Confessions of a Bible Junkie

Check Out the Current Version of Confessions of a Bible Junkie on WordPress!

2009-07-15T00:15:00.003-05:00

The title says it all. If you want all the latest, juiciest, most exciting confessions, add this address to your RSS reader or blogroll: http://mjburgess.wordpress.com/

Hope to see you soon!

You Win, Nick Norelli! (For Now, Anyway)

2009-06-26T16:21:00.005-05:00

Well, after hearing blogger after blogger sing the praises of WordPress (I'm pretty sure Nick Norelli's working on commission, and Brian Fulthorp's also been poking me from time to time), I've decided to give it a shot. I've spent a couple days choosing a template and fixing it up just right, and I think it looks pretty good! All of my previous content is now available here; please adjust your bookmarks and other links accordingly. While I may post on both blogs for a couple weeks, I will most likely transition to WordPress alone by the end of July.

See you at the new blog!

New from SBL: Hittites and Greeks

2009-06-26T15:42:00.003-05:00

A recent announcement from the SBL:

Letters from the Hittite Kingdom
Harry A. Hoffner Jr.

This is the first book-length collection in English of letters from the ancient kingdom of the Hittites. All known well-preserved examples, including the important corpus of letters from the provincial capital of Tapikka, are reproduced here in romanized transcription and English translation, accompanied by introductory essays, explanatory notes on the text and its translation, and a complete description of the rules of Hittite correspondence compared with that of other ancient Middle Eastern states. Letters containing correspondence between kings and their foreign peers, between kings and their officials in the provinces, and between these officials themselves reveal rich details of provincial administration, the relationships and duties of the officials, and tantalizing glimpses of their private lives. Matters discussed include oversight of agriculture, tax liabilities, litigation, inheritance rights, defense against hostile groups on the kingdom’s periphery, and consulting the gods by means of oracular procedures.

Paper $45.95 • 468 pages • ISBN 9781589832121 • Writings from the Ancient World 15 • Hardback edition www.brill.nl

Sources for the Study of Greek Religion, Corrected Edition
David G. Rice and John E. Stambaugh

Since its initial publication in 1979, Sources for the Study of Greek Religion has become an essential classroom resource in the field of classical studies. The Society of Biblical Literature is pleased to present a corrected edition—in a new, attractive, and electronic-friendly format—with hopes that it will inspire a new generation of classicists and religious historians. This volume includes primary texts and documents in translation, illustrating the range of Greek religious beliefs and practices from Homer to Alexander the Great with the addition of relevant post-classical material. The sources are arranged in chapters devoted to the Olympian gods, heroes, public religion (including rural cults), private religion, mystery cults, and death and afterlife. Introductory notes place the selections in their context in Greek history and provide basic bibliography. The volume includes a glossary of technical terms, a general index, and an index of ancient sources cited. Beyond the correction of minor errors and use of footnotes rather than endnotes, the reader will find that the present volume remains true to the original.

Paper $24.95 • 230 pages • ISBN 9780891303473 • Resources for Biblical Study 14

Another OUP/Dove Sale

2009-06-26T15:38:00.002-05:00

Selected Hebrew Bible and New Testament titles from Oxford University Press are on sale through June 30 at Dove Booksellers. Check them out here.

RBL Highlights: 6/26/09

2009-06-26T15:27:00.002-05:00

Selections from the most recent edition of the Review of Biblical Literature:

Stephen C. Barton, ed.
Idolatry: False Worship in the Bible, Early Judaism and Christianity
Reviewed by Markus Bockmuehl

Andrew Bernhard
Other Early Christian Gospels: A Critical Edition of the Surviving Greek Manuscripts
Reviewed by Stephen J. Patterson

Walter Brueggemann
A Pathway of Interpretation: The Old Testament for Pastors and Students
Reviewed by Danny Mathews

Warren Carter
The Roman Empire and the New Testament: An Essential Guide
Reviewed by Pieter J. J. Botha

J. Harold Ellens
Sex in the Bible: A New Consideration
Reviewed by William R. G. Loader

Jonathan Gan
The Metaphor of Shepherd in the Hebrew Bible: A Historical-Literary Reading
Reviewed by Claudia D. Bergmann

Jeffrey P. Greenman, Timothy Larsen, and Stephen R. Spencer, eds.
The Sermon on the Mount through the Centuries: From the Early Church to John Paul II
Reviewed by Charles H. Talbert

Philip A. Noss, ed.
A History of Bible Translation
Reviewed by Francis Dalrymple-Hamilton

Martin A. Shields
The End of Wisdom: A Reappraisal of the Historical and Canonical Function of Ecclesiastes
Reviewed by Harold C. Washington

H. G. M. Williamson
A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Isaiah 1-27: Volume 1: Commentary on Isaiah 1-5
Reviewed by Francis Landy

Summer Study at CCUM: Misquoting Jesus

2009-06-16T15:35:00.005-05:00

Last Wednesday I began an eight-week summer study of Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus at Christ Church United Methodist, 4614 Brownsboro Road, Louisville, Kentucky. We had a nice turnout and some excellent, engaging discussion on the preface and first chapter of the book. Any interested folks in the Louisville area are more than welcome to join us on Wednesday evenings from 7:00-8:30. My profound thanks to Jennie Weeks, CCUM's excellent Director of Christian Education, for supporting the study in so many ways. I'll be sure to blog about our subsequent sessions!

UVA Welcomes Robin Darling Young

2009-06-16T15:23:00.006-05:00

Next year the Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity program is excited to welcome Prof. Robin Darling Young, who will be serving as a visiting professor while Prof. Judy Kovacs is on sabbatical. I've already received some information regarding one of her graduate courses, and it looks fascinating:

RELC 5559 Reading Practices in Early and Medieval Christianity

Robin Darling Young

This course traces the origins and development of Christian ways of reading sacred texts, from the second century through the twelfth. It considers the early tradition of rewritten scripture and prophetic inspiration, and moves next to the paidetic philosophy common in the schools of the Graeco-Roman empire and adopted by Christian writers of the third and fourth centuries. It traces, also, Christian interpreters’ cultivation of the "spiritual senses" and their preparation for reading by observing various ascetic and liturgical practices. In addition it will consider the preservation of midrashic interpretation among two fourth-century Syriac authors, to demonstrate an ongoing connection, in the late ancient near east, with rabbinic interpretation. Thus the course will examine the works of interpreters from Hermas in second-century Rome, through the Alexandrians and their monastic heirs, and then, in the Latin West, authors from Augustine through Bernard of Clairvaux and Hugh of St. Victor.

For those who have the languages, there will be an opportunity for biweekly meetings to read selected texts in their original languages.

Sign me up. ;-)

Recent Research

2009-06-16T15:07:00.003-05:00

Regular readers of this blog (all five of you!) know that I usually post my research papers from various courses at the conclusion of the semester. For the last several weeks, I've been examining questions of canon in light of New Testament textual criticism, and also reviewing the principal thematic objections to the Letter to Theodore (the letter discovered by Morton Smith which supposedly contains quotations of an esoteric edition of the Gospel of Mark). I won't get into my conclusions here... take a look at the papers and find out for yourself! ;-) Suffice to say that I really enjoyed researching both of these topics, and will certainly continue to study them in the future. In the meantime, feel free to let me know what you think... I certainly welcome any feedback or further discussion (there's only so much you can cram into twenty double-spaced pages).

“Whatever makes for progress towards gnosis” Esoterism and spiritual advancement in the Stromateis and the Letter to Theodore

The end? A canonical exploration of the conclusion(s) of the Gospel of Mark

More New Titles From SBL

2009-06-16T14:59:00.002-05:00

(Man... my inbox was really jammed!)

Seconding Sinai: The Development of Mosaic Discourse in Second Temple Judaism
Hindy Najman

What is meant by attributing texts to Moses in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism? The answer depends not only on the history of texts but also on the history of concepts of textuality. This book critiques the terms “pseudepigraphy” and “rewritten Bible,” which presuppose conceptions of authentic attribution and textual fidelity foreign to ancient Judaism, and instead develops the concept of a discourse whose creativity and authority depend on repeated returns to the exemplary figure and experience of a founder. Attribution to Moses is a central example whose function is to re-present the experience of revelation at Sinai. Distinctive features of Mosaic discourse are studied in Deuteronomy, Jubilees, the Temple Scroll, and the works of Philo of Alexandria.

Paper $24.95 • 196 pages • ISBN 9781589834248 • Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 77 • Hardback edition www.brill.nl

Reading for History in the Damascus Document: A Methodological Study
Maxine L. Grossman

Scholars tend to view the Damascus Document as a historical source, but a reading of the text in light of contemporary (audience-oriented) literary criticism finds its emphasis in the ideological construction of history and communal identity, rather than in the preservation of a historical record. An introduction to contemporary literary criticism is followed by a series of thematic readings, focusing on historical narrative, priestly imagery, and gender in the covenant community. Each theme is examined in terms of its potential for multiple (sometimes contradictory) interpretations and for its place in the larger sectarian discourse. This study offers an alternative approach to the historiography of ancient Jewish sectarianism, acknowledging the presence of competing claims to shared traditions and the potential for changes in textual interpretation over time or among diverse communities.

Paper $32.95 • 276 pages • ISBN 9781589834279 • Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 45 • Hardback edition www.brill.nl

The Pauline Canon
Stanley E. Porter, editor

The Pauline letters continue to provoke scholarly discussion. This volume includes papers that raise a variety of questions regarding the canon of the Pauline writings. Some of the essays are more narrowly focused in their intent, sometimes concentrating upon a single dimension related to the Pauline canon, and sometimes upon even a single letter. Others of the essays are more broadly conceived and deal with how one assesses or accounts for the process that resulted in the letters as a collection, rather than analyzing individual letters. There are also mediating positions that attempt to overcome the disjunction between authenticity and inauthenticity by exploring the complex notion of interpolation.

Paper $32.95 • 272 pages • ISBN 9781589834286 • Pauline Studies 1 • Hardback edition www.brill.nl

Paul and His Opponents
Stanley E. Porter, editor

Who were Paul’s opponents? Were they a single group, or were they different groups found at various places that he wrote to and visited? Since the time of F. C. Baur and right up to the present, scholars have been intrigued by the figures who sometimes lurk in the shadows of Paul’s writings or who sometimes emerge in full force to confront him. This does not mean that finding scholarly consensus on the nature of Paul and his opponents has been easy or has been resolved. This volume includes essays that ask pertinent questions regarding Paul and his opponents and that address some of the major current theories.

Paper $32.95 • 272 pages • ISBN 9781589834309 • Pauline Studies 2 • Hardback edition www.brill.nl

Codex Sinaiticus: Text, Bible, Book

2009-06-16T14:49:00.002-05:00

The Codex Sinaiticus Project, an extensive effort to publish all extant leaves of the manuscript in a revolutionary electronic interface, is scheduled to be completed next month. The British Library is celebrating this achievement with a two-day conference entitled "Codex Sinaiticus: Text, Bible, Book." Details of the event, including registration fees and procedures, are available here. The keynote speaker is renowned New Testament scholar and textual critic Eldon Epp; other speakers include my own professor and mentor Harry Gamble, who will be discussing the codex's construction as an icon of religious devotion. Sounds like a pretty good excuse for a trip to London!

New Series From SBL

2009-06-16T14:39:00.003-05:00

Two new series, Ancient Israel and Its Literature and Early Christianity and Its Literature, have been created by the SBL:

SBL ANNOUNCES TWO NEW BOOK SERIES

The Ancient Israel and Its Literature series publishes monographs, revised dissertations, and collections of essays on the history, culture, and literature of ancient Israel and Judah, particularly as these are reflected in or inform our reading of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Works on the social world of the biblical writings, the ancient Near Eastern context in which ancient Israel and Judah originated and lived, biblical or theological themes, or other comparable areas of study will also be considered. For more information about publishing a book in this series, contact general editor Steven L. McKenzie. For a list of forthcoming titles for this series, click here.

The Early Christianity and Its Literature series publishes monographs, revised dissertations, and collections of essays on the history, culture, and literature of early Christianity, particularly as these are reflected in or inform our reading of the New Testament. Works on the social world of the biblical writings, the Greco-Roman context in which Christianity originated and lived, biblical or theological themes, or other comparable areas of study will also be considered. For more information about publishing a book in this series, contact general editor Gail R. O’Day. For a list of forthcoming titles for this series, click here.

These two new series replace Academia Biblica (formerly SBLDS); Studies in Biblical Literature (formerly SBLMS); and the Symposium Series, which SBL’s Research and Publications Committee has discontinued. Together with SBL’s Early Judaism and Its Literature series, the new series cover fully the broad range of manuscripts relating to the earliest writings of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Plus, check out these newly available paperback reprints:

Transformative Encounters: Jesus and Women Re-viewed
Ingrid Rosa Kitzberger

This composite, postcolonial, and multidimensional volume contains sixteen original essays by distinguished Jewish and Christian Scripture scholars on a wide range of perspectives on the relation between Jesus and women as portrayed in the New Testament Gospels, as historically reconstructed in the context of Second Temple Judaisms and of Mediterranean society, as well as in present actualizations. The contributions reflect the different social locations of interpreters from all continents and testify to the richness of methods employed in biblical interpretation at the end of the twentieth century, ranging from literary approaches (narrative criticism, reader-response criticism, intertextuality), historical-critical methods, archaeology, and social-scientific interpretation to cultural studies and film theory. By addressing new questions and searching for answers on untrodden paths, the vital scholarship on Jesus and women will be re-viewed, enriched, and challenged.

Paper $45.95 • 436 pages • ISBN 9781589832893 • Biblical Interpretation 43 • Hardback edition www.brill.nl

Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts Found in the Judean Desert
Emanuel Tov

This monograph is written in the form of a handbook on the scribal features of the texts found in the Judean Desert, the Dead Sea Scrolls. It details the material, shape, and preparation of the scrolls; scribes and scribal activity; scripts, writing conventions, errors and their correction, and scribal signs; scribal traditions; differences between different types of scrolls (e.g., biblical and nonbiblical scrolls); and the possible existence of scribal schools such as that at Qumran. In most categories, the analysis is meant to be exhaustive. Numerous tables as well as annotated illustrations and charts of scribal signs accompany the detailed analysis. The findings have major implications for the study of the scrolls and the understanding of their relationship to scribal traditions in Israel and elsewhere.

Paper $49.95 • 444 pages • ISBN 9781589834293 • Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 54 •Hardback edition www.brill.nl

Revision of UMC Hymnal Postponed

2009-06-16T14:27:00.002-05:00

The latest victims of the current economic climate include the planned revision of the United Methodist Hymnal, which was temporarily shelved by the United Methodist Publishing House in the midst of its most significant decrease in sales in more than two decades. Hopefully this important project will be revived in the near future. A story regarding the decision is available here.

New From OUP

2009-06-16T14:05:00.002-05:00

Recent releases in Hebrew Bible and New Testament studies, on sale through Dove Booksellers:

Curtis, Adrian H W
Oxford Bible Atlas, 4th ed
(Oxford University Press, 2007)
Hardcover List: $35.00 Dove Price: $23.99
Save $11.01 (31%)

MacDonald, Nathan
Not Bread Alone: The Uses of Food in the Old Testament
(Oxford University Press, 2008)
Hardcover List: $110.00 Dove Price: $87.99
Save $22.01 (20%)

Niditch, Susan
My Brother Esau Is a Hairy Man: Hair and Identity in Ancient Israel
(Oxford University Press, 2008)
Hardcover List: $45.00 Dove Price: $35.99
Save $9.01 (20%)

Rajak, Tessa
Translation and Survival: The Greek Bible and the Jewish Diaspora
(Oxford University Press, 2009)
Hardcover List: $140.00 Dove Price: $111.99
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Rogerson, John W Judith M Lieu (eds)
Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies
(Oxford University Press, 2006)
Paperback List: $55.00 Dove Price: $43.99
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Hardcover List: $220.00 Dove Price: $175.99
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Sivan, Hagith
Palestine in Late Antiquity
(Oxford University Press, 2008)
Hardcover List: $120.00 Dove Price: $95.99
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Berkowitz, Beth A
Execution and Invention: Death Penalty Discourse in Early Rabbinic and Christian Cultures
(Oxford University Press, 2006)
Hardcover List: $75.00 Dove Price: $59.99
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Bryan, Christopher
Render to Caesar: Jesus, the Early Church, and the Roman Superpower
(Oxford University Press, 2005)
Hardcover List: $35.00 Dove Price: $27.99
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Elliott, J K (ed)
Apocryphal Jesus: Legends of the Early Church
(Oxford University Press, 2008)
Paperback List: $29.95 Dove Price: $23.99
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Elsner, Jas Ian Rutherford (eds)
Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman and Early Christian Antiquity: Seeing the Gods
(Oxford University Press, 2006)
Paperback List: $75.00 Dove Price: $59.99
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Hardcover List: $170.00 Dove Price: $135.99
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Gregory, Andrew Christopher Tuckett (eds)
New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers, 2 Volume Set
(Oxford University Press, 2006)
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Harvey, Susan Ashbrook David G Hunter (eds)
Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies
(Oxford University Press, 2008)
Hardcover List: $150.00 Dove Price: $119.99
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Hodge, Caroline Johnson
If Sons, Then Heirs: A Study of Kinship and Ethnicity in the Letters of Paul
(Oxford University Press, 2007)
Hardcover List: $65.00 Dove Price: $51.99
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Hvidt, Niels Christian
Christian Prophecy: The Post-Biblical Tradition
(Oxford University Press, 2007)
Hardcover List: $40.00 Dove Price: $31.99
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Lieu, Judith
Christian Identity in the Jewish and Graeco-Roman World
(Oxford University Press, 2006)
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Hardcover List: $142.95 Dove Price: $113.99
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Rowe, C Kavin
World Upside Down: Reading Acts in the Graeco-Roman Age
(Oxford University Press, 2009)
Hardcover List: $65.00 Dove Price: $56.50
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RBL Highlights: 6/16/09 (Part II)

2009-06-16T13:39:00.002-05:00

More highlights from the last several installments of the Review of Biblical Literature:

Ismo O. Dunderberg
Beyond Gnosticism: Myth, Lifestyle, and Society in the School of Valentinus
Reviewed by Marvin Meyer

Israel Finkelstein and Amihai Mazar; edited by Brian B. Schmidt
The Quest for the Historical Israel: Debating Archaeology and the History of Early Israel
Reviewed by Ralph K. Hawkins

Richard A. Horsley, ed.
In the Shadow of Empire: Reclaiming the Bible as a History of Faithful Resistance
Reviewed by Roland Boer

Walter C. Kaiser, Darrell L. Bock, and Peter Enns; edited by Kenneth Berding and Jonathan Lunde
Three Views on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
Reviewed by Stephen Moyise

David Marcus, ed.
Biblia Hebraica Quinta: Ezra and Nehemiah
Reviewed by Andrew Steinmann

Russell Pregeant
Knowing Truth, Doing Good: Engaging New Testament Ethics
Reviewed by M. Eugene Boring

Leo G. Perdue, ed.
Scribes, Sages, and Seers: The Sage in the Eastern Mediterranean World
Reviewed by James L. Crenshaw

Tammi J. Schneider
Mothers of Promise: Women in the Book of Genesis
Reviewed by Ellen White

H. G. M. Williamson, ed.
Understanding the History of Ancient Israel
Reviewed by Walter Dietrich

Robert W. Yarbrough
1, 2, and 3 John
Reviewed by Tobias Nicklas

Noam Adler
A Comprehensive Collection of Oil Lamps of the Holy Land from the Adler Collection
Reviewed by Jodi Magness

Janice Capel Anderson and Stephen D. Moore, eds.
Mark and Method: New Approaches in Biblical Studies
Reviewed by Renate Viveen Hood

Roger S. Bagnall, ed.
Egypt in the Byzantine World 300-700
Reviewed by David Frankfurter

David B. Burrell
Deconstructing Theodicy: Why Job Has Nothing to Say to the Puzzle of Suffering
Reviewed by F. Rachel Magdalene

Warren Carter
John and Empire: Initial Explorations
Reviewed by Stephan Witetschek

Raymond F. Collins
The Power of Images in Paul
Reviewed by Nils Neumann

Craig A. Evans, ed.
Encyclopedia of the Historical Jesus
Reviewed by Christoph Stenschke

Susan Haber; edited by Adele Reinhartz
"They Shall Purify Themselves": Essays on Purity in Early Judaism
Reviewed by Jonathan D. Lawrence

