Liberal-Arts on J. David Stark

Irenaeus on 666 and 616

Wed, 11 Sep 2024 12:09:42 +0000

Irenaeus of Lyons

In his Against Heresies, Irenaeus argues that 666 is a particularly “fitting” number for the name of the beast in Rev 13:18:

since he sums up in his own person all the commixture of wickedness which took place previous to the deluge, due to the apostasy of the angels. For Noah was six hundred years old when the deluge came upon the earth, sweeping away the rebellious world, for the sake of that most infamous generation which lived in the times of Noah. And [Antichrist] also sums up every error of devised idols since the flood, together with the slaying of the prophets and the cutting off of the just {cf. Matt 24:37–38/ Luke 17:26–27}. For that image which was set up by Nebuchadnezzar had indeed a height of sixty cubits, while the breadth was six cubits; on account of which Ananias, Azarias, and Misaël, when they did not worship it, were cast into a furnace of fire, pointing out prophetically, by what happened to them, the wrath against the righteous which shall arise towards the [time of the] end {cf. Matt 24:15/ Mark 13:14}. For that image, taken as a whole, was a prefiguring of this man’s coming, decreeing that he should undoubtedly himself alone be worshipped by all men {cf. Rev 13:15}. Thus, then, the six hundred years of Noah, in whose time the deluge occurred because of the apostasy, and the number of the cubits of the image for which these just men were sent into the fiery furnace, do indicate the number of the name of that man in whom is concentrated the whole apostasy of six thousand years, and unrighteousness, and wickedness, and false prophecy, and deception; for which things’ sake a cataclysm of fire shall also come [upon the earth]. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 5.29.2 [ ANF 1:558; affiliate disclosure] square brackets original; curled brackets added)

Edit Spreadsheets on Google Drive for Mobile

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 02:09:02 +0000

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

Photo credit: Google Drive Blog

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

Attaching Drive Items in Gmail

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 15:48:40 +0000

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

Photo credit: Gmail Blog

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

Aristotle's Organon on LibriVox

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 03:37:27 +0000

Using Owen’s translation, LibriVox recordings have also been made available for Categories, Interpretation, Prior Analytics, and Posterior Analytics.

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 14:48:50 +0000

I hadn’t noticed until today, but among the volumes available at Loebolus is Aristotle’s Rhetoric (vol. 193; ed. J. H. Freese, 1926).

In-Browser Office Suites

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 15:00:46 +0000

Similar to rollApp, which debuted earlier this year, InstallFree is offering a no-cost web-based version of LibreOffice that can be run inside a browser and that integrate with various online storage platforms like Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive. For free, users can also use InstallFree’s Microsoft Office application to view Microsoft Office file formats with full fidelity. Native editing privileges for Microsoft Office formats are available in InstallFree, after the initial 60-day trial, starting at $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year for academic users. For more information about InstallFree, please see the videos below or visit the website.

Great Books-Based Distance PhD

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 16:41:16 +0000

Earlier today, the program director, Robert Woods, announced that the Christian Institute for the Study of Liberal Arts would begin offering a SACS-accredited, fully distance-based PhD program:

This PhD is literally one-of-a-kind in that it is fully accredited (SACS), offered fully distance with the dissertation being defended via conference call with a designated Research Fellow, and the student’s full committee having guided the research. This PhD is uniquely interdisciplinary in structure and practice. A number of the highly qualified faculty are generalists and encourage the kind of readings, research, and writing that reflects an interdisciplinary drive.

Puckett, Apologetics of Joy

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 14:01:04 +0000

Joe Puckett

One of our recent MLitt graduates through the Christian Institute for the Study of Liberal Arts, Joe Puckett, completed his thesis earlier this year, and it has now come to press with Wipf and Stock under the title, The Apologetics of Joy: A Case for the Existence of God from C. S. Lewis’s Argument from Desire. The title should soon also be available through other booksellers.

New Drive Apps for Chrome

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 17:52:58 +0000

The Chrome Web Store now includes individual Chrome web apps for Docs, Sheets, and Slides:

To make it even easier for you to create stuff quickly, Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations–now called Docs, Sheets, and Slides–are available as apps in the Chrome Web Store. Once installed, shortcuts to these apps will appear when you open a new tab in Chrome.

