Streett’s new blog and his comments on reading Greek, and Daniel comments on this question also.
Charles Jones notes that Scripture Bulletin is openly accessible online.
Rod Decker ponders Mark 14:37.

On the Web (September 7, 2011)

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:12:15 +0000

On the web:

Bob Cargill highlights Eric Kansa, Sarah Kansa, and Ethan Watrall, eds., Archaeology 2.0: New Approaches to Communication & Collaboration, which is now freely available online through the University of California.
Steve Runge discusses discourse continuity and cohesion.
Evernote maintains its existing maximum attachment sizes but lifts file type restrictions from their free accounts.

On the Web (September 6, 2011)

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:46:36 +0000

On the web:

Charles Jones notes that Exemplaria Classica, a journal for classical textual criticism and codicology, is open access online for all but the most recent volume.
Cynthia Nielsen discussess Dialectic of Enlightenment and its proposal about the relationship between demythologization and remythologization.
Robert Woods reflects on some selections from Heraclitus.
Steve Caruso highlights Tom Verenna’s video about the Jordanian lead codices.
The Center for the Study of Christian Origins has some links to new Roman-era finds near Edinburgh, some of which are relevant to the study of Mithraism in Britain ( part 1, part 2).
Brice Jones has the newest article in the Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism: “The Bodmer ‘Miscellaneous’ Codex and the Crosby-Schøyen Codex MS 193: A New Proposal.”

On the Web (September 1, 2011)

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:03:51 +0000

On the web:

Google Docs can now display page numbers in documents themselves and not just on a printed or PDF copy.
Google Chrome Frame now has a beta version that does not require administrative privileges to install.
The third edition of Emmanuel Tov’s Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible should be available around November 1 (HT: Peter Williams).
Ben Witherington’s Is There a Doctor in the House? is apparently now available on Kindle (HT: Mark Stevens), although the printed text from Amazon is still forthcoming.
Steve Caruso continues discussing the Jordanian lead codices.
Zotero releases some significant updates to their 3.0 beta.
Peter Head reports that the Green Collection at Bethel University has acquired a new 1 Corinthians manuscript in addition to the Hebrews manuscript that had already been announced.
Logos Bible Software adds The Babylonian Talmud: Original Text, Edited, Corrected, Formulated and Translated into English (19 vols.) to their community pricing program.

On the Web (August 30, 2011)

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:04:26 +0000

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 (August 29, 2011)

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 10:46:22 +0000

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).

C. K. Barrett Passes Away

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 11:47:30 +0000

In yet another loss to the field of Biblical Studies, C. K. Barrett passes away (HT: Michael Halcomb).

On the Web (August 25, 2011)

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:43:57 +0000

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.

Nida Passes Away

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:24:23 +0000

Eugene Nida has passed away. For the official press release from the United Bible Societies, see here (HT: N ijay Gupta).

On the Web (August 24, 2011)

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:23:43 +0000

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.

On the Web (August 19, 2011)

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 19:05:38 +0000

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.

On the Web (August 18, 2011)

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:08:54 +0000

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.

The Christian Institute for the Study of Liberal Arts

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:39:36 +0000

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.

Donnerstag Digest (June 16, 2011)

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:30:29 +0000

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.

Donnerstag Digest (June 9, 2011)

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 13:30:40 +0000

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.

Donnerstag Digest (June 2, 2011)

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 21:00:30 +0000

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.”

May 2011 Biblioblog Review and Top Student Biblioblogs

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:38:39 +0000

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:

Donnerstag Digest (May 26, 2011)

Thu, 26 May 2011 13:30:50 +0000

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).

Donnerstag Digest (May 10, 2011)

Thu, 12 May 2011 13:30:14 +0000

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.

Digital Images of Nag Hammadi Codices

Wed, 04 May 2011 16:41:16 +0000

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

On Being Ph(inishe)D, On Finished Being

Wed, 04 May 2011 11:20:16 +0000

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.

Donnerstag Digest (April 21, 2011)

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:30:21 +0000

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.

Donnerstag Digest (April 14, 2010)

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:30:56 +0000

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.

Donnerstag Digest (April 7, 2011)

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:30:46 +0000

The past week in the biblioblogosphere:

Jim Davila notes the sad news of Ben Zion Wacholder’s passing.
Larry Hurtado comments on lengths of book usage in the Greco-Roman world.
A. D. Riddle and Ferrell Jenkins report the beginning of new excavations at Carchemish.
Nijay Gupta notes one freely available chapter from each of two Companion to Religion Series volumes from Wiley-Blackwell ( Aune, “The World of Roman Hellenism”; Riesner, “Pauline Chronology”; 44 pgs. total). The other series volumes also appear normally to have similar samples.
Recently at Trinity Western University, N. T. Wright discussed “Being Human” (HT: Brian LePort).