Mika Hietanen
Paul's Argumentation in Galatians: A Pragma-Dialectical Analysis
Reviewed by Johan S. Vos

Jerome Murphy-O'Connor
St. Paul's Ephesus: Texts and Archaeology
Reviewed by Jan Van Der Watt

Marvin Sweeney
Reading the Hebrew Bible after the Shoah: Engaging Holocaust Theology
Reviewed by Jon D. Levenson

Benedict T. Viviano
Matthew and His World: The Gospel of the Open Jewish Christians Studies in Biblical Theology
Reviewed by Boris Repschinski

John Ashton
Understanding the Fourth Gospel
Reviewed by Craig R. Koester

Reimund Bieringer, Emmanuel Nathan, and Dominika Kurek-Chomycz
2 Corinthians: A Bibliography
Reviewed by Victor Paul Furnish

Michael F. Bird
Jesus and the Origins of the Gentile Mission
Reviewed by Andreas J. Kostenberger

Dirk J. Human, ed.
Psalms and Mythology
Reviewed by Jeffery M. Leonard

Patricia A. Kirkpatrick and Timothy Goltz, eds.
The Function of Ancient Historiography in Biblical and Cognate Studies
Reviewed by Ernst Axel Knauf

Ilana Pardes
Melville's Bibles
Reviewed by Michael Kaler

Stanley E. Porter, ed.
Dictionary of Biblical Criticism and Interpretation
Reviewed by Christoph Stenschke

RBL Highlights: 6/16/09 (Part I)

2009-06-16T13:19:00.004-05:00

Highlights from the last several installments of the Review of Biblical Literature:

Roger David Aus
The Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus and the Death, Burial, and Translation of Moses in Judaic Tradition
Reviewed by James Crossley

Mark G. Brett
Decolonizing God: The Bible in the Tides of Empire
Reviewed by Roland Boer

Gene L. Green
Jude and 2 Peter
Reviewed by Peter H. Davids

Michael P. Knowles
We Preach Not Ourselves: Paul on Proclamation
Reviewed by H. H. Drake Williams III

Jerome H. Neyrey and Eric C. Stewart, eds.
The Social World of the New Testament: Insights and Models
Reviewed by Heather McKay

Leo G. Perdue
The Sword and the Stylus: An Introduction to Wisdom in the Age of Empires
Reviewed by Benjamin G. Wright III

Stanley E. Porter and Christopher D. Stanley, eds.
As It Is Written: Studying Paul's Use of Scripture
Reviewed by Rodrigo J. Morales

Tom Thatcher and Stephen D. Moore, eds.
Anatomies of Narrative Criticism: The Past, Present, and Futures of the Fourth Gospel as Literature
Reviewed by Steven Hunt

Joshua A. Berman
Created Equal: How the Bible Broke with Ancient Political Thought
Reviewed by Mark Leuchter

Constantine R. Campbell
Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek
Reviewed by C. Michael Robbins

Sang Youl Cho
Lesser Deities in the Ugaritic Texts and the Hebrew Bible: A Comparative Study of Their Nature and Roles
Reviewed by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer

A.-F. Christidis, ed.
A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity
Reviewed by Douglas Estes

Lowell K. Handy
Jonah's World: Social Science and the Reading of Prophetic Story
Reviewed by Karl Moller

Richard A. Horsley
Jesus in Context: Power, People, and Performance
Reviewed by Stephan Witetschek

Peter Jeffery
The Secret Gospel of Mark Unveiled: Imagined Rituals of Sex, Death, and Madness in a Biblical Forgery
Reviewed by J. Harold Ellens

Edward W. Klink III
The Sheep of the Fold: The Audience and Origin of the Gospel of John
Reviewed by Cornelis Bennema

Katherine M. Stott
Why Did They Write This Way? Reflections on References to Written Documents in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Literature
Reviewed by Werner H. Kelber

David Shepherd, ed.
Images of the Word: Hollywood's Bible and Beyond
Reviewed by Christopher Fuller

A. Philip Brown II and Bryan W. Smith, eds.
A Reader's Hebrew Bible
Reviewed by Hallvard Hagelia

Jason König and Tim Whitmarsh, eds.
Ordering Knowledge in the Roman Empire
Reviewed by Stephan Witetschek

Diana Lipton
Longing for Egypt and Other Unexpected Biblical Tales
Reviewed by Amelia Devin Freedman

Antti Laato and Jacques van Ruiten, eds.
Rewritten Bible Reconsidered: Proceedings of the Conference in Karkku, Finland
Reviewed by Sidnie White Crawford

Bryan M. Litfin
Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction
Reviewed by H. H. Drake Williams III

Scot McKnight and Joseph B. Modica, eds.
Who Do My Opponents Say That I Am? An Investigation of the Accusations against Jesus
Reviewed by V. George Shillington

Chaim Navon
Genesis and Jewish Thought
Reviewed by David M. Maas

V. Henry T. Nguyen
Christian Identity in Corinth: A Comparative Study of 2 Corinthians, Epictetus and Valerius Maximus
Reviewed by Thomas Schmeller

I'm Baaack!

2009-06-16T13:09:00.002-05:00

After an extended hiatus to wrap up my first semester of doctoral work, I'm excited to be back among the ranks of active bibliobloggers. So put me back on the blogroll, Nick Norelli... I've got a lot of catching up to do. ;-)

RBL Highlights: 4/30/09

2009-04-29T23:20:00.003-05:00

Alright, after this one I'm really taking a break... promise. ;-)

William S. Campbell, Peter S. Hawkins, and Brenda Deen Schildgen, eds.
Medieval Readings of Romans
Reviewed by Francis Dalrymple-Hamilton

Adrian Curtis
Oxford Bible Atlas
Reviewed by George Athas

Lois M. Farag
St. Cyril of Alexandria, a New Testament Exegete: His Commentary on the Gospel of John
Reviewed by Hennie Stander

Terence E. Fretheim
Abraham: Trials of Family and Faith
Reviewed by Hallvard Hagelia

Susan Haber; edited by Adele Reinhartz
"They Shall Purify Themselves": Essays on Purity in Early Judaism
Reviewed by Joshua Schwartz

Justin K. Hardin
Galatians and the Imperial Cult: A Critical Analysis of the First-Century Social Context of Paul's Letter
Reviewed by Mark D. Nanos

Susan R. Holman, ed.
Wealth and Poverty in Early Church and Society
Reviewed by Preston M. Sprinkle

Henry Ansgar Kelly
Satan: A Biography
Reviewed by James A. Metzger

Dale B. Martin
Pedagogy of the Bible: An Analysis and Proposal
Reviewed by Renate Viveen Hood

Kenneth Schenck
Cosmology and Eschatology in Hebrews: The Settings of the Sacrifice
Reviewed by Jason A. Whitlark

F. Scott Spencer
The Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles
Reviewed by Gregory E. Sterling

Hilarious!

2009-04-29T23:11:00.002-05:00

Alright... I know that I just announced a brief hiatus from blogging, but this comic (courtesy of one of my students; thanks, Lindsey!) was too funny to ignore:

"I shall return."

2009-04-29T19:54:00.003-05:00

The now-familiar words of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, which he uttered as he evacuated the Philippine Islands in March 1942 in the wake of a Japanese invasion, only to fulfill his vow three years later...

And I'm sure that if Gen. MacArthur were alive today, and were a biblioblogger, and were inundated with all of the work and other craziness surrounding the finals period, he would repeat the exact same phrase, promising to resume his blogging duties as soon as the semester came to an end.

So, while I'm taking a temporary hiatus from blogging over the next few days as I finish everything up, don't forget about me... because I shall return (and it definitely won't take three years)!

New Testament Notes: Week 14 (Wednesday)

2009-04-23T00:43:00.001-05:00

Some brief notes on the development of early Christian eschatological expectations:

RELC 122 Notes: 4/23

Coming to UVA: John M. Perkins

2009-04-21T13:59:00.001-05:00

This just in:

Activist, pastor and bestselling author John M. Perkins,
founder of the Voice of Calvary Ministries, will present two lectures at the
University of Virginia.

Perkins will engage in a conversation with U.Va. religious studies professor
Charles Marsh, director of the Project on Lived Theology, on Wednesday,
April 22 at 7 p.m. in the McLeod Hall auditorium.

On Thursday, April 23, from 9 a.m. to noon, Perkins will give a seminar,
"American Evangelicalism and the Practices of Peace," at St. Paul's
Episcopal Church's parish hall, 1700 University Ave.

Perkins is a sharecropper's son who grew up in New Hebron, Miss. amidst dire
poverty. Fleeing to California at age 17 after his older brother's murder at
the hands of a small-town marshal, he vowed never to return to the South.
But after a religious experience in 1960, Perkins returned to Mendenhall,
Miss. to develop a ministry in poor rural communities. While in Mississippi,
his support and leadership in civil rights demonstrations resulted in
repeated harassment, beatings and imprisonment.

Perkins is the author of "A Quiet Revolution: Restoring At-Risk Communities"
and "Let Justice Roll Down," a memoir of his childhood in the segregated
South and his call to racial reconciliation and community building.

Perkins has been a regular speaker at the annual Urbana Youth Leadership
Conferences, and he has served on the boards of Bread for the World, the
National Black Evangelical Association and Koinonia Partners in Americus,
Ga. His writings on faith, racial reconciliation and poverty have appeared
in Sojourners, Christianity Today and Urban Family. In 1989, Perkins founded
the Christian Community Development Association, the organizational
infrastructure of the faith-based community-building movement, which now
includes 8,000 individual members, 500 member organizations and sites in
more than 100 cities.

These lectures are part of the 2009 Spring Institute on Lived Theology:
American Evangelicalism and the Practices of Peace: The Lived Theology of
John M. Perkins, which is sponsored by the Project on Lived Theology.

For information on the Project on Lived Theology, visit
www.livedtheology.org. For information, call 434-924-6743 or e-mail
livedtheology@virginia.edu.

Media Contact

Dan Heuchert
Media Relations
(434) 924-6857
danh@virginia.edu

Vigen Guroian on NPR

2009-04-20T14:43:00.001-05:00

UVA's own Vigen Guroian recently appeared on NPR's Speaking of Faith. Check it out here.

Summer Project: Eusebius of Caesarea's Ecclesiastical History

2009-04-16T21:51:00.007-05:00

This week I splurged a bit, and allocated a portion of my forthcoming tax refund to a book purchase: Loeb Classical Library's two-volume edition of Eusebius of Caesarea's Ecclesiastical History. While I've had these on my wish list for some time, I was especially inspired by a recent conversation with Prof. Harry Gamble--who noted that few courses, even at the graduate level, systematically examine the work in its entirety. I'm planning to read through it this summer. Anyone want to join me? ;-)

New Testament Notes: Week 13 (Wednesday)

2009-04-16T13:50:00.003-05:00

An introduction to the Catholic Epistles: the Letter to the Hebrews, and the First Letter of Peter:

RELC 122 Notes: 4/16

RBL Highlights: 4/16/09

2009-04-16T13:39:00.002-05:00

Highlights from the most recent Review of Biblical Literature:

H. Ausloos, F. García Martínez, M. Vervenne, J. Cook, and B. Lemmelijn, eds.
Translating a Translation: The LXX and Its Modern Translations in the Context of Early Judaism
Reviewed by Tuukka Kauhanen

Lytta Basset
Holy Anger: Jacob, Job, Jesus
Reviewed by Jutta Jokiranta

Elizabeth V. Dowling
Taking Away the Pound: Women, Theology and the Parable of the Pounds in the Gospel of Luke
Reviewed by James A. Metzger

Kathy Ehrensperger
Paul and the Dynamics of Power: Communication and Interaction in the Early Christ-Movement
Reviewed by Thomas R. Blanton IV

Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Andrea L. Weiss, eds.
The Torah: A Women's Commentary
Reviewed by Susanne Scholz

J. Cheryl Exum and Ela Nutu, eds.
Between the Text and the Canvas: The Bible and Art in Dialogue
Reviewed by Hennie Stander

Harry Alan Hahne
The Corruption and Redemption of Creation: Nature in Romans 8.19-22 and Jewish Apocalyptic Literature
Reviewed by Ron Fay

George Heyman
The Power of Sacrifice: Roman and Christian Discources in Conflict
Reviewed by Giovanni Battista Bazzana

Heidi J. Hornik and Mikeal C. Parsons
Illuminating Luke: Volume 3: The Passion and Resurrection Narratives in Italian Renaissance and Baroque Painting
Reviewed by Hennie Stander

Elizabeth A. McCabe
An Examination of the Isis Cult with Preliminary Exploration into New Testament Studies
Reviewed by John S. Kloppenborg

Kathryn McClymond
Beyond Sacred Violence: A Comparative Study of Sacrifice
Reviewed by Leigh Trevaskis

Saul M. Olyan
Disability in the Hebrew Bible: Interpreting Mental and Physical Differences
Reviewed by David M. Maas
Reviewed by Hector Avalos

Karel van der Toorn
Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible
Reviewed by Frank Polak

New From Baker/WJK: Hebrew Bible

2009-04-16T13:29:00.002-05:00

Via Dove. Among these titles is a study of the prophets' relevance for the modern world by a former professor of mine, Carolyn Sharp. I can think of no one more qualified to write such a book.

Evans, Craig A, Emanuel Tov (eds)
Exploring the Origins of the Bible: Canon Formation in Historical, Literary, and Theological Perspective
(Baker Book House, 2008)
Paperback List: $22.99 Dove Price: $18.99
Save $4.00 (17%)

Hess, Richard S
Israelite Religions: An Archaeological and Biblical Survey
(Baker Book House, 2007)
Hardcover List: $34.99 Dove Price: $27.99
Save $7.00 (20%)

Matthews, Victor H
Studying the Ancient Israelites: A Guide to Sources and Methods
(Baker Book House, 2007)
Paperback List: $24.99 Dove Price: $19.99
Save $5.00 (20%)

Seitz, Christopher R
Prophecy and Hermeneutics: Toward a New Introduction to the Prophets
(Baker Book House, 2007)
Paperback List: $22.99 Dove Price: $18.99
Save $4.00 (17%)

Sparks, Kenton L
God's Word in Human Words: An Evangelical Appropriation of Critical Biblical Scholarship
(Baker Book House, 2008)
Paperback List: $26.99 Dove Price: $21.50
Save $5.49 (20%)

Niditch, Susan
Judges: A Commentary
(Westminster John Knox, 2008)
Hardcover List: $49.95 Dove Price: $39.99
Save $9.96 (20%)
Put hardcover in your Shopping Cart

Davies, Philip R
Memories of Ancient Israel: An Introduction to Biblical History-Ancient and Modern
(Westminster John Knox, 2008)
Paperback List: $24.95 Dove Price: $19.99
Save $4.96 (20%)

Sawyer, John F A
Concise Dictionary of the Bible and Its Reception
(Westminster John Knox, 2009)
Paperback List: $29.95 Dove Price: $23.99
Save $5.96 (20%)

Sharp, Carolyn J
Old Testament Prophets for Today
(Westminster John Knox, 2009)
Paperback List: $14.95 Dove Price: $12.99
Save $1.96 (13%)

April SBL Forum

2009-04-14T21:41:00.003-05:00

News and notes from the SBL, including the publication of an article by my former Hebrew teacher, Ryan Stokes! Congrats!

SBL E-Newsletter
April 14, 2009

Call for Papers
The Paul J. Achtemeier Award for New Testament Scholarship is open for submissions or nominations until 1 July 2009.

JBL 128.1 Spring 2009 has been posted:

Religion and the Bible
Jonathan Z. Smith

Whatever Happened in the Valley of Shinar? A Response to Theodore Hiebert
André Lacocque

Ideology and Social Context of the Deuteronomic Women's Sex Laws (Deuteronomy 22:13-29)
Cynthia Edenburg

Samson's Last Laugh: S/ŠHQ The Pun in Judges 16:25-27
Charles Halton

Topographical Considerations and Redaction Criticism in 2 Kings 3
Erasmus Gass

Why 2 Kings 17 Does Not Constitute a Chapter of Reflection in the "Deuteronomistic History"
Hartmut H. Rösel

The Devil Made David Do It … Or Did He? The Nature, Identity, and Literary Origins of the Satan in 1 Chronicles 21:1
Ryan E. Stokes

"She Binds Her Arms": Rereading Proverbs 31:17
Tzvi Novick

Accession Days and Holidays: The Origins of the Jewish Festival of Purim
Jona Schellekens

Rachel's Tomb
Benjamin D. Cox and Susan Ackerman

April SBL Forum has been posted:

FEATURE
The Perils of Prepublication in the Digital Age: Essenes, Latrines, and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Ian Werrett

IN THE CLASSROOM
Biblical Studies in the Context of the Emerging Religion Major
Jane S. Webster

IN POPULAR CULTURE
Evil in Contemporary American Film: Deep Darkness and Eschatological Hope
Greg Garrett

The Apocalypse of John and Its Mediators, or Why Johnny Cash Wrote a Better Apocalypse than John of Patmos!
William John Lyons

Inventory Reduction Sale through April 30
Almost 300 Society of Biblical Literature and Brown Judaic Studies titles at $7 each are included in the current SBL Inventory Reduction Sale, now through April 30. Click here to browse or download an order form and list of titles.

SBL Spring Sale
Almost all new, recent, and backlisted titles are available to SBL members at a forty percent discount during the spring sale. Download the order form, then mail, fax, or phone your order by June 15. If you prefer to order at the SBL Store, make sure to use the promo code SPG2009 at checkout to receive your discount.

NEW—Special rates for RBL subscriptions:
Individuals and institutions qualifying for SBL online books are also eligible for discount subscription rates to the Review of Biblical Literature. Click on this link to access the forms.

An Interruption of Ben's Interruption of Bart (Try Saying That Five Times Fast)

2009-04-13T20:21:00.011-05:00

Over the weekend, I came across the second portion of Ben Witherington's ongoing review and critique of Bart Ehrman's Jesus, Interrupted. I'm looking forward to reading his responses in their entirety; he provides a number of clarifications and rejoinders, and has clearly engaged the book in a thoughtful way. I was particularly struck by a few comments:

There are then three dangers we learn of when reading and critically analyzing Gibbon’s classic work [The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]: 1) history writing that either dismisses or is dismissive of the role of God in human history, claiming that that is not a part of the historian’s task, even if there is considerable evidence to the contrary, and 2) because of its skeptical bent, history writing that is prone to revisionism of a sort that distorts rather than dissects and correctly analyzes what happened back then and back there; 3) history writing that conveys 1) and 2) in a clear and eloquent and understandable fashion such that the clarity of the explanation makes it appear that the conclusions are obvious and should go without challenge. This of course is the power of good rhetoric—it persuades without necessarily providing the detailed evidence and analysis necessary to prove one’s point.

I suspect that an overwhelming majority of historians, particularly those who operate beyond the pale of religious studies, would view the first of these dangers with utter incredulity. Supernatural elements such as miraculous events or the actions of the divine exist beyond the capabilities of reasoned, scientific inquiry and are therefore not detectable or demonstrable according to most definitions of critical scholarship. The writings of the New Testament themselves do not constitute "significant evidence to the contrary" on this point, as their critically accessible strata reveal the convictions and assumptions of their authors and recipients. (I have not been convinced by arguments such as those of Richard Bauckham that the gospels should be classified according to a more reliable genre of written materials and therefore regarded as intrinsically superior to other ancient documents with similar contents or features.) As Bultmann and so many others have rightly argued, historical research reveals the relative certainty of the nascent Christian community concerning events such as the resurrection of Jesus, but it is incapable of verifying the event itself without radically redefining the nature and practice of the discipline. Simply put, we cannot conclusively demonstrate, by means of the prevalent historiographical approaches which have evolved since the Enlightenment, that the resurrection occurred; we can only demonstrate that early Christians were certain that it had. To adapt John Meier's useful terminology, this is the point where the historical and the metahistorical come together--where research ends and faith begins.

It is of course true that Paul does not directly mention ‘the virginal conception’, but what he says is not only compatible with the idea (see Gal 4.4—God sent his son, born of woman, born under the law. Notice Paul does not say, born of a good Jewish man with proper paternity), Rom. 8.3 suggest knows of the virginal conception idea for he says that God sent his son “in the likeness of sinful flesh”. Now what is the point of the word ‘likeness’ in this verse? I would suggest Paul is saying that Jesus really had flesh but it was not tainted with human fallenness the way all other human flesh was (see Rom. 5.12-21). In other words, Paul already knows about the idea of Jesus being conceived in a pure and sinless manner. The attempt to treat the NT writers as if they were ignorant or ignored or were polemicizing against one another or lived in splendid isolation from one another does not work.