On the Web (October 19, 2012)

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:07:23 +0000

On the web:

Jim Davila and Hershel Shanks, among others, pay tribute to the fallen titan, Frank Moore Cross.
Michael Bird joins Joel Watts in reflecting on Justin Martyr, Xenophon, and the Gospels.
The Cornell University Library has a collection of Eleusinian inscription images available (HT: Charles Jones).

Free BASOR Issue and Classics Teaching Resources

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 12:27:04 +0000

Charles Jones notes that the May issue of the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research is available for free online through July 31 and that ClassicsTeaching.com contains some valuable resources for teachers of classics, compiled by Steven Hunt (Cambridge) and Aisha Khan-Evans (University of London).

On the Web (June 23, 2012)

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 12:21:21 +0000

On the web:

Randy Kennedy discusses how the current economic crisis in Greece is imperiling local antiquities.
Matthew Kalman discusses documentary sensationalism and its impact on the status of biblical archaeology.
Charles Jones highlights resources for Macedonian coinage, the Acta Sanctorum, Augustan Rome’s geography, and the Byzantine scholia on Homer’s Iliad.
Jim Davila notes Google’s efforts to read unopenable Dead Sea Scrolls.
Joel Willitts comments on selections from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together.
Robert Woods discusses wisdom from a Thomistic perspective.
Tokens provides part 3 of a series of YouTube clips series from their October 24, 2011 interview with Walter Brueggemann. See here for parts 1 and 2.

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.

Loebolus

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 16:45:24 +0000

A new collection of online Loeb Classical Library volumes is now available (HT: Charles Jones).

This new collection provides locally-hosted PDFs that can be downloaded without completing a CAPTCHA field.

The page also provides a link to a single ZIP file (3.2 GB) that contains all the individual LCL volume PDFs available on the page.

Origin, Identity, and Mission

Sat, 19 May 2012 21:29:55 +0000

Jesus and Nicodemus, Crijn Hendricksz, 1616–1645.

John 1:13 describes a group of individuals “who were not born from blood nor from a fleshly will nor from a husband’s will but from God” (οἳ οὐκ ἐξ αἱμάτων οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος σαρκὸς οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος ἀνδρὸς ἀλλʼ ἐκ θεοῦ ἐγεννήθησαν). For John, being born “from blood” (ἐξ αἱμάτων), “from a fleshly will” (ἐκ θελήματος σαρκός), and “from a husband’s will” (ἐκ θελήματος ἀνδρός) would all have been perfectly reasonable ways of describing ordinary, human generation. 1 Yet, the individuals John describes as not having been born in these ways but as having been born “from God” (ἐκ θεοῦ) are still very much human beings ( John 1:9–12). John’s point, then, is not to negate the reality of the ordinary, human, physical generation of the individuals he describes but to negate the significance of this origin for determining the identity of the “children of God” ( John 1:12; τέκνα θεοῦ).

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).”

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 55, no. 1

Fri, 11 May 2012 12:59:49 +0000

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

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

Clinton Arnold, “Sceva, Solomon, and Shamanism: The Jewish Roots of the Problem at Colossae”
Nicholas Lunn, “Allusions to the Joseph Narrative in the Synoptic Gospels and Acts: Foundations of Biblical Type”
Daniel Hays, " ‘Sell Everything You Have and Give to the Poor’: The Old Testament Prophetic Theme of Justice as the Connecting Motif of Luke 18:1–19:10"
Paul Tanner, “James’s Quotation of Amos 9 to Settle the Jerusalem Council Debate in Acts 15”
Jonathan Lunde and John Dunne, “Paul’s Creative and Contextual Use of Isaiah in Ephesians 5:14”
Emmitt Cornelius, “St. Irenaeus and Robert W. Jenson on Jesus in the Trinity”
Michael Bräutigam, “Good Will Hunting: Adolf Schlatter on Organic Volitional Sanctification”

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.