Thank You re:March

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:24:32 +0000

Although we are nearing the end of the first week of April, I just noticed that those who visited New Testament Interpretation last month made that month the busiest month here so far. So, thank you for your interest, everyone! :)

March 2011 Biblioblog Review

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:41:02 +0000

Having been away this past weekend, I have just gotten to pull March’s top student biblioblogs. March’s top 10 by Alexa rank are:

StudentOverallAuthor(s)Blog12Joel WattsUnsettled Christianity26Brian LePort, JohnDave Medina, Joshua Smith, Mark StevensNear Emmaus: Christ and Text313Amanda Mac, Rodney Thomas, Chad PressleyPolitical Jesus417Matthew CroweA Fistful of Farthings527Jeremy ThompsonFree Old Testament Audio Website Blog628Phillip LongReading Acts729Scott BaileyScotteriology831Mitchell PowellFont Words936Gavin RumneyOtagosh1038Bob Hayton, Jason Skipper, Damien Garofalo, Will Dudding, Erik DiVietro, and Phil DearmoreKJV Only Debate

Donnerstag Digest (March 31, 2011)

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:30:41 +0000

Recently in cyberspace:

Southern Seminary provides a set of recent lectures by Richard Bauckham (HT: Tim Henderson).
Jeremy quotes Henri De Lubac “on the dangers of learning our catechism against someone.”
The Center for the Study of Christian Origins provides a lecture and question and answer session by Larry Hurtado.
Reports begin circulating about several lead codices that are supposed to contain stories about Jesus’ later life.
Early Christianity makes available a full issue for free download (HT: Nijay Gupta).
Larry Hurtado advocates additional caution vis-à-vis the recent discovery of a number of ancient lead codices, James McGrath condenses several other recent discussions about them, and Jim Davila (HT: Stephen Carlson) adds his own presently-skeptical perspective on the codices’ genuineness.
Amazon launches its own cloud drive service with 5 GB of free space.
The Internet Archive makes available Mark Goodacre’s Synoptic Problem: A Way through the Maze for free download (HT: James McGrath).
Dictionary.com discusses a few word-choice updates in the new editions of the NIV and NAB.
Google Maps adds street views of “historic sites in Italy and France.”
The Center for New Testament Textual Studies at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary is featured in a NOLA.com article (HT: James Leonard).
The Elaborated makes available a set of composite RSS feeds based on the Biblioblog Top 50.

Healing Theoden (a.k.a. Submitting One's Dissertation)

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:02:32 +0000

For some reason, this clip, particularly Theoden’s last utterance under Saruman’s influence, seems oddly parallel to the process of concluding a dissertation. ;-) The oral defense is slated for later next month. For a brief abstract of my particular project, see here.

Donnerstag Digest (March 10, 2011)

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:00:37 +0000

This week in the blogosphere:

Kirk Lowery discusses “Strongs Numbers & the Problem of a Universal Index,” particularly for Biblical Hebrew morphology and lexicography.
Robert Woods reviews Henry Petroski’s Book on the Bookshelf.
Chris Allen and D. A. Carson discuss the Westminster Catechism via rap (HT: John Byron).
The SBL Greek New Testament is now available in CROSS format.
Mark Goodacre ponders the possible correlations between writing big books and having clean houses.
James McGrath highlights a how-to article about reading scholarly journals.

Donnerstag Digest (March 3, 2011)

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 21:24:19 +0000

This week in the blogosphere:

Rod Decker highlights The Illustrated Guide to a PhD.
Archaeologists begin excavating an Abrahamic-era water tunnel (HT: Joel Watts).
The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae has released a version of the Liddell-Scott-Jones lexicon tagged to their textual database (HT: Tommy Wasserman).
The E-corpus Digital Library has added 344 Georgian, Arabic, and Syrian manuscripts from St. Catherine’s Monastery (HT: Charles Jones).
The Cardo font receives an italic companion.
Seth Rodriquez collects a list of free Kindle edition books relevant for biblical studies. Others are also available at Project Gutenberg.
Charles Halton provides a slideshow about the “Theology of Genesis 32 through Contemporary Art.”
Peter Head provides an essay on “Textual Criticism and the Synoptic Problem.”

February 2011 Biblioblog Review

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 14:22:34 +0000

Matthew Crowe has February’s Biblical Studies Carnival. In February’s biblioblog rankings, Jim West and Joel Watts again top the Biblioblog Top 50 Alexa chart, and James McGrath and Daniel Kirk top the vote-based rankings.

By Alexa rank, then, February’s Student Biblioblog Top 10 lines up as follows:

StudentOverallAuthor(s)Blog12Joel L. WattsUnsettled Christianity23Brian LePort, JohnDave Medina, Joshua Smith, and Mark StevensNear Emmaus: Christ and Text314Thomas VerennaThe Musings of Thomas Verenna418Daniel O. McClellanDaniel O. McClellan523Matthew CroweA Fistful of Farthings625Jeremy ThompsonFree Old Testament Audio Website Blog726Bob Hayton, Jason Skipper, Damien Garofalo, Will Dudding, Erik DiVietro, and Phil DearmoreKJV Only Debate836Phillip LongReading Acts939Gavin RumneyOtagosh1044Mitchell PowellFont Words

Donnerstag Digest (February 24, 2011)

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 13:38:10 +0000

This week in the biblioblogosphere:

Dirk Jongkind discusses the colophons of the miniscule manuscripts 223 and 1305.
The Center for the Study of Christian Origins now has recordings of the recent James Dunn and N. T. Wright lecture day at the University of Edinburgh (HT: Larry Hurtado).
Brian LePort highlights a snippet from Eugene Peterson on the storied nature of human experience and Christian ministry, begins pondering Brevard Childs’ thoughts about New Testament canon, and collects Richard Hays’ recent lecture series “Reading Scripture Alongside the Gospel Writers.”
Cynthia Nielsen discusses “Fanon and Foucault on Humanism and Rejecting the ‘Blackmail’ of the Enlightenment” ( pt. 1; pt. 2).
James McGrath collects several YouTube clips about the Mandaeans and highlights a video series about oral tradition.
Seth Rodriquez discusses ancient slinging techniques.
John Cook and Robert Holmstedt advocate the relevance of diachronic linguistics for dating biblical texts, and Ian Young responds to the contrary (HT: Charles Halton).