I think this is an interesting bit of exegesis, and I'm not especially inclined to disagree with it (at least, not without doing some additional reading on my own!). However, I'm curious how Paul's reference to the designation of Christ as "Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:1; italics added) might affect this conclusion. If Paul has some notion of virginal conception, why not reference it here?

In fact all of the NT documents can be traced back to apostolic sources or were written by apostles—all of them can be traced to about 9-10 persons who were eyewitnesses or apostles or both. These persons include the Beloved Disciple, Mark, Luke, John of Patmos, Paul, probably Apollos, Peter, James and Jude. 2 Peter is a later composite document made up of material from Peter, Jude, and with a knowledge of the Pauline corpus, but you will notice it does not appear to draw on non-apostolic source material. The claims that we do not know who wrote these books, or that some of them are forged are greatly exaggerated claims, that many historians like myself do not find convincing or compelling on the basis of the actual historical evidence itself.

Again, I suppose this depends upon the definitions of the terms "historical evidence" and "apostolic." The various writings of the New Testament were all eventually associated with apostolic or immediately sub-apostolic authors and traditions. Some of these were widely accepted; others were not. Eusebius of Caesarea reports that many ancient commentators considered James to be spurious, a judgment shared by many contemporary scholars. I assume that Ben's reference to Apollos amongst this list presumes that he is the author of Hebrews, a supposition for which no firm evidence exists (a number of possibilities have been proposed throughout the centuries; one recollects Origen's famous conclusion that regarding the letter's actual author, "Only God knows"). If the author of the Book of Revelation is writing at the end of the first century (as many scholars assume) and is an otherwise unknown prophetic figure (as many exegetes, both ancient and modern, have suggested), is it appropriate to identify him and his work as "apostolic"? Similarly, what of 2 Peter, which is often dated to the second century? If one accepts the traditional attributions of the later church, then the New Testament corpus can indeed be definitively linked to a handful of key figures from the inception of the movement. Many scholars, however, have not seen sufficient internal and external evidence to do so.

Check out all of Ben's musings in their entirety... they're extremely stimulating! I'm hoping to get back to them at some point.

Coming Next November: Secret Mark

2009-04-13T20:03:00.002-05:00

Stephen Carlson notes that the upcoming SBL Annual Meeting will feature a panel discussion of Peter Jeffrey's The Secret Gospel of Mark Unveiled: Imagined Ritual of Sex, Death, and Madness in a Biblical Forgery. The panelists include Jeffrey himself, Robin Jensen, Donald Capps, J. Ellens, and Raymond Lawrence. This is a nice collection of scholars (I'm a particular fan of Jensen's work on early Christian art), but it seems odd to organize any kind of panel on Secret Mark without including its most vociferous advocate: Scott Brown, who responded to Jeffery's book in the Review of Biblical Literature. Guy Stroumsa, who has written on Clement of Alexandria in general and the Secret Gospel in particular, would also have been a worthy choice.

In any event, it should be a lively, captivating discussion.

Ehrman v. Colbert

2009-04-13T10:19:00.002-05:00

In case you missed it, Bart Ehrman recently appeared on The Colbert Report to promote his latest book:

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Bart Ehrman

colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

NASA Name Contest

Have You Seen This, James Tabor?

2009-04-13T01:55:00.004-05:00

On Parchment and Pen, C. Michael Patton has posted an interesting summary of the traditions surrounding the various deaths of the Twelve. Interestingly, he apparently equates James the Less (James the son of Alphaeus) with James the brother of Jesus, as he associates the martyrological traditions of the latter with the former:

(8) The Apostle James the Lesser

James was appointed to be the head of the Jerusalem church for many years after Christ’s death. In this, he undoubtedly came in contact with many hostile Jews (the same ones who killed Christ and stated “His [Christ's] blood be on us and our children” (Matt. 27:25). In order to make James deny Christ’s resurrection, these men positioned him at the top of the Temple for all to see and hear. James, unwilling to deny what he knew to be true, was cast down from the Temple and finally beaten to death with a fuller’s club to the head.

Date of Martyrdom: 63 A.D.

Probability rating: B that he was cast down from the temple, D that he was being beaten to death with fuller’s club after the fall

Although Michael does not list the sources of these traditions, this cause of death is given, in slightly varying forms, by Clement of Alexandria and Hegesippus (via Eusebius of Caesarea). However, another account reported by Josephus (and also incorporated by Eusebius) gives the cause of death as stoning. Many scholars hold that this latter narrative is more historically probable. In general, I'm curious as to the nature of his ratings... what causes him to preference one tradition over another? Perhaps questions of dating?

Who Wrote the Book of Revelation?

2009-04-13T01:24:00.006-05:00

Charles Garland concurs with Alan Bandy's recent post advocating John the son of Zebedee as the author of the Book of Revelation. In brief, Alan argues that the author's portrayal of himself as an authoritative yet familiar member of the community, combined with the strong Hebraic influences upon the Greek text and the geographic limitations of the Jewish apocalyptic genre, make this disciple an especially strong candidate. Personally, however, I don't feel that any of these generalizations mandate the acceptance of John as the author; they could apply to any number of potential candidates, both known and unknown. In her article on the book included in The Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York: Anchor Doubleday, 1992), Adela Yarbro Collins provides a nice analysis of the evidence:

One notes that the author refers to himself as “John,” but not in such a way as to point clearly to John the son of Zebedee or to the anonymous beloved disciple in the gospel of John. The name John (Gk Ioannes; Heb Yohanan) was common among Jews from the Exile onward and among the early Christians (Swete 1909: clxxv). The author of Revelation never refers to himself as an apostle or disciple of the Lord. In the vision of the new Jerusalem, the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb are seen inscribed on the twelve foundations of the wall around the city (21:14). The implication is that the Church in the author’s time prefigures the new Jerusalem or that it is the earthly counterpart of the heavenly Jerusalem. The interpretation of the foundations of the wall of the city as the twelve apostles is characteristic of a time in which the age of the apostles is past. It is unlikely that a living apostle would speak in such a way. Rev 21:14 has more in common with the post-Pauline Eph 2:20 than with Paul’s own remarks in 1 Cor 3:10–15. The conclusion that best fits the evidence is that the author of Revelation is a man named John who is otherwise unknown to us (for a more detailed discussion, see Yarbro Collins 1984: 25–34).

The historical quest for the identity of the author of Revelation has yielded primarily negative results. A more fruitful line of research has been the attempt to discern the social identity of the author. Considerable research has been done on the relation of the author and his work to the phenomenon of early Christian prophecy (Nikolainen 1968; Hill 1971–72; Müller 1976; Schüssler Fiorenza 1985: 133–56; Aune 1981; Yarbro Collins 1984: 34–49). Most scholars who have written on early Christian prophecy have distinguished community, congregational, or church prophets from wandering prophets. The primary evidence for community prophets is 1 Corinthians 11 and 14. The primary evidence for wandering prophets is the Didache. The community prophets are thought of as permanent, settled members of a particular Christian congregation. Wandering prophets are generally defined as translocal leaders, who traveled from place to place, proclaiming their teaching or the revelations they had received. This is a useful distinction but should not be pressed too far, given the great mobility of persons, especially of the nonrural population, that characterized the early empire. At least two types of wandering or itinerant Christian prophets may be distinguished: (1) the prophet who traveled to a particular place to execute a divine commission (Agabus in Acts 11:27–30 and 21:10–14; Hermas in The Shepherd of Hermas); (2) prophets whose wandering was an enactment of the ascetic values of homelessness, lack of family ties, and the rejection of wealth and possessions (Did. 11–13; prophets of the community reflected in the Synoptic Sayings source [Q]; Peregrinus in Lucian’s The Passing of Peregrinus [Aune 1981: 18–19, 29]).

In particular, note the beginning of the second paragraph: "[t]he historical quest for the identity of the author of Revelation has yielded primarily negative results." I haven't seen any recent arguments that would contradict this judgment.

UPDATE: Alan had posted an extensive presentation of external arguments for Johannine authorship here. I hope to take a closer look at these in due course. Check them out!

Read This

2009-04-13T01:13:00.002-05:00

While catching up on my blogging (I've been in Louisville for the holiday weekend), I came across this little gem from James McGrath:

The unexamined faith is not worth having. Religion has had many critics from without, and still does. But one characteristic feature of the Biblical tradition is that it is full of critics from within, those who examine their own tradition and challenge themselves first, and then their contemporaries, to rethink it and to live it differently.

There are those who would like to avoid such critical introspection and self-examination, perhaps at all costs. "Leave us alone", they might say, "we're happy as we are." But just as one might believe oneself happy living in ignorance of one's wife's affair, for example, it can also be argued that the "happiness" in such cases is illusory. One's alleged happiness is maintained at the cost of a failing marriage and a decaying relationship infested with deceit. And presumably, were the wife happy and the relationship healthy, the affair would not be occuring. And so in such cases one is in fact valuing one's own deluded happiness over the happiness and well-being of others.

Be that as it may, if someone else wishes to live in uncritical self-deception (or at least the risk thereof) they are free to do so. I'd prefer to have a healthy marriage, an honest faith, and a critical approach to life. And so, if you'd prefer not to be aware of potential difficulties with Biblical inerrancy, amd historical uncertainties about the stories contained therein, and other things that often get noticed when one examines the Bible critically, then this blog is not for you. You are under no obligation to ask the questions I am asking about my faith, any more than you are obliged to accept my answers. But don't begrudge those of us who do ask them, or who answer them differently than you might.

Well said.

April's Biblioblogger of the Month...

2009-04-13T01:02:00.003-05:00

... is Simon Holloway, author of Davar Akher: looking for alternative explanations. Check out his riveting interview with John Hobbins here.

Update on New Manuscripts

2009-04-13T00:55:00.002-05:00

Parchment and Pen reports that the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts recorded eight previously uncatalogued manuscripts during its recent visit to the Benaki Museum in Athens. The Center has also posted a brief summary of the trip, which may be viewed here. Check them out.

RBL Highlights: 4/9/09

2009-04-09T20:44:00.002-05:00

Highlights from the most recent Review of Biblical Literature:

Craig A. Evans and Emanuel Tov, eds.
Exploring the Origins of the Bible: Canon Formation in Historical, Literary, and Theological Perspective
Reviewed by Everett Ferguson

Travis L. Frampton
Spinoza and the Rise of Historical Criticism of the Bible
Reviewed by Seán P. Kealy

John Goldingay
The Message of Isaiah 40-55: A Literary-Theological Commentary
Reviewed by Francis Landy

Robert P. Gordon, ed.
The God of Israel
Reviewed by Bruce A. Power

Daniel M. Gurtner and John Nolland, eds.
Built upon the Rock: Studies in the Gospel of Matthew
Reviewed by J. Christopher Edwards

Justin K. Hardin
Galatians and the Imperial Cult: A Critical Analysis of the First-Century Social Context of Paul's Letter
Reviewed by Wilhelm Pratscher

Larry J. Kreitzer
Philemon
Reviewed by Torrey Seland

Jacob Neusner and Alan J. Avery-Peck, eds.
Encyclopedia of Religious and Philosophical Writings in Late Antiquity: Pagan, Judaic, Christian
Reviewed by Mark D. Nanos

Mikeal C. Parsons
Body and Character in Luke and Acts: The Subversion of Physiognomy in Early Christianity
Reviewed by Glenn E. Snyder

Judith Perkins
Roman Imperial Identities in the Early Christian Era
Reviewed by Ilaria Ramelli

Patrick E. Spencer
Rhetorical Texture and Narrative Trajectories of the Lukan Galilean Ministry Speeches: Hermeneutical Appropriation by Authorial Readers of Luke-Acts
Reviewed by Stephan Witetschek

David T. Sugimoto
Female Figurines with a Disk from the Southern Levant and the Formation of Monotheism
Reviewed by Aren Maeir

David Andrew Thomas
Revelation 19 in Historical and Mythological Context
Reviewed by David L. Barr

This May Have Upset the LDS, But It Made My Day

2009-04-08T16:52:00.003-05:00

Chris Heard and Doug Chaplin both point to an unfortunate error in Brigham Young University's student newspaper, which referred to a group of Mormon leaders (known as the “Quorum of Twelve Apostles”) as the “Quorum of Twelve Apostates.” I understand why some folks might be upset, and the paper was quite right to issue a prompt clarification and apology, but it appears to be an honest misspelling rather than a blatant attack, and therefore is pretty hilarious. ;-)

Doug also mentions a few other especially amusing newspaper errors; I won't give them here so as to prolong the suspense while you head over to his blog to check them out.

Michael Bird on Martin Hengel

2009-04-08T16:41:00.004-05:00

Over on the always-fascinating Evangelical Textual Criticism, Michael Bird has posted a nice summary of Martin Hengel's views on the transmission of the gospels in the second century, as well as some brief responses. Check them out.

This Friday: Pantelis Nigdelis on Roman Macdeonia

2009-04-07T19:42:00.000-05:00

This just in:

The Departments of Classics and History of the University of Virginia are
pleased to announce that Pantelis Nigdelis, of the Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki, will be giving a lecture entitled "The Institution of Ephebeia
in Roman Macedonia: A Particular Kind of Ephebeia?"

The lecture will take place at 3 pm on Friday, 10 April 2009, in the Gibson
Room, Cocke Hall. A reception will follow.

Professor Nigdelis has written numerous books and articles on Greek history,
especially on the epigraphy of Macedonia and the interaction of Greek and
Roman cultures in the area.

Manuscript Comparison Tools: A Helpful Summary

2009-04-05T17:54:00.017-05:00

Over on Biblical Studies and Technological Tools, Mark Hoffman has posted detailed and abbreviated summaries of his comparisons of various Greek New Testament editions using the Accordance, BibleWorks, and Logos software packages, and also the Open Scriptures Manuscript Comparator available online (about which I blogged briefly here). A brief recap of his extremely useful findings (check them out for yourself if you have any interest in these topics; they're required reading):

Each program has its strengths and weaknesses. Manuscript Comparator does the best job of displaying differences, but it lacks the NA27, and results cannot be saved. Accordance does a good job of display and creates useful lists of differences, but only two texts at a time can be compared. BibleWorks has the most versatility, but it is difficult to save results. Logos has the most texts available for comparison and results export easily, but one must get accustomed to the way it displays differences.

BOTTOM LINE:

* If you don't have any of the Bible software packages, Manuscript Comparator will achieve most of the the results you need.
* If you do own one of the programs, my best advice is to familiarize yourself with the text comparison implementation in that package.
* If you are looking to buy a Bible software program, the text comparison tools will probably not be a deciding factor, but the descriptions I provide here should make you aware of what is possible with each.

I am a long-standing and enthusiastic user of Accordance, but I have occasionally been frustrated by its inability to compare more than two manuscripts or versions at a time. In addition to the tools which Mark mentions, I might also recommend Juxta, a free program which I discovered through my seminar on textual criticism with Prof. David Vander Meulen. It does not yet feature extensive support for non-Roman alphabets, but it allows the user to compare more than two texts at a time and also to quickly and easily collate and create an apparatus for a selected group of texts. Here's a screenshot of a comparison of Romans 5:1-2 between the Westcott-Hort and Nestle-Aland versions (including their punctuation):

I'm planning to use Juxta in a current project involving the earliest witnesses to the Gospel of Mark... I'll be sure to report my results.

Also, one minor note of clarification: at the beginning of his post, Mark mentions that a recent blog post of mine inspired by the debate between Bart Ehrman and James White "notes that the reliability of the Greek New Testament is at least 95% even between between the two most extreme text versions (Textus Receptus vs. Westcott & Hort." As I indicated in my post, that statistic is not mine; it was given by James White, and I have not evaluated it. Mark, however, conducted a statistical analysis (via Logos) that indicated a 93.4 percent agreement between the two, and I'm perfectly happy to accept that judgment. ;-)

More Musings on the Determination of the Original Text

2009-04-04T20:42:00.014-05:00

Nick Norelli reacts to a portion of an entry which he came across in The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics:

If we possessed only a handful of manuscripts for the Old and New Testaments, it would indeed be difficult to reconstruct the reading of the original. However, the large amount of textual evidence for the Old and New Testaments, while increasing the number of the textual variants, makes it easier for us to reconstruct the reading of the original text. Rather than undermining our confidence in the Bible, these variants make it possible for us to determine, with near-perfect accuracy, what God originally communicated in His Word. (p. 110)

Nick's response included the following measured words of wisdom:

At best we can know with precision what the earliest extant text said; but we can only guess with varying degrees of probability what the original text said. So when the Alands say that the original reading is present somewhere in all the variant readings, and this claim is repeated by men like Dan Wallace or James White, it’s at best wishful thinking. It’s a statement that will always need to be qualified with “I think” rather than “I know.” This isn’t to say that we can’t guess with a very high degree of probability, but if we’re honest, in the end we’ll always have to succumb to some kind of textual agnosticism with respect to the originals.

His comments are well taken, although it's important to point out that the reading which is ultimately determined to stand closest to the original is not always that of the earliest extant manuscript (and I'm not exactly sure what "textual agnosticism" means, although it sounds cool!). But I've always shared his incredulity over the Alands' absolute certainty that the original reading exists within every set of variants, even if this is true in a large majority of cases. The ending of the Gospel of Mark represents one notable instance where some scholars believe that none of the extant variants are original; Rudolf Bultmann, for example, argued that the gospel must have initially concluded with a series of resurrection appearances in Galilee. And of course (and I've repeated this so often that I feel a bit like a broken record) we have very, very few New Testament manuscript witnesses from the most dynamic period in the life of any document: the first century after its composition. So while we can feel relatively confident about the reconstructed text of the New Testament, we should bear in mind the limitations of that reconstruction.

As for the argument that variants make the determination of God's Word even more certain, this is largely lost on me. I'm not sure how particularly difficult critical decisions (e.g., Romans 5:1, which I've discussed here) would support such a view.

Latest Issue of TC Available Online

2009-04-04T20:21:00.003-05:00

Thanks to the folks at Evangelical Textual Criticism for noting that a portion of the current issue of TC: A Journal of Textual Criticism is now available online. Thus far one review has been published:

Andrew F. Gregory and Christopher M. Tuckett, eds., The New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers, Volume 1: The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers (Dan Batovici, reviewer)

RBL Highlights: 4/4/09

2009-04-04T20:11:00.003-05:00

Highlights from the most recent Review of Biblical Literature:

Piotr Bienkowski, Christopher Mee, and Elizabeth Slater, eds.
Writing and Ancient Near Eastern Society: Papers in Honour of Alan R. Millard
Reviewed by Raymond Person

Gerald L. Borchert
Worship in the New Testament: Divine Mystery and Human Response
Reviewed by Tony Costa

Thomas L. Brodie
Proto-Luke: The Oldest Gospel Account: A Christ-Centered Synthesis of Old Testament History Modelled Especially on the Elijah-Elisha Narrative
Reviewed by Gerbern S. Oegema

Stephanie Lynn Budin
The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity
Reviewed by Mayer Gruber
Reviewed by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer

Neil Elliott
The Arrogance of Nations: Reading Romans in the Shadow of Empire
Reviewed by Glenn E. Snyder
Reviewed by Graydon F. Snyder
Reviewed by Ben Witherington III

Weston W. Fields
The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Short History
Reviewed by Eric F. Mason

Benjamin Fiore
The Pastoral Epistles: First Timothy, Second Timothy, and Titus
Reviewed by Matthew D. Montonini

Joseph A. Fitzmyer
First Corinthians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary
Reviewed by Anthony C. Thiselton

Matthew E. Gordley
The Colossian Hymn in Context: An Exegesis in Light of Jewish and Greco-Roman Hymnic and Epistolary Conventions
Reviewed by Vincent Pizzuto

Wouter J. Hanegraaf, ed.
Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism
Reviewed by David E. Aune

Edith M. Humphrey
And I Turned to See the Voice: The Rhetoric of Vision in the New Testament
Reviewed by Greg Carey

Andreas J. Kostenberger and Scott R. Swain
Father, Son and Spirit: The Trinity and John's Gospel
Reviewed by Mary Coloe

Oded Lipschits, Gary N. Knoppers, and Rainer Albertz, eds.
Judah and the Judeans in the Fourth Century B.C.E.
Reviewed by Allen Kerkeslager

Linda M. MacCammon
Liberating the Bible: A Guide for the Curious and Perplexed
Reviewed by Martin Meiser

From Dove: Limited Quantity Sale

2009-04-01T18:22:00.002-05:00

Now through April 13, buy two titles and get the third free. Sounds like a pretty good economic stimulus to me! Check out the available titles here.