Thousands and Ten Thousands

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 11:39:55 +0000

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First Samuel 18:6 describes David’s return after killing Goliath ( 1 Sam 17:41–58). Precisely how this event sits chronologically in relationship to the surrounding narrative is difficult to establish. 1 One good way of reading the narrative, however, involves treating 1 Sam 18:1–5 as an extended parenthesis, which includes some foreshadowing, and understanding 1 Sam 18:6 to be bringing the reader back to the main plot line that had temporarily paused with 1 Sam 17:58. 2 In this context, it begins to be said הכה שׁאול֙ באלפו ודוד ברבבתיו ‎( 1 Sam 18:7; Saul has slain by his thousands and David by his ten thousands; see also 1 Sam 21:11; 29:5). 3 Yet, thus far, David has specifically been reported to have killed only one person (Goliath) and some animals ( 1 Sam 17:34–37)—not רבבת (ten thousands). 4 Rather, the women’s song quantitatively represents the qualitative value of David’s victory over Goliath as it relates to Saul’s previous exploits. 5 On hearing this song, then, Saul becomes enraged and starts looking and acting to do David harm ( 1 Sam 18:8–9).

Prayer Prayers

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:00:52 +0000

Luke 11:1–4 recounts Jesus’ teaching his disciples how to pray. The substance of the prayer much resembles the parallel account in Matt 6:9–13. Yet, Luke’s version is considerably shorter than Matthew’s at a couple points. Also, rather than coming in the context of a longer discourse, Jesus’ teaching in Luke 11:2–4 responds to a specific request from one of the disciples that he teach them to pray, just as John had done with his own disciples ( Luke 11:1).((Darrell L. Bock, Jesus according to Scripture: Restoring the Portrait from the Gospels (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006), 141.))

Messiah, Our Passover

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 20:30:56 +0000

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As יהוה was delivering Israel from Egypt, he commanded his people spread lamb’s blood on their doorposts and lintels ( Exod 12:7). In view of this blood, יהוה passed over his people and judged only the Egyptians’ firstborn and their gods ( Exod 12:12–13), for יהוה had provided that the Israelites should redeem their firstborn with lamb’s blood ( Exod 13:15; cf. Exod 34:18–20). He delivered them mightily, he brought them through the sea, he made a covenant with them, and he settled them in Canaan ( Exod 12:29– Judges 1:26). Nevertheless, even those who entered the land did not fully enter יהוה’s rest ( Heb 4:8–11), and year by year, they offered sacrifices for sins ( Lev 16:1–34; 23:26–32; Num 29:7–11; Heb 9:6–10; 10:1–4).

International Journal of the Platonic Tradition

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 15:06:54 +0000

Starting this year, the International Journal of the Platonic Tradition has become fully and openly accessible online (HT: Charles Jones).

New Aquinas Translations

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:44:22 +0000

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“125” caption=“Thomas Aquinas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)”] [/caption]

Through their pre-publication program, Logos Bible Software is now offering English translations of Thomas Aquinas’s commentaries on Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Sentences of Peter Lombard. Aquinas’s Summa Theologica and Summa Contra Gentiles have been available in English for some time, but once enough pre-publication orders have accumulated, Logos’s texts of these three commentaries will be the first time they have been available in English.

Frightful Fishing and Forgiven Catching

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:03:15 +0000

Although the calling of Simon Peter appears in all three synoptic Gospels ( Matt 4:18–20; Mark 1:16–18; Luke 5:1–11; cf. John 1:35–51; 21:1–11), Luke’s narrative develops the pericope in much greater detail than Matthew’s or Mark’s. Luke 5:3 indicates that Jesus did some teaching from Simon’s boat. After concluding, Jesus instructs Simon to take the boat into the λίμνη (lake), and set out the nets for a catch ( Luke 5:4). Although incredulous, Simon acquiesces ( Luke 5:5–6a, 8–10a).((Jon L. Berquist, “Luke 5:1–11,” Int 58, no. 1 (2004): 62; Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke (New International Commentary on the New Testament; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 232.)) Then, to his surprise, not only do they catch fish, but their catch is of such quantity that it nearly nearly tears the nets and sinks both their boat and another called to help ( Luke 5:6b–7). Observing this situation, Simon προσέπεσεν τοῖς γόνασιν Ἰησοῦ λέγων· ἔξελθε ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ, ὅτι ἀνὴρ ἁμαρτωλός εἰμι, κύριε. θάμβος γὰρ περιέσχεν αὐτὸν καὶ πάντας τοὺς σὺν αὐτῷ ἐπὶ τῇ ἄγρᾳ τῶν ἰχθύων ὧν συνέλαβον ( Luke 5:8–9; fell at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, because I am a sinful man, Lord.” For, astonishment at the catch of fish that they had enclosed had come upon him and all those who were with him).((Or, if Ἰησοῦ is a dative, προσέπεσεν τοῖς γόνασιν Ἰησοῦ may be “he fell on [his own] knees before Jesus” (I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke [New International Greek Testament Commentary; Exeter: Paternoster, 1995], 204).))

