12 Reasons You Need to Read Your Bible
Critical biblical scholarship is irreplaceable. But even when you do this, there are 12 reasons you still need to read your Bible.
Bible
Review of Longman, ed., “Baker Illustrated Bible Dictionary” in Logos
The Baker Illustrated Bible Dictionary is a helpful resource with some useful enhancements in the Logos Bible Software version.
Review of Biblical Literature Newsletter (July 14, 2014)
The latest reviews in the Review of Biblical Literature include:
Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies
- Richard J. Clifford, Wisdom, reviewed by Lawrence M. Wills
- David J. A. Clines and J. Cheryl Exum, eds., The Reception of the Hebrew Bible in the Septuagint and the New Testament: Essays in Memory of Aileen Guilding, reviewed by Benjamin J. M. Johnson
- Joan E. Cook, Genesis, reviewed by Jonathan L. Huddleston
- Avraham Faust, Judah in the Neo-Babylonian Period: The Archaeology of Desolation, reviewed by Gert T. M. Prinsloo
- James E. Harding, The Love of David and Jonathan: Ideology, Text, Reception, reviewed by Katherine Low
- Irene Nowell, Numbers, reviewed by Timothy R. Ashley
- Naomi Steinberg, The World of the Child in the Hebrew Bible, reviewed by Karin Finsterbusch
New Testament and Cognate Studies
...Simeon, Works
[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“100”] 
Charles Simeon (1759–1836; Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]
Along with the works of John Lightfoot, Rob Bradshaw has posted the works of Charles Simeon (ed. Thomas Horne; London: Henry G. Bohn, 1844–1845), courtesy of Tyndale House. The set is available on this page in one PDF file per printed volume.
...Review of Biblical Literature Newsletter (July 3, 2014)
The latest reviews in the Review of Biblical Literature include:
Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies
- Tremper Longman III, Job, reviewed by Richard G. Smith
- Donald P. Moffat, Ezra’s Social Drama: Identity Formation, Marriage and Social Conflict in Ezra 9 and 10, reviewed by Hannah K. Harrington
- Daniel C. Owens, Portraits of the Righteous in the Psalms: An Exploration of the Ethics of Book I, reviewed by Beat Weber
- Franz Sedlmeier, Das Buch Ezechiel: Kapitel 25-48, reviewed by Michael S. Moore
- Stefan Seiler, Text-Beziehungen: Zur intertextuellen Interpretation alttestamentlicher Texte am Beispiel ausgewählter Psalmen, reviewed by Gert T. M. Prinsloo
New Testament and Cognate Studies
...Review of Biblical Literature Newsletter (June 27, 2014)
The latest reviews in the Review of Biblical Literature include:
Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies
- Peter Enns, The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say about Human Origins, reviewed by Paul Korchin
- Kai Kaniuth et al., eds., Tempel im Alten Orient, reviewed by Jason M. Silverman
- Christoph Körner and Hans-Winfried Jüngling, eds., "…denn das ist der ganze Mensch": Jüdische Feste: Kohelet, Ester, Hoheslied, Rut, Klagelieder, reviewed by Andreas Lehnardt
- Michael Pietsch, Die Kultreform Josias: Studien zur Religionsgeschichte Israels in der späten Königszeit, reviewed by Peter Porzig
New Testament and Cognate Studies
...Journal of Biblical Literature 133, no. 2
The Journal of Biblical Literature 133, no. 2 includes:
- Joram Mayshar, “Who Was the Toshav?”
- Amitai Baruchi-Unna, “Two Clearings of Goats (1 Kings 20:27): An Interpretation Supported by an Akkadian Parallel”
- Ryan E. Stokes, “Satan, Yhwh’s Executioner”
- Saul M. Olyan, “Jehoiakim’s Dehumanizing Interment as a Ritual Act of Reclassification”
- John L. McLaughlin, “Is Amos (Still) among the Wise?”
- Christine Mitchell, “A Note on the Creation Formula in Zechariah 12:1–8; Isaiah 42:5–6; and Old Persian Inscriptions”
- Kristian Larsson, “Intertextual Density, Quantifying Imitation”
- J. R. Daniel Kirk and Stephen L. Young, “‘I Will Set His Hand to the Sea’: Psalm 88:26 LXX and Christology in Mark”
- Jennifer Knust and Tommy Wasserman, “The Biblical Odes and the Text of the Christian Bible: A Reconsideration of the Impact of Liturgical Singing on the Transmission of the Gospel of Luke”
- Brittany E. Wilson, “The Blinding of Paul and the Power of God:Masculinity, Sight, and Self-Control in Acts 9”
- Brice C. Jones, “Three New Coptic Papyrus Fragments of 2 Timothy and Titus (P.Mich. inv. 3535b)”
- Nicola Denzey Lewis and Justine Ariel Blount, “Rethinking the Origins of the Nag Hammadi Codices”
This issue also introduces the “JBL Forum,” which is intended to provide “an occasional series that will highlight approaches, points of view, and even definitions of ‘biblical scholarship’ that may be outside the usual purview of many of our readers. The format may vary from time to time but will always include an exchange of ideas on the matter at hand” (pg. 421). This issue’s forum includes:
...Review of Biblical Literature Newsletter (June 20, 2014)
The latest reviews in the Review of Biblical Literature include:
Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies
- William Goodman, Yearning for You: Psalms and the Song of Songs in Conversation with Rock and Worship Songs, reviewed by T. Michael W. Halcomb
- David Weiss Halivni, The Formation of the Babylonian Talmud, reviewed by Joshua Ezra Burns
- Isaac Kalimi, ed., Jewish Bible Theology: Perspectives and Case Studies, reviewed by Ginny Brewer-Boydston
- Vita Daphna Arbel, Forming Femininity in Antiquity: Eve, Gender, and Ideologies in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve, reviewed by F. Scott Spencer
- Víctor Morla, Los manuscritos hebreos de Ben Sira: Traducción y notas, reviewed by Nuria Calduch-Benages
- Peter W. Flint, The Dead Sea Scrolls, reviewed by George J. Brooke
New Testament and Cognate Studies
...Review of Biblical Literature Newsletter (June 13, 2014)
The latest reviews in the Review of Biblical Literature include:
Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies
- Jenny R. Labendz, Socratic Torah: Non-Jews in Rabbinic Intellectual Culture, reviewed by Joshua Schwartz
- Thomas L. Thompson, Biblical Narrative and Palestine’s History: Changing Perspectives 2, reviewed by Ralph K. Hawkins
New Testament and Cognate Studies
...Duguid, “Is Jesus in the Old Testament?”