Watch Your Words

2009-04-01T13:15:00.004-05:00

Rod Decker offers a brief list of style manuals and writing guides which should prove extremely helpful to anyone in the midst of a research project (e.g., the dreaded dissertation). It's well worth a look.

He also offers an insight which I cannot echo strongly enough:

Sloppy writing is one of the scourges of the Internet, nearly equal to anonymous web sites/blogs/posts in detrimental effect—but that’s another subject! If you have something to say, it’s worth saying at least in grammatical English, but better yet, in good, clear English. If you want to be heard, write it well. There’s no excuse for sloppiness. If you don’t have time to proofread it and don’t care how it sounds, why should anyone else?

Bloggers, heed these wise words and proofread your posts and comments. Whenever I come across typos or other grammatical mistakes in the blogosphere, I find that it inevitably diminishes the authority of the writer (at least in my estimation). Take a few seconds and look over your writing before committing it to the vastness of the internet. And if you don't know how to say it correctly, perhaps you shouldn't be saying it at all.

Engberg-Pederson's Paul and the Stoics: In Two Pages!

2009-04-01T12:52:00.005-05:00

In conjunction with Prof. Harry Gamble's seminar on Paul in modern scholarship, I foolishly volunteered to provide the class with a review of Troels Engberg-Pederson's magisterial Paul and the Stoics (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2000). This is an absolutely outstanding (albeit thoroughly challenging) and provocative analysis of the relationship between Pauline and Stoic thought. As many reviewers have noted, it is not possible to condense such a rich study into any kind of brief precis, but I crammed as many juicy tidbits as possible into a single handout. Check it out here... but more importantly, check out the entire book. It's well worth your while!

New Testament Notes: Week 11 (Wednesday)

2009-04-01T12:50:00.001-05:00

Key issues from Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians:

RELC 122 Notes: 4/1

Biblical Studies Carnival XL

2009-04-01T12:35:00.004-05:00

This month's carnival is hosted by James Gregory. He's done a truly outstanding job gathering together and helpfully sorting the best odds and ends from the biblioblogging world... and I should know, because several of those odds and ends came from this very blog. ;-)

Be sure to check it out... I always discover valuable posts and comments that I've missed.

Ehrman v. White: A Scorecard (Opening Statements)

2009-03-31T19:41:00.005-05:00

I've been reading through the transcript of Bart Ehrman's recent debate with James White regarding the question, "Did the Bible misquote Jesus?" The first hour was devoted to opening statements. Ehrman's remarks were pretty familiar to anyone who has read his recent popular treatments of New Testament textual criticism, emphasizing the following:

* The ease with which ancient scribes made errors

* The relative lack of early witnesses to the text of the New Testament (as he notes, ninety-four percent of the extant manuscripts date from beyond the ninth century, and many of the earliest copies are extremely fragmentary)

* The obviously large number of variant readings between the surviving witnesses (although he admits that many of these are inconsequential, relating to minor matters such as spelling)

* Passages which display significant scribal alteration/interpolation (e.g., the Pericope Adulterae, the ending of Mark, etc.)

For his part, White echoed Ehrman's earlier comment that the majority of variants are not significant in terms of the meaning of the text, noted the extreme similarities between P75 (second century) and Codex Vaticanus (mid-fourth century) and concluded that it reveals the existence of "a very clean, very accurate line of transmission... that goes back to the earliest part of the second century itself," and suggested that while there may be places in the New Testament where a single variant cannot be chosen with absolute certainty, there are not any places where all of the variants may be dismissed as a possible original. Thus he quotes Rob Bowman, who describes the text-critical process as working a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle with more than a thousand pieces in the box. "The task is weeding out the extra; the originals are there." His characterizations of brave Christians diligently copying the scriptures in the face of extreme persecution were at times overly romantic (and potentially misleading, as the first systematic persecution of the early Christian movement did not take place until the mid-third century), and his comment that "[w]e have a dozen manuscripts within the first 100 years after the writing of the New Testament" requires clarification (P46, the famous codex of Pauline writings, was certainly copied within a century of the completion of the last portions of the New Testament, but approximately 150 years after the death of Paul). Generally, however, I found it to be a vigorous, passionate presentation.

I'm eager to see the debaters engage one another directly... that should make for more exciting reading.

Two Especially Worthwhile Posts from James McGrath...

2009-03-30T23:35:00.002-05:00

... some brief comments on homosexuality in Romans 1-3, and a review of Bart Ehrman's latest offering, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them).

Check them out!

Forthcoming from Brill: The Pericope Adulterae, the Gospel of John, and the Literacy of Jesus

2009-03-30T23:13:00.004-05:00

Thanks to the folks at bibbiablog for passing this one along... I'm looking forward to checking it out. Given its arguments concerning the most familiar placement of the pericope (John 7:53-8:11), I'm curious as to what judgments Keith makes regarding its alternative placements in other New Testament manuscripts (e.g., after John 21:25, after Luke 24:53, etc.). Are these also deliberate insertions? Deviations? Something else entirely?

Although consistently overlooked or dismissed, John 8.6, 8 in the Pericope Adulterae is the only place in canonical or non-canonical Jesus tradition that portrays Jesus as writing. After establishing that John 8.6, 8 is indeed a claim that Jesus could write, this book offers a new interpretation and transmission history of the Pericope Adulterae. Not only did the pericope’s interpolator place the story in John’s Gospel in order to highlight the claim that Jesus could write, but he did so at John 7.53–8.11 as a result of carefully reading the Johannine narrative. The final chapter of the book proposes a plausible socio-historical context for the insertion of the story.

Readership
All those interested in text criticism, the New Testament, the Pericope Adulterae, the Gospel of John, early Christian book culture, literacy in the ancient world, and New Testament backgrounds.

About the author(s)
Chris Keith, Ph.D. (2008), University of Edinburgh, is Assistant Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Lincoln Christian University.

The Pericope Adulterae, the Gospel of John, and the Literacy of Jesus
Chris Keith

Expected: June 2009
Series: New Testament Tools, Studies and Documents, 38
ISBN-13 (i)The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) has been changed from 10 to 13 digits on 1 January 2007: 978 90 04 17394 1
ISSN: 0077-8842
Cover: Hardback
Number of pages: xvi, 350 pp

GBCS Lobbies Obama Regarding Racism

2009-03-30T22:39:00.002-05:00

The latest from the General Board of Church and Society:

GBCS directors urge Obama to send delegation to racism review conference

U.N. conference to review progress since South Africa event that U.S. walked out of in protest.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Board of Directors of the United Methodist General Board of Church & Society (GBCS) issued a statement this week that urges the Obama administration to send a U.S. delegation to the Durban Review Conference on Racism in Geneva, Switzerland, April 20-24.

In their statement, GBCS’s directors declare that silence and inaction are not the ways to engage the painful issues stemming from racism. The statement calls President Obama to fulfill his commitment to diplomacy and engagement in U.S. foreign policy.

The United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries and GBCS will send delegations to Geneva to review progress since the U.N. World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa, in September 2001 just days before the atrocities of 9/11. The United States and Israel walked out of the Durban conference in protest of a resolution that equated Zionism with racism.

In Durban, United Methodists were part of a faith-based presence, which produced a 10-point Ecumenical Caucus statement that declared: “Racism is a sin.” The 10-point statement was read to the media on Sept. 5 by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. (The 10 points are available on the World Council of Churches website: www.wcc-coe.org.)

GBCS Assistant General Secretary Liberato Bautista chaired the committee that prepared the 10-point statement. He directs GBCS’s United Nations and International Affairs ministry. He is also president of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO).

“Some quarters described the Durban Conference as a ‘fiasco,’” Bautista said, “due to bitter wrangling on issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and slavery reparations. The United States and Israel walked out just before the resolution by Arab nations was dropped from the final conference declaration.”

Some U.N.-member states and non-governmental organizations are wary of the review conference, according to Bautista. He said they fear conferees may use the platform to attack Israel. The draft declaration of the review conference contained references to Israel and Palestine, as well as to “defamation of religion.”

Bautista identified paragraphs in the draft that were problematic to the United States and others, including Israel, Canada and Australia. All have withdrawn from the review conference.

Offensive paragraphs in the draft include the following:

Paragraph 53: “Acknowledges that a most disturbing phenomenon is the intellectual and ideological validation of Islamophobia …”;

Paragraph 160: “Calls on States to develop, and where appropriate to incorporate, permissible limitations on the exercise of the right to freedom and of expression into national legislation” (relating to the defamation of religion, which the U.S. identifies as a threat to freedom of speech and expression);

Paragraph 156: “Urges States that have not yet condemned, apologized and paid reparations for the grave and massive violations as well as the massive human suffering caused by slavery, the slave trade, the transatlantic slave trade, apartheid, colonialism and genocide, to do so at the earliest.”

The Obama administration inherited a Bush administration stance that distanced itself from the process, according to Bautista. He said President Obama “reengaged” by sending a team to Geneva to explore rewriting the outcome document in hopes of dropping objectionable language. The team returned dissatisfied with revised draft language, though.

According to the Irish Times, a new compromise draft, circulated to diplomatic missions, removed all specific references to Israel and the Palestinians. "Passages relating to so-called ‘defamation of religion’ were also dropped from the reworked draft,” the Times reported.

“Prior to this reworked version, the Obama administration said it will not officially participate,” Bautista pointed out. “Instead, the administration said it will send a ‘note taker,’ who will not sit behind the U.S. delegation name.”

Bautista said there are other active calls for the United States to send a delegation to Geneva. He mentioned the TransAfrica Forum, which described U.S. non-engagement as a “painful irony” because it is happening under its first African-American president. The forum asserted that U.S. non-engagement will be felt throughout the African-American and African-diaspora communities. The forum urged the Obama administration to reconsider its decision, participate in the preparatory meetings and send an official delegation.

The General Board of Church & Society is one of four international general program boards of The United Methodist Church, which has more than 11 million members worldwide. The board’s primary areas of ministry are Advocacy, Education and Leadership Formation, United Nations and International Affairs, and resourcing these areas for the denomination. It has offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and at the Church Center at the United Nations in New York City.

The GBCS statement follows:

The Durban Review Conference on Racism

Geneva, April 20-24, 2009

The General Board of Church & Society (GBCS) of The United Methodist Church urges President Barack Obama to send a U.S. delegation to the Durban Review Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, this April. The conference is a follow up to the 2001 United Nations World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa.

The United States cannot afford to vacillate on such an urgent issue as racism. U.S. participation in Geneva will demonstrate President Obama’s commitment to diplomacy and engagement in U.S. foreign policy.

Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance are crucial issues. We cannot relegate them to silence and inaction. Silence will only postpone the debates. Inaction will only exacerebate the many ways people are being violated.

It would be disappointing if the Obama administration chose inaction, or worse, absence, from the Geneva conference. It is imperative that we discuss racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance in an open debate. Engaging the issues now will surely help usher in, sooner than later, a world that is diverse and plural, equal and equitable, just and peaceable.

We must deal honestly and openly with racism that for too long has perpetuated violence and has killed far too many in the name of slavery, colonialism and occupation. Surely, we have reached a point in human history where we can abandon racism and hatred, and instead pursue tolerance and equality. Abandonment of hate and pursuit of peace and justice cannot be postponed, let alone ignored.

The Durban Review Conference is an opportunity for members of the world community to speak openly with one another to resolve the issues stemming from racism. We must not be sidetracked by contentions over our varied understandings of racism, painful and dissonant as they may be.

Differences can be turned into blessings as we collectively identify the many ways to address the complexity of racism. Embracing the exchange of views will no doubt develop advocacies.

The General Board of Church & Society (GBCS) holds a common purpose with the United Nations in pursuing human rights, social justice, sustainable development and a just, peaceable governance in communities and nations. To this end we, as GBCS, will be present at the Durban Review Conference.

We therefore urge President Obama’s leadership in healing the painful wounds of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance.

Washington, D.C.,
March 21, 2009

SBL Newsletter: April and May

2009-03-30T22:27:00.001-05:00

A number of upcoming events:

April 2009

4/1-4/3
The Septuagint and Christian Origins - Die Septuaginta und das frühe Christentum
Place: Theologicum (Universität Tübingen), Liebermeisterstr. 12-14, D-72076 Tübingen
informational pdf

4/4
First International Scientific Conference Of Belgrade Theological Seminary in Belgrade. Topic: Scholarly Understanding Of The Language Of Religion.
For further information contact Laslo Galus, academic dean BTS

4/14-16
ARAM Twenty Eighth International Conference: The Western Missions in the Levant
University of Chicago
Click Here for more information.

4/23-4/24
The Duke Symposium on Archaeology, Politics, and the Media
The Duke Symposium will explore the often-strained relations between archaeologists and the media and the concomitant impact on local communities in the United States and the Middle East. Specifically, the conference will investigate the methods and values of media representation and those of archaeological investigation, as well as the effects of archaeological excavation and media coverage on the scholarly world, local inhabitants, and American faith communities. Ultimately, the symposium intends to outline better methods of communication between archaeologists, media representatives, and non-specialist audiences.

For more information about conference registration and funding opportunities please contact Erin Kuhns-Darby, Conference Coordinator.

4/23-4/24
Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls and Biblical Interpretation Conference
Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary
More information

4/24
SBL New England Regional Meeting
More information

4/24-4/26
SBL Pacific Northwest Regional Meeting
More information

4/30
Registration Closes
Genesis 2009 Conference, University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK. Conf. dates: July 14-18
Call and Meeting information

May 2009

Ongoing -5/17
Reel Religion: A Century of the Bible and Film
An exhibit at the Museum of Biblical Art in NYC.

5/14
The Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Day Conference at King's College London (Strand Campus)
More Information

5/28-5/29
Scholarly Publishing in Africa: Opportunities and Impediments. A two-day international conference hosted by The Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA).
e-mail for Meeting information

5/31
Deadline for Proposals
'Texts beyond Borders: Multilingualism and Textual Scholarship' Sixth International Conference of the European Society for Textual Scholarship Location: Academy for Science and the Arts (KVAB), Brussels, Belgium 11/19-11/21 2009

See Informational PDF or contact Dr. Caroline Macé (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) or Dr. Dirk Van Hulle (University of Antwerp).

From Dove: JPS Commentaries, and the Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters

2009-03-30T22:10:00.003-05:00

One of these days I'll end up buying the Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters, although I wish that it included more living examples...

McKim, Donald K (ed)
Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters
(InterVarsity Press, 2007)
Hardcover List: $55.00 Dove Price: $43.99
Save $11.01 (20%)

From Athanasius to Albright, the history of Christian biblical interpretation has been shaped by great thinkers who delved deeply into the structure and meaning of Christianity's sacred texts. With over two hundred in-depth articles, the Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters introduces readers to the principal players in that history: their historical and intellectual contexts, their primary works, their interpretive principles and their broader historical significance. In addition, six major essays offer an overview of the history of biblical interpretation from the second century to the present. This one-volume reference by Donald K. McKim, a revised and vastly expanded edition of IVP's Historical Handbook of Major Biblical Interpreters, will serve as an invaluable tool for any serious student of the Bible and the history of biblical interpretation.

JPS Torah Commentary Series

The JPS Torah Commentary series guides readers through the words and ideas of the Torah. Each volume is the work of a scholar who stands at the pinnacle of his field. Every page contains the complete traditional Hebrew text, with cantillation notes, the JPS translation of the Holy Scriptures, aliyot breaks, Masoretic notes, and commentary by a distinguished Hebrew Bible scholar, integrating classical and modern sources. Each volume also contains supplementary essays that elaborate upon key words and themes, a glossary of commentators and sources, extensive bibliographic notes, and maps.

Levine, Baruch A
Leviticus
(Jewish Publication Society, 1989)
Hardcover List: $75.00 Dove Price: $62.99
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Milgrom, Jacob
Numbers
(Jewish Publication Society, 1990)
Hardcover List: $75.00 Dove Price: $62.99
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Sarna, Nahum
Exodus
(Jewish Publication Society, 1991)
Hardcover List: $75.00 Dove Price: $62.99
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Sarna, Nahum
Genesis
(Jewish Publication Society, 1989)
Hardcover List: $75.00 Dove Price: $62.99
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Tigay, Jeffrey H
Deuteronomy
(Jewish Publication Society, 1996)
Hardcover List: $75.00 Dove Price: $62.99
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Other JPS Commentaries

Berlin, Adele
Esther
(Jewish Publication Society, 2001)
Hardcover List: $34.95 Dove Price: $26.99
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Fishbane, Michael
JPS Bible Commentary on the Haftarot
(Jewish Publication Society, 2002)
Hardcover List: $75.00 Dove Price: $60.99
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Fox, Michael V
Ecclesiastes
(Jewish Publication Society, 2004)
Hardcover List: $34.95 Dove Price: $26.99
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Simon, Uriel
Jonah
(Jewish Publication Society, 1999)
Hardcover List: $34.95 Dove Price: $27.99
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Tabory, Joseph
JPS Commentary on the Haggadah: Historical Introduction, Translation, and Commentary
(Jewish Publication Society, 2008)
Hardcover List: $40.00 Dove Price: $33.99
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RBL Highlights: 3/30/09

2009-03-30T21:46:00.003-05:00

I'm admittedly a little behind, but here are some recent highlights from the Review of Biblical Literature (hey, maybe some of you missed them the first time around):

Stephen P. Ahearne-Kroll
The Psalms of Lament in Mark's Passion: Jesus' Davidic Suffering
Reviewed by Steve Moyise
Reviewed by Adam Winn

Adele Berlin
The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism
Reviewed by Allan Rosengren

Gabriele Boccaccini and John J. Collins, eds.
The Early Enoch Literature
Reviewed by William Loader

Pieter Craffert
The Life of a Galilean Shaman: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological Perspective
Reviewed by Robert J. Miller

Pauline Nigh Hogan
"No Longer Male and Female": Interpreting Galatians 3.28 in Early Christianity
Reviewed by Susan G. Eastman

Uwe-Karsten Plisch
The Gospel of Thomas: Original Text with Commentary
Reviewed by Tobias Nicklas

Good Book: A Review

2009-03-30T21:33:00.002-05:00

Courtesy of my father: a recent review of Good Book, in which David Plotz (the editor of the popular electronic magazine Slate) chronicles his journey through the entire text of the Hebrew Bible. It sounds interesting, although reminiscent of other similar accounts which have appeared in recent years (e.g., A.J. Jacobs' The Year of Living Biblically).

Sunday Book Review: Good Book, by David Plotz

Plotz also blogged about his readings here.

New Testament Notes: Week 10 (Wednesday)

2009-03-25T13:16:00.001-05:00

A summary treatment of the principal contexts and themes of Paul's Letter to the Galatians:

RELC 122 Notes: 3/25

Herodotus Comes to Charlottesville

2009-03-24T18:29:00.002-05:00

He'll be here next week:

The Department of Classics of the University of Virginia is pleased to
announce that Paul Cartledge, A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at
the University of Cambridge, will be giving a lecture entitled Herodotus
and The West.

The lecture will take place at 5 pm on Tuesday, 31 March 2009, in the Gibson
Room, Cocke Hall. A reception will follow.

One of the world's leading experts on the history of Ancient Greece,
especially Sparta, Professor Cartledge is the author of numerous books,
including The Greeks: Crucible of a Civilization, The Spartans: An Epic
History, Sparta and Lakonia, Alexander the Great: The Hunt for a New Past,
Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World, and Agesilaos and the Crisis
of Sparta, and he is the editor of the The Cambridge Illustrated History of
Ancient Greece. Not only a first-rate scholar, he has also devoted much
energy to communicating his work to a wider audience, serving frequently as
consultant to the BBC and Britain's Channel Four.

Transcripts of Ehrman's Recent Debates

2009-03-24T18:21:00.005-05:00

Thanks to Nick Norelli for posting transcripts of two recent debates between Bart Ehrman and James White and William Lane Craig concerning the textual stability of the New Testament and historical evidence for the resurrection, respectively. I don't know when I'll get the chance to read these in full, but hopefully I can spare a few minutes this weekend. A brief glance at the Ehrman/White exchange piqued my interest... although I suspect that neither will win any new converts, as their partisans are pretty polarized. Check these out if you get a chance!

James R. White vs. Bart D. Ehrman — Did the Bible Misquote Jesus?

William Lane Craig vs. Bart D. Ehrman — Is There Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus?

