New: More Titles from SBL Publications

More new releases from the SBL:


The Early Monarchy in Israel: The Tenth Century B.C.E.

Walter Dietrich and Joachim Vette

The Hebrew narrative art achieves its highest level in the stories of Saul, David, and Solomon. But beyond that, the description of these all-too-human characters and the dramatic events of the birth of the Israelite state depicts a change of eras that became determinative for half a millennium of Israelite history. In this volume Dietrich introduces readers to the stories of the early Israelite state from a variety of perspectives: literary-critical, historical, and theological. After tracing how biblical and extrabiblical texts describe the period, Dietrich skillfully untangles the knotty questions related to the history of the period and perceptively examines the development of this literary corpus as well as the other biblical material that came to be associated with it. In a concluding chapter Dietrich revisits the stories of Saul, David, and Solomon to explore what they teach about theological issues of enduring significance, what they teach about God, humanity, the state, the use of force, and the relationship between women and men.

Paper $47.95 — ISBN 9781589832633— 380 pages, 2007 — Biblical Encyclopedia — Hardback edition www.brill.nl


Philostorgius: Church History

Philip R. Amidon, translator

Philostorgius (born 368 B.C.E.) was a member of the Eunomian sect of Christianity, a nonconformist faction deeply opposed to the form of Christianity adopted by the Roman government as the official religion of its empire. He wrote his twelve-book Church History, the critical edition of the surviving remnants of which is presented here in English translation, at the beginning of the fifth century as a revisionist history of the church and the empire in the fourth and early-fifth centuries. Sometimes contradicting and often supplementing what is found in other histories of the period, Christian or otherwise, it offers a rare dissenting picture of the Christian world of the time.

Paper $34.95 — ISBN 9781589832152 — 312 pages — Writings from the Greco-Roman World 23 — Hardback edition www.brill.nl


John, Jesus, and History, Volume 1: Critical Appraisals of Critical Views

Paul N. Anderson, Felix Just, and Tom Thatcher, editors

Over the last two centuries, many scholars have considered the Gospel of John off-limits for all quests for the historical Jesus. That stance, however, creates a new set of problems that need to be addressed thoughtfully. The essays in this book, reflecting the ongoing deliberations of an international group of Johannine and Jesus scholars, critically assess two primary assumptions of the prevalent view: the dehistoricization of John and the de-Johannification of Jesus. The approaches taken here are diverse, including cognitive-critical developments of Johannine memory, distinctive characteristics of the Johannine witness, new historicism, Johannine-Synoptic relations, and fresh analyses of Johannine traditional development. In addition to offering state-of-the-art reviews of Johannine studies and Jesus studies, this volume draws together an emerging consensus that sees the Gospel of John as an autonomous tradition with its own perspective, in dialogue with other traditions. Through this challenging of critical and traditional assumptions alike, new approaches to John’s age-old riddles emerge, and the ground is cleared for new and creative ways forward.

Paper $37.95 — ISBN 9781589832930— 356 pages — Symposium Series 44 — Hardback edition www.brill.nl


The Lord's Supper in the New Testament

Albert Eichhorn with an introductory essay by Hugo Gressmann
Translated by Jeffrey F. Cayzer

This work, the inaugural volume in a new SBL series devoted to preserving and promoting seminal biblical scholarship from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, offers the first English translation of Albert Eichhorn’s influential Das Abendmahl im Neuen Testament. Eichhorn’s penetrating analysis of the Lord’s Supper traditions in this work exemplifies the qualities for which he was so highly esteemed: the sure ability to distinguish layers of tradition within the text, the full appreciation of the role of early Christian worship in shaping the reports about Jesus’ life, the forthright acknowledgement of the difficulty of ascertaining the original historical events, and the unflinching recognition of the influence of Near Eastern and Hellenistic religions upon Christian tradition, even in its earliest stages. To set Eichhorn himself in his historical and intellectual context, this volume also offers the first English translation of Hugo Gressmann’s biographical essay: “Albert Eichhorn and the History of Religion School.”

Paper $14.95 — ISBN 9781589832749 — 112 pages — History of Biblical Studies 1 — Hardback edition www.brill.nl


Daughter Zion Talks Back to the Prophets: A Dialogic Theology of the Book of Lamentations

Carleen R. Mandolfo

Daughter Zion Talks Back to the Prophets offers a new theological reading of the book of Lamentations by putting the female voice of chapters 1–2 into dialogue with the divine voice of prophetic texts in which God represents the people Israel as his wife and indicts them/her for being unfaithful to him. In Lam 1–2 we hear the “wife” talk back, and from her words we get an entirely different picture of the conflict showcased through this marriage metaphor. Mandolfo thus presents a feminist challenge to biblical hegemony and patriarchy and reconstrues biblical authority to contribute to the theological concerns of a postcolonial world.

Paper $24.95 — ISBN 9781589832473 — 160 pages — Semeia Studies — Hardback edition www.brill.nl

The Bible and Critical Theory

The latest edition of The Bible and Critical Theory (Vol.3, No. 3) has been released. Non-subscribers who wish to gain access to these and other articles (and reviews) may subscribe here.

What is The Bible and Critical Theory?
Roland Boer, Julie Kelso

The transgression of Maacah in 2 Chronicles 15:16: A simple case of
idolatry or the threatening poesis of maternal ‘speech’?
Julie Kelso

Textually violating Dinah: Literary readings, colonizing
interpretations, and the pleasure of the text
Todd Penner, Lilian Cates

The poet is always in exile: Poetry and mourning in Psalm 137
Rose Lucas

One in Christ who lives within: Dispersive universality and the
pneuma-somatics of identity
Derek Woodard-Lehman

The actuality of Karl Kautsky: On materialist reconstructions of ancient
Israel and early Christianity
Roland Boer

Che Vuoi? : Politico-philosophical remarks on Leo Strauss’ Spinoza
Matthew Sharpe

Accordance 7.4

Accordance Bible Software (my bible software of choice) has released another update to their excellent product. Version 7.4 may be downloaded here. There aren't a lot of exciting new features, but the development team is promising to add some in the near future... maybe before SBL next month? Maybe?

Sean Freyne: Still Circling the Northeast

Thanks to Deidre Good for this announcement:

Thursday, November 8
The Center for the Study of James the Brother at Bard College presents a lecture by renowned biblical scholar Sean Freyne entitled “Retrieving James/Yakov, the Brother of the Lord: From Legend to History” Free and open to the public.
4:00 p.m.
Weis Cinema, Bertelsmann Campus Center

For those unable to attend the lecture at the College, it is available via a live webcast, followed by a question-and-answer session with Freyne at www.bard.edu/jamescenter.