Through June 11, the Westminster Bookstore is offering a free PDF download of Iain Duguid’s Is Jesus in the Old Testament? (P&R, 2013). Duguid has been at Grove City College but has recently joined the Westminster Seminary faculty. According to its introduction, Duguid’s essay (the text is a brief 33 pages of prose) has the following major components to its argument:
...Perthes, Life of John Chrysostom
This month, Logos Bible Software has Frederic Perthes’ Life of John Chrysostom (John P. Jewett, 1854) available for free. According to Logos’s description,
Based on the investigations of Neander, Böhringer, and others, Life of John Chrysostom details the “golden-mouthed” orator’s influence on Asia Minor. It offers a look into his role as preacher and bishop, his interactions with different sects and notable persons during his life, and an exacting account of his three-year exile.
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Witherington, What’s in the Word
Ben Witherington,
Through June 16, Ben Witherington’s What’s in the Word: Rethinking the Socio-Rhetorical Character of the New Testament (Baylor, 2009) is available for free from Logos Bible Software.
In sum, “Expanding on the work in which he has been fruitfully engaged for over a quarter century, Witherington challenges the previously assured results of historical criticism and demonstrates chapter by chapter how the socio-rhetorical study shifts the paradigm.” The volume discusses concerns related to orality and canon, and includes several chapters treating particular texts or phrases within the New Testament.
...Brueggeman, Spirituality of the Psalms
Walter Brueggemann,
The June free book of the month seems already to be live on the Logos Bible Software website. The included text is Walter Brueggemann’s Spirituality of the Psalms (Fortress, 2001). The optional, $0.99 add on is Brueggemmann’s David’s Truth: In Israel’s Imagination and Memory (Fortress, 2002).
...Vanhoozer, ed., Theological Interpretation of the New Testament
Kevin Vanhoozer, ed.,
For this week, Kevin Vanhoozer’s edited volume on the Theological Interpretation of the New Testament is free from Logos Bible Software when users join a Baker-related email list (HT: Tayler Beede). The volume provides a focused selection of the book-specific entries from the larger Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible.
...Upcoming Logos Resources (August 28, 2013)
Recently, I noted that an English Standard Version audio Bible was freely available with registration at Bible.is. This version’s Old Testament is also still freely available in MP3 format on Amazon.
...Upcoming Logos Resources
Logos Bible Software
Recently, a number of noteworthy works have come into Logos Bible Software’s prepublication and community pricing programs. On the prepublication program are collections about biblical backgrounds (9 vols.; T. & T. Clark), the Prophets (16 vols.; T. & T. Clark), the Writings (5 vols.; T. & T. Clark), Old Testament literature and linguistics (7 vols.; T. & T. Clark), Hebrew Bible (7 vols.; T. & T. Clark), topics in Old Testament Studies (11 vols.; T. & T. Clark), Old Testament theology (9 vols.; Oxford University), biblical history and historiography (3 vols.; T. & T. Clark), Jewish Studies (6 vols.; T. & T. Clark), Jesus (10 vols.; T. & T. Clark); the Gospels and Acts (18 vols.; T. & T. Clark), Johannine literature (10 vols.; T. & T. Clark), the Pauline Epistles (10 vols.; T. & T. Clark), topics in New Testament Studies (11 vols.; T. & T. Clark), early Christianity (13 vols.; T. & T. Clark), apocrypha and pseudepigrapha (7 vols.; T. & T. Clark), Apostolic Fathers (29 vols.; various publishers), church history (18 vols.; Oxford); biblical interpretation (3 vols.; Pontifical Biblical Commission and 5 vols.; T. & T. Clark), biblical languages (35 vols.; Zondervan), bibliology (7 vols.; T. & T. Clark), the Bible in art (3 vols.; Standard), theological interpretation (4 vols.; T. & T. Clark), and Dietrich Bonhoeffer (3 vols.; T. & T. Clark), as well as the select Loeb Classical Library works by Tertullian and Minucius Felix (2 vols.) and Virgil (4 vols.).
...Seitz, Christian Scripture (Excerpt)
Baker has kindly provided a substantial PDF excerpt from Christopher Seitz’s The Character of Christian Scripture: The Significance of a Two-Testament Bible (2011). Besides front matter, the excerpt includes the book’s introduction and first chapter, which account for 74 pages of text.
...Faithlife Study Bible
Faithlife Study Bible
Although the product has already some limited availability, Logos Bible Software has now announced that the Faithlife Study Bible, which includes the Lexham Bible Dictionary, is available for free through March 2014.
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