Donnerstag Digest (February 17, 2011)

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 16:49:58 +0000

This week in the blogosphere:

The Oriental Institute continues making additional titles available online as free PDF downloads (HT: Todd Bolen).
Rod Decker makes available a conversion chart for the old and new reference systems for the Shepherd of Hermas.
Tim highlights some forthcoming books in Pauline Studies.
Karen Radner has several essays online about the Neo-Assyrian period (HT: Charles Halton).
Logos releases the NIV 2011 for free “to everyone who has a Logos 4 base package that includes the old NIV.”
Ancient Faith Radio is podcasting C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia (HT: Brian LePort).

Donnerstag Digest (January 20, 2011)

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:52:03 +0000

This week in the blogosphere:

Bob Cargill notes, courtesy of Jim West, the discovery of a new manuscript of Ben Sira.
Kirk Lowery highlights a list of resources for linguistic research.
Phil Gons compiles a good deal of recent “Bonhoeffer Buzz.”
Joe McGarry reviews Eric Metaxas’s Bonhoeffer for Christianbook.com Academics.
Charles Ellwood notes open access to select theses and dissertations through ProQuest’s UMI Dissertation Publishing.

Donnerstag Digest (December 16, 2010)

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:52:12 +0000

This week in the blogosphere:

To Do: Dissertation highlights a series of time management tips.
Matt Evans returns from his blogging hiatus.
Deane Galbraith and Joseph Kelly discuss new policies for students’ involvement at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature.
Matthew Montonini notes a video interview with Douglas Campbell.
Matthew Miller excerpts Miroslav Volf’s new book Captive to the Word of God.
Brian Tucker discusses You Belong to Christ on the Paul Edwards Program.
Matthew reports that Borders has filed intent-to-purchase paperwork for Barnes and Noble.
Carlos Alonso reflects on the commodification of graduate education.
Timothy Beal discusses American Evangelicalism.
Mike Aubrey begins digesting the deponency panel session at the annual SBL meeting.
James McGrath quotes Daniel Kirk on “rule-proving exceptions,” notes a new “top 50” list of blogs by “theology professors,” recommends Brad Matthies’ post “Academic Blogging?” and highlights a free PDF version of Kató Lomb’s Polyglot.
Milo Medin discusses the progress of Google’s developing fiber network.
Brian LePort gets congratulations as he counts down.
Scott Bailey reports on the winter weather’s “archaeological expedition” on Israel’s coast.
Pat McCullough urges participation in the SBL Student Advisory Board’s survey for student members.
Charles Jones adds a number of publication preprints to the Ancient World Online feed.

Donnerstag Digest (December 9, 2010)

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 17:50:58 +0000

This week in the blogosphere:

Chris Brady highlights the Maccabeats.
Firefox gets two new representatives.
Michael Holmes begins a new blog.
Joel Watts notes the launch of SAGE Open on January 1, 2011 and highlights, ultimately via Everett Ferguson, a few inscriptions relevant to the discussion of infant baptism.

Donnerstag Digest (December 2, 2010)

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:04:46 +0000

This week in the biblioblogosphere:

Bob Cargill notes that, on December 11, the National Geographic Channel will re-air its special on “Writing the Dead Sea Scrolls.”
Brian LePort hypertextually ponders Derridean non-extra-textuality and deconstruction, and he notes twenty-nine doctoral theses that the University of Durham has recently made available.
Michael Bird shows how to benefit most from the new SBL Greek New Testament and notes that the new Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters now has its own blog.
Google Editions are poised to hit the e-book market later this month and allow fee-based full access to copyrighted titles. For some additional details and thoughts, see Blog Kindle and Google Books Help.

Student Biblioblog Top 10 (November, 2010)

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 20:08:37 +0000

Jim West and Joel Watts again top out this month’s Biblioblog Top 50. Among these entries, the top 10 student biblioblogs for the month are:

StudentOverallAuthor(s)BlogAlexa Score12Joel WattsUnsettled Christianity112762210Jeremy ThompsonFree Old Testament Audio Website Blog247561311Scott BaileyScotteriology254643413Jonathan Robinsonξένος331840514Thomas VerennaThe Musings of Thomas Verenna337137617Mark StevensScripture, Ministry, and the People of God372159722Brian LePort, JohnDave Medina, and Robert JimenezNear Emmaus: Christ and Text412289824Phillip LongReading Acts441701930Stephen SmutsBiblical Paths4840941033Gavin RumneyOtagosh514808

Biblical Studies Carnival נז (November, 2010)

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 14:01:53 +0000

Deane Galbraith has November’s Biblical Studies Carnival available and organized into the following topics: (1) “Academy, Biblioblogging and Handy Hints”; (2) “Christian Origins”; (3) “Emerging Judaism”; (4) “Language, Text and Translation”; (5) “Reception History”; (6) “Humor and Gossip”; and (7) “Biblioblog [Qualitative] Top 30.”