Although Annandale-on-Hudson is more than two hours from New Haven, I'm thinking about making the trip, as James the brother of Jesus is one of my principle areas of interest. Plus, when Prof. Freyne was here last week he was kind enough to ask for a copy of my own paper on James, which I presented at last year's SBL Annual Meeting. I'm sure he was so moved by my breathtaking scholarship that he'll cite me at length. ;-)

New: Titles from SBL Publications

New releases from the SBL:



The Quest for the Historical Israel: Debating Archaeology and the History of Early Israel

Israel Finkelstein and Amihai Mazar
Edited by Brian B. Schmidt

Three decades of dialogue, discussion, and debate within the interrelated disciplines of Syro-Palestinian archaeology, ancient Israelite history, and Hebrew Bible over the question of the relevance of the biblical account for reconstructing early Israel’s history have created the need for a balanced articulation of the issues and their prospective resolutions. This book brings together for the first time and under one cover, a currently emerging “centrist” paradigm as articulated by two leading figures in the fields of early Israelite archaeology and history. Although Finkelstein and Mazar advocate distinct views of early Israel’s history, they nevertheless share the position that the material cultural data, the biblical traditions, and the ancient Near Eastern written sources are all significantly relevant to the historical quest for Iron Age Israel. The results of their research are featured in accessible, parallel syntheses of the historical reconstruction of early Israel that facilitate comparison and contrast of their respective interpretations. The historical essays presented here are based on invited lectures delivered in October of 2005 at the Sixth Biennial Colloquium of the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism in Detroit, Michigan.

Paper $24.95 — ISBN 9781589832770 — 232 pages — Archaeology and Biblical Studies 17 — Hardback edition www.brill.nl



Seeking the Favor of God, Volume 2: The Development of Penitential Prayer in Second Temple Judaism

Mark J. Boda, Daniel K. Falk, and Rodney A. Werline, editors

The essays collected in this volume investigate the development of prayers of penitence within Jewish literature of the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The book provides a critical overview of the present state of research on these prayers, and leading experts in the field use a variety of methodologies to investigate afresh various texts from the Hebrew Bible, apocryphal (deuterocanonical) and pseudepigraphical works, and the Qumran corpus in order to provide new insights into this prayer tradition. Contributors include Russell C. D. Arnold, Esther G. Chazon, Daniel K. Falk, LeAnn Snow Flesher, Michael H. Floyd, Judith H. Newman, Bilhah Nitzan, Eileen Schuller, Pieter M. Venter, and Rodney A. Werline.

Paper $39.95 — ISBN 9781589832787 — 300 pages — Early Judaism and Its Literature 22 — Hardback edition www.brill.nl




The "We" Passages in the Acts of the Apostles: The Narrator as Narrative Character

William Sanger Campbell

This book explores the narrative significance of the “we” passages in Acts within the boundaries of acceptable ancient grammatical practice. It contends that the occasional first-person plural narrator represents a character whose entrance at crucial moments in Paul’s career parallels the role of Barnabas, the apostle’s earlier companion. Although consistent with the grammatical practice of ancient writers, the use of the “we” style in Acts nonetheless represents a variation of those conventions because the author of Acts wrote anonymously and never claimed personal participation in the events narrated. In analyzing the function of the narrator as narrative character, the book presents narrative literary strategy as a fruitful approach to these enigmatic texts whose narrative possibilities have in the past been subordinated to their historical potential.

Paper $19.95 — ISBN 9781589832053— 164 pages — Studies in Biblical Literature 14 — Hardback edition www.brill.nl




Studia Philonica Annual XIX, 2007

David T. Runia and Gregory E. Sterling, editors

The Studia Philonica Annual is a scholarly journal devoted to furthering the study of Hellenistic Judaism, and in particular the writings and thought of the Hellenistic-Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria (circa 15 B.C.E. to circa 50 C.E.).

Cloth $39.95 — ISBN: 9781589832954 — 260 pages

Peter in the Gospel of John: The Making of an Authentic Disciple

Bradford B. Blaine Jr.

In this narrative-critical study Bradford B. Blaine Jr. argues, against conventional scholarship, that John’s Gospel presents Peter and the Beloved Disciple not as competitors but as colleagues who together serve as composite halves of the ideal Johannine Christian, with Peter representing praxis and John representing faith. Not only does Peter carry out activities fundamental to Johannine discipleship during Jesus’ earthly ministry, which include believing in Jesus, following him, and publicly confessing him, but he also demonstrates post-Easter missionary skills and is invested by the risen Jesus with pastoral responsibilities. Finally, in dying a martyr’s death, Peter glorifies God. Peter, in fact, is depicted in this Gospel as an inspirational founding member of the Johannine community.

Paper $29.95 — ISBN 9781589832725— 240 pages — Academia Biblica 27 — Hardback edition www.brill.nl

BAR Highlights: 10/24/07

More recent archaeological news from Biblical Archaeology Review:

Head of IAA Slammed for Temple Mount Work
A committee of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has accused Israel Antiquities Authority director Shuka Dorfman of bypassing government regulations when he allowed Muslims authorities to dig a 500-yard-long trench on the Temple Mount without taking due care that ancient remains not be damaged. Related stories can be found at http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3462904,00.html and http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124012.

First Temple Era Finds Identified
Archaeologists have for the first time examined an undisturbed layer dating to the First Temple period. Among the items recovered are ceramic tableware and animal bone. A report from the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs provides additional photos.

Cyrene Goes Green
The ancient Libyan site hopes to attract tourists by becoming an environment-friendly location.

Diamond Anniversary
Scholars convene in Canada to mark the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Wall of Fame
French excavators have uncovered an 11,000-year-old wall painting northeast of Aleppo, Syria. Though it is the oldest such work known, some liken it to the work of modernist painter Paul Klee.

SBL Program Book... Plus, an Added Bonus!

I received my AAR/SBL program book today. There are a number of can't-miss panels and section meetings... and of course I'll have to find some time to hit the exhibit hall! ;-) In addition, I discovered an advertisement for a new (and completely free!) Greek resource:

Greek Bible Study

Mark Goodacre posted a brief endorsement of his own today. I played with it for a few minutes this evening, and my initial impressions are also very positive. The KJV and NASB versions may be viewed in parallel with Tischendorf's edition of the Greek New Testament. The Greek vocabulary is color-coded according to parsing. After logging into the site, the user may save his/her translations and textual notes for later use. There is even a "Graduated Reader" feature, which displays certain portions of the Greek text once the user indicates that he/she has completed the corresponding sections in William Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek.

If you're a veteran Greek student looking for some additional practice, or a neophyte looking to engage in independent study for the first time, this is the resource for you!

New: Victoria Clark on Christian Zionism

A recent release from the hometown team (Yale University Press):



Allies for Armageddon
The Rise of Christian Zionism

Victoria Clark

REVIEWS

Guided by a literal reading of the prophetic sections of the Bible, Christian Zionists are convinced that the world is hurtling toward a final Battle of Armageddon. They believe that war in the Middle East is God’s will for the region. In this timely book, Victoria Clark first explores the 400-year history of this powerful political ideology, laying to rest the idea that Christian Zionism is a passing craze or the province of a lunatic fringe. Then Clark surveys the contemporary Christian Zionist scene in Israel and in the United States, where the influence of the religious fundamentalists has never been greater.

Clark engages with Christian Zionism directly, interviewing leaders, attending events, and traveling with Christian Zionists in the Holy Land. She also investigates the Christian Zionist presence in Israel. She finds that the view through the Christian Zionist lens is dangerously simple: President Bush’s War on Terror is a mythic battle between good and evil, and Syria and Iran represent the powers of darkness. Such views are far from rare—an estimated fifteen to twenty million Americans share them. Almost one in three Americans believes Israel was given to the Jews by God as a prelude to the Battle of Armageddon and Jesus’ Second Coming. Clark concludes with an assessment of Christian Zionists’ impact on American foreign policy in the Middle East and on America’s relationships with European allies since the attacks of 9/11.