Bonhoeffer's Works

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:39:38 +0000

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“125” caption=“Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)”] [/caption]

Fifteen print volumes of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s works are now available as a single set via Logos Bible Software’s pre-publication program. According to the product page:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the most influential Christian martyrs in history, bequeathed to humanity a legacy of theological creativity and spirituality that continues to inspire people from a variety of backgrounds. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (15 vols.) offers a fresh, critical translation of Bonhoeffer’s writings, with extensive introductions, annotations, and interpretation.

Faithful Rahab

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 19:14:24 +0000

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“150” caption=“Rahab Helping the Two Israelite Spies (Image via Wikipedia)”] [/caption]

After assuming leadership over Israel ( Josh 1:10–18), Joshua commissions two men to survey Jericho and the surrounding area ( Josh 2:1a). Rather tersely, then, the menוילכו ויבאו בית־אשׁה זונה ושׁמה רחב וישׁכבו־שׁמה ( Josh 2:1b; went and entered the house of a prostitute, whose name was Rahab, and they lodged there). For onlookers, such an action might not have been unusual in itself, 1 but by some means or other, the king became aware of these Israelite’s intent to survey Jericho ahead of some forthcoming military action ( Josh 2:3).

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.

So Then You Also Were Made to Die

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:36:08 +0000

In Rom 7:1–6, Paul appears to draw on Num 5:11–31 as a metaphorical way of characterizing the Christian community’s history. 1 While her husband lives, the wife’s involvement with another man would make her liable to the charge of adultery from her current husband. From this charge, the wife would also become liable to the ritual of Num 5:11–31, and the serious consequences that it would entail if she had indeed committed adultery ( Num 5:21–22, 24, 27–28).2

The (Hermeneutical) Rule of Love

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 06:31:39 +0000

Mark 12:28–30 reports Jesus’ citation of Deut 6:4–5 as Torah’s preeminent commandment and of Lev 19:18 as the commandment of next greatest standing (cf. Matt 22:34–40; Luke 10:25–28). Jesus’ expansion of Deuteronomy’s בכל־מאדך ( Deut 6:5; ἐξ ὅλης τῆς δυνάμεώς σου; with all your might) into ἐξ ὅλης τῆς διανοίας σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ἰσχύος σου ( Mark 12:30; with all your mind and with all your strength) 1 is in step with Deuteronomy’s original formulation (cf. Mark 12:33a) but perhaps stresses still further יהוה’s comprehensive claim on the affections of the command’s addressees. 2 Not surprisingly, these commands’ importance also provides further, mutually-reinforcing suggestions about readings of Israel’s scriptures, including ones that privilege the love of יהוה and even of one’s potentially disagreeable neighbor over any burnt offering or sacrifice ( Mark 12:32–34). 3

Being and Knowing in Messianic Space

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:01:04 +0000

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The story of Jesus’ raising Jairus’s daughter appears in all three synoptics ( Matt 9:18–19, 23–26; Mark 5:21–24, 35–43; Luke 8:41–42, 49–56), but only Mark and Luke report a closing admonition about the event’s further dissemination ( Mark 5:43; Luke 8:56). In Luke 8:56, Jesus instruction focuses on the fact that the witnesses, perhaps especially the parents, should not themselves engage in describing what happened. By contrast, in Mark 5:43, Jesus warns those around him ἵνα μηδεὶς γνοῖ τοῦτο (so that no one would know this*).