HT: Marc Cortez

Ecclesia Reformanda 2.2

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 14:45:59 +0000

This year’s second issue of Ecclesia Reformanda includes:

John Frame, “Review of Michael Horton, Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church, Part 2”
Simon Wakeling, “The Minor Prophets as a Unity Developing Theodicy”
Neil Jeffers, “Reformed Defences of God’s Righteousness in Ordaining the Fall”

SBL Contingent Faculty Survey

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 20:49:18 +0000

In conjunction with the Coalition on the Academic Workforce, the Society of Biblical Literature is conducting a survey about contingent faculty, and the survey has already garnered more than 20,000 responses. To continue making the survey results as complete and informative as possible, this afternoon, SBL has written the membership’s current survey respondents to request help in attracting additional participation from contingent faculty members.

Biblioblog Top 50 (October, 2010)

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:18:01 +0000

This post is a bit late, but among the top 50 biblioblogs for October, 2010, the top 10 student biblioblogs are:

StudentOverallAuthor(s)BlogAlexa Score12Joel L. WattsUnsettled Christianity9552128Scott BaileyScotteriology212042312Jeremy ThompsonFree Old Testament Audio Website Blog294803415Jonathan RobinsonXenos300343518Brian LePort, JohnDave Medina, and Robert JimenezNear Emmaus: Christ and Text382933621Mark StevensScripture, Ministry, and the People of God420079722Phillip LongReading Acts431256825S. DemmlerYou Can’t Mean That!503362926Gavin RumneyOtagosh5039271029Bacho BordjadzeReading Isaiah533766

Biblioblog Top 50 (September, 2010)

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 21:33:42 +0000

September’s Biblioblog Top 50 is available. Despite Joel Watt’s slippage to third in the overall rankings, his blog continues to hold the lead among the top ten student biblioblogs:

StudentOverallAuthor(s)BlogAlexa Score13Joel L. WattsThe Church of Jesus Christ12848525Scott BaileyScotteriology173966311Jeremy ThompsonFree Old Testament Audio Website Blog271870416Stephen SmutsBiblical Paths319523517Mark StevensScripture, Ministry, and the People of God333878619Justin AllisonOld Testament and Ecology404624720Jonathan RobinsonXenos426276823Brian LePort, JohnDave Medina, and Robert JimenezNear Emmaus: Christ and Text536573924Phillip LongReading Acts5421871029Gavin RumneyOtagosh620744

Biblioblog Top 50 (August, 2010)

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:12:11 +0000

Jeremy Thompson has August’s Biblioblog Top 50 available. Jim West remains in the top seat this month, despite Jeremy’s temporary coup d’état that had crowned Joel Watts. Still, Joel’s matriculation to United Theological Seminary earns him the top slot on August’s list of the top ten student biblioblogs. The full top-ten list is as follows:

StudentOverallAuthor(s)BlogAlexa Score12Joel L. WattsThe Church of Jesus Christ10893727Stephen SmutsBiblical Paths210494311Mark StevensScripture, Ministry, and the People of God299339415Scott BaileyScotteriology332160518Brian LePort, JohnDave Medina, and Robert JimenezNear Emmaus: Christ and Text373283619Jeremy ThompsonFree Old Testament Audio Website Blog436755722Gavin RumneyOtagosh462138823Bob Hayton, Jason Skipper, Damien Garofalo, Will Dudding, Erik DiVietro, and Phil DearmoreKJV Only Debate465858933Jonathan RobinsonXenos6773451038Rick MansfieldThis Lamp768595

Biblical Studies Carnival (August, 2010)

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:00:21 +0000

Jim West has August’s Biblical Studies Carnival available. This month’s carnival has six “rides” from which readers can choose: Old Testament, New Testament, Church History, Systematic Theology, Archaeology/Dead Sea Scrolls, and Uncategorized.

Blog (Revival) Notice: Beginning with Moses

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 11:28:02 +0000

Beginning with Moses has been substantially refreshed, and the site is scheduled to have regular updates begin again on September 1. If you like, you can also follow Beginning with Moses on Twitter and Facebook.

The Biblical Theology Briefings have carried over from the old site, and the site’s principal editor, Mark Owens, invites fresh contributions for this section.

Donnerstag Digest (August 26, 2010)

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:46:44 +0000

This week in the biblioblogosphere:

Mark Goodacre finds and makes available a PDF version of Wilhelm Wrede’s Paul.
Daniel and Tonya draw attention to Alex Andrason’s recent article on the use of yiqtol in Biblical Hebrew (via Uri Hurwitz) and Randall Buth’s response to the article.
Via Ekaterini Tsalampouni, Holger Szesnat mentions the availability of the new Journal of Ancient Judaism.
Christian Askeland notes the availability of a stable, Unicode-compliant Coptic font.
At BioLogos, Peter Enns interviews N. T. Wright about Jesus’ humanity.
Kirk Lowery ponders current developments in the peer review process for scholarly publications.
Scot McKnight prepares his readers for a change of blogging address.
Larry Hurtado uploads an essay on Martin Hengel’s impact on English-speaking, New Testament scholarship.
Charles Halton considers cartographic hermeneutics and some of their implications for readers of biblical texts.