Victoria Clark, a freelance journalist and writer, contributes to the Daily Telegraph, the Independent, Prospect magazine, and The Tablet. She formerly was correspondent and Moscow bureau chief for the Observer (London). The most recent of her three books on religious history is Holy Fire: The Battle for Christ’s Tomb. She lives in London.

October Markdowns from Dove!

Another welcome announcement from Dove Booksellers!

Limited Markdown Books for October 2007

Now Through October 31, 2007
Order 5 limited markdown books, get the 5th book at no charge!
Order 10, pay for 8, get 2 at no charge
(for every 5, one will be at no charge)

We've spent the last few week adding titles to our limited selection, including many that we have never offered before, as well as restocking some items that had sold out. There are some gems that will go quickly to the earliest shoppers!

Display Limited Quantity Markdowns

The link above takes you to the list of markdown item
which you display according to your interest area, publisher, etc.

Many titles available from:
E. J. Brill
Society of Biblical Literature
Wm. B. Eerdmans
Augsburg Fortress
Sheffield Academic Press
Yale University Press
Oxford University Press
T & T Clark International

.... and many other university and academic publishers.

Jewish Martyrdom with Tessa Rajak

Sadly, I won't be able to attend this one (I have an interview with Carney-Sandoe that afternoon). But it looks good:

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24 @ 12 PM | Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St., Room 208

Judaic Studies Seminar:

"The Meaning of Martyrdom: Kiddush Ha-Shem from the Maccabean Literature to Akiva"

Martyrdom and/or Resistance: The Jewish Revolts

Tessa Rajak, Seminar Chair
Horace W. Goldsmith Visiting Professor of Judaic Studies, Classics and History, Yale University

Hosted by the Program in Judaic Studies and the Whitney Humanities Center. Lunch provided. Please contact ivan.marcus@yale.edu for more information.

The Ossuary of James... Bleh

James Tabor notes that he is still receiving questions regarding the ossuary which purportedly bears an ancient inscription reading "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." In a noble attempt to clear the considerably muddied waters, he provides links to Joseph Fitzmyer's essay on the subject, as well as the report of a "Conference on Forgery" which met in Jerusalem in January 2007.

I'm sure that this matter is incredibly compelling to some, but not to me. The bitter debates between Hershel Shanks (editor of Biblical Archaeology Review) and the Israel Antiquities Authority--which often seemed to be driven by personal interests rather than objective scholarship--became especially wearisome. Moreover, I'm not entirely convinced of the stakes accompanying the controversy. The book which Shanks co-wrote with Ben Witherington shortly after the discovery proclaims that the ossuary is "the first archaeological link to Jesus and his family." But if I may be blunt, so what? Only the most radical or the most naive scholars would deny Jesus' existence, given the relatively large amount of extant testimony from both Christian and non-Christian sources. Even if it is authentic, the ossuary can make only four firm contributions to the historical record:

1) Both Jesus and James actually lived.
2) Jesus and James were brothers.
3) At some point, James died and was buried.
4) The early Christian community (to which James and those who buried him belonged) retained some Jewish practices.

Again, none of these facts--with the possible exception of the second, which is still occasionally challenged by Roman Catholic scholars--were seriously disputed prior to the recent discovery. So while I'm excited by the potentiality of a tangible link to Jesus of Nazareth, I'm not sure how much it adds to our understanding of Jesus and his world.

Goodman on Rome and Jerusalem

I found this in my e-mail inbox this morning:

The Program in Judaic Studies, the Department of History, and Yale Divinity School present
Martin Goodman,
University of Oxford
Rome and Jerusalem: A Comparison of Lifestyles
Thursday, October 25, 2007
4:00 P.M.
211 Hall of Graduate Studies
320 York Street
Free and Open to the Public
Sponsored by the Barbara & Morris Levinson Fund of the Program in Judaic Studies

As those ridiculous commercials for monster truck rallies at the fairgrounds used to say, "Be there! If you're at work... get off! If you're in jail, break out!" ;-)

Memorial Service for Letty Russell

YDS has announced that a memorial service for Letty Russell (who passed away July 12) will be held in Marquand Chapel on October 23 at 5:30. Thanks to Yale ITS, the service will also be broadcast online.

Prof. Russell's full obituary may be viewed here. She was truly an inspiration to generations of scholars, students, and practitioners of Christianity.

Blogger of the Month: Philip Harland

The title says it all. Check out his interview with Brandon Wason here, and his blog (an excellent point of entry into the world of the New Testament) here.

BAR Highlights: 10/17/07

More recent archaeological news from Biblical Archaeology Review:

Stone Age Artists
Five-to-eight-thousand-year-old rock carvings in western Egypt were made by shepherds, according to Polish investigators.

Temple Mount Bridge Approved
After much controversy, Jerusalem city officials have agreed on a plan to replace a damaged walkway to the Mount; the design, which still awaits final approval from the Interior Ministry, calls for a much smaller structure than previously proposed.

Tomb Threat?
Protesters in Iran claim that a new dam will cause indirect damage to the tomb of Cyrus the Great.

That’s Fine in Practice but Will It Hold Up in Theory?
A Harvard researcher has found that the ancients were capable of building complex machines long before they understood the mathematics behind them.

Waiting for the Big One
A Tel Aviv University seismologist says historical records of earthquakes in the past indicate that the area on the Dead Sea Fault, including Jerusalem and Amman, Jordan, is overdue for a major tremor.

How the Pyramids Were Built
A Czech researcher has made a specialty of studying the tools used by the ancient Egyptians.

RBL Highlights: 10/17/07

A few highlights from this week's Review of Biblical Literature:

William Arnal
The Symbolic Jesus: Historical Scholarship, Judaism and the Construction of Contemporary Identity
Reviewed by Milton Moreland

Richard Cassidy
Four Times Peter: Portrayals of Peter in the Four Gospels and at Philippi
Reviewed by Timothy Wiarda

James H. Charlesworth, editor
Jesus and Archaeology
Reviewed by Jonathan Reed

J. Maxwell Miller and John H. Hayes
A History of Ancient Israel and Judah
Reviewed by Kenton Sparks

Jürgen Zangenberg and Michael Labahn, editors
Christians as a Religious Minority in a Multicultural City: Modes of Interaction and Identity Formation in Early Imperial Rome
Reviewed by Jonathan Reed

Jesus and His Siblings

Although my "Sibling Rivalries" course is primarily concerned with the occurrences of this phenomenon in the Hebrew Bible, I always have to be unique (read: difficult)... and so my term paper will analyze narrative and exegetical perspectives on the relationship between Jesus of Nazareth and his siblings. An abstract and an initial bibliography are available here. If anyone has any brilliant insights or additions, send them my way. If anyone doesn't like this topic, keep it to yourself. ;-)

And, providentially, Tony Chartrand-Burke has just posted his own missive on the family of Jesus, which he is currently covering in his "New Testament Apocrypha" course. Check it out.

Sean Freyne's Coming to Town!

If you're anywhere near New Haven on Friday afternoon, be sure not to miss this:

Sean Freyne
Emeritus Professor of Theology at Trinity College, Dublin and Visiting Professor of New Testament at Harvard Divinity School
"Josephan Perspectives on the Galilean Social World: Some Reconsiderations"
Friday, October 19, Yale Divinity School
The lecture, free and open to the public, will begin at 12.15 p.m. in Latourette Hall.

Freyne has conducted significant research on the Synoptic Gospels, most recently in the context of ancient biography and its social roles. He has contributed numerous articles and papers on the current 'third wave' of historical Jesus studies. Freyne's publication Jesus: A Jewish Galilean (2004) gathers together many of his ideas on both Jesus and Galilee developed over the years.

See you on Friday!

New in the Princeton Theological Monographs Series

A couple recent announcements from Wipf & Stock Publishers:

New from Pickwick Publications
An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers



The Sacred Text
Biblical Authority in Nineteenth-Century America
by Ronald F. Satta

“Ronald Satta provides a careful and lucid defense of a position I had thought to be mistaken until his research persuaded me otherwise.”
—Edward Wierenga, University of Rochester

Ronald F. Satta is Senior Pastor of Webster Bible Church and an associate faculty member in American history at SUNY Brockport.



• Read Complete Description and Endorsements
• Read Excerpts (includes Table of Contents)
• Request Review or Exam Copy

ISBN 13: 978-1-55635-298-0 / 132 pp / $16 Retail / Paper



Geoffrey Fisher
Archbishop of Canterbury, 1945–1961
by David Hein

“Hein’s work skillfully blends biography and theological analysis with political, cultural, and social history.”
—David L. Holmes, College of William and Mary

David Hein is Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Hood College and coauthor of The Episcopalians.



• Read Complete Description and Endorsements
• Read Excerpts (includes Table of Contents)
• Request Review or Exam Copy

ISBN 13: 978-1-59752-824-5 / 140 pp / $17 Retail / Paper

BAR Highlights: 10/11/07

Even more recent archaeological news from Biblical Archaeology Review:

Etruscan City Found
Italian archaeologists have uncovered the remains of Fanum Voltumnae, an important Etruscan political center and shrine.

City on the Hill
The Jerusalem Post profiles Sepphoris, the city in Galilee to which Rabbi Judah moved the Sanhedrin.

Lot’s to See
A new museum in Jordan, located near the traditional spot where Lot and his daughters fled after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, is set to open shortly.

Research al Frescoe
Polish scientists are shooting beams of protons on ancient Egyptian plaster in order to understand what went into the dyes used in Egyptian wall paintings.

A Delicate Find
Excavators have found a temple built by Ramesses II (perhaps the pharaoh of the Exodus) inside a mosque in Luxor and now must negotiate with Muslim religious leaders over what to do about the human and animal representations they’ve uncovered. Such portrayals are not allowed inside mosques.

A Visit to Ramat Rahel
A profile of the site south of Jerusalem highlights recent finds, including another proto-Ionic (also called proto-Aeolic) capital—the twelfth found there (another was recovered in the City of David).

BAR Highlights: 10/5/07

More recent archaeological news from Biblical Archaeology Review. This week's offering includes a link to Eric Cline's article on archaeology in the Boston Globe, which a number of bloggers have already mentioned.

Was Tut Black?
Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s antiquities department, has responded to critics who want to recognize King Tut as Black. "Egyptians are not Arabs and are not Africans despite the fact that Egypt is in Africa," he says.

Fighting the Nonsense
Archaeologist Eric Cline says it’s time he and his colleagues started challenging crackpot theories and amateur enthusiasts.

Tuty Fruity
When Howard Carter discovered King Tut’s tomb in 1922, he apparently missed some things: Investigators have recovered preserved baskets of fruit and intact pots from a treasure room next to the Boy King’s mummy.

A Guide to Apollonia
The Jerusalem Post profiles this scenic site, with a history ranging from the Phoenicians to the Crusaders.

Nighttime Fishing
Excavators off the coastal city of Dor have recovered a wire basket used for fishing at night. A fire in the basket attracted and illuminated fish.

Anchor Bible Hums New Tune: Boolah, Boolah
The distinguished Bible commentary and reference series has been acquired by Yale University Press.

Back to the Fortress
Iranian and French excavators are returning for a second season of digging at a fortress that served as the spring capital of Parthian kings.

OUP Fall Sale 2007

Tis the season for book sales... Oxford University Press' Fall Sale is now underway. The complete list of religion offerings may be viewed here. It looks like there are some pretty good bargains to be had, including...

*The Oxford Bible Commentary (regular price: $75.00 sale price: $40.00)

* The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought (regular price: $75.00 sale price: $33.00)

*The Encyclopedia of Christianity (regular price: $125.00 sale price: $65.00)

*The Jewish Study Bible (regular price: $45.00 sale price: $24.75)

... so many books, so little money!

"Essential Guides" Sale at Eisenbrauns

For the next ten days, Eisenbrauns is offering all of the titles in Abingdon's "Essential Guides" series at a 40% discount. This is an opportunity to snatch up some excellent introductory texts at low, low prices. The complete list of available titles may be viewed here, but highlights include...

"The Apostolic Fathers: An Essential Guide"
by Clayton N. Jefford
Abingdon, 2005. Paper. English.
ISBN: 068734204X
List Price: $15.00 Your Price: $9.00

"Christian Ethics: An Essential Guide"
by Robin W. Lovin
Abingdon, 2000. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9780687054626
List Price: $15.00 Your Price: $9.00

"Church History: An Essential Guide"
by Justo L. Gonzalez
Abingdon, 1996. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9780687016112
List Price: $15.00 Your Price: $9.00

"Feminism and Christianity: An Essential Guide"
by Lynn Japinga
Abingdon, 1999. Paper. English.
ISBN: 9780687077601
List Price: $15.00 Your Price: $9.00

"Rabbinic Literature: An Essential Guide"
by Jacob Neusner
Abingdon, 2005. Paper. English.
ISBN: 0687351936
List Price: $16.00 Your Price: $9.60

"The Roman Empire and the New Testament: An Essential Guide"
by Warren Carter
Abingdon, 2006. Paper. English.
ISBN: 0687343941
List Price: $16.00 Your Price: $9.60

"Worship in Ancient Israel: An Essential Guide"
by Walter Brueggemann
Abingdon, 2005. Paper. English.
ISBN: 0687343364
List Price: $14.00 Your Price: $8.40

Is Your Relationship with God Monogamous?

Another insightful article from The Onion. ;-)

I'm In An Open Relationship With The Lord

With Jesus as my personal Savior, I felt like I had it all. But then we hit a rough patch, and before long, I was beginning to question both my...

A Priest and a Rabbi...

Prof. Joel Kaminsky (currently a visiting profssor at YDS; normally seen gracing the halls of Smith College, Northampton, MA) has quickly established himself as one of the funniest scholars I've ever encountered. Now, I know that "funny" and "scholar" are not normally used in the same sentence (at least, not in a positive way), but check out this joke, which appeared during our most recent "Sibling Rivalries" class. Not only was it funny, but it also had something to do with what we were talking about at the time! (Now that Yale's reading week--and a brief vacation in Louisville--is nearly upon us, I should have time to report on the course's academic side, in addition to its humorous one.)
-------

A Roman Catholic priest and a rabbi sit down together in a bar and begin discussing their respective vocations. The rabbi asks the priest about his opportunities for advancement within the church hierarchy. The priest replies that although he currently serves a single small parish, he could someday become the archbishop of a major metropolitan area. "Is that it?" asks the rabbi. The priest hesitates for a moment, and responds that while the chances are much more remote, he might one day be chosen to serve as a cardinal. Once again the rabbi asks, "Is that it?" The priest (who is probably becoming a little annoyed at this point) replies that he is at least eligible to be elected to the papacy, and thus become the head of the entire church and God's leading representative on earth. But much to his surprise, the rabbi asks yet again, "Is that it?" The priest sarcastically exclaims, "What? Do you think that I can actually become God?"

To which the rabbi responds, "Why not? One of our boys did it."

More Exciting Markdowns From Dove!

Dove Booksellers has compiled another fine list of monthly markdowns, including works published by Brill, T & T Clark, and Eerdmans. Although I normally select a few choice items for your viewing (and potentially buying) pleasure, I will refrain for the moment (because I've been folding laundry and I'm tired), and simply allow you to peruse the list for yourselves:

Dove Markdowns: October 2007

Happy Hunting!

New Edition: The Shadow of the Galilean

A recent announcement from Augsburg Fortress Publishers:



The Shadow of the Galilean:
The Quest of the Historical Jesus in Narrative Form

A contemporary classic, The Shadow of the Galilean is an acclaimed and popular work of historical fiction about Jesus. Written by one of this generation's great New Testament scholars, Gerd Theissen, the work vividly captures the tensions and turmoil of Jesus' time, as well as the enormous attraction and unpredictability of the figure of Jesus as he affects his Jewish environment under Roman sway.

First published in 1987 by Fortress Press, this 20th anniversary edition includes careful documentation in the footnotes showing that much of the narrative is based on ancient resources and also includes a new Afterword from the author.

"An achievement in 'narrative theology', illuminating the social world of Jesus from rich sources and imaginative reconstructions. Theissen's book combines scholarship and story. The author supplements his fictional creations with letters to a professional colleague, Dr. Kratzinger, illuminating methodology. The book should be a boon to preachers of the Gospels."
—John Reumann, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Philadelphia

Gerd Theissen is Professor of New Testament at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

Order your copy today!

Luke the Historian? Or the Storyteller?

On The Forbidden Gospels Blog, April DeConick asks a very important question: Is Luke a trustworthy historian? Or, to put it differently, "Why is Acts written off today as a Lukan myth with little or no historical value? Why do scholars who wish to argue for the historicity of elements of Acts have to go through an inordinate amount of justification before doing so?" She presents a number of arguments for an increased appreciation of Luke as a historian, including the contention that Luke does not redact Mark (or Q, for that matter) as much as his Matthean counterpart, as well as Luke's own admission that he relied upon earlier sources as the basis for his own gospel (Luke 1:1-3). I'm not a Q scholar, and therefore am not qualified to evaluate his use of this source (although Mark Goodacre, who is an expert in this field, has raised a number of interesting points in his own response). Furthermore, I'm certainly willing to grant that Luke probably had access to written and/or oral sources during the composition of Acts. I find it likely that there are at least some vestiges of authentic first-century Christianity in this work.

But it seems to me that a number of pericopes in Luke-Acts show signs of subtle yet unmistakable redaction. First among these is the Lukan account of Jesus' return to Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30), which has been dramatically expanded (to include Jesus' participation in the local synagogue, his public self-identification as the fulfillment of prophecy, and the Nazarenes' unsuccessful attempt on his life) and placed at the inception of his ministry. It cannot be a coincidence that the basic narrative elements of this meticulously crafted episode--Jesus' status as an unabashed prophetic messiah, his initial confession of said status among his own countrymen, their ignorant and futile response, and his subsequent departure to carry his message elsewhere--represent a microcosm of Luke's vision of the rise and spread of the Christian movement which is revealed in the following chapters. There may well be a kernel of history here, but it is difficult to crack.

Luke's description of the "Jerusalem Conference" (Acts 15) is another provocative example, as most scholars assume that the events at the heart of this description are identical to those mentioned by Paul in Galatians (Gal. 2:1-10). If this is indeed the case, then the critically sensitive reader is faced with a number of perplexing problems. Paul declares that he attended the meeting only in response to a (presumably divine) revelation; Luke states that Paul and Barnabas were appointed to attend by the Antiochene church. Paul identifies himself as the one "entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised" (2:7); Luke includes a speech in which Peter identifies himself as "the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the good news and become believers" (Acts 15:7). Paul hints that the ultimate decision to allow Gentiles to "convert" to Christianity without adopting Jewish practices was a joint one; Luke grants the last word to James the brother of Jesus, who abruptly brings the debate to a close by intoning, "I have reached the decision that we should not trouble those Gentiles who are turning to God, but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood" (15:19-20; italics added). One need not assume that one of these depictions is true and the other false; personally, I find it much more likely that both writers were adapting the historical framework to serve their larger apologetic needs. Given the fact that ancient historiography cannot and should not be measured according to the modern obsession with "objective history," no negative stigma should accompany the conjecture that Luke, or Paul, or any other early Christian writer did not faithfully represent the actual historical record. It simply serves as a reminder to the reader not to blithely accept the text at face value.

It must be noted that the above examples are only a minute sampling of the traditions found in Luke-Acts, and certainly do not invalidate DeConick's basic thesis that there is some authentic historical material to be had in these works. But even if she is correct and we are in danger of "throwing the baby out with the bath water," it's still time to take the baby out of the bath. We just have to be careful while doing it. ;-)

New From Sheffield Phoenix

Recent publication announcements from Sheffield Phoenix Press (via their North American distributor, the SBL):



Incarnate Word, Inscribed Flesh: John's Prologue and the Postmodern

Ela Nutu

In this ground-breaking study, Nutu offers an unremittingly postmodern scrutiny of the Logos as the incarnate word that becomes visible as it is inscribed in human flesh.
Bible in the Modern World, 6
ISBN: 978-1-905048-25-0 € Cloth $85.00 € August 2007
If you are within North America, click here. If you are outside of North America, click here.



In Other Words: Essays on Social Science Methods and the New Testament in Honor of Jerome H. Neyrey

Edited by Anselm C. Hagedorn, Zeba A. Crook, Eric Stewart

In this Festschrift to Jerome H. Neyrey, the contributors (David Aune, Zeba Crook, Craig deVos, John H. Elliott, Philip Esler, Bruce Malina and John Pilch, Halvor Moxnes, Douglas Oakman, Carolyn Osiek, Eric Stewart, Gerd Theissen) notably advance the cause of social-scientific New Testament study.
The Social World of Biblical Antiquity, Second Series, 1
ISBN: 978-1-905048-39-7 € Cloth $95.00 € August 2007
If you are within North America, click here. If you are outside of North America, click here.



The Birth of Moses and the Buddha: A Paradigm for the Comparative Study of Religions

Vanessa R. Sasson

Responding to a recent upsurge of Jewish interest in Buddhism, Sasson undertakes the first serious academic effort to uncover the common ground between the founders of the two religions, Moses and the Buddha.
Hebrew Bible Monographs, 9
ISBN: 1-905048-38-6 € Cloth $85.00 € September 2007
If you are within North America, click here. If you are outside of North America, click here.



Text and Community: Essays in Memory of Bruce M. Metzger (vol. 1)

Edited by J. Harold Ellens

The first of two wide-ranging and often innovative volumes created in Metzger's honor, subtitled Interpretation of the Text for the Community, falls into two parts: The Nature of the Bible: Manuscripts, Texts, and Translation (e.g. an ancient papyrus biblical fragment, biblical exegesis in the third world), and Understanding the Bible: Hermeneutics (e.g. biblical interpretation in Paul in its cultural context).
New Testament Monographs, 19
ISBN: 1-906055-15-7 € Cloth $85.00 € September 2007
If you are within North America, click here. If you are outside of North America, click here.



Text and Community: Essays in Memory of Bruce M. Metzger (vol. 2)

Edited by J. Harold Ellens

The second volume, on Implementation of the Text in the Community, has as its two parts, The Church and the Bible: Pulpit and Parish (e.g. pastoral care and the Bible) and The Academy, Science, Culture, Society, and the Bible (e.g. psychological method and the historical Jesus, Jungian and Freudian perspectives on gender in the Gospel of John).
New Testament Monographs, 20
ISBN: 978-1-906055-00-0 € Cloth $85.00 € September 2007
If you are within North America, click here. If you are outside of North America, click here.

New Seals and Inscriptions, Hebrew, Idumean, and Cuneiform

Edited by Meir Lubetski

This collection of fifteen papers is a significant addition to our textual evidence for the world of the Bible: it presents over fifty inscriptions, tablets and seals from the collections of Shlomo Moussaieff, in Hebrew, Idumean, and cuneiform. Most of these texts are being published here for the first time.
Hebrew Bible Monographs, 8
ISBN: 1-905048-35-1 € Cloth $95.00 € September 2007
If you are within North America, click here. If you are outside of North America, click here.

BAR Highlights: 9/26/07

More recent archaeological news from Biblical Archaeology Review:

“Devil’s Bible” Returns to Prague
A medieval Bible copied by a monk and, according to legend, the Devil is on view in Prague thanks to a loan from Sweden. The manuscript was captured by Swedish troops in 1648, during the Thirty Years’ War.

Jordan Contributes to Temple Mount
The Hashemite Kingdom has announced it will contribute $1.5 million to reconstruction and preservation work for the Al Aqsa Mosque and other structures on the Mount.

Second Temple Quarry Found
Northwest of ancient Jerusalem, archaeologists have discovered the quarry they believe provided the huge stones used by King Herod’s builders when they expanded the Temple Mount. For additional photos, see http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/popup?id=3642720.

Egypt in the Negev
An Egyptian administrative building from the Late Bronze Age has been uncovered in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip. The excavators also revealed the remains of a seventh-century B.C. Philistine village.

Sale of Statuette Expected to Fetch Millions
The Guennol Lioness, a 5,000-year-old Mesopotamian statue, has been at the Brooklyn Museum of Art since 1948 but will be auctioned in December; proceeds will go to a charitable foundation.

Underwater Survey Yields Results
A project to map ancient shipwrecks has found a 2,400-year-old Greek vessel off the coast of Albania.

YUP Acquires Anchor Bible Series: Part Deux

Just hours after I published my own happy reflections on Yale University Press' purchase of the Anchor Bible series, Charles Halton had the audacity to give a brief list of reasons "Why Anchor Yale Bible is Bad for Biblical Studies and the General Public"! Seriously... how dare he! ;-) His list (supplemented by a few initial comments of my own) is given below:

As a division of Random House, Doubleday had the biggest mass-market exposure of any publisher of biblical studies related books. Now that Yale owns the series, this exposure will probably dramatically decrease.
As a former employee of a major bookstore (I worked for Borders Books & Music for five years, the last year as an inventory manager), I don't think that Doubleday could have ever claimed "the biggest mass-market exposure of any publisher of biblical studies related books." That title probably belongs to HarperCollins, which not only boasts a large imprint dedicated entirely to religious and spiritual titles (HarperOne, formerly HarperSanFrancisco), but also has published some religious titles under its regular label. And as I stated in my first post on this subject (see below), what good are size and resources if they're not being utilized on behalf of your product? It's also important to note that many large bookstores now include titles from academic publishers in their regular backlists. Both of the Borders stores where I worked (in Louisville, KY) carried titles by Jaroslav Pelikan... titles published by YUP.

Anchor Yale Bible is a really bad name: its long, uncreative, and cumbersome–I guess the new acronym is going to be AYB which looks more like a fraternity than an academic series.
Well, I can't argue with this one. Frankly, I wish they would have simply retained the "Anchor Bible" name... or changed it to "Yale Bible" (which sounds nice, but would discard the name recognition of the original series). I guess if you make a deal like this, you should get to put your name on the marquee. ;-)

Yale has a much smaller pocketbook than Doubleday which might limit projects.
The smaller pocketbook is undeniable--but see my response to Halton's first point (and also my post below). I think it's safe to say that Anchor will be more important for the continued success of YUP than it was for that of Doubleday... and hopefully the product will reflect this fact.

Because of the prominence and wide reach of Anchor Bible (even popping up on Barnes and Noble shelves) the thoughtful reach of the field of biblical studies as a whole will shrink.
I certainly haven't shopped in every major bookstore in the country, but I've been in a large number of them, and I've never seen an Anchor Bible commentary on any of their shelves. (I have occasionally seen Anchor Bible Reference Library titles, such as John Meier's A Marginal Jew series and Raymond Brown's two-volume The Death of the Messiah, in both Borders and Barnes & Noble.) But again, if these bookstores already carry backlist from academic publishers, there's no reason why they would stop now... or why they wouldn't begin to carry additional titles, if YUP markets them aggressively and effectively.

YUP Acquires Anchor Bible Series

The ever-vigilant Jim West notes that Yale University Press and Anchor Doubleday have reached an agreement to transfer control of the acclaimed Anchor Bible series (consisting of the Anchor Bible commentary series, the Anchor Bible Reference Library, and the six-volume Anchor Bible Dictionary) from the latter to the former. Based on my experience in the bookstore world, I think that this could be a very positive development--both for YUP and for readers everywhere. YUP takes over a popular, well-established series that greatly enhances their presence in the biblical studies market; also, as a smaller academic publisher, they may be better equipped to give the series the attention it deserves. Over the past several years, many of the key commentaries (e.g., those of Raymond Brown and Joseph Fitzmyer) have quietly gone out of print, with no immediate plans to republish. Doubleday lamely attempted to fill the gap by providing print-on-demand paperback editions of some older titles, but these were expensive and shoddily made. My copy of Joseph Fitzmyer's The Gospel According to Luke, I-IX (which we used in a Greek exegesis course with Prof. Adela Collins last semester) fell apart after just a few weeks. Hopefully YUP will reprint most, if not all, of these titles in the sturdy hardcover editions they--and we--deserve!

While I'm indulging in wishful thinking, it would be nice for YUP to borrow a few features from Hermeneia (Anchor Bible's major competitor in the scholarly commentary market), such as the use of actual Hebrew and Greek fonts rather than transliteration, and a larger layout. But I probably shouldn't get too greedy too fast. ;-)

The Context of Crucifixion

On The Jesus Dynasty blog, James Tabor has posted a nice summary of the Jewish historian Josephus' references to crucifixion. Although crucifixion is naturally a focal point of Christian history, theology, and worship, many believers are largely unaware of the broader history and context of the practice. These passages from Josephus (and also Martin Hengel's brief summary of crucifixion) help to fill that gap.

On a supplemental note, it is interesting that one of the passages listed by Tabor (Antiquities 18.65, 78-80) includes one of the very few (if not the only) recorded crucifixions of a woman: the freedwoman Ide, who devised the twisted plot by which Mundus seduced the virtuous Paulina.

Fun with Hebrews

Although this is only the third week of the fall semester, all of my classes are already well underway, and are engaging in some rich discussion. Hopefully I'll have more time to blog about these topics in future weeks; between classes, work at the bookstore, PhD applications, and GRE study, I've been wondering when I'll have time to eat, let alone blog!

However, I will take a few brief moments to mention an issue which arose during Greek Exegesis of Hebrews, which meets every Monday afternoon under the eminently learned supervision of Prof. Harry Attridge. We were translating and discussing Hebrews 2, and when it came time for v. 9, one of my classmates read aloud and translated the final clause (as printed in the Nestle-Aland critical edition):

ὅπως χάριτι θεοῦ ὑπὲρ παντὸς γεύσηται θανάτου
("so that, by the grace of God, he might taste death on everyone's behalf")

The translation given above is my own, but it isn't substantially different from standard translations such as the NRSV, or from the on-the-spot translation provided by my classmate. But Prof. Attridge noted that a few manuscript witnesses (0243, and the original hand of the important minuscule 1739) as well as a few patristic witnesses (Origen, Ambrose, Jerome, and Fulgentius) replace χάριτι θεοῦ with χωρις θεου, which would dramatically alter the translation and sense of the clause:

ὅπως χωρις θεου ὑπὲρ παντὸς γεύσηται θανάτου
("so that, apart from God, he might taste death on everyone's behalf")

The witness of Origen (who died c. 254 CE) is particularly interesting, as he is just a few decades removed from Hebrews' earliest manuscript witness (P46, normally dated to c. 200 CE). Furthermore, this would certainly fall within the category of the "more difficult reading," which often guides text critics in their attempts to determine which reading is more original, and which has been altered by later scribes. Bruce Metzger, however, has argued that χωρις θεου was either a simple scribal mistake (χάριτι and χωρις are somewhat similar in appearance), or originally arose as a marginal note indicating that the πάντα ("everything") mentioned in v. 8 did not include God, and then was mistakenly integrated into the text. Hmm... pretty interesting stuff... and we've got a long way to go!

RBL Highlights: 9/20/07

A few highlights from this week's Review of Biblical Literature. A few other bloggers (including Mark Goodacre and Stephen Carlson) have noted the large review Of Peter Jeffery's The Secret Gospel of Mark Unveiled. I share Goodacre's gratification that the RBL is expanding to include more extended, detailed articles, but I won't be able to slog through 47 single-spaced pages until Christmas break. ;-)
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ESSAY REVIEW (47 pages)
Peter Jeffery
The Secret Gospel of Mark Unveiled: Imagined Rituals of Sex, Death, and Madness in a Biblical Forgery
Reviewed by Scott G. Brown

Martin Goodman
Judaism in the Roman World: Collected Essays
Reviewed by Judith M. Lieu

Isaac Kalimi and Peter J. Haas, eds.
Biblical Interpretation in Judaism and Christianity
Reviewed by Craig A. Evans

Michelle V. Lee
Paul, the Stoics, and the Body of Christ
Reviewed by Richard A. Wright

Alastair H. B. Logan
The Gnostics: Identifying an Early Christian Cult
Reviewed by Jon Ma. Asgeirsson

BAR Highlights: 9/20/07

More recent archaeological news from Biblical Archaeological Review:

A Second Flood?
A planned dam in Turkey will destroy an ancient Mesopotamian city.

Egypt Pines for Nefertiti
The country is miffed that its request for a 3-month loan of the famed statue of the ancient queen has been rebuffed by Germany. More international tensions may be in the offing: Egypt may soon seek to borrow the Rosetta Stone from England.

Artifacts for Rent?
A Harvard economist thinks there’s a way to cut down on the traffic in illegal antiquities: Let countries or institutions with the means rent artifacts from poorer countries that cannot afford to excavate or protect them.

Tracking the Phoenicians’ DNA
A researcher has been finding the genetic footprint of the ancient seafaring people along the trade routes they used—and has also stumbled into a very modern debate over identity.

X-Ray Vision
A new type of X-ray machine, touted as being far more powerful than its predecessors, will be used to peer into and decipher Dead Sea Scroll fragments that are too fragile to be unrolled.

Sprechen Sie Cuneiform?
A Web-based program translates English words into cuneiform or hieroglyphics.

Trying to Put a Stop to It
Prominent Israeli archaeologists and other leading figures have asked their country’s High Court of Justice to prevent further digging atop Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Blogger of the Month: Alan Bandy

As a number of other bloggers have noted, Alan Bandy (of Cafe Apocalypsis fame) is the current Biblioblogger of the Month. Check out his chat with Jim West here.

Caiaphas' Twin... Jabba the Hutt?

On the Bible Films Blog, Matt Page has posted a fascinating comparison between the characters of Caiaphas the high priest (as he is depicted in Mel Gibson's controversial film The Passion of the Christ) and... you guessed it... nefarious warlord Jabba the Hutt (of the Star Wars hexateuch fame)! Don't laugh just let... Page makes some provocative observations, such as the ways in which both Gibson and George Lucas subtly manipulate light and shadow in order to emphasize the natures and purposes of certain characters. However, my absolute favorite was this visual comparison of the guards stationed in the villains' respective palaces:



Check out the entire post... it's well worth a look!

SBL Bound!

I registered for the AAR/SBL Annual Meeting this morning. As much as I enjoyed presenting a paper last year, it will be nice to simply sit back and absorb the plethora of exhibits, panels, and presentations this time around. (I did make it to a few interesting panels last year, but I was a little preoccupied with my own impending doom!) I'm particularly excited about seeing some of my own professors in action; e.g., Adela Collins (see the brief post below). Of course, I'll also be busy seeking out scholars with whom I may be studying in the near future, as well as religious publishers and other professional folks in case I decide that I'm tired of school. So many possibilities, so little time... I may be coming down with a case of graduate senioritis!

Special Delivery! Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses

When I got to the bookstore today, I discovered a package from Eerdmans containing, among other things, my special order copy of Richard Bauckham's incendiary Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. As many of you are surely aware, this book has generated a tremendous amount of online and offline chatter in just a few short months. That fact alone would normally be enough to pique my interest, but I've also discovered that Prof. Adela Collins (one of my favorite professors at Yale) is presenting her own review of the book as part of a panel at the upcoming SBL meeting. I'm planning to start reading tonight... it's a good thing that I don't have class tomorrow. ;-)

Additions to the Online Critical Pseudepigrapha

A welcome announcement from the SBL. However, I should note that despite the announcement's assertion that the OCP interface is now fully compatible with Safari, the included hyperlinks didn't work on my Mac. Fortunately, Firefox worked like a charm!
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The Online Critical Pseudepigrapha is pleased to announce two new publications plus an important site enhancement.

2 Baruch (Edition 2.0)
edited by Daniel M. Gurtner with David M. Miller and Ian W. Scott

All of the primary evidence for the Apocalypse of Baruch (2 Baruch) is now included in this new edition prepared by Daniel M. Gurtner. The only complete text of 2 Baruch is preserved in one Syriac manuscript (7a1). Chapters 1–77 of this manuscript, comprising the full text of the Apocalypse, are transcribed here in their entirety as they appear in the edition of Dedering. Dedering’s edition also records a large number of conjectural emendations as well as manuscript variants found in three Jacobite lectionaries. These have been included in the OCP’s interactive critical apparatus. Also included in this edition is the surviving Greek evidence for 2 Baruch found in manuscript P.Oxy. 403 and the single Latin excerpt found in Cyprian, Test. 3.29.

Visions of Amram (Edition 1.0)
edited by Robert Duke

The Visions of Amram is a previously unknown work included among the Dead Sea Scrolls and preserved in five Aramaic copies (4Q543–547). The version presented here, compiled by Robert Duke, is the first eclectic text of the Visions of Amram. This edition was produced directly from photographic images of the fragments, and in a few cases this results in different readings from those of Émile Puech’s DJD edition. The “chapter” and “verse” numbers are new to this edition. Each “chapter” represents a distinct narrative episode in the document, and Duke suggests that these episodes appeared in the original document in the order they are presented here. Note that these numbers do not correspond to the fragment, column, and line numbers by which Armam has previously been referenced. A critical apparatus of all the variants evident in the five manuscripts is being prepared, and this will allow readers to view each fragment separately.

Mac-Friendly Reader Interface
Mac users will be glad to hear that documents in the Online Critical Pseudepigrapha are now presented in an upgraded reader interface that is fully compatible with the Safari web browser as well as with Internet Explorer and Firefox.

BAR Highlights: 9/12/07

More recent archaeological news from Biblical Archaeology Review:

In or Out?
Excavations in Syria are turning theories about the origins of cities upside down—or inside out. Rather than beginning with a central core and growing outward, cities may have started as scattered villages that linked and grew inward.

Ancient Vandalism
Restoration work on reliefs belonging to Bowdoin College in Maine shows that a depiction of the Assyrian ruler Ashurnasirpal II was defaced in ancient times by his enemy, the Medes.

Escape Route
Archaeologists Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron have discovered an underground drainage channel that was used by many of Jerusalem’s residents to flee the Roman destruction of the city in 70 A.D. Artifacts found in the channel can be seen at http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070909/ ids_photos_wl/r2682897765.jpg.

Iron Age Chef
The team excavating Tell es-Safi (Biblical Gath) is finding that the Philistine way of cooking was copied by neighboring Israelites and Canaanites. The Philistines were especially fond of crock pots.

What to Do? Consult a Liver
Archaeologists at Hazor have discovered a tablet that contains instructions on how to foretell the future by studying animal livers (note: the article states the tablet was written in hieroglyphics, but it meant to say cuneiform).

Hezekiah Inscription to Return to Israel
The famed inscription, which was carved into the wall of Hezekiah’s Tunnel in Jerusalem and which celebrates the city’s survival of an Assyrian siege, will be on view in Israel for at least several months and possibly longer. It has been in Turkey since the late 19th century, when Palestine was a part of the Ottoman Empire.

Land of Milk and ...
Excavators at Tel Rehov, in the Beth-Shean Valley, have uncovered 30 intact beehives and an inscribed jar that may refer to the father or grandfather of the Biblical king Jehu.

Eisenbrauns Catalogs

James Spinti announces that two new catalogs are now available online from Eisenbrauns (print versions should be out within the next few weeks). Here are the respective links:

Scholars' Source Catalog

Ancient Near Eastern Resources Catalog

Exploring the Social Tumult Behind the Reformation Movement

A recent announcement from Augsburg Fortress Publishers:



Perhaps no period in Christian history experienced such vast religious tumult and rapid social change as the European Reformation, when it quickly became apparent that social and political issues—finding deep resonance with the common people—were deeply entwined with religious ones raised by the Reformers.

For historians, clergy, college, university, seminary students, and general readers who want to learn more about this period in time Fortress Press is happy to announce the release of Reformation Christianity, Volume 5 in the A People's History of Christianity Series.

"These stories may come up from the basement of church history, but news about their existence deserves to be shouted from the housetops....This new series turns history upside down..."
—Martin E. Marty, University of Chicago Divinity School

Led by eminent Reformation historian Peter Matheson, ten distinguished social historians trace the myriad and profound ways in which Europe's several Reformations played out in the lives of common folk: in their personal spirituality and corporate worship, catechesis and discipline, sexuality and gender roles, mores surrounding marriage, birth, and baptism, aging and death, relations with Jews and Muslims, lay theologies, as well as the utopian and even revolutionary ventures they spawned.

Visit the companion Web site, www.peopleshistoryofchristianity.com, to learn more about the series including testimonials, tables of contents, research paper guides, and more.

RBL Highlights: 9/10/07

A few highlights from this week's Review of Biblical Literature:

Peter H. Davids
The Letters of 2 Peter and Jude
Reviewed by James P. Sweeney
Reviewed by Daniel B. Wallace

Craig A. Evans
Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels
Reviewed by Stephen J. Patterson

Jonathan D. Lawrence
Washing in Water: Trajectories of Ritual Bathing in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Literature
Reviewed by James W. Watts

More Used NT Titles From Dove

A few of the most recent New Testament offerings from Dove Booksellers' Used Book Department. There's a lot of good stuff this week...

Allison Jr, Dale C
THE END OF THE AGES HAS COME: AN EARLY INTERPRETATION OF THE PASSION AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS
(Augsburg Fortress, 1985)
Condition: VG Hardcover $16.00
Comments: DJ

Bailey, James L; L D Vander Broek
LITERARY FORMS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT: A HANDBOOK
(Westminster John Knox, 1992)
Condition: VG Paperback $12.00

Barr, James
SEMANTICS OF BIBLICAL LANGUAGE
(Oxford University Press, 1961)
Condition: GC Hardcover $30.00
Comments: Pencilled UL through p 20

Black, David Alan
RETHINKING NEW TESTAMENT TEXTUAL CRITICISM
(Baker Book House, 2002)
Condition: NF Paperback $12.00

Charles, R H
APOCRYPHA AND PSEUDEPIGRAPHA OF THE OLD TESTAMENT (2 VOLS)
(Oxford University Press, 1963)
Condition: VG Hardcover $160.00
Comments: Bookplate; handstamp, annotation on rear pastedown of Vol 2

Charlesworth, James H
OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAPHA (2 VOLS)
(Doubleday, 1983)
Condition: VG Hardcover $58.00
Comments: DJs

Cross Jr, Frank Moore
QUMRAN AND THE HISTORY OF THE BIBLICAL TEXT
(Harvard University Press, 1975)
Condition: GC Paperback $12.00

Davies, W D
PAUL AND RABBINIC JUDAISM: SOME RABBINIC ELEMENTS IN PAULINE THEOLOGY
(SPCK, 1962)
Condition: VG Hardcover $22.00

Dodd, C H
INTERPRETATION OF THE FOURTH GOSPEL
(Cambridge University Press, 1960)
Condition: VG Hardcover $25.00
Comments: DJ

Hartin, Patrick J
JAMES AND THE Q SAYINGS OF JESUS
(Sheffield Academic Press, 1991)
Condition: VG Hardcover $55.00
Comments: R

Kenyon, Sir Frederic G
OUR BIBLE AND THE ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS
(Eyre-Spottiswoode, 