Worthy of More Glory

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 21:10:29 +0000

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In Num 12:1, Miriam and Aaron confront Moses because of his marriage to a Cushite woman, and in so doing, they attempt to claim equal prophetic status with Moses ( Num 12:2a). Apparently, on this occasion, Moses’ meekness constrains him from responding ( Num 12:3; cf. Rom 12:19; 1 Clem. 17 [ANF 9:234]; Socrates, Hist. eccl., 7.42 [NPNF2 2:176]), but יהוה hears the conversation and summons all three siblings to the tent of meeting ( Num 12:2b, 4). יהוה then summons Aaron and Miriam for a special rebuke ( Num 12:5): however high may be their claim to apparently equal prophetic status with Moses, Moses own status still surpasses that of prophet ( Num 12:6–9). The status that Aaron and Miriam claim for themselves gets them only so far—only to dreams and visions ( Num 12:6). By contrast, Moses is not limited to dreams and visions, but פה אל־פה אדבר־בו ומראה ולא בחידת ותמנת יהוה יביט ( Num 12:8a; with him, I [יהוה] speak mouth to mouth, plainly, and not in riddles, and he looks upon the form of יהוה). More than a prophet, Moses is a faithful servant in all יהוה’s house ( Num 12:7; Heb 3:5).

They Pressed Him into Service

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:58:53 +0000

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“193” caption=“Simon von Cyrene (Bamberger Kreuzweg; Image via Wikipedia)”] [/caption]

Mark 15:21 describes Simon of Cyrene as having been “pressed into service” (ἀγγαρεύουσιν . . . Σίμωνα Κυρηναῖον) to carry Jesus’ cross, and Matt 27:32 uses the same language (ἄνθρωπον Κυρηναῖον ὀνόματι Σίμωνα . . . ἠγγάρευσαν). Only Matthew’s narrative, however, has Jesus previously instructing his disciples, saying, ὅστις σε ἀγγαρεύσει μίλιον ἕν, ὕπαγε μετʼ αὐτοῦ δύο ( Matt 5:41; whoever will press you into service for one mile, go with him for two; cf. Bruce, “Synoptic Gospels,” 328; Gundry, Matthew, 94; Keener, Matthew, 199). Matthew does not identify how far Simon of Cyrene carried Jesus’ cross, but the accompanying soldiers at least press him into service not to carry his own cross, as would have been anticipated, but someone else’s ( Matt 27:27–32; France, Matthew, 221–22, 1064–65; cf. Keener, Matthew, 199–200; Lightfoot, Commentary, 2:132–33; Schürer, Jewish People, 2.2.231). At this juncture, Jesus’ own disciples are not to be “found,” and in their stead is only one Cyrenean who appears only here in the synoptic tradition ( Matt 27:32; Mark 15:21; Luke 23:26). Although certainly not explicitly included among the audience for Jesus’ earlier instruction in Matt 5:41, Simon here serves, where others fail to do so, as a model of the kind of discipleship that Jesus has described. In this way, Simon has a share in Jesus’ cross, albeit still only to a limited extent (Allison, “Anticipating the Passion,” CBQ 56.4 [1994]: 704–5; cf. Luke 9:23; 14:27; 23:26; Rom 6:5; Phil 3:8–11; Augustine, Cons., 3.37 [NPNF1 6:196]; Origen, Comm. Matt., 12.24 [ANF 9:464]; [Pseudo-]Tertullian, Haer., 9.1 [ANF 3:650]*; Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, 95–104, 161; Keener, Matthew, 673).

Harvard Conference on Learning and Teaching

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:11:57 +0000

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“102” caption=“Nicolo di Pietro, “The Saint Teaching Rhetoric” (Image via Wikipedia)”] [/caption]

In an article this past Sunday in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Dan Berrett digests the results of a recent conference at Harvard University about learning and teaching. The article contains several insightful observations, but in one key paragraph of his article, Berrett summarizes:

My Angel Joshua

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:41:37 +0000

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“174” caption=“Gustave Dore, “The Children of Israel Crossing the Jordan” (Image via Wikipedia)”] [/caption]