Donnerstag Digest (August 19, 2010)

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:03:05 +0000

This week in the blogosphere:

James McGrath helpfully notes that John Byron, Associate Professor of New Testament at Ashland Theological Seminary, is now blogging at The Biblical World.
Sadly, Gerald Hawthorne passes away (HT: John Byron).
Helen Bond discusses the composition of the Sanhedrin in first-century Palestine.
Trevor provides a good summary of a variety of different ways to add records to Zotero.
Happy Dissertating suggests priming the writing pump as necessary via 750 Words. Based on what the site provides, it looks like a fully private blog could also be used in much the same way, but particularly for those who would prefer not to need to ensure for themselves that all their privacy settings are correct or who might enjoy some of the other features that 750 Words offers, the site may be worth a look.
Pat McCullough begins a bibliography of resources about the application of Social Identity Theory to biblical studies and invites suggestions for additions.

Advice for Academic Blogging

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:00:39 +0000

Although the post is now comparatively a bit dated, Corey Tomsons still has some very good advice about academic blogging (HT: Kirk Lowery via Facebook).

http://thoughtcapital.wordpress.com/2007/03/11/how-to-write-an-academic-blog/

Biblioblog Top 50 (July, 2010)

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:13:32 +0000

Jeremy Thompson has July’s Biblioblog Top 50 available. Jim West and Joel Watts again take the top two spots respectively. The top ten student biblioblogs are:

StudentOverallAuthor(s)BlogAlexa Score18Stephen SmutsBiblical Paths22490929Matt DabbsKingdom Living228817311Mark StevensScripture, Ministry, and the People of God240043414Jeremy ThompsonFree Old Testament Audio Website Blog328123515Brian LePort, JohnDave Medina, and Robert JimenezNear Emmaus: Christ and Text331730616Scott BaileyScotteriology342515718Gavin RumneyOtagosh408591835JasonEis Doxan729697936Rick MansfieldThis Lamp7365221038Brandon WasonSitz im Leben791601

Donnerstag Digest (August 12, 2010)

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 10:53:51 +0000

This week in the blogosphere:

Baker acquires Hendrickson’s academic arm (HT: Nijay Gupta and Rod Decker).
Larry Hurtado rightfully lauds and recommends careful attention to Harry Gable’s Books and Readers in the Early Church.
Cynthia Nielsen continues her discussion of interconnections between Joerg Rieger and Frederick Douglass with a post about duality in identity construction.
Michael Halcomb has a new website specifically dedicated to Getting (Theological) Languages.
Kirk Lowery returns to the biblioblogosphere after a hiatus for the development of the Groves Center as an independent research unit. I had the privilege of doing an Aramaic and a Hebrew Bible text-linguistics seminar under Kirk and am again looking forward to seeing what shows up on his “scratchpad.”
Happy Dissertating suggests PhD2Published as a potentially valuable resource for new PhD graduates in humanities disciplines.
James McGrath spots several video recordings of presentations at this past year’s annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion.
Michael Bird starts reading a recent biography of Ernst Käsemann and reproduces several, brief quotations from Käsemann that are, as one might expect, particularly insightful.
Todd Bolen reports a recent spectrometric analysis that suggests a Jerusalem origin for a newly discovered cuneiform tablet.
Ken Schenck discusses the reading of biblical literature as Christian scripture.
Brian LePort discusses the relationship between scripture and tradition in view of the Trinitarian-Oneness debate. On this relationship, our Writing Center director at Southeastern recently brought to my attention F. F. Bruce’s edited volume, Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. I have yet really to peruse it, and the book is scarcely findable in print at this point. Still, it does look like a very interesting volume, and much of it is available through Google Books.
Google and Verizon propose, regarding Net Neutrality,“that ‘wireline broadband providers [sh]ould not be able to discriminate against or prioritize lawful Internet content, applications or services in a way that causes harm to users or competition’, but broadband providers [sh]ould be able to offer ‘additional, differentiated online services’.”
Chris Brady shares some of his conclusions from his recent International Organization for Targumic Studies presentation about Boaz in Targum Ruth.

Biblical Studies Carnival (July, 2010)

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:13:09 +0000

As promised, Jim West’s revival of the Biblical Studies Carnival has begun.

HT: Mark Goodacre.

Hello, World!—ΕΚ ΣΤΟΜΑΤΟΣ ΝΗΠΙΩΝ

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:49:10 +0000

Blogging has unfortunately gotten edged out by too many other things the past few months, but I hope the dearth of posts here recently will be reversing itself shortly. In any case, last week, Carrie and I were blessed with a beautiful baby girl, Ella Grace. Ella came a bit early, but I can now officially enter her as my vote for the “most precious baby ever” award:

[slideshow]

Fuel for Biblical Studies: Italian Entrée Edition

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:06:36 +0000

In the March 26 issue of All You magazine, my wife, Carrie, has had following recipe featured: The roll-ups really are quite good, and of course, the black-and-white picture hardly does justice to the visual appeal of the dish. In addition to the instructions here, the chef herself does suggest that the “sprinkl[ing] with mozzarella” (#4) should be done rather generously.

February Biblioblog Top 50

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:14:32 +0000

Jeremy Thompson has the month-end biblioblog rankings available, and Joel Watts again tops the chart. Congratulations are also due to the folks at Near Emmaus who, after cracking the top 50 in the middle of the month, have now settled into the number 40 slot for February as a whole. Today will tell, but on the back of what may turn out to be the busiest month yet, New Testament Interpretation has also risen to 79th place, its strongest standing thus far. Many thanks to everyone for the interest.