From Dove: More Anchor (Yale) Bible

2009-03-24T10:10:00.002-05:00

Discounts on more recent releases and forthcoming titles, including the second volume of Joel Marcus' commentary on Mark, and the fourth volume of John Meier's A Marginal Jew series.

Recent Releases

From the Commentary Series

Fitzmyer SJ, Joseph A
First Corinthians
(Yale University Press, 2008)
Hardcover List: $55.00 Dove Price: $40.99
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A Biblical masterpiece and a seminal contribution to Christian theology, FIRST CORINTHIANS was written by St. Paul to the congregation at Corinth in response to a letter asking him for clarification of some of his teachings. In it, Paul discusses the basic tenets of Christian faith, including the Lord's Supper and the Resurrection, and addresses questions about marriage, celibacy, and other down-to-earth matters of moral conduct and Christian living. It also contains Paul's memorable definition of Christian love. With Fitzmyer's masterful, completely up-to-date commentary, FIRST CORINTHIANS is an important addition to the Anchor Bible series.

Reumann, John
Philippians
(Yale University Press, 2008)
Hardcover List: $65.00 Dove Price: $49.99
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Paul's Epistle to the church at Philippi has long stood out as his most joyful letter. It is addressed to his favorite congregation, the converts who were his most devoted followers. At a time when Paul lacked the support of most of the other churches he founded, the Christians at Philippi sent him financial gifts and even an "apostle" of their own, Epaphroditus, to aid him in his mission and comfort him during his imprisonment. In appreciation, Paul offered them praise and support, encouraging them to pursue a creative theology (in 2:6-11) and to seek greater maturity in their faith in the face of considerable civic opposition and threats from Hellenistic ideologies. For centuries, PHILIPPIANS was thought to be a single letter written by Paul when he was imprisoned in Rome. In recent years, however, Reumann and other scholars have come to the consensus that it is actually three separate letters, two of which were written from a prison in Epheus. Reumann discusses in the introduction why he reached this conclusion, and goes on to provide a translation and commentary that will stand as the definitive study of this important Epistle for decades to come.

From the Reference Library

Garrett, Susan R
No Ordinary Angel: Celestial Spirits and Christian Claims about Jesus
(Yale University Press, 2008)
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In this provocative, intelligent, and highly original addition to the Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library, Susan R. Garrett argues that angel talk has never been merely about angels. Rather, from ancient times until the present, talk about angels has served as a vehicle for reflection on other fundamental life questions, including the nature of God?s presence and intervention in the world, the existence and meaning of evil, and the fate of humans after death. In No Ordinary Angel, Garrett examines how biblical and other ancient authors addressed such questions through their portrayals of angels. She compares the ancient angel talk to popular depictions of angels today and considers how the ancient and modern portraits of angels relate to Christian claims about Jesus. No Ordinary Angel offers important insights into the development of angelology, the origins of Christology, and popular Western spirituality ranging from fundamentalist to New Age. In doing so, it provokes stimulating theological reflection on key existential questions.
Pre-Publication Announcements

Mark 8-16 by Joel Marcus

Marcus, Joel
Mark 8-16
(Yale University Press, 2009)
Hardcover List: $55.00 Dove Price: $40.99
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In the final nine chapters of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus increasingly struggles with his disciples? incomprehension of his unique concept of suffering messiahship and with the opposition of the religious leaders of his day. The Gospel recounts the events that led to Jesus? arrest, trial, and crucifixion by the Roman authorities, concluding with an enigmatic ending in which Jesus? resurrection is announced but not displayed. In this volume New Testament scholar Joel Marcus offers a new translation of Mark 8?16 as well as extensive commentary and notes. He situates the narrative within the context of first-century Palestine and the larger Greco-Roman world; within the political context of the Jewish revolt against the Romans (66?73 C.E.); and within the religious context of the early church?s sometimes rancorous engagement with Judaism, pagan religion, and its own internal problems. For religious scholars, pastors, and interested lay people alike, the book provides an accessible and enlightening window on the second of the canonical Gospels.

Marginal Jew Volume 4

Meier, John P
Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Volume 4: Law and Love
(Yale University Press, 2009)
Hardcover List: $55.00 Dove Price: $42.99
Save $12.01 (22%) NYP Due: 05/15/2009

John Meier's previous volumes in the acclaimed series A Marginal Jew are founded upon the notion that while solid historical information about Jesus is quite limited, people of different faiths can nevertheless arrive at a consensus on fundamental historical facts of his life. In this eagerly anticipated fourth volume in the series, Meier approaches a fresh topic the teachings of the historical Jesus concerning Mosaic Law and morality with the same rigor, thoroughness, accuracy, and insightfulness on display in his earlier works. After correcting misconceptions about Mosaic Law in Jesus' time, this volume addresses the teachings of Jesus on major legal topics like divorce, oaths, the Sabbath, purity rules, and the various love commandments in the Gospels. What emerges from Meier's research is a profile of a complicated first-century Palestinian Jew who, far from seeking to abolish the Law, was deeply engaged in debates about its observance. Only by embracing this portrait of the historical Jesus grappling with questions of the Torah do we avoid the common mistake of constructing Christian moral theology under the guise of studying 'Jesus and the Law,' the author concludes.

RBL Highlights: 3/20/09

2009-03-19T23:52:00.002-05:00

Highlights from the most recent Review of Biblical Literature:

James Rowe Adams
From Literal to Literary: The Essential Reference Book for Biblical Metaphors
Reviewed by Christine Treu

Dianne Bergant
Scripture: History and Interpretation
Reviewed by Sean P. Kealy

Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert and Martin S. Jaffee, eds.
The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature
Reviewed by Daniel R. Schwartz

Randall Heskett
Messianism within the Scriptural Scrolls of Isaiah
Reviewed by J. Todd Hibbard

Lynn R. Huber
Like a Bride Adorned: Reading Metaphor in John's Apocalypse
Reviewed by Tobias Nicklas

Susan Niditch
Judges: A Commentary
Reviewed by Yairah Amit

Susanne Scholz
Introducing the Women's Hebrew Bible
Reviewed by Amelia Devin Freedman

Joseph B. Soloveitchik; edited by David Shatz, Joel B. Wolowelsky, and Reuven Ziegler
Abraham's Journey: Reflections on the Life of the Founding Patriarch
Reviewed by Ralph K. Hawkins

Charles H. Talbert
Ephesians and Colossians
Reviewed by Andrew T. Lincoln

Henry A. Virkler and Karelynne Gerber Ayayo
Hermeneutics: Principles and Processes of Biblical Interpretation
Reviewed by Oda Wischmeyer

Robert L. Webb and John S. Kloppenborg, eds.
Reading James with New Eyes: Methodological Reassessments of the Letter of James
Reviewed by Peter Frick

It's Actually Revelation

2009-03-19T09:44:00.006-05:00

Jim West notes that NPR has succumbed to the common (and incredibly annoying) fallacy of tacking an s onto the title of the last book of the New Testament. Bleh! I'm constantly correcting my students on this point; I will not allow it to become commonplace, even among non-specialists. I will personally stem the tide of incorrect usage. And I will come after you, if you fall into the trap. So be warned! ;-)

Christian Iconography: A Brief Review (Part II)

2009-03-19T09:38:00.003-05:00

The second (and final) portion of my review of Andre Grabar's Christian Iconography: A Study of Its Origins.

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The final two chapters discuss images of a more explicitly theological nature, which are partitioned into two general categories: the fairly basic “dogmas expressed in a single image” and the elaborate “dogmas represented by juxtaposed images.” Together these groups represent the most novel and innovative aspects of early Christian art, as “the pagan religions had no iconography of their dogmas, lacking, as they did, any dogmas to express” (p. 110). Due to the ever-present constraints of time and space, Grabar restricts his analysis to images illustrative of the five major dogmas of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Resurrection, baptism, and communion. He does not consider the initial stage of the marriage between depiction and doctrine to have been particularly successful, but rather “incomplete and accidental” (p.112). The thorny difficulties which still plague any attempt to visually present the Trinity account for its virtual absence from the early Christian portfolio, and also for the fact that only one Trinitarian trope (the hand and the dove with Christ at his baptism) survived through the medieval era. In short, “[W]hile such representations as these [of the Trinity and the Resurrection] were sometimes attempted, themes corresponding to dogmas seem nevertheless not to have held a central place in early Christian works” (p.127).

Grabar concludes with a brief survey of doctrines expressed through combinations of images. His whirlwind tour of illustrations of the Incarnation notes the general importance of the theme of (miraculous) conception, as well as clues to the development of the iconographical language behind this tenet. For example, the occasional representation of Joseph as an aloof figure, with his back turned to the rest of the Holy Family, may symbolize his status as surrogate parent only (as it does in a pavement mosaic depicting the birth of Alexander the Great, who, according to legend, also had no human father). Eventually, some artisans adopted a more abstract approach, preferring to use signs such as a star or rays of light to represent the divine presence in the Incarnational act. Grabar also discusses the utilization of Old Testament pericopes as prefigurations of and buttresses for the New Testament counterparts with which they often appear. He closes with the apt observation that the Christian artist’s use of both testaments “increased his potentiality for expression and rendered him more capable of accomplishing the tasks that the Christian religion set for him” (p. 146).

The fact that this study remains in print and available after so many years reflects the enduring quality and value of both its research and its conclusions. The painstakingly selected visual examples provide the perfect complement to Grabar’s learned examination of the interplay between early Christian art and its contemporaries. As Alfred Neumeyer writes, “The important message of Grabar’s work is presented in a dry and self-effacing style.” The study is, however, susceptible to a few minor critiques. In the introductory section, Grabar describes the iconographical language of the Greco-Roman world as “the most nearly perfect we know” (p. xliv), without elaborating further upon this apparently obvious conclusion. What is it that makes this particular language inherently superior to any other? This seems to be a bias in favor of Western culture and traditions. Similarly, Grabar states that the lack of any extant Christian imagery prior to 200 CE is a result of iconoclasm, without providing any evidence to support such a claim. Iconoclastic struggles certainly play a prominent role in later Christian history, but this does not require us to retroject them into the first and second centuries. It is equally possible that the nascent Christian movement’s intensely eschatological bent, with its disdain for most established cultural norms and practices, accounted for the first generations’ seeming failure to express themselves visually. Furthermore, while Grabar’s representation of ancient Christianity and Judaism as entirely separate communities was most likely a reflection of then-current scholarship, such views have since become dated. A number of influential scholars, including E.P. Sanders and Daniel Boyarin, have argued persuasively that the partition of Christianity from Hellenistic Judaism was a gradual occurrence, and may not have been completed for centuries. Finally, it should be noted that recent critics such as Thomas Mathews have objected to Grabar’s linkage of post-Constantinian Christian art and imperial propaganda. Mathews contends that only two early images of Christ, which amount to less than one-tenth of one percent of the total, display unmistakable imperial elements. But in Grabar’s defense, Mathews may be overstating his case; Grabar himself writes that only between the sixth and seventh centuries did the connection between portraits of Christ and those of the emperors become explicit (p. 86).

A volume which benefits experienced scholars, introductory students, and interested laymen is rare indeed, but Andre Grabar’s Christian Iconography: A Study of Its Origins fills this difficult order. The scholar will find provocative conclusions to weigh and consider and a dazzling array of images to pursue further. The student will find the perfect “buffet” introduction to early Christian iconography—just enough of everything to stimulate the palette, without providing too much of any single dish. And the layman will find expert analysis presented in a readable style surprisingly free of the convoluted sentences and excessive jargon which often mar academic writing. Other handbooks on this subject will certainly appear in the coming years; this one, however, is likely to continue to stand the test of time.

1 Alfred Neumeyer, “Review of Christian Iconography: A Study of Its Origins,” in Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 29.1 (1970), 139.
2 Thomas F. Mathews, The Clash of Gods: A Reinterpretation of Early Christian Art (rev. ed.; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), 193.

Christian Iconography: A Brief Review (Part I)

2009-03-19T09:26:00.006-05:00

Another review discovered deep within the bowels of my old computer: a review of Andre Grabar's landmark Christian Iconography: A Study of Its Origins. As this study (originally presented as a series of lectures in 1961) has had a profound impact on the study of early Christian art, I thought it worthy of an appearance on the blog. I've also posted a PDF copy here. Enjoy!

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Andre Grabar, Christian Iconography: A Study of Its Origins (Bollingen Series XXXV.10; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968). 432 pp.

Nearly forty years after its initial publication, Andre Grabar’s landmark study of early Christian iconography (originally presented as a series of lectures at the A. W. Mellon Institute for the Fine Arts in 1961) remains required reading for all scholars, students, and others interested in this topic. Grabar states that his intention is not to provide a systematic or comprehensive treatment of early Christian imagery, but rather to demonstrate “that from its beginnings Christian imagery found expression entirely, almost uniquely, in the general language of the visual arts and with the techniques of imagery commonly practiced within the Roman Empire from the second to the fourth century” (p. xliii). Although this contention may appear self-evident to many readers—a possibility which Grabar himself admits—its importance for the evaluation of Christian art, and of the religion as a whole, certainly merits a rich and thorough reexamination.

The study begins with an analysis of the earliest extant Christian artwork, primarily funerary pieces such as catacomb murals and sarcophagi (the first of which are usually dated to 200 CE and 230 CE, respectively). Sensitive exegesis of the images of this category benefits from a number of significant observations which Grabar makes here. The images are more superficially decorative than they are inherently communicative or meaningful, although their “schematic” (i.e., they “imply more than they actually show”; p. 8) nature indicates that this simplicity is somewhat deceptive. The most frequently depicted biblical scenes are those which emphasize God’s salvific intercession on behalf of his faithful servants of old: the deliverance of Noah and his family from the flood, of Isaac from the sacrificial slab, of Daniel from the lion’s den, etc. New Testament pericopes are much rarer, apart from the raising of Lazarus—which should not be particularly surprising, given its similar content. While all of these images are certainly indebted to their larger Greco-Roman milieu, it is interesting that they do not include any explicit references to death. Furthermore, the iconic likeness of Christ, and his principal symbols, are largely absent at this point; more generic representations such as “The Good Shepherd” appear instead. Finally, frequent allusions to the sacraments of baptism and communion strongly suggest that the nascent Christian community was already endowing its art with some theological significance, however basic.

Grabar then turns to a more specific discussion of “Paleo-Christian art” and its reliance upon “the vocabulary of the current language of the visual arts” (p. 31), a language which is also expressed in Greco-Roman work of the same era. A number of relevant examples are offered, including similarities between the sleeping Jonah and the reclining Endymion, the Christian orant and its pious pagan counterpart, and the scroll of knowledge clutched by saint and philosopher alike. But while Christian and Greco-Roman artisans may have shared a single artistic tongue, they were certainly speaking different dialects. Thus Christians could portray Christ with a head similar to those of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto without incorporating any pagan religious significance; “the powerful head… was a part of the repertory of the art of the period, and both the Christians and the pagans used it, as one can use the same word in different senses” (p. 35). Among the most notable uniquely Christian symbols to appear during this formative period was the Chi-Rho monogram, popularized by Constantine the Great after his successful bid for the Roman throne and subsequent publication of the Edict of Milan in 314 CE. These historical developments inaugurated a surge of imperial influences upon early Christian art.

Having properly set the stage for further discussion, Grabar devotes the next two chapters to the sub-genres of portraiture and scriptural scenes. In both cases, he finds additional affinities between early Christian and Greco-Roman exemplars—strong enough, in fact, to “set aside, or appreciably diminish the weight of, opinions that tend to regard all the early Biblical images as proceeding from direct illustration of the text of the Old and New Testaments” (p. 58). He rightly identifies the critical disparity between all ancient portraits and their modern descendents: the former’s preference for visual and emotional impact rather than accurate physical depiction. But if second-century medallions bearing images of Peter and Paul are greatly removed from Arrangement in Gray and Black No. 1 (Whistler’s Mother) or American Gothic, they remain closely tied to contemporary Roman commemorative coinage; both include additional symbols which identify and describe the chosen figures. By the beginning of the seventh century ornate portraits of Christ and the saints had attained a religious quality similar to that enjoyed by earlier portraits of the Roman emperors.

Likewise, representations of biblical events “also bear the imprint of traditions proper to this genre in [other] contemporary art” (p. 87). Grabar traces the evolution of Christian narrative art from the relatively crude, ambiguous “image-sign” to the more explicit “descriptive representation,” and notes that both types are employed by Roman art. While one might naturally expect narrative scenes to appear in biblical manuscripts alongside the corresponding pericopes as a kind of hermeneutical key, the few early illustrated manuscripts do not confirm this hypothesis. Nevertheless, numerous such scenes are extant in a variety of other media—including mosaic, ivory, gold, and wood—and at this point, it should come as no surprise that “pagan art supplies counterparts for the Christian cycles with which we have been concerned” (p. 102). Miniature illustrations of Christ’s childhood which surround portraits of Mary (e.g., a portion of a sixth-century ivory diptych now housed in Yerevan) unmistakably recall the widely portrayed deeds of the heroes Hercules and Mithras, or the deity Dionysus.

New Testament Notes: Week 9 (Wednesday)

2009-03-19T09:20:00.001-05:00

Conflicts between "Hebrews" and "Hellenists," and the emergence of Gentile Christianity:

RELC 122 Notes: 3/18

GBCS, NCC, and Eco-Justice

2009-03-19T09:13:00.002-05:00

A recent release from the UMC General Board of Church and Society:

General Board of Church & Society executive testifies before House subcommittee

Represents National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Working Group in urging legislators to avoid economic injustices in any global warming bills.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The director of Economic and Environmental Justice at the United Methodist General Board of Church & Society (GBCS) told the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Subcommittee March 12 that the faith community supports strong and quick action to address the dangers of climate change. He emphasized, though, that solutions must mitigate rather than compound economic injustices.

John Hill testified at a hearing on Capitol Hill on “Consumer Protection Provisions in Climate Legislation.” He spoke on behalf of the National Council of Churches (NCC) as a member of its Eco-Justice Working Group. The NCC represents 35 Christian denominations in the United States.

“Global climate change is a real and growing threat to Creation with profound and potentially devastating environmental, economic and social consequences,” Hill said.

4 principles guide policy solutions

Hill pointed out that for more than 15 years, the NCC has worked to educate and equip its members and congregations to take action to reduce their own contributions to climate change. “And, [we] have petitioned our government to provide strong leadership in developing domestic and international frameworks to lower greenhouse gas emissions,” he added.

Hill was one of six persons asked to speak at the subcommittee hearing. Primary emphasis of the hearing was to examine a proposal to assist consumers under a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Hill identified four principals that guide the faith community in considering potential policy solutions: justice, stewardship, sustainability and sufficiency. He said a just climate policy must contain effective, mandatory emissions reduction targets “to prevent catastrophic impacts” for the people and planet.

“For too long climate change advocates have minimized the potential impact of climate legislation on the poor,” Hill said, “and opponents have used such impacts as a justification for inaction.” He cautioned the legislators not to “forget the devastating impact of inaction.”

Rising sea levels, more intense storms, floods, droughts and spreading disease were cited by Hill as global warming effects that disproportionately affect persons living in poverty, communities of color and other vulnerable communities. “The Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2004 demonstrated all too painfully the devastating consequences that occur when storms of nature interact with the storms of poverty and racism that batter communities in the United States and around the world,” he said.

Least responsible are most vulnerable

In developing policies, Hill urged the legislators to ensure that solutions don’t push families deeper into poverty due to higher energy-related costs. He said there are proposals that can “efficiently, effectively and justly” provide benefits to offset cost increases for low-income individuals and families. He mentioned one outlined by the Center on Budget Policies and Priorities, whose executive director, Robert Greenstein, also testified at the hearing.

“Those least responsible for the emissions that created this problem,” Hill said, “are most vulnerable to its effects. Let us not perpetuate further this injustice by forcing those same individuals to shoulder additional and disproportionate cost of proposed solutions.”

Hill said financial help for those living in poverty in the United States and international adaptation assistance for vulnerable communities abroad must be a part of any climate policy.

Using established, proven methods that provide funds sufficient to offset all energy-related price increases to deliver benefit for low-income consumers would be supported, according to Hill. He said mechanisms such as an electronic benefits transfer card and an expanded earned income tax credit would allow individuals and families flexibility to adapt to price increases for a variety of goods and services.

Hill said proposals that would use local distribution companies or other utilities to deliver a consumer rebate ignore over half the estimated costs to low-income families. He said these proposals require new delivery systems and outreach programs to encourage participation. "We believe established methods offer a more effective and efficient approach to reach the greatest percentage of low-income consumers," he said.