Within the narrative of Exodus, identifying the referent of the term מלאך (angel, messenger) in Exod 23:20 is somewhat nettlesome (Ausloos, “The ‘Angel of YHWH,’” VT 58, no. 1 [2008]: 7–10; Enns, Exodus, 473–74), but one reasonable reading is to understand this term as a reference to Joshua (Augustine, Faust., 16.19 [NPNF1 4:226]; Justin, Dial., 75 [ANF 1:236]; Tertullian, Adv. Jud., 9 [ANF 3:163]; Tertullian, Marc., 3.16 [ANF 3:335]; see also Ausloos, “The ‘Angel of YHWH,’” 9n43; cf. Exod 33:12; Gowan, Theology in Exodus, 227–28; Stuart, Exodus, 542–43). Yet, this Joshua does not pardon sins because the name of the God of Abraham is only in him ( Exod 23:21; i.e., he acknowledges this God’s renown; cf. 1 Kgs 5:11 [Eng.: 4:31]; see also Mal 1:11; Ps 8:2 [Eng.: v. 1]; 1 Chron 14:17; 2 Chron 20:9). Rather, such forgiveness comes by him who has received this God’s name as his own ( Mark 2:1–12; Luke 5:17–26; John 17:11–12; Phil 2:9–11; cf. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, 272–74, 631–45) and in whom Abraham’s offspring inherit not one region only by conquest ( Exod 23:24, 31) but the whole world by meekness and rest ( Matt 5:5; Rom 4:13; Heb 4:8–10; see also Pao and Schnabel, “Luke,” 300–3).

Review of Biblical Literature Newsletter (January 31, 2011)

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:09:41 +0000

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

J. Andrew Dearman, The Book of Hosea, reviewed by Heinz-Dieter Neef
Károly Dániel Dobos and Miklós Köszeghy, eds., With Wisdom as a Robe: Qumran and Other Jewish Studies in Honour of Ida Fröhlich, reviewed by Korinna Zamfir
Bruce Louden, Homer’s Odyssey and the Near East, reviewed by Charles L. Echols
Jason Radine, The Book of Amos in Emergent Judah, reviewed by Daniel C. Timmer
Shemaryahu Talmon, Text and Canon of the Hebrew Bible, reviewed by August H. Konkel
William A. Tooman and Michael A. Lyons, eds., Transforming Visions: Transformations of Text, Tradition, and Theology in Ezekiel, reviewed by William R. Osborne

New Testament and Cognate Studies

Zotero 3.0 Stable

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:27:24 +0000

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The stable release of Zotero 3.0 is now available:

Zotero 3.0 marks a major departure from previous versions, most notably with the new ability run outside the Firefox browser. Available for Mac, Windows, and Linux, this standalone version of Zotero contains all the great functionality of the old Firefox-based Zotero but now enables users to integrate Zotero into browsers other than Firefox like Google Chrome and Apple Safari. To all you Firefox lovers out there, no need to worry! Zotero continues to work within Firefox, and even if you choose to run the standalone version, it will talk to Firefox, too.

Not up to Seven Times

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:37:17 +0000

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The interchange in Matt 18:21–22 looks back to Jesus’ immediately preceding comments on handling a community member (ἀδελφός) who sins ( Matt 18:15–20; Chrysostom, Hom. Matt., 61.1 [NPNF1 10:357]; cf. Matt 18:21; 19:1). Read within this context, Peter’s question ποσάκις ἁμαρτήσει εἰς ἐμὲ ὁ ἀδελφός μου καὶ ἀφήσω αὐτῷ; ( Matt 18:21a; How many times* shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?) addresses a very plausible ambiguity in Jesus’ preceding comments. Judging from this question, Peter presumably thinks it inappropriate for a community member endlessly to sin and repent, but as long as some repentance was involved, Jesus’ instructions could seem never to allow further action to be taken. As many times as the community member would sin and repent, this member would also be restored ( Matt 18:15b; Chrysostom, Hom. Matt., 61.1 [NPNF1 10:357]).