Biblical Studies Carnival LI

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:27:53 +0000

Brooke Lester has a bipartite Biblical Studies Carnival LI available at Anumma. In consideration of February 3 as Blogroll Amnesty Day, Lester particularly highlights the smaller fry in the biblioblogging community.

Snodgrass on a "Hermeneutics of Identity"

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:07:22 +0000

Klyne Snodgrass discusses a “hermeneutics of identity.” Snodgrass repeatedly observes the New Testament’s concern with issues related to identity.

Mid-February Biblioblog Top 50

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:55:58 +0000

Jeremy Thompson has mid-month biblioblog rankings available for the top 50 biblioblogs. Congratulations to Brian LePort and JohnDave Medina, who have cracked the top 50 for the first time, and to Joel Watts who continues to lead the pack. The full list, including some additions, will again be available at the month’s end.

Defining "Theological Interpretation"

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:46:56 +0000

This morning, Scot McKnight has an engaging post that addresses some ambiguities present in descriptions of “theological interpretation.” To move toward decreasing these ambiguities, McKnight proposes his own description of what interpreting scripture theologically should mean—namely, “read[ing] individual passages in the Bible through the lens of one’s orthodox, community-shaped, and confessional theology” (italics original). Read the whole post, particularly the concluding paragraphs, for some other, very good reflections on the interrelationships between theology and hermeneutics.

Create Your Own Feed for DaveBlackOnline

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:19:25 +0000

Various people have expressed, at different points, the wish that David Black’s blog had its own feed, but Google Reader users can now have this feed—somewhat. Last week, the Official Google Reader Blog announced an update to Google Reader that allows individual users, much as they would add any normal feed within Reader itself, to have Google Reader watch for changes on any webpage.

Biblical Studies Carnival XLX

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:47:31 +0000

Biblical Studies Carnival XLX is available at Abnormal Interests in two sections: one based on submitted posts and the other based on Duane Smith’s own blog reading and interests.

HT: James McGrath

Biblioblog Rankings (January, 2010)

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:29:03 +0000

Jeremy Thompson has the automated, monthly Alexa chart available for a short(er) list of 237 biblioblogs for which Alexa reported rating data. This month, New Testament Interpretation saw a bump up to slot 156, and not surprisingly, Joel Watts tops the chart.

In the Biblioblogs

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:22:27 +0000

In the past few days, there have been several very interesting posts around the biblioblogosphere. To highlight some of those posts here:

Tommy Wasserman reports the new online presence of Bodmer 25 (GA 556) and, at Münster’s Virtual Manuscript Room, another 60 manuscripts as well. This morning also sees the beginning of a series in which Philip Payne is critically responding to Peter Head’s contention that the distigmai in Vaticanus “mark[] textual variation” and “belong to one unified system that was added some time in the 16th century.”
John Anderson has an excellent and substantive interview with Richard Hays (HT: Stephen Carlson), and Andy Rowell has compiled a complementary bibliography of Richard Hays resources (HT: Mark Goodacre).
Nijay Gupta has posted an interview with Gordon Fee (HT: Thomas) and the first part of an interview with Craig Keener, as well as a link to a website that is identifying free, online, public-domain Loeb Classical Library volumes.
Jeremy Thompson has automated the compilation of a new biblioblog Alexa ranking list (HT: Mark Goodacre). On a similar note, the Official (Unofficial) Biblioblog List has undertaken the task of maintaining an updated list of biblioblogs (HT: Joseph Kelly) and, as of this morning, the task of maintaining a current biblioblog search engine. The Official (Unofficial) Biblioblog List also makes available HTML code that will restore a biblioblog badge that has become non-functional with the password protection of the Biblioblog Top 50.

Jim West Is Back

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 14:55:33 +0000

With a post titled “Why?”, Jim West has reentered the biblioblogging sphere at http://zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com/, still reflecting the new title that he gave to http://jwest.wordpress.com/ shortly before he deleted that blog. Although the first post at Zwinglius Redivivus ostensibly presents a quotation from Calvin regarding apostolic vocation, it has some amusing inter-(hyper)textual connections with Dr. Jim West (the blog) and Zwinglius Redivivus.

Independent Biblioblog Ranking Compilation (December 2009)

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:52:41 +0000

With the Biblioblog Top 50 moving to a semi-annual cycle, Joseph Kelly over at כל־האדם has independently compiled a chart of December’s individual Alexa rankings to finish out 2009. Jim West (a.k.a. Zwinglius Redivivus) continues to fill the top slot, and the big movers among the top 50 this month include John Hobbins ( Ancient Hebrew Poetry, up 15 spaces to number 16); Jason ( εις δοξαν, up 18 spaces to number 40); Michael Barber, Brant Pitre, and John Bergsma ( The Sacred Page, up 25 spaces to number 48); and Joel Hoffman ( God Didn’t Say That: Bible Translations and Mistranslations, up 33 spaces to number 49). New Testament Interpretation stands this month at number 213.