Four other persons testified before the subcommittee. They were Sonny Popowsky, Pennsylvania Office of the Consumer Advocate; Steve Kline, vice president of Corporate Environmental and Federal Affairs, PG&E Corp.; Steven Hayward, American Enterprise Institute; and Mike Carey, Ohio Coal Assn.

The full text of Hill's statement is available on GBCS's web site, www.umc-gbcs.org. Under "Issues and News," go to statements.

Next SIP Lunch: David Dault

2009-03-19T08:33:00.001-05:00

Courtesy of Prof. Peter Ochs:

The SIP Faculty and Grads invite you to their next SIP Lunch featuring:

Prof. David Dault (PhD Vanderbilt University)

Chair of the Division of Bible and Theology American Baptist College, Nashville, TN.

on

THE COVERT MAGISTERIUM: THEOLOGY, TEXTUALITY AND THE QUESTION OF SCRIPTURE

Hosted by Peter Ochs

Prof. Dault is author of the forthcoming: The Accessorized Bible: the Rise of "Designer" Scripture, Yale University Press (2010); and THE COVERT MAGISTERIUM: THEOLOGY, TEXTUALITY AND THE QUESTION OF SCRIPTURE (in preparation)

Wednesday March 25, 12:00 (sharp) to 1:30: HALSEY FACULTY LOUNGE

(You are welcome to bring your own bag lunch; we'll provide cold drinks and cookies)

Best, The SIP Program

From Dove: Anchor (Yale) Bible Sale

2009-03-19T08:21:00.002-05:00

All of Dove's stock of Anchor Yale Bible titles, old and new, are currently on sale, albeit at relatively modest discounts. The exception is the six-volume Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, whose sale price of $339.99 is a 33% savings. When did the regular list price for this set become $510.00?!? When I purchased it several years ago, it was $360.00... sigh...

Anchor Bible Dictionary

Freedman, David Noel Astrid Beck (eds)
Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, 6 Volume Set
(Yale University Press, 1992)
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Recent Commentaries

Propp, William H C
Exodus 19-40
(Yale University Press, 2006)
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Knoppers, Gary
1 Chronicles 1-9
(Yale University Press, 2004)
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Knoppers, Gary
1 Chronicles 10-29
(Yale University Press, 2004)
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Lundbom, Jack R
Jeremiah 21-36
(Yale University Press, 2004)
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Lundbom, Jack R
Jeremiah 37-52
(Yale University Press, 2004)
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Pre-Publication Announcement

Fox, Michael V
Proverbs 10-31
(Yale University Press, 2009)
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This volume completes Bible scholar Michael V. Fox's comprehensive commentary on the book of Proverbs. As in his previous volume on the early chapters of Proverbs, the author here translates and explains in accessible language the meaning and literary qualities of the sayings and poems that comprise the final chapters. He gives special attention to comparable sayings in other wisdom books, particularly from Egypt, and makes extensive use of medieval Hebrew commentaries, which have received scant attention in previous Proverb commentaries. In separate sections set in smaller type, the author addresses technical issues of text and language for interested scholars. The author's essays at the end of the commentary view the book of Proverbs in its entirety and investigate its ideas of wisdom, ethics, revelation, and knowledge. Out of Proverbs? great variety of sayings from different times, Fox shows, there emerges a unified vision of life, its obligations, and its potentials.

On My Doorstep...

2009-03-17T01:12:00.002-05:00

... a lovely review copy of Philip W. Comfort's New Testament Text and Translation Commentary. Thanks to Christy Wong at Tyndale House Publishers for passing this along! My initial impressions are very positive; hopefully I'll have some more substantive comments next week. Stay tuned!

Biblia Patristica Available Online

2009-03-17T00:41:00.007-05:00

Stephen Carlson notes that a searchable version of the Biblia Patristica--the definitive index of scriptural quotations from the early church fathers--is now available here. It's a free tool, although registration is required. I've added it to the list of "Related Links" for future reference.

Patristic scriptural quotations remain one of the most unmined aspects of New Testament textual criticism, largely due to the enormous size of the corpus (perhaps one million total citations). Technological innovations such as this initiative, however, could go a long way towards resolving the problem and fully appreciating one of the most vital and vibrant groups of witnesses to the New Testament text.

New Testament Notes: Week 9 (Monday)

2009-03-16T14:02:00.001-05:00

An introduction to the post-resurrection Christian movement:

RELC 122 Notes: 3/16

Better Take Some of Your Own Medicine

2009-03-16T09:11:00.004-05:00

C. Michael Patton has written an elegant and thoughtful post entitled "What if God Read Your Posts? A Reminder About Christian Conduct on the Internet." A number of his recommendations should appeal to religious commentators of all theological stripes, especially the following:

* You accurately represent all theological positions, even when you strongly oppose them.
* Your tone of engagement comes from a humble respectful attitude.
* Your primary goal is not to win an argument, but to contribute to understanding.
* Your defense of your position recognizes that strengths of the opposing side.
* You are gentle.

I heartily concur with all of these. But when I scroll down a bit, I notice that he Michael himself has recently written a three-part series (here, here, and here) primarily entitled: "'Belief Is No Good Without Practice' and Other Stupid Statements." I understand that the title is largely rhetorical, and that he's essentially making the argument that right action will flow naturally from right belief. But as someone who has always valued James 2:20, I was a bit taken aback. Furthermore, I know that there are Christians who would disagree with his interpretations of these verses and doctrines. I'm not sure that the above title, nor the entirety of what follows, come from a "humble respectful attitude."

From Dove: T & T Clark Sale

2009-03-16T08:38:00.003-05:00

A number of titles are on sale at significant discounts (at least 60%). In particular, Fred Lapham's Introduction to the New Testament Apocrypha is a nice entry-level text for those unfamiliar with the wide array of apocryphal traditions in early Christianity. (I'm thinking of recommending this sale to the Director of Christian Education at my home church.)

JSNT Publications

Gibson, Jeffrey B
Temptations of Jesus in Early Christianity
(T & T Clark International, 2004)
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This study lays the groundwork necessary for establishing the validity of the thesis, proposed particulary by J.H. Yoder in his Politics of Jesus, that the early church held a selective and unified view of the nature and content of the various temptations to which Jesus was regarded as having been subjected in his lifetime. This leads to a clearer view of how the early church perceived the exigencies of its Lord's mission and message, and provides fresh insights into such prominent New Testament themes as sonship, obedience, faithfulness and discipleship. It also opens up new possibilities for firmly establishing the occasion of those New Testament writings, such as the Gospel of Mark and even the Epistle to the Hebrews, where notice of and appeal to the example of Jesus in temptation appears as a prominent feature.

Jack, Alison M
Texts Reading Texts, Sacred and Secular: Two Postmodern Perspectives
(T & T Clark International, 1999)
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The language, themes and imagery of the Bible have been rewritten into texts across time. In the Revelation of John, the Hebrew Bible echoes and is reinvented, just as in James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) many explicit and implicit readings and interpretations of the Bible are offered. In Texts Reading Texts, these readings of the Bible, and the ways in which Revelation and Hogg's Confessions have themselves been read, are considered from the two postmodern perspectives of marginalization and deconstruction. By reading the two seemingly unrelated texts side by side from these perspectives, traditional readings of them both are disturbed and challenged.

Kwong, Ivan Shing Chung
Word Order of the Gospel of Luke
(T & T Clark International, 2006)
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This work studies the word order of the Gospel of Luke and some of its prominent messages with consideration of systemic functional linguistic theories. The first part of the work focuses on the relative positions of four constituents (subject, predicate, complement and circumstantial adjunct) of different types of Lukan clauses (independent, dependent, infinitival, participial and embedded clause). The result gives some unmarked (typical or common) word order patterns and some marked word order patterns of all Lukan clauses. The second part traces the foregrounded messages of the Gospel based on their related marked word order patterns incorporated with functional linguistic phenomena. The result highlights the messages of Jesus' disciples and his parents' failure in understanding him, Pilate's crime of handing over Jesus and Jesus' predictions of his future sufferings and Peter's future failure. JSNTS and Studies in New Testament Greek series

Landon, Charles
Text-Critical Study of the Epistle of Jude
(T & T Clark International, 1996)
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The author writes in the tradition of C.H. Turner, G.D. Kilpatrick and J.K. Elliott, and attempts a reconstruction of the Greek text of Jude according to the rationale of thoroughgoing eclecticism. The aims of his study are to apply an eclectic approach to the resolution of textual problems in Jude, and to determine the extent to which the text of Jude published in the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament (GNT4) is a product of the eclectic ideal. In this work, eclecticism is defined in detail, distinctions being made between eclectic generalism, rational criticism, and thoroughgoing eclecticism. Each of 95 variation units is analysed individually and the apparatus provided for each unit shows as much variation as possible in a compact form.

Lapham, Fred
Peter: the Myth, the Man, and the Writings
(T & T Clark International, 2004)
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This book critically examines all the early and important Petrine pseudepigrapha to identify a distinctive Petrine theology which, it is believed, was later swamped by the tide of western orthodoxy. Despite the diversity of the books and tractates, ranging from Jewish-Christian writings to avowedly Gnostic works, a remarkably consistent Petrine tradition does emerge; and Peter is shown essentially to be neither the impetuous, undiscerning, and even vacillating figure portrayed in the Gospels and Acts, nor the magisterial and pontifical figure of later Church tradition, but a visionary who was concerned above all to hold together both the moral and cognitive aspects of the Faith.

Newport, Kenneth G C
Sources and Sitz im Leben of Matthew 23
(T & T Clark International, 1995)
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Matthew 23 presents the New Testament scholar with many problems. Not the least of these is the unequivocal acceptance of Pharisaic authority in vv. 2-3. In the same chapter the tithing of mint, dill and cummin is affirmed (v. 23) and the altar is said still to sanctify the gift (v. 19). This material seems out of place within the broader context of Matthew's Gospel. This study examines the origin and function of such material and argues that the bulk of the chapter (vv. 2-31) is formed from a single unified source and cannot be explained in terms of Matthew's editing of Q, M and Markan material. The focus of the criticism found in these verses is that the Pharisees are too slack: they strain gnats but swallow camels (v. 24), they 'say but do not do' (v. 4). To this unified source material, however, the evangelist has added his own (vv. 32-39) and by it launches an attack not just upon the Pharisees and scribes, but 'Jerusalem' and her children as a whole. Matthew therefore both heightens the polemic and extends its range.

Related to Gnosticism and New Testament Apocrypha

Franzmann, Majella
Jesus in the Manichaean Writings
(T & T Clark International, 2003)
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Manichaeism was a dualistic religious system with Christian, Gnostic and pagan elements, founded in Persia in the third century by Manes. This is the first full-length study of the Manichaean Jesus, since the publication of several major Manichaean texts such as the Homilies, Psalm Book and Kephalaia in the 1930s and 1940s. A knowledge of Manichaean Christology is important for any understanding of the development of Christologies in the early cen-turies CE, whether within mainstream Christianity or within associated het-erodox groups. This book undertakes a comprehensive study of six distinct figures of Jesus that can be found in both Eastern and Western Manichaean lit-erature. Previous partial studies of Manichaean Christology have tended to restrict their focus to texts from either Eastern or Western traditions alone. Majella Franzmann argues that a single Manichaean Jesus can be discerned behind the many different representations to be found.

Lapham, Fred
Introduction to the New Testament Apocrypha
(T & T Clark International, 2003)
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This book is a readable and analytical survey of those important but little-known Christian documents of the second and third centuries which are collectively referred to as the New Testament Apocrypha, and is intended to serve both as an introductory guide for interested clergy and laity, but also as a useful reference for thos pursuing higher research. Questions of the manufacture of the codices, the transmission of the texts, the discovery of the lost and hidden books, and of the classification of the documents are considered, and the books are placed and critically examined in their geographical and social setting.

Logan, Alastair H B A J M Wedderburn (eds)
New Testament and Gnosis
(T & T Clark International, 2004)
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This collection of essays commemorates two important events. The first if the retirement of Professor Robert Wilson, the leading British authority on the subject of Gnosis and Gnosticism and a foremost international scholar in this field, from the Chair of Biblical Criticism in the University of St. Andrews and from the Editorship of New Testament Studies in the autumn of 1983. The second is the recent appearance, both in facsimile form and in English translation, of the Nag Hammadi Codices. Some of these have become well known in various ways since their discovery in 1945-6, but it is only very recently that the complete corpus of material has been made generally available. Thus it is only now that we can begin to assess its significance both for our understanding of this area of early Church history and in particular for the question of the relationship between Gnosis and Gnosticism and the New Testament.

By John K. Riches

Riches, John K
Conflicting Mythologies: Identity Formations in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark
(T & T Clark International, 2000)
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A cultural anthropological interpretation of Mark and Matthew which examines the formation of early Christian identity, world view and ethos. John Riches examines notions of sacred space and ethnicity. He shows how group identity emerged in the form of a dynamic process of reshaping traditional Jewish symbols and motifs, such as descent, kinship and circumcision, and interweaving them with early Christian traditions about Jesus. He also argues that the Evangelists were influenced by two opposing cosmologies, which accounts for the diversity of senses of identity which flow from the two narratives.
Contents
Preface Abbreviations 1 Identity and Change 2 Jewish Identity in the World of the Mediterranean Cities: Themes and Variations 3 Sight to the Blind 4 The Remaking of Sacred Space 5 Conflicting World-Views in Mark's Christology 6 Church of Disciples 7 Matthew and the Remaking of Sacred Space 8 Cosmology and Christology in Matthew 9 New Worlds and New Identities: The Gospels of Mark and Matthew and the Beginning of Christianity Bibliography Index of biblical references and ancient sources Index of modern authors Index of subjects

Luke 4:16-30: A Truly Great Passage

2009-03-15T19:47:00.003-05:00

While rooting through some of my notes and papers from my Yale days, I discovered this little gem: a multifaceted exegesis of Luke 4:16-30 which I prepared for Prof. Diana Swancutt's New Testament Interpretation course. I have great admiration for the author of Luke--in my opinion, he's one of the great creative geniuses of early Christianity--and this rich pericope really shows off his abilities. Check it out:

Exegetical Working Paper (Luke 4:16-30)

James McGrath on Homosexuality

2009-03-15T19:14:00.002-05:00

James McGrath's Sunday School class is beginning a new series on divisive topics in Christianity. First up is homosexuality; James gives a nice summary of their discussion here.

He also includes a brief but familiar clip from NBC's The West Wing which he describes as "useful for those interested in raising some of these issues in a discussion forum of some sort." I tend to agree. It's a worthwhile reminder of the weighty problems which surround any woodenly literal interpretation of the biblical text, and which do not melt away in the wake of vague comments about the "New Covenant replacing the Old."

Carolyn Sharp Is Right

2009-03-15T04:45:00.002-05:00

On Awilum, Charles Halton gives a brief quotation from Prof. Carolyn Sharp's most recent book, Irony and Meaning in the Hebrew Bible (Indiana University Press, 2009):

Reading is not a simple act of recognizing codes and cues inked onto parchment or engraved in stone. Apprehension of human communication through written texts, especially across time and across cultural boundaries, can be so complex as to defy description.

A beautifully worded observation, from a truly great teacher.

Extreme Right v. Extreme Left: A Hopeless Debate?

2009-03-15T02:03:00.013-05:00

Over the past few days, I've become belatedly aware of a vigorous (and occasionally downright nasty) debate between atheists and conservative Christian apologists raging throughout the blogosphere, particularly involving exchanges between John Loftus and J.P. Holding--who represent the former and latter camps, respectively. Nick Norelli notes a list of claims recently posted by Holding in response to Loftus:

1) I have answers to ANY claim of “contradiction” you can come up with.

2) The authorship of the NT Biblical books is more solid than it is for any secular work of the ancient world.

3) We don’t have originals for ANY ancient work, but only nimwits like you think this is a problem, and can’t explain why.

4) You wouldn’t know how the canon was put together, since you think Dan Brown is a good source; much less could you criticize its composition intelligently.

5) The textual tradition of the NT is far more secure than that of any secular document, with zero evidence of tampering or corruption; nothing but legitimate interpretive modifications to accommodate shifting language and cultural needs.

6) The NT books were all written within 40 years of Jesus’ lifetime.

7) You couldn’t argue with me ten seconds on any of these points.

Nick provides brief responses to the first, second, fifth, and sixth of these points (after stating that he "couldn't care less" about the others):

(1) I’m sure that this is true but I doubt that all of the answers are equally good or persuasive.

(2) This is worded in such a way as to indicate that we know who the authors of all the NT books are, but clearly we don’t. Maybe we can argue that the authorship for the Pauline corpus is solid (and there’s more than a few of his books that are disputed) and I’d venture to say that Luke-Acts is pretty well established, but that’s about it. We simply don’t know the rest.

(5) This is just false when it comes to the claim of “zero evidence of tampering or corruption.” Maybe he’s defining those terms in a special way but if he simply means intentional changes that may or may not affect the meaning of a given passage then he’s wrong.

(6) Holding’s preterism colors his dating of the NT but I don’t see any convincing arguments for dating John, 1-3 John, Revelation, Jude, or 1-2 Peter within 40 years of Jesus’ lifetime. Good luck proving it.

I find myself in agreement with Nick's responses. I would briefly take up Holding's third point, however, and reply that ancient historians are absolutely concerned with the fact that the majority of texts have survived in copies of a very late date. As Helmut Koester and any number of others have convincingly argued, textual emendation most frequently occurs in the century immediately following the initial publication, an issue which often forces the editors of classical texts to propose conjectural readings not found in any surviving manuscript. Furthermore, works such as the writings of Josephus (e.g., the so-called "Testimonium Flavianum") and the Sybilline Oracles display unmistakable evidence of alteration by later generations of editors, to say nothing of the innumerable form-critical and text-critical studies of the New Testament. So, I would say that all historians of antiquity are frustrated by the lack of autographic texts, as it makes their studies more difficult and tenuous from the outset.

To briefly supplement Nick's comments, I would add that while almost all scholars and critics accept Luke-Acts as the product of a single author, the actual identity of that author remains unknown. As for the Pauline corpus, Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, Philippians, and Philemon are universally acclaimed as authentic, with some occasionally advocating the authenticity of 2 Thessalonians, Colossians, and Ephesians, and only the most conservative commentators identifying Paul as the author of the Pastoral Epistles. In his Anchor Bible (now Anchor Yale Bible) commentary on the Letter of James, Luke Timothy Johnson argues that the letter should be attributed to James the brother of Jesus, but this view has not won widespread acceptance (and was not universally accepted even in the patristic era).

Nick is absolutely correct when he identifies Holding's statement that the text of the New Testament displays "zero evidence of tampering or corruption" as "absolutely false." I can't see how anyone could defend such a claim, given the astronomical number of variant readings among the approximately 5500 extant Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, the fact that the Western text of Acts is approximately ten percent longer than the Alexandrian text, etc. Bruce Metzger's Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament provides summary treatments of many problematic passages; Bart Ehrman's The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture is also worth reading on this subject. And as for questions of dating, apart from J.A.T. Robinson's bold but flawed Redating the New Testament, which placed the origins of all of the books before 70 CE, I haven't seen any recent publications make such an argument. If anything, some arguments for second-century dates are intensifying; Richard Pervo has made a strong case that Acts belongs to this period.

Generally, I've found both of the extremes of this debate sorely wanting, usually resorting to bombastic and poorly constructed rhetoric rather than a sober exchange of thoughts and opinions. And I'm left wondering why they're even bothering to engage one another. Perhaps they simply enjoy the battle, even if there's no end in sight.

Forthcoming From SBL: The Second Church

2009-03-15T01:40:00.006-05:00

For more than four decades, Ramsay MacMullen has been one of the most vibrant and influential social historians of late antiquity, particularly concerning the conflict between Greco-Roman religion and the emerging Christian movement. His latest book will be released this month, and has already received very favorable comments from Helmut Koester, Wayne Meeks, and Brent Shaw (I just know I'm going to end up buying it):

The Second Church: Popular Christianity A.D. 200-400

Ramsay MacMullen

ISBN: 1589834038
Status: Forthcoming
Price: $24.95
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: March, 2009

Christianity in the century both before and after Constantine’s conversion is familiar thanks to the written sources; now Ramsay MacMullen, in his fifth book on ancient Christianity, considers especially the unwritten evidence. He uses excavation reports about hundreds of churches of the fourth century to show what worshipers did in them and in the cemeteries where most of them were built. What emerges, in this richly illustrated work, is a religion that ordinary Christians, by far the majority, practiced in a different and largely forgotten second church. The picture fits with textual evidence that has been often misunderstood or little noticed. The “first” church—the familiar one governed by bishops—in part condemned, in part tolerated, and in part re-shaped the church of the many. Even together, however, the two constituted by the end of the period studied (AD 400) a total of the population far smaller than has ever been suggested. Better estimates are now made for the first time from quantifiable data, that is, from the physical space available for attendance in places of worship. Reassessment raises very large questions about the place of religion in the life of the times and in the social composition of both churches.

