Bulletin-for-Biblical-Research

In the last 2016 issue of the Bulletin for Biblical Research, Aaron Chalmers has an interesting essay on “the influence of cognitive biases on biblical interpretation” (467–80). Chalmers approaches the question from the perspective of cognitive psychology and focuses on “five key cognitive biases”—namely, “confirmation bias, false consensus effect, in-group bias, functional fixedness, and the illusory truth effect” (467).

For Chalmers, bias is almost exclusively a roadblock to proper biblical interpretation that needs to be overcome. Consequently, the latter part of the essay provides five suggestions for “debiasing” oneself. These are understanding cognitive bias, considering opposite views, pausing for adequate reflection, engaging with other interpreters, and avoiding time pressure for completing interpretive tasks (477–80).

Bulletin for Biblical Research 24, no. 4 contains five articles on various topics in Biblical Studies.

The latest issue of the Bulletin for Biblical Research arrived in yesterday’s mail and includes:

• Joseph Kelly, “The Ethics of Inclusion: The גר and the אזרח in the Passover to Yhwh”
• Rahel Schafer, “Rest for the Animals?: Nonhuman Sabbath Repose in Pentateuchal Law”
• Amy Peeler, “Desiring God: The Blood of the Covenant in Exodus 24”
• Ray Clendenen, “A Passionate Prophet: Reading Emotions in the Book of Malachi”
• Maria Pascuzzi, “Reconsidering the Authorship of Colossians”

The latest issue of the Bulletin for Biblical Research arrived in yesterday’s mail and includes:

• Joshua Philpot, “Exodus 34:29–35 and Moses’ Shining Face”
• Edward Bridge, “The Metaphoric Use of Slave Terms in the Hebrew Bible”
• Gregory Goswell, “Joshua and Kingship”
• Gregory Wong, “A Farewell to Arms: Goliath’s Death as Rhetoric against Faith in Arms”
• David DeSilva, “The Human Ideal, the Problem of Evil, and Moral Responsibility in 4 Maccabees”

The latest issue of the Bulletin for Biblical Research includes:

• Edward Glenny, “The Septuagint and Apostolic Hermeneutics: Amos 9 and Acts 15”
• Joel Willitts, “Matthew and Psalms of Solomon’s Messianism: A Comparative Study in First-Century Messianology”
• Preston Massey, “Disagreement in the Greco-Roman Literary Tradition and the Implications for Gospel Research”
• Nijay Gupta, “What ‘Mercies of God’?: Oiktirmos in Romans 12:1 against Its Septuagintal Background”
• Aaron Sherwood, “Paul’s Imprisonment as the Glory of the Ethnē: A Discourse Analysis of Ephesians 3:1–13”

The latest issue of the Bulletin for Biblical Research includes:

• H. Daniel Zacharias, “Old Greek Daniel 7:13–14 and Matthew’s Son of Man”
• Robert S. Snow, “Let the Reader Understand: Mark’s Use of Jeremiah 7 in Mark 13:14”
• Steven M. Bryan, “Consumed by Zeal: John’s Use of Psalm 69:9 and the Action in the Temple”
• Brian J. Tabb, “Johannine Fulfillment of Scripture: Continuity and Escalation”
• Timothy Wiarda, “The Portrayal of Peter and Atonement Theology in the Gospel of John”

Among the books reviewed in this issue also is Doug Green’s “I Undertook Great Works”: The Ideology of Domestic Achievements in West Semitic Royal Inscriptions (Mohr Siebeck, 2010). Doug is an excellent fellow, and I very much appreciate the opportunity, albeit limited, to have had him as an instructor a few years ago.

The latest issue of the Bulletin for Biblical Research arrived in yesterday’s mail and includes:

• Andrew Malone, “Distinguishing the Angel of the Lord”
• Richard Hess, “The Seventy Sevens of Daniel 9: A Timetable for the Future?”
• Craig Keener, ” Otho: A Targeted Comparison of Suetonius’s Biography and Tacitus’s History, with Implications for the Gospels’ Historical Reliability”
• Jason Hood, “The Temple and the Thorn: 2 Corinthians 12 and Paul’s Heavenly Ecclesiology”
• Everett Ferguson, “Angels of the Churches in Revelation 1–3: Status Quaestionis and Another Proposal”

This year’s first issue of the Bulletin for Biblical Research arrived in the mail last week and includes the following:

• Michael Graves, “Scholar and Advocate: The Stories of Moses in Midrash Exodus Rabbah,” 1–22
• John Lawlor, “The ‘At-Sinai Narrative’: Exodus 18–Numbers 10,” 23–42
• David Lincicum, “Philo on Phinehas and the Levites: Observing an Exegetical Connection,” 43–50
• Mark Matthews, “The Genre of 2 Peter: A Comparison with Jewish and Early Christian Testaments,” 51–64
• Armin Baum, “Revelatory Experience and Pseudepigraphical Attribution in Early Jewish Apocalypses,” 65–92

In addition, among the other book reviews in this issue is my review of G. Walter Hansen, The Letter to the Philippians(Pillar New Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009) on pages 129–31.

This year’s second issue of the Bulletin for Biblical Research arrived in the mail yesterday and includes the following:

• Brian Gault, “An Admonition against ‘Rousing Love’: The Meaning of the Enigmatic Refrain in Song of Songs,” 161–84
• William Wilder, “The Use (or Abuse) of Power in High Places: Gifts Given and Received in Isaiah, Psalm 68, and Ephesians 4:8,” 185–200
• Gerald Peterman, “Plural You: On the Use and Abuse of the Second Person,” 201–14
• Craig Keener, “Spirit Possession as a Cross-cultural Experience,” 215–36
• Joshua Jipp and Michael Thate, “Dating Thomas: Logion 53 as a Test Case for Dating the Gospel of Thomas within an Early Christian Trajectory,” 237–56
• Book reviews, 257–307