2010 SECSOR Presentation

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:26:16 +0000

A few weeks ago, I received confirmation that my paper, “‫ מורה הצדק‬ as a Hermeneutical Functionary in the Qumran Sectarian Manuscripts,” has been accepted for presentation at the 2010 meeting of the Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion. Here is a brief abstract:

Although a good deal of work has been done on the hermeneutical method(s) found at Qumran, to date, insufficient attention has been given to the presuppositional matrix that allowed these methods to function at Qumran as they did. For, after all, considered in themselves, theses and interpretations appear valid not primarily because of the method by which they were derived but because of the perceived fit between a given thesis and an accepted worldview paradigm. Therefore, this paper will seek to show: (1) that ‫מורה הצדק‬ ( the teacher of righteousness) himself definitively determined the Qumran community’s hermeneutical matrix in certain, specific respects and (2) that these specific determinations helped the Qumran community understand their scriptures in conjunction with what they knew to be their own, special position in ‫’יהוה‬s plan for Israel.

Biblical Studies Carnival 48

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:00:31 +0000

Clayboy has this month’s Biblical Studies Carnival organized mostly into straight, topical lists and hopes to provide subsequently some additional reflections “on whither the [ballooning] Carnival might go in future years.”

Biblioblog Top 50 (November 2009)

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:46:22 +0000

Despite a self-enforced blogging hiatus to complete an ETS paper that was almost itself three things that were never satisfied and four that never said enough (cf. Prov 30:15b), New Testament Interpretation rose 17 spaces in November to slot 134 from the drop to 151 that it had seen the previous month at the front of the hiatus. Thanks to everyone for their interest even during the break. I trust this post will constitute a return to a more active NTI.

Bookshelf Updates

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:18:26 +0000

Subheadings have now come to the bookshelf. Some of the lists of works under main headings had become quite long and unwieldy, but the subheadings should help minimize the length of the individual lists.

While additional subsections will certainly be required as the bookshelf grows, the sections presently large enough to demand subheadings include Gospels ( Jesus, parables) and hermeneutics ( biblical interpretation, general hermeneutics, methodology).

Biblioblog Top 50 (September 2009)

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:42:35 +0000

Per the Biblioblog Top 50, New Testament Interpretation actually rose 74 spaces in August to 104. Thanks very much to everyone for their interest last month.

Stark Savings

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:17:06 +0000

Earlier this week, my wife, Carrie, started blogging at Stark Savings with some of the mass of the great deals that she finds and assorted other money-saving tips. The shopping results in her post from Tuesday about her most recent trip to Harris Teeter are pretty typical.

Somehow, I doubt that Stark Savings will come up in the list of biblioblogs and related blogs any time soon, but it could work: getting better deals > spending less money > having more money > buying more books about biblical studies. Or, maybe not ;-). In any case, particularly any biblical studies students or their family members who read this blog may also want to check out Stark Savings.

Biblioblog Unit Steering Committee Formed

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:21:45 +0000

Jim West reports that the steering committee for the Society of Biblical Literature’s Biblioblog Program Unit has been formed. The committee will initially consist of April DeConick, Mark Goodacre, Stephanie Fisher, and Robert Cargill. The committee will begin working with plans for the 2010 SBL meeting in Atlanta.

Background Transparency for the Biblioblog-SBL Affiliate Badge

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:58:51 +0000

Thanks to Mark Hoffman for introducing a version of the Biblioblog-SBL Affiliate badge with a non-white background. With this color change, in an effort at collaborative improvement, I was able to get OpenOffice.org Draw to translate this background to transparent for use on blogs or places on blogs with non-white backgrounds.

In the Biblioblogs

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:12:21 +0000

A few recent, noteworthy posts in the biblioblogs:

Michael Bird and Michael Whitenton have an article in the newest issue of New Testament Studies: “The Faithfulness of Jesus Christ in Hippolytus’s De Christo et Antichristo: Overlooked Patristic Evidence in the Πίστις Χριστοῦ Debate.”

Keeping Things in Perspective

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:00:42 +0000

In mid-June, I posted a review of Paul Silvia’s book How to Write a Lot with an additional tool for tracking writing progress. Yet, for academic work, non-productive non-writing time can be at least as important as important:

Is academic writing more important than spending time with your family and friends, petting the dog, and drinking coffee? A dog unpetted is a sad dog; a cup of coffee forsaken is caffeine lost forever. Protect your real-world time just as you protect your scheduled writing time ( Silvia 132).

Site Updates

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:00:55 +0000

For the past several weeks, I have been working on some reasonably substantial changes to the site that should make it more useful and beneficial. With these changes completed and my comprehensive exams on the horizon (in both a hermeneutical and a temporal sense), I hope to begin regularly posting again quite soon. For anyone who may be interested, the following are among the most significant of changes to the site:

New Bookshelf Section

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:35:01 +0000

The bookshelf has a new section on faith and scholarship, which (for starters) includes the following works:

[caption id=“attachment_2085” align=“alignleft” width=“80” caption=“Philip Davies”] [/caption] [caption id=“attachment_2137” align=“alignleft” width=“80” caption=“George Marsden”] [/caption] [caption id=“attachment_2136” align=“alignleft” width=“80” caption=“Mark Noll”] [/caption]

Blogging and Biblical Studies: Thoughts from N. T. Wright and Thomas Kuhn

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:58:10 +0000

In his Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision, N. T. Wright reflects:

It is really high time we developed a Christian ethic of blogging. Bad temper is bad temper even in the apparent privacy of your own hard drive, and harsh and unjust words, when released into the wild, rampage around and do real damage. . . . [T]he cyberspace equivalents of road rage don’t happen by accident. People who type vicious, angry, slanderous and inaccurate accusations do so because they feel their worldview to be under attack. Yes, I have a pastoral concern for such people. (And, for that matter, a pastoral concern for anyone who spends more than a few minutes a day taking part in blogsite discussions, especially when they all use code names: was it for this that the creator God made human beings?) ( Wright 26–27; cf. Köstenberger, “Internet Ettiquette”; Köstenberger, “Internet Ettiquette, Part 2”).1

ΠΑΡΑΛΕΙΠΟΜΕΝΑ: From Page to Category

Sun, 17 May 2009 15:49:55 +0000

Over the past several weeks, I’ve become convinced that the Παραλειπόμενα page would be more serviceable as a post category. Below are the current παραλειπόμενα not also included in other posts; a complete selection of the παραλειπόμενα can be obtained by clicking the παραλειπόμενα category link.

ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· διὰ τοῦτο πᾶς γραμματεὺς μαθητευθεὶς τῇ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανῶν ὅμοιός ἐστιν ἀνθρώπῳ οἰκοδεσπότῃ, ὅστις ἐκβάλλει ἐκ τοῦ θησαυροῦ αὐτοῦ καινὰ καὶ παλαιά ( And he said to them, “Therefore, every scribe who has been taught for the kingdom of the heavens is like a man who is a master of a house, who brings forth from his storeroom new and old things”; Matt 13:52)
“[I]t is better for [people] to find you [O God] and leave the question unanswered than to find the answer without finding you” ( Augustine 1.6; affiliate disclosure).
“If you can’t imagine how anyone could hold the view you are attacking, you just don’t understand it yet” ( Weston 6; affiliate disclosure).
“I have never been able to give myself the comfort which some devout believers seem to derive from a contemptuous attitude toward men on the other side of the great debate; I have never been able to dismiss the ‘higher critics’ en masse with a few words of summary condemnation” (J. Gresham Machen, quoted in Baird 352; affiliate disclosure).
עשות ספרים הרבה אין קץ ולהג הרבה יגעת בשר ( Of the making of many books there is no end, and much study is the weariness of the bones; Eccl 12:12).
“We do God’s work for our brothers and sisters when we learn to listen to them. So often Christians, especially preachers, think that their only service is always to have to ‘offer’ something when they are together with other people. They forget that listening can be a greater service than speaking. Many people seek a sympathetic ear and do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking even when they should be listening. But Christians who can no longer listen to one another will soon no longer be listening to God either; they will always be talking even in the presence of God. The death of the spiritual life starts here, and in the end there is nothing left but empty spiritual chatter and clerical condescension which chokes on pious words. Those who cannot listen long and patiently will always be talking past others, and finally no longer will even notice it. Those who think their time is too precious to spend listening will never really have time for God and others, but only for themselves and for their own words and plans” ( Bonhoeffer 98; affiliate disclosure).
καὶ ἐδικαιώθη ἡ σοφία ἀπὸ τῶν ἔργων αὐτῆς ( And wisdom is justified by her deeds; Matt 11:19).
“The New Testament is concerned with proclamation. It is a Kerygma, the loud cry of a herald authorized by a king to proclaim his will and purpose to his subjects. It is Euangelion, good news, sent to those who are in distress with the promise of deliverance. It is the Word of the Lord—and in the East a word is no mere vibration in the atmosphere, it is a living power sent forth to accomplish that for which it is sent” ( Neill and Wright 448–49; italics original; affiliate disclosure).
“[T]he hermeneutical task involves both distance, in which account is taken of the particularity of the text, and also a progress towards as close a fusion of horizons with the text as the relation between text and interpreter will allow” ( Thiselton 440; emphasis original; affiliate disclosure).
ὁ ἀφʼ ἑαυτοῦ λαλῶν τὴν δόξαν τὴν ἰδίαν ζητεῖ ( He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; John 7:18).

Greek Resources: Links Updated

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:44:11 +0000

The link list on the Greek resources page has been updated and expanded to include some additional, online resources for studying New Testament Greek and the Greek New Testament.

New Testament Greek Resources

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:40:09 +0000

A new page is now available that will eventually house several resources for learning New Testament Greek. Currently, the page features MP3 audio recordings of the basic verb and noun paradigms as well as some songs that have been translated into Greek. Repeatedly hearing these paradigms and the songs in which they are used can provide one more way of cementing New Testament Greek in memory.

Right now, the Greek resources page basically reflects my old faculty page at Faulkner University, but expect more material to become available and a more friendly organization to develop over the coming weeks.

The Interpretation of the New Testament, 1861–1986: Interaction

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:05:10 +0000

[caption id=“attachment_668” align=“alignleft” width=“80” caption=“Stephen Neill and N. T. Wright”] [/caption] Neill’s stated purpose for his book was “to provide a narrative [about the interpretation of the New Testament] that can be read without too much trouble by the non-theologian who is anxious to know and is prepared to devote some time to the subject” ( ix). This task he seems to have done masterfully well, with a comparatively frugal use of footnotes to set forth “the necessary apparatus of scholarship” ( ix). While this history might have proved tedious, Neill has managed to produce a cogent narrative that, at times, may well carry the interested student into the situation or the time being described.