Ramsay MacMullen is Dunham Professor Emeritus of History and Classics at Yale University. He is the recipient of a lifetime Award for Scholarly Distinction from the American Historical Association and the author of numerous volumes on Christianity and the Roman Empire.

Click here for a printable title information sheet that you can put in your files or give to your librarian or bookstore.

“Ramsay MacMullen—for many years the spokesman for the majority of the people who are not represented in the writings of the elite—here focuses on the beliefs and practices of the mass of Christians. He brings forward impressive evidence, mostly archaeological, for the third and especially the fourth century C.E., showing the persistent predominance of pagan rituals among the vast majority of Christians, especially in burial practices and veneration of the dead. While only a small minority of them went to church, most could have been found celebrating the memory of the departed with food and wine at the cemeteries, often in a manner that their bishops hardly approved.

For the first time most of the relevant materials with illuminating illustrations have been brought together in this publication, which should be on the reading list of all courses teaching the history of ancient Christianity.”

— Helmut Koester, John H. Morison Research Professor of Divinity and Winn Research Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Harvard University

“Do not let the small size of this book mislead you. Anyone who wants to know what Christianity was like in the crucial two centuries discussed here—not just what the bishops and theologians were thinking, but what the other 95 percent were doing—will discover the weight of this book to be many times its physical heft. MacMullen, one of our most distinguished historians of Roman antiquity, tries here to refocus ‘the mind’s eye,’—the only tool we have, finally, to imagine that ‘second church’—to sweep away the double astigmatism that besets our usual scholarship, skewed by what our texts say Christians ought to be and what we want them to be. The result is history purged of wishful thinking, and it should make us all blink.”

— Wayne A. Meeks, Woolsey Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies, Department of Religious Studies, Yale University

“If you wish to know what it was like to be one of the ordinary Christians who lived in the Roman Mediterranean, then begin here. Through artifact and word, by means of a scholarly excavation of detail and fact from great metropolises and isolated hamlets strewn around the central sea, MacMullen brings to life the varied and contradictory life of Christians at ground level.”

— Brent D. Shaw, Professor of Classics and Andrew Fleming West Professor of Classics, Princeton University

Hardback edition available from Brill Academic Publishers (www.brill.nl)

The Future of Scholarly Publishing

2009-03-15T01:26:00.003-05:00

Given the proliferation of electronic resources, rising production costs for printed volumes, and the current economic situation, I'm sure this will be an especially interesting talk. For those unfamiliar with the location of the Scholars Lab, turn left when you enter the library and head down the hallway immediately in front of you.

"Scholarly Publishing Today and Tomorrow"
Linda Bree
Senior Humanities Editor, Cambridge University Press
Tuesday, March 24 at 2:00 p.m.
Scholars' Lab, Alderman Library

RBL Highlights: 3/12/09

2009-03-12T01:13:00.003-05:00

Highlights from the most recent Review of Biblical Literature:

Michael F. Bird
The Saving Righteousness of God: Studies on Paul, Justification and the New Perspective
Reviewed by James P. Sweeney

James H. Charlesworth
The Historical Jesus: An Essential Guide
Reviewed by Peter J. Judge

Andrew D. Clarke
A Pauline Theology of Church Leadership
Reviewed by Jens Herzer

Tal Davidovich
The Mystery of the House of Royal Women: Royal Pilagsim as Secondary Wives in the Old Testament
Reviewed by Yael Shemesh

Mary Dove
The First English Bible: The Text and Context of the Wycliffite Versions
Reviewed by Francis Dalrymple-Hamilton
Reviewed by Christo H. J. van der Merwe

David Flusser; translated by Azzan Yadin
Judaism of the Second Temple Period, Volume 1: Qumran and Apocalypticism
Reviewed by Joshua Schwartz

Richard S. Hess and Elmer A. Martens, eds.
War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century
Reviewed by Brad E. Kelle

Alistair G. Hunter
An Introduction to the Psalms
Reviewed by Gert T. M. Prinsloo
Reviewed by John S. Vassar

Barclay M. Newman, ed.
The UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader's Edition
Reviewed by Cynthia Long Westfall

Anita Norich and Yaron Z. Eliav, eds.
Jewish Literatures and Cultures: Context and Intertext
Reviewed by Shlomo Berger

Robert B. Wright, ed.
The Psalms of Solomon: A Critical Edition of the Greek Text
Reviewed by Rodney A. Werline
Reviewed by Joel Willitts

Today: Buddhist Tantric Ritual Manuals

2009-03-12T01:09:00.001-05:00

Courtesy of Prof. Peter Ochs:

The SIP Faculty and Grads invite you to their SIP Lunch this term, featuring:

Professor Nicolas Sihlé
(Dept. of Anthropology)

"Buddhist tantric ritual manuals and society: Reflections on an anthropological approach to a local corpus of religious texts"

Hosted by Adam Wells

Thursday March 12, 12:15 to 1:30: HALSEY FACULTY LOUNGE

(You are welcome to bring your own bag lunch; we'll provide cold drinks and cookies)

Best, The SIP Program

Looavul... Luhvul...

2009-03-11T18:54:00.003-05:00

Darrell Pursiful (aka Dr. Platypus) discusses one of the most charming aspects of speech throughout the state of Kentucky (and my hometown of Louisville in particular): its occasional removal or alteration of a syllable or two, often in the names of places, to create a new, seemingly inexplicable pronunciation. I can provide firsthand evidence of this practice: my paternal grandmother is from a small town in Marion County, the geographic center of the state. The name of the town is spelled "Lebanon," but locals (and all others in the know) pronounce it "Leb-nin." If you want to spend some time in Kentucky, you'd better figure this stuff out. ;-)

Darrell also provides an image of a helpful banner placed throughout Louisville by the city's tourism board; most people prefer one of the first two pronunciations listed there.

Polygamy in Second Temple Judaism

2009-03-11T18:05:00.013-05:00

In his discussion of possible meanings of the phrase μιᾶς γυναικὸς ἄνδρα (lit. "the man of one woman" or "the husband of one wife") in 1 Timothy 3:2, Bill Mounce mentions the practice of polygamy:

Some hold that it [the phrase] is a prohibition against polygamy, i.e., married to one at a time. This argument is stronger than one might suspect from its near universal rejection. However, while polygamy was common in Judaism it was not common in Christianity, so it seems unlikely that Paul would have thought to prohibit something that rarely occurred.

Was polygamy "common in Judaism" at the time of Paul--or decades later, during the composition of the Pastorals? In "Marriage, Divorce, and Family and Second Temple Judaism," published in Families in Ancient Israel (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1997), John J. Collins presents a thorough overview of the evidence, noting that it is mentioned by Josephus, Justin Martyr, and the Mishnah; it was apparently practiced by elites such as Herod and his sons; and the recent discovery of the Bathaba archive suggests that it may have spread beyond the upper classes of society to members of the Palestinian bourgeois. Nevertheless, while the legal wranglings of Bathaba and her fellow wife over the property of their late husband provide important evidence that polygamy was not limited to eminent figures such as the Herodians, the correspondence "remains a single instance and does not warrant any generalization about the extent of polygamy in second temple Judaism" (p. 122), and Collins does not dramatically depart from the relative consensus "that monogamy was the norm throughout the second temple period" (ibid, citing S. Lowy's "The Extent of Jewish Polygamy in Tannaitic Times" [1958]). The fact that Justin Martyr is clearly engaged in a polemical dialogue with Judaism, and that the Mishnah often discusses past practices in a seemingly contemporary fashion, would support such a position.

The Brick Testament

2009-03-11T10:48:00.003-05:00

Anyone looking to brush up their biblical literacy in a creative way should check out the Brick Testament. Ruben Dupertuis, one of my undergraduate mentors, gave a paper on it as part of SBL's "Bible and Popular Culture" section a couple years ago. Fun!

Happy Anniversary, Codex Sinaiticus!

2009-03-11T03:20:00.007-05:00

While mindlessly surfing the web last night, I discovered an inexplicable oversight: I neglected to mention that February 4 marked the sesquicentennial (that's the 150th anniversary, for all you philistines out there) of the scholarly discovery of the priceless Codex Sinaiticus by Constantin von Tischendorf. Go drink a toast or gulp down a piece of cake in its honor... or check out the remarkable collaborative Codex Sinaiticus Project, which is slated for final completion in July 2009.

P.S. Don't tell Jim West that I was reminded of this date by Wikipedia's events feed, or I'll be blacklisted from the biblioblog world! ;-)

New From Baker/Fortress/WJK: More Good Stuff

2009-03-11T02:48:00.004-05:00

Another recent announcement from Dove:

Aune, David E
Apocalypticism, Prophecy, and Magic in Early Christianity: Collected Essays
(Baker Book House, 2008)
Paperback List: $49.99 Dove Price: $39.99
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Renowned scholar David Aune, author of a leading commentary on the book of Revelation, here offers twenty studies on apocalypticism, the book of Revelation, and related topics. Several essays on the Apocalypse of John explore contextual relationships of the Apocalypse to apocalyptic literature. Other essays center on aspects of the content and interpretation of the Apocalypse itself by investigating issues such as discipleship, narrative christology, genre, and the problem of God and time. Essays on early Christian prophecy deal with charismatic exegesis in early Judaism and early Christianity, the relationship between Christian prophecy and the messianic status of Jesus, and the prophetic features found in The Odes of Solomon. Originally published in hardcover by Mohr Siebeck, this collection is now available in paperback.

Evans, Craig A N. T. Wright
Jesus, the Final Days: What Really Happened
(Westminster John Knox, 2009)
Paperback List: $16.95 Dove Price: $13.50
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What do history and archaeology have to say about Jesus death, burial, and resurrection? In this superb general reader book, two of the worlds most celebrated writers on the historical Jesus share their greatest findings. Together, Craig A. Evans and N. T. Wright concisely and compellingly convey the drama and the world-shattering significance of Jesus final days on earth. Certain to be a best seller during the Lent/Easter season and beyond!

Evans, Craig A Emanuel Tov (eds)
Exploring the Origins of the Bible: Canon Formation in Historical, Literary, and Theological Perspective
(Baker Book House, 2008)
Paperback List: $22.99 Dove Price: $18.99
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For those who want to go deeper in their understanding of the canon of Scripture, leading international scholars provide cutting-edge perspectives on various facets of the biblical writings, how those writings became canonical Scripture, and why canon matters. Craig Evans begins by helping those new to the field understand the different versions of the Hebrew Bible (Masoretic Text, Septuagint, Targum, Vulgate, etc.) as well as the books of the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha. Later essays also help beginners by explaining "canon" and the development of canons in various Jewish and Christian communities, the much-debated tripartite canon of the Hebrew Scriptures, and questions of authority. But the book also includes insightful explorations and perspectives to challenge more advanced readers, starting with Septuagint and Dead Sea Scrolls expert Emanuel Tov delving into the complexities of biblical writing and moving into a critical investigation of the usefulness of extracanonical Gospels for historical Jesus research and an exploration of the relationship of Paul to the canonization process. The result is a thought-provoking book that concludes with discussion of an issue at the fore today--the theological implications of canon.

Hanson, K C Douglas E. Oakman
Palestine in the Time of Jesus: Social Structures and Social Contexts, Second Edition
(Augsburg Fortress, 2008)
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Hanson and Oakman's award-winning and illuminating volume has become a widely used and cited introduction to the social context of Jesus and the early Jesus movement. This second edition updates all the discussions in light of more recent scholarship, improves clarity and readability of diagrams and maps, provides additional diagrams and images to enhance the book for student use, and includes new classroom resources, for professors and students, on a Companion Web site. Along with an overview of the ancient Mediterranean worldview, Palestine in the Time of Jesus explores major domains and institutions of Roman Palestine: kinship, politics, economy, and religion.

Holman, Susan R
Wealth and Poverty in Early Church and Society
(Baker Book House, 2008)
Paperback List: $32.99 Dove Price: $26.99
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Wealth and poverty are issues of perennial importance in the life and thought of the church. This volume brings patristic thought to bear on these vital issues. The contributors offer explanations of poverty in the New Testament period, explore developments among Christians in Egypt and Asia Minor and in early Byzantium, and connect patristic theology with contemporary public policy and religious dialogue. This volume inaugurates Holy Cross Studies in Patristic Theology and History, a partnership between Baker Academic and the Stephen and Catherine Pappas Patristic Institute of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts. The series is a deliberate outreach by the Orthodox community to evangelical, Protestant, and Catholic seminarians, pastors, and theologians. These multi-author books include contributors from all traditions but focus on the patristic (especially Greek patristic) heritage.

Horsley, Richard A (ed)
In The Shadow of Empire: Reclaiming The Bible as a History of Faithful Resistance
(Westminster John Knox, 2008)
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The Bible tells the stories of many empires. And many are still considered some of the largest of the ancient and classical world: the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and finally the Romans. In this provocative book, eight experts bring a critical analysis of these world empires in the background of the Old and New Testaments. As they explain, the Bible developed against the context of these empires, providing concrete meaning to the countercultural claims of Jews and Christians that their God was the true King, the real Emperor. Each chapter describes how to read the Bible as a reaction to empire and points to how to respond to the biblical message to resist imperial powers in every age.

Horsley, Richard A
Jesus in Context: Power, People, and Performance
(Augsburg Fortress, 2008)
Paperback List: $26.00 Dove Price: $20.99
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What difference did empire make for Jesus and his disciples? What difference did empire make for the broader social currents of which he and they were a part? What social roles did Jesus perform, what "little tradition" did he embody against the "great tradition" of Roman culture? What difference does it make for our understanding of Jesus if we attend to new kinds of evidence regarding popular movements, the dynamics of oral tradition, and reading history "from below"? Richard A. Horsley addresses all these questions and sketches a dramatic new picture of Jessus in light of recent approaches.

Kloppenborg, John S
Q, the Earliest Gospel: An Introduction to the Original Stories and Sayings of Jesus
(Westminster John Knox, 2008)
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Estimated to date back to the very early Jesus movement, the lost Gospel known as Q offers a distinct and remarkable picture of Jesus and his significance and one that differs markedly from that offered by its contemporary, the apostle Paul. Rather than privileging Jesus? death and resurrection as the salvific events, highlighting his battles with demons, or concentrating on his messianic program of healing, this Sayings Gospel presents Jesus as a prophetic critic of unbelief and a sage with the wisdom that can transform. In Q, the true meaning of the kingdom of God is the fulfillment of a just society through the transformation of the human relationships within it: debt relief, mutuality and reciprocity, nonretaliation, and the total rejection of the long-standing Mediterranean honor and shame codes. Though this document has never been found, Kloppenborg offers a succinct account of why scholars maintain it existed in the first place and demonstrates how they have been able to reconstruct its contents and wording from the two later Gospels that used it as a source: Matthew and Luke. Presented here in its entirety, as developed by the International Q Project, this Gospel reveals a very different portrait of Jesus than in much of the later canonical writings, challenging the way we think of Christian origins and the very nature and mission of Jesus Christ.

Pregeant, Russell
Knowing Truth, Doing Good: Engaging New Testament Ethics
(Augsburg Fortress, 2008)
Paperback List: $29.00 Dove Price: $22.99
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As we face new, complex, and controversial ethical issues in our lives, turning to the writings of the New Testament for guidance can be a bewildering experience. One reason this is so, says Pregeant, is that the New Testament writings belong to a distant and very different cultural world, where many of our contemporary questions simply weren't imagined. Another reason is the open - ended character of language and the possibility - and desirability - of multiple and often competing strands of meaning in the New Testament writings. In Knowing Truth, Doing Good, Pregeant models a careful and sensitive approach to ethics in the New Testament writings. Instead of looking for "the New Testament answer" or "the early Christian view," he calls us to own our responsibility for the ways we interpret the Bible and for the ethical decisions we make in the Bible's name. Pregeant explores such topics as: * Madness in the Methods: On Learning to Treat the Text as Subject * The Ethics of the Jesus Movement * The Ethics of the Canonical Writings * Engaging New Testament Ethics

Rowe, C Kavin
Early Narrative Christology: The Lord in the Gospel of Luke
(Baker Book House, 2009)
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Despite the striking frequency with which the Greek word for kyrios (Lord) occurs in Luke's Gospel, this study is the first comprehensive analysis of Luke's use of this word. Rowe offers a careful exegetical discussion of all the passages in the Gospel that use kyrios for Jesus in order to trace the complex and deliberate development in Luke's narrative of Jesus's identity as Lord. Detailed attention to Luke's artistry and use of Mark demonstrates that Luke has a nuanced and sophisticated christology. For Rowe, Luke's use of kyrios for Jesus not only after the resurrection but throughout shows Jesus's close association with the God of Israel. This book, now available in paperback, was first published in hardcover by Walter de Gruyter.

Wilson, Walter T
Pauline Parallels: A Comprehensive Guide
(Westminster John Knox, 2009)
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Paul's letters to early churches form one of the largest and most theologically rich parts of the New Testament. Wilson examines each passage from every one of Paul's letters-including those that some scholars believe were written by someone else-and show how they overlap and connect with passages from a broad spectrum of ancient literature. Parallels are drawn with other Pauline letters, New Testament and Old Testament writings, early Jewish literature such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the philosophical and religious works of Greece and Rome. In terms of its range of parallels, this book is the most complete study of its kind to date. Pauline Parallels: A Comprehensive Guide is sure to be invaluable resource for understanding Paul's concepts for many years to come.

New From SBL: Minorities and Sicarii

2009-03-09T15:39:00.003-05:00

... but not in the same book, of course!

They Were All Together in One Place? Toward Minority Biblical Criticism

Randall C. Bailey, Tat-siong Benny Liew, Fernando F. Segovia, editors

Critics from three major racial/ethnic minority communities in the United States—African American, Asian American, and Latino/a American—focus on the problematic of race and ethnicity in the Bible and in contemporary biblical interpretation. With keen eyes on both ancient text and contemporary context, contributors pay close attention to how racial/ethnic dynamics intersect with other differential relations of power such as gender, class, sexuality, and colonialism. In groundbreaking interaction, they also consider their readings alongside those of other racial/ethnic minority communities. The volume includes an introduction pointing out the crucial role of this work within minority criticism by looking at its historical trajectory, critical findings, and future directions. The contributors are Cheryl B. Anderson, Francisco O. García-Treto, Jean-Pierre Ruiz, Frank M. Yamada, Gale A. Yee, Jae-Won Lee, Gay L. Byron, Fernando F. Segovia, Randall C. Bailey, Tat-siong Benny Liew, Demetrius K. Williams, Mayra Rivera Rivera, Evelyn L. Parker, and James Kyung-Jin Lee.
Paper $45.95 • 412 pages • ISBN 9781589832459 • Semeia Studies • Hardback edition www.brill.nl

The Sicarii in Josephus's Judean War: Rhetorical Analysis and Historical Observations
Mark Andrew Brighton

This book offers a comprehensive study of the Sicarii in Josephus’s Judean War. Detailed rhetorical analyses are provided not only for the Masada narrative, where Josephus tells how the Sicarii famously committed suicide, but also for all other places in War where their activities are described or must be inferred from the context. The study shows how Josephus adopted the Sicarii in his narrative to develop and bring to a resolution several major themes in War. In a departure from the classical proposal that the Sicarii were an armed and fanatical off-shoot of the Zealots, this work concludes that from a historical perspective, “Sicarii” was a somewhat fluid term used to describe Jews of the Judean revolt who were associated with acts of violence against their own people for religious/political ends.
Paper $26.95 • 200 pages • ISBN 9781589834064 • Early Judaism and Its Literature • Hardback edition www.brill.nl

CJA Colloquium: Morwenna Ludlow

2009-03-09T15:26:00.002-05:00

Courtesy of Prof. Judy Kovacs. Anyone in the area should stop by:

Please mark your calendars for our next meeting on Tuesday, April 7,
12:30 -1:45 in Newcomb Hall Room 389.

Our guest speaker will be Prof. Morwenna Ludlow, of Exeter University (England), who will speak on the topic: "Power and Dominion? Patristic Readings of Genesis 1." Please look over beforehand the primary texts that will be distributed a week or so before the colloquium.