Master of the Sea, Son of God

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 22:48:18 +0000

English: Walk on the water Deutsch: Rettung de…

Matthew 14:22–33 narrates Jesus’ walking on water. Yet, unlike the parallel accounts in Mark 6:45–52; John 6:15–21, Matt 14:33 reports that the disciples’ conclusion, at the end of this episode, was ἀληθῶς θεοῦ υἱὸς εἶ (truly, you are the son of God). Apparently thinking along the lines similar to Heb 3:5–6, Archelaus, Disputation with Manes, 44 ( ANF 6:220; affiliate disclosure), relates this text to Jesus’ superiority to Moses. Perhaps more to the point here, however, is a chaos-versus-creation motif (Boring, “Matthew,” NIB 8, 327; affiliate disclosure) in which Jesus subjects the surrounding disorder (Graves, “Followed by the Sun,” RevExp 99, no. 1 [2002]: 92; Ladd, Theology of the New Testament, rev.ed., 163 [ affiliate disclosure]; Verseput, “The Faith of the Reader,” JSNT 46 [1992]: 14–16; cf. Augustine, Serm., 25.6 [ NPNF1 6:338; affiliate disclosure]; Jerome, Epist., 30 [ NPNF2 6:45; affiliate disclosure]). He does so, first, by walking on the sea himself and then all the more by causing Peter to do the same (Chrysostom, Hom. Matt., 50.2 [ NPNF1 10:311–12; affiliate disclosure]). In this framework, then, if Israel’s God is master of the seas (e.g., Job 9:8; Ps 89:9, 19–37; Hab 3:8, 15; cf. Gen 1:2 [LXX; LSJ, s.v. ἐπιφέρω, §§2–3PIFERW#lexicon)])—a kind of mastery not otherwise within the realm of human experience—Jesus’ walking on the sea is an eminently good reason for identifying Jesus as θεοῦ υἱός (son of God) and worshiping him as such (see Matt 14:33; Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, 6.51 [ NPNF2 9:117; affiliate disclosure]; cf. Mark 6:51–52; John 6:21; Aristotle, Poetics, 5.6, 6.2 [ affiliate disclosure]).

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.

Melchizedek's Bread and Wine

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:18:16 +0000

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“150” caption=“Abraham and Melchisedek (Image via Wikipedia)”] [/caption]

As Abram returns from rescuing Lot ( Gen 14:1–16), Melchizedek brings out bread and wine ( Gen 14:18), and so, fittingly does the priest do the same whom David says has been appointed in Melchizedek’s order ( Ps 110:4; Heb 7:1–26; Augustine, Civ., 16.22 [NPNF1, 2:323]; Augustine, Doctr. chr., 4.21 [NPNF1, 2:590]; Bede, Genesis, 269; Cyprian, Epistles, 62.4 [ANF, 5:359]). Melchizedek is without genealogy ( Heb 7:3), and his bread and wine are also without origin. Yet, he brings them to Abram and, in a way, to Abram’s seed ( Gal 3:15–29; Heb 7:9–10; cf. Bede, Genesis, 269; Cyprian, Epistles, 62.4 [ANF, 5:359]). The messianic seed, however, brings bread and wine as from himself, and he brings them to those also who are in himself as Abram’s other offspring ( Matt 26:26–29; Mark 14:22–25; Luke 22:14–20; Gal 3:15–29; Heb 2:10–18).

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.

Gadamer on Prejudicial Frameworks

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 07:37:14 +0000

Philosophical Hermeneutics

According to Hans-Georg Gadamer,

Prejudices [i.e., prejudgments] are not necessarily unjustified and erroneous, so that they inevitably distort the truth. In fact, the historicity of our existence entails that prejudices, in the literal sense of the word [i.e., prejudgments], constitute the directedness of our whole ability to experience. Prejudices are biases of our openness to the world. They are simply conditions whereby we experience something—whereby what we encounter says something to us.((Gadamer, Philosophical Hermeneutics ( affiliate disclosure), 9.))

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.

Online Education in the Chronicle

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:51:43 +0000

Yesterday’s review of the Chronicle of Higher Education collects several interesting articles about distance learning. Among the open-access articles listed are:

Robert Mendenhall, “How Technology Can Improve Online Learning—and Learning in General”
Shai Reshef, “No Tuition? No Problem.”
Burck Smith, “Let’s Deregulate Online Learning”
Derek Bruff, “A Social Network Can Be a Learning Network”
Ari Kohen, “From Homeric Writings to Cellphone Forensics, Some Favorite Online Resources”

Although potential gains need to be weighed especially carefully in relation to potential losses in some of the applications Bruff describes (e.g., “Back channels”), from this list, Bruff’s thoughts about employing collaborative technologies seemed especially intriguing.

Learning a Proverb from a Pagan

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 20:43:16 +0000

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Earlier this semester in Exploring Religion, we discussed Cicero’s On the Nature of the Gods, and one paragraph particularly struck me as an apt illustration of Qoheleth’s advice that עת לחשות ועת לדבר ( Eccl 3:7b; there is a time to be silent, and there is a time to speak):

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).

Perseus Collections in Logos 4

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:33:11 +0000

As they have for some others already, most of my Perseus collection downloads for Logos have recently been processed. Below are a few particularly anticipated texts from these collections:

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Saving Scholarship—One File at a Time

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 08:46:54 +0000

After recently transitioning to Ubuntu, I found that my previous online backup solution had some issues running in Linux, even via a Windows XP virtual machine in VirtualBox. With some additional research, however, I came across Digital Lifeboat:

Reengineering Higher Education

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:16:57 +0000

Over at the Chronicle of Higher Education, Jeffrey Selingo discusses what might change in higher education if engineers were assigned to reinvent it from the ground up. Some points that emerged at a recent kick-off event for Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities were:

Cicero on the Earth as Sphere

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 09:25:36 +0000

The Flammarion woodcut is an enigmatic wood en…

Jim Davila has picked up a discussion about ancient testimony to the earth’s spherical shape. Cicero also, by way of his Stoic character Balbus, comments to this effect, saying,

[T]he sea, which is above the earth, tends still toward the earth’s centre, and so is itself shaped in conformity to the globe of the earth and nowhere spills or overflows. ( 171; affiliate disclosure; italics added)

Logos Bible Software and the Perseus Project

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 18:39:30 +0000

As noted earlier, Logos Bible Software is working on releasing over 3000 texts from the Perseus Project for free to Logos 4 users. Included here is Perseus’s substantive collection of Greek and Latin classics and their translations. This collection also offers access to Perseus’s dictionaries and lexica and integrated searching with the rest of a user’s Logos library. For further details, see here.

RBL Newsletter (September 9, 2011)

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:15:07 +0000

The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include:

Jewish Scriptures and Cognate Studies

A. Graeme Auld and Erik Eynikel, eds., For and against David: Story and History in the Books of Samuel, reviewed by Frank H. Polak
Christa Schäfer-Lichtenberger, ed., Die Samuelbücher und die Deuteronomisten, reviewed by Graeme Auld

New Testament and Cognate Studies

A New Offline Gmail Web App

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:53:39 +0000

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Today, Google has released an Offline Gmail web app, which uses HTML5 in place of the now-deprecated Google Gears. Similar offline access for the Calendar and Docs apps is available through these apps’ settings, but offline editing in Docs is apparently still in the works.

Roads to Rome (and Elsewhere) for Digital Classicists

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 11:12:41 +0000

Alison Babeu has a new ebook freely available in PDF format: “Rome Wasn’t Digitized in a Day”: Building a Cyberinfrastructure for Digital Classicists (Washington, D. C.: Council on Library and Information Resources, 2011). According to the publisher,

The author provides a summative and recent overview of the use of digital technologies in classical studies, focusing on classical Greece, Rome, and the ancient Middle and Near East, and generally on the period up to about 600 AD [ sic]. The report explores what projects exist and how they are used, examines the infrastructure that currently exists to support digital classics as a discipline, and investigates larger humanities cyberinfrastructure projects and existing tools or services that might be repurposed for the digital classics.

A New Medieval Historical Theology Collection

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:59:15 +0000

Logos releases a new collection for medieval historical theology, which includes:

Aidan Nichols, Discovering Aquinas: An Introduction to His Life, Work, and Invluence and
Lawrence Cunningham, Francis of Assisi: Performing the Gospel of Life.

For more information, please see the product page.

On Academic Humility

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:58:17 +0000

James Garland has an insightful article, “The Value of Humility in Academe (No Kidding)” at the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Lewis, "On the Reading of Old Books"

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:36:49 +0000

C. S. Lewis’s introduction to Athanasius’s On the Incarnation has since been reprinted under the title “On the Reading of Old Books” as, for instance, in Walter Hooper’s edited collection of Lewis miscellanies, God in the Dock. This introduction’s text is, however, also available at Silouan in HTML format (HT: Michael Hyatt).

The Key Problem(s) in Cicero's Preamble to The Nature of the Gods

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:22:31 +0000

[caption id=“attachment_7680” align=“alignright” width=“80” caption=“Marcus Tullius Cicero”] [/caption]

In his classic on The Nature of the Gods, Cicero identifies the key problem facing him as being “the question whether the gods do nothing, care for nothing, and take their ease detached from all concern with the care and government of the world: or whether on the contrary all things have been created and formed by them from the dawn of time, and will be ruled and governed by them to all eternity” ( 69–70).