Psalms

Over on his blog, Richard Middleton abstracts his essay “A Psalm against David? A Canonical Reading of Psalm 51 as a Critique of David’s Inadequate Repentance in 2 Samuel 12” from Explorations in Interdisciplinary Reading: Theological, Exegetical, and Reception-historical Perspectives(Pickwick, 2017).

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March’s free and reduced-price companion volumes from Faithlife include:

Logos: Paula Gooder, This Risen Existence: The Spirit of Easter, and for $1.99, Dennis Ngien, Fruit for the Soul: Luther on the Lament Psalms Verbum: Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis, and for $0.99, Bonaventure, Mystical Opuscula

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For December 2016, Logos Bible Software’s free book is Tremper Longman’s How to Read Proverbs (IVP, 2002). The accompanying volume for $1.99 is Longman’s How to Read the Psalms (IVP, 1988).

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The latest reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature include:

• Francis Borchardt, The Torah in 1 Maccabees: A Literary Critical Approach to the Text, reviewed by Thomas Hieke
• Cilliers Breytenbach and Jörg Frey, eds., Reflections on the Early Christian History of Religion—Erwägungen zur frühchristlichen Religionsgeschichte, reviewed by Thomas J. Kraus
• Walter Dietrich, Die Samuelbücher im deuteronomistischen Geschichtswerk: Studien zu den Geschichtsüberlieferungen des Alten Testaments II, reviewed by Mark W. Hamilton
• James D. G. Dunn, The Oral Gospel Tradition, reviewed by David B. Sloan
• Paul S. Evans and Tyler F. Williams, eds., Chronicling the Chronicler: The Book of Chronicles and Early Second Temple Historiography, reviewed by Michael D. Matlock
• Katharina Galor and Hanswulf Bloedhorn, The Archaeology of Jerusalem: From the Origins to the Ottomans, reviewed by Aren M. Maeir
• Moshe Garsiel, From Earth to Heaven: A Literary Study of the Eliijah Stories in the Book of Kings, reviewed by Keith Bodner and by David A. Glatt-Gilad
• Alison Ruth Gray, Psalm 18 in Words and Pictures: A Reading through Metaphor, reviewed by Leslie C. Allen
• Mignon R. Jacobs and Raymond F. Person Jr., eds., Israelite Prophecy and the Deuteronomistic History: Portrait, Reality, and the Formation of a History, reviewed by James M. Bos and by Thomas Wagner
• Ronald Jolliffe, Gertraud Harb, Christoph Heil, Anneliese Felber, and Angelika Magnes, Q11: 39a, 42, 39b, 41, 43-44: Woes against the Pharisees, reviewed by Peter J. Judge
• W. G. Lambert, Babylonian Creation Myths, reviewed by Michael S. Moore
• Daniel C. Matt, trans., The Zohar: Pritzker Edition (vol. 6), reviewed by Ralph K. Hawkins
• Abera M. Mengestu, God as Father in Paul: Kingship Language and Identity Formation in Early Christianity, reviewed by Inhee C. Berg
• Anthony M. Moore, Signs of Salvation: The Theme of Creation in John’s Gospel, reviewed by Brian J. Tabb
• Valérie Nicolet-Anderson, Constructing the Self: Thinking with Paul and Michel Foucault, reviewed by Chris L. de Wet
• Vernon K. Robbins, Who Do People Say I Am? Rewriting Gospel in Emerging Christianity, reviewed by Michael J. Kok
• David S. Vanderhooft and Abraham Winitzer, eds., Literature as Politics, Politics as Literature: Essays on the Ancient Near East in Honor of Peter Machinist, reviewed by Shawn W. Flynn
• Ryan Donald Wettlaufer, No Longer Written: The Use of Conjectural Emendation in the Restoration of the Text of the New Testament, the Epistle of James as a Case Study, reviewed by Jeff Cate

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).

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Jesus is both the properly trusting recipient of his Father’s care and the hen that would gather her chicks to protect them.

To demonstrate the superiority of Jesus’ sacrifice to those previously offered under the Torah, the writer to the Hebrews quotes a version of Ps 40:6–8 (Eng; 40:7–9 HB; 39:7–9 OG; Heb 10:5–9). 1 In so doing, Hebrews fairly clearly situates its rendition of this psalm’s words as Jesus’ own (cf. Heb 10:10). 2 If one were to read the entire psalm in this direction however, 3 problems would seemingly arise (e.g., vv. 12–17 Eng). 4

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Psalm 7 is an individual lament, 1 and the superscript situates it as “concerning the words of Cush, the Benjaminite” ( Ps 7:1 HB; על־דברי־כושׁ בן־ימיני‎). 2 This situation is rather difficult to pinpoint precisely in the biblical narratives of David’s life. 3 The OG reading Χουσί is reflected in Augustine’s text and leads him to relate Ps 7 to 2 Sam 15:32–37. 4 Yet, this rendering seems as though it may suggest a different Vorlage than is available in the MT. 5

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On the web:

• Tommy Wasserman notes a new iOS app for New Testament manuscripts.
• E. K. McFall has the latest article in the Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism: “Are Dionysos and Oedipus Name Variatnios for Satan and Antichrist?”
• Dan Wallace recounts an experience of reading a manuscript that “doesn’t exist.”
• Alin Suciu highlights Lorenzo Perrone’s lecture on recently-discovered texts of Origen’s homilies on the Psalms. For a selection of previous background posts, see here.

In contemporary English parlance, to call someone a “man” or “woman of God” substantially means that individual is “godly” or “pious.” As such, the phrase is a descriptor of a person’s moral or religious standing in relation to some perceived measure.

In the Hebrew Bible, however, אישׁ (ה)אלהים ([the] man of God) regularly designates a “prophet.” To be sure, these prophets were often “godly” or “pious,” but even here, there were occasional exceptions to this behavior (e.g., 1 Kgs 13). Rather, when the Hebrew Bible applies this same phrase to David, it fits him into the framework of the broader tradition of the prophet as Yahweh’s representative ( Neh 12:24, 36; 2 Chron 8:14). In these particular texts, David’s status as an אישׁ אלהים (man of God) revolves around his plans for the temple’s administration. Even so, scarcely can at least the Davidic psalms be separated from vocation as a royal אישׁ אלהים (man of God). 1

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On the web:

• Jim Davila reports the discovery of some previously lost Greek homilies on the Psalms, potentially by Origen ( 1, 2).
• Peter Williams provides a link to a set of images of the manuscript.
• Roger Pearse comments on the press release and quotes Jerome’s catalogue of Origen’s writings.
• Alin Suciu passes along a letter from Lorenzo Perrone, provides several updates on the discussion, and releases a guest post from Mark Bilby.
• Dirk Jongkind comments on a textual variant in the text’s quotation of 1 Corinthians.

The latest issue of Currents in Biblical Research includes:

• J. Kenneth Kuntz, “Continuing the Engagement: Psalms Research Since the Early 1990s”
• Joel R. White, “Recent Challenges to the communis opinio on 1 Corinthians 15.29”
• Dan Batovici, “The Second-Century Reception of John: A Survey of Methodologies”
• Benjamin Edsall, " Kerygma, Catechesis and Other Things We Used to Find: Twentieth-Century Research on Early Christian Teaching since Alfred"
• Simon Lasair, “Current Trends in Targum Research”