Prof. Ludlow offers this summary of her presentation:

In current environmental debates, Christian biblical interpretation has often been held at least partly responsible for faulty modern Western attitudes to the natural world. In particular, attention has fallen on readings of Gen. 1:26 in which God is described as giving humans 'dominion' over other creatures. Setting the modern theological and ecological debate to one side, this paper will give an historical analysis of some church fathers' interpretations of the first chapter of Genesis. The first part - 'power' - will be a brief survey of readings of Gen. 1:1 with the aim of examining what kind of interpretation the fathers are attempting (literal, figurative, allegorical?) and in what kind of contexts (homilies for a mixed audience, more specialised philosophical treatises?). It will be seen that a factor unifying diverse interpretations is an emphasis on the unique power of God. The paper's second part - 'dominion' - will focus on Gen. 1:26, analysing the fathers' understanding of the relationship of humans to other animals in the light both of the 'imago dei' theme and of late antique concepts of human and animal nature (especially in relation to the concept of 'soul').

Your Comments Are Requested...

2009-03-08T02:47:00.004-05:00

While my experiences with Blogger have been generally good, I've occasionally regretted its relative lack of customizable features when compared to other publishing platforms such as WordPress. For instance, I've always been a little jealous of the "Recent Commentations" portion of Nick Norelli's sidebar; one of the most interesting and rewarding things about sharing ideas and information in this type of format is the rich, evolving conversation that it fosters. Fortunately, the fine folks at bloggerbuster.com have created an extremely user-friendly widget that corrects this glaring problem, and the most recent comments on this blog will now be proudly displayed in the sidebar immediately beneath the blogroll.

So, the moral of this story is... let's see more comments! ;-)

New From Fortress/WJK: Good Stuff

2009-03-08T00:43:00.005-05:00

A recent announcement from Dove (which is currently offering these titles at various discounts). There are a number of good-looking books here; I'm particularly interested in Dale Martin's take on biblical pedagogy, which I plan to read before teaching the subject again.

Davies, Philip R
Memories of Ancient Israel: An Introduction to Biblical History-Ancient and Modern
(Westminster John Knox, 2008)
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Recent years have seen an explosion of writing on the history of Israel, prompted largely by definitive archaeological surveys and attempts to write a genuine archaeological history of ancient Israel and Judah. The scholarly world has also witnessed an intense confrontation between so-called minimalists and maximalists over the correct approach to the historicity of the Bible. Memories of Ancient Israel looks at the issues at stake in doing biblical historythe ideologies involved, the changing role of archaeology, and the influence of cultural contexts, both ancient and modern. Davies suggests a different way of defining the problem of reliability and historicity by employing the theory of cultural memory. In doing so, he provides a better explanation of how ancient societies constructed their past but also a penetrating insight into the ideological underpinnings of today's scholarly debates.

Gravett, Sandra L Karla G. Bohmbach, F.V. Greifenhagen, Donald C. Polaski
Introduction to The Hebrew Bible: A Thematic Approach
(Westminster John Knox, 2008)
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This pedagogically astute introduction to the Hebrew Bible is designed specifically for undergraduates. It begins with the most basic questions: from where and when did the Hebrew Bible originate, how was it written, and how did people read it? And in focusing on the fundamental question of the canon "Who are we,"it first gives much attention to the issues of identity, especially in contexts of family, gender, ethnicity, and class. Then it explores how the ancient Israelites organized themselves in terms of power and state, and finally delineates the larger questions of God and ideology within the canon. The result is a flow of topics that yields a textbook more in line with other studies of ancient literature and culture. Without ignoring the religious function of the Hebrew Bible, it instead presents religion as a part of every aspect of existence. Through art, photography, literature, and popular culture, this text vibrantly presents the concepts of the Hebrew Bible and offers a companion Web site for teachers, with tests and other pedagogical aids.

Horsley, Richard A (ed)
In The Shadow of Empire: Reclaiming The Bible as a History of Faithful Resistance
(Westminster John Knox, 2008)
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The Bible tells the stories of many empires. And many are still considered some of the largest of the ancient and classical world: the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and finally the Romans. In this provocative book, eight experts bring a critical analysis of these world empires in the background of the Old and New Testaments. As they explain, the Bible developed against the context of these empires, providing concrete meaning to the countercultural claims of Jews and Christians that their God was the true King, the real Emperor. Each chapter describes how to read the Bible as a reaction to empire and points to how to respond to the biblical message to resist imperial powers in every age.

Kessler, Rainer Linda M. Maloney (trans)
Social History of Ancient Israel: An Introduction
(Augsburg Fortress, 2008)
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Histories of ancient Israel have usually focused attention on major figures in powerful positions: kings, prophets, and patriarchs. Kessler asks about the larger social patterns that shaped the everyday life of ordinary people, from the emergence of Israel in the hills of Canaan, to the Jewish populations of Greek city-states in the Hellenistic age. The introductory section includes discussion of social history as discipline and as method, event history and the "long haul," the representation of social history, and the history of research. Two other sections explore the methods of the social history of Israel and the epochs of Israel's social history, including discussions of environment as living space, Israel's emergence as a kinship-based society, exile and its consequences, and more. Includes a time line, glossary of terms, maps and illustrations.

Lemche, Niels Peter
Old Testament between Theology and History: A Critical Survey
(Westminster John Knox, 2008)
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From its inception at the time of the Enlightenment until the mid-twentieth century, the historical-critical method constituted the dominant paradigm in Old Testament studies. In this magisterial overview, Niels Peter Lemche surveys the development of the historical-critical method and the way it changed the scholarly perception of the Old Testament. In part 1 he describes the rise and influence of historical-critical approaches, while in part 2 he traces their decline and fall. Then, in part 3, he discusses the identity of the authors of the Old Testament, based on the content of the literature they wrote, demonstrating that the collapse of history does not preclude critical study. Part 4 investigates the theological consequences of this collapse and surveys Old Testament and biblical theology in its various manifestations in the twentieth century. An appendix includes a history of Palestine from the Stone Age to modern times, constructed without recourse to the Old Testament.

Maier, Christl M
Daughter Zion, Mother Zion: Gender, Space, and the Sacred in Ancient Israel
(Augsburg Fortress, 2008)
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In this innovative and important work Christl M. Maier argues that the way Israelites in the exilic and post-exilic periods spoke of Jerusalem as gendered space ? a "female" city ? helps us trace reactions to the crisis of exile and the emergence of a new national-religious identity. Taking up the Zion tradition in Isaiah of Jerusalem, Jeremiah, Hosea, Ezekiel, and Lamentations, Maier explores motifs of Jerusalem as mother, daughter, bride, whore, and injured victim. Her interpretation of gendered metaphors also helps us understand contemporary political and religious constructions of gender and political power.

Martin, Dale B
Pedagogy of the Bible: An Analysis and Proposal
(Westminster John Knox, 2008)
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For generations, most seminary teaching of the Bible has focused on the historical-critical method. While this method has been the assumption in almost every seminary curriculum, the actual effects of this approach to Scripture have hardly been examined. From studying the biblical studies courses at ten different seminaries and divinity schools, Dale Martin learned what faculties were doing and what students were hearing. This book presents his discoveries, offering the best-ever inside look into the teaching of the Bible for ministry. Going beyond mere description, Martin argues for a new emphasis on interpreting Scripture within the context of church history and theology. Such a reading would be more theological, more integrated into the whole theological curriculum, and more theoretical (as it would focus on whats at stake in interpretation); however, Martin surprisingly argues, it would be more practical at the same time.

McCready, Wayne O
Common Judaism: Explorations in Second-Temple Judaism
(Augsburg Fortress, 2008)
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Two decades after the publication of E. P. Sanders's monumental Judaism: Practice and Belief inaugurated vigorous debates about the extent and significance of commonality and diversity in ancient Judaism, Common Judaism gathers a host of scholars to present the state of our understanding of what was common ground in Second-Temple Judaism. By examining the tensions between a "common Judaism" and local settings, partisan Judaism, and the influence of Hellenism, these essays set contemporary discussion on a secure footing. An important resource for scholars and students alike, the contributors include: Lee L. Levine, Susan Haber, Daniel Poxon, David Miller, Eliezer Segal, and many more. Including an introductory essay by E.P. Sanders, this should become a standard reference work in the fields of early Judaism and New Testament studies.

O'Brien, Julia M
Challenging Prophetic Metaphor: Theology and Ideology in the Prophets
(Westminster John Knox, 2008)
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The prophets of the Old Testament use a wide variety of metaphors to describe God and to portray how to understand people in relation to God. Some of these metaphors are familiar and soothing; others are unfamiliar and confusing. Still others portray God in ways that are difficult and uncomfortableGod as abusive husband, for instance, or as neglectful father. Julia OBrien searches the prophetic books for these metaphors, looking for ways that the different images intersect and build off each other. When confronted with disturbing metaphors, she deals with them unflinchingly, providing a sharp critique and evaluation of the interpretations of these metaphors for God. Giving particular attention to the possible uses of these metaphors in the church todayfor good or illOBrien listens to the fullness of the prophetic messages and points us toward new ways to read these theological metaphors for a just faith today.

Perdue, Leo G
Wisdom Literature: A Theological History
(Westminster John Knox, 2007)
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The Old Testament's wisdom literature offers one of the most intriguing collections of biblical books (Proverbs, Job, the Psalms about Torah and wisdom, Ecclesiastes, Qoheleth, Ben Sira, and the Wisdom of Solomon). In this magisterial textbook, preeminent wisdom scholar Leo G. Perdue sets each book of wisdom in its historical context, examining the conditions that produced the book and shaped its thinking. This allows him to show how wisdom thought changed over time in response to shifting historical and social conditions. Not only analyzing the historical setting of wisdom, Perdue discerns the theological themes and theological developments within this rich literature.

Sawyer, John F A
Concise Dictionary of the Bible and Its Reception
(Westminster John Knox, 2009)
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This dictionary not only identifies terms and biblical figures but examines them from the perspective of "reception history"-the history of the Bible's effect on its readers. Biblical books, passages, and characters certainly played important roles in the history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but they also influenced other religious traditions, preachers, writers, poets, artists, and filmmakers. The study of such cultural effects of the Bible is an emerging field, and this work promises to open new avenues of exploration.

Another Dove Sale: Used Books 50% Off

2009-03-08T00:38:00.001-05:00

The sale ends March 14. The available titles may be viewed by subject here.

No More Manuscripts?

2009-03-08T00:18:00.002-05:00

The astute folks at Evangelical Textual Criticism note that the original announcement of the discovery of several new New Testament manuscripts at the Benaki Museum has been removed. Hopefully we'll see some additional information in the next few days.

Reflections on Racism

2009-03-07T21:58:00.010-05:00

John Hobbins of Ancient Hebrew Poetry recently defined "a racist pig" as:

[S]omeone who, regardless of intentions involved, exploits culturally sanctioned beliefs to put down and denigrate someone who belongs to a minority.

Furthermore,

The worst kind of racist I know of: the one that says, because you don’t fit my stereotype of what an X is, I will compliment you by saying that you are not at all like what an X is. Rather, you are just like me, don’t you know.

I certainly agree that the majority of racist opinions and acts involve the marginalization and subjugation of members of smaller groups, but these are not the limits of racism. It's a truly multifaceted threat, rearing its ugly head whenever any individual embraces and/or perpetuates a negative stereotype against another. Also, while the type of latent, patronizing attitude John describes is undeniably hurtful and problematic, I'm not sure that it's emblematic of "the worst kind of racist." Members of this ignominious category use their biases as the basis for the infliction of more tangible persecution and pain upon others. I remember reading, as a shocked high school student, of the horrible murder of James Byrd, Jr. by three white supremacists in 1998. Those men, and others like them, are the worst kinds of racists.

The Text of the NT: 95% Reliable?

2009-03-06T02:25:00.013-05:00

While browsing the Accordance Forums, a perennially helpful and worthwhile series of discussion boards dedicated to the workings of Accordance Bible Software, I noticed an interesting post which included the following:

I am listening this afternoon to a debate between Dr. Bart Ehrman and Dr. James White from Jan 2009. Dr. White claims that even the most "extreme" traditions (such as the Westcott-Hort manuscript vs the Textus Receptus) agree in 95% of the variants, that we can be confident in 95% of the text of the New Testament. Dr. White said in his talk that "you can do a search with Bibleworks" that proves his point.

Similar comparative capabilities are available in Accordance, and within seconds (thanks to the extreme ease of the program's powerful interface) I was looking at a complete list of discrepancies between the editions mentioned above. Some were simply matters of punctuation or capitalization between the electronic texts, but many others were more substantive. However, I'm not particularly interested in an investigation of the accuracy of White's claims. Instead I was reminded of an article by Helmut Koester in which he argued that the most fluid period in the life of any text is the first century after its composition--and of course, we have virtually no New Testament manuscripts which belong to this category (the exceptions being a few fragmentary papyri). Matthew J. Bruccoli explores a modern illustration of this point in his collation of a number of variants in early printings of Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt, all of which appeared mere months after the novel's initial publication in September 1922:

It's certainly something worth thinking about...

The Joys (Read: Horrors) of Transcription

2009-03-04T23:32:00.008-05:00

This semester I'm taking a course on textual criticism and scholarly editing with Prof. David Vander Meulen, a member of UVA's acclaimed English department. It's been a great opportunity to spend some time outside my own discipline, and to study one of my particular passions (textual criticism) from a completely different perspective. This week Prof. Vander Meulen asked us to transcribe two brief selections from the notebooks of Robert Frost. These notebooks (some of which are archived here in Charlottesville) were recently edited by Robert Faggen and published by Harvard University Press, in an edition which has received sharp criticism due to the alleged presence of thousands of transcription errors. A thorough article on the controversy from last year's New York Times is available here.

Take a look at the images below and see what you think. I'm pretty sure that both Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus are more legible than this cramped scrawl! ;-)

Forthcoming from T & T Clark: New LNTS Titles

2009-03-04T16:25:00.007-05:00

A recent announcement on The T & T Clark Blog:

New Books for the LNTS Series

Customers in the UK please click here

Customers in the US please click here

Paul and Epictetus on Law, Structuring Early Christian Memory, A Former Jew and Reading Ephesians are four new titles which have just been put into production and will be available in Autumn 2009.

Niko Huttunen’s Paul and Epictetus on Law: A Comparison presents a fascinating discussion on differences and similarities in teaching of law that come from Paul and Epictetus. Can Epictetus’ teachings of law be compared with those of Paul? Should these be firmly categorized as Stoic (Epictetus) or Christian (Paul) or one may hope to find some correlations between these teachings? In this book Niko Huttunen tackles all these issues and offers new observations.

In Structuring Early Christian Memory: Jesus in Tradition, Performance Rafael Rodriguez embarks upon how social memory research has obscured the relationship between past and present in New Testament studies. This captivating debate focuses on the figure of Jesus, a ‘historical Jesus’, and Rodriguez formulates many interesting observations in his quest to find whether it is possible to clearly separate ‘authentic’ from ‘inauthentic’ traditions.

Love L. Sechrest’s volume titled A Former Jew: Paul and the Dialectics of Race is another new volume that concentrates on Paul, although this time focusing more upon the apostle’s Christianity. Sechrest describes Pauline Christianity as a nascent ancient racial group and bases her discussion on Jewish understanding of race in Second Temple Judaism.

Reading Ephesians: Exploring Social Entrepreneurship in the Text, by Minna Shkul, explores how Ephesians connects in social entrepreneurship, a process that has shaped the emergence of Christian Identity. Shkul’s intriguing discussion stands against the widely assumed theological presupposition that something was wrong with the Judaism practised at the time, but rather focuses upon the divine ‘legitimating’ of the Christian group and its culture.

These books will be available in October 2009 in the UK and in December 2009 in the US.

Bart Ehrman: The Most Successful Brand in Biblical Studies

2009-03-04T16:18:00.002-05:00

No sooner did his name grace this blog than he appears on NPR's Fresh Air to discuss his latest book. The complete interview, and a brief excerpt, are available here. Thanks to Jim West for making this available, and for informing me that he did a nice job so that I don't have to actually listen to it. ;-)

Pondering the Lukan Jesus

2009-03-04T02:25:00.005-05:00

Richard Anderson, who focuses primarily on the text and themes of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, describes the Lukan Jesus as the "Messiah of Peace":

At the birth of Jesus, the chorus of angels are singing peace and when Jesus makes his triumphal entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey the chorus is singing “Blessed is the king that cometh in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” This was a different kind of victory procession. A humble king riding on a donkey with an army carrying psalms is not a threat to Pax Romana.

Luke's preoccupation with peace is certainly a noteworthy observation, but the conjecture that "[a] humble king riding on a donkey with an army carrying psalms is not a threat to Pax Romana," with its implicit corollary that Roman provincial officials would have been willing or able to differentiate between the peaceful demonstrations of a jubilant crowd and the zealous declarations of a nationalistic mob, seems somewhat dubious. Josephus' account of the swift execution of the messianic pretender Theudas and many of his followers after their symbolic journey to the Jordan (Antiq. 20.97-28) suggests that almost any large gathering whose actions could be viewed in an incendiary or revolutionary context was subject to reprisal. Whether the triumphal entry was intended to be such a gathering is an open question, but it seems likely that the authorities would have viewed it as such--at least if it were as dramatic as the gospels suggest.

It might also be noted that the Lukan Jesus flatly denies that he comes bearing earthly peace on at least one occasion: "Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!" (δοκεῖτε ὅτι εἰρήνην παρεγενόμην δοῦναι ἐν τῇ γῇ; οὐχί, λέγω ὑμῖν, ἀλλ᾿ ἢ διαμερισμόν; Luke 12:51, the parallel of the Matthean Jesus' promise that "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword").

More Manuscripts!

2009-03-04T02:09:00.002-05:00

Parchment and Pen relates an announcement that a team led by Daniel Wallace has identified seven previously unknown New Testament manuscripts at the Benaki Museum in Greece. Hopefully additional details regarding the date, contents, and other features of these finds will be forthcoming.

White v. Ehrman

2009-03-02T23:33:00.006-05:00

Nick Norelli, diligent gatekeeper of the biblioblog world, directed me to this post in which James White virulently criticizes Bart Ehrman's Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don't Know About Them). Several statements were particularly striking to me:

[T]he real issue is, does this book finally signal the end of Ehrman's "I'm not a theologian, I'm just a high-brow scholar so I cannot be held accountable for all the theological pronouncements I make" excuse making? Will those in the "academy" finally see his real intentions, and start to recognize his bias?

I agree with Nick on this point, who rightly suggests (in the title of his post) that the unassuming academicians who blithely accept all of Ehrman's conclusions as objective gospel are a nonexistent category. Or, as Mike Aubrey stated in his comment on Nick's post, "I think the academy is quite well aware that there isn’t such thing as an unbiased scholar period." All of us--believers and nonbelievers, scholars, clergy, and congregants alike--possess inherent biases which affect each and every critical question we approach.

He [Ehrman] has moved far beyond the realm of his narrow expertise in his last three most popular books, all of which are designed to do one thing: destroy Christian faith.

While I haven't read Ehrman's latest book (his publishing prowess far outstrips my meager free time), I have read a large amount of his work, including text-critical monographs and articles not normally read by the general public. Sometimes I agree with him and sometimes I don't. But I admire the way in which he digests and analyzes the extant evidence, and I certainly don't think that his principal goal is to destroy the Christian faith. Personally, I suspect his chief aim is financial and popular success; as one of my undergraduate professors once observed, "A lot of scholars hate Ehrman, but it's mostly because he's making money hand over fist." This argument is supported by the fact that many of his books are strikingly similar to one another in both style and content, and are designed to appeal to a more popular market that will support higher sales and prestige. But this doesn't make them salvos against the Christian faith, merely alternative readings of the available evidence. Ehrman may occasionally play upon the emotions of his readers in order to make the New Tork Times bestseller list, but his critics are almost always guilty of the same crime.

I might note that the quote above would be just as applicable to the Islamic view of the fire as well. Just don't ask Bart about that. As he begins his rounds on NPR, do you think someone will ask him, "So, you are saying Allah in the Qur'an is a never-dying eternal divine Nazi?" Yeah, probably not.

This seems to be a deliberately provocative comment designed to inflame the passions of the reader rather than contribute to a sober, rational refutation of the ideas and contents of the book in question. Ehrman is not, has never been, and has never claimed to be an Islamic scholar. Any caution or outright refusal to apply his conclusions to a field of study in which he has no specialized knowledge should be viewed as academic restraint--an academic restraint which many scholars, commentators, and critics should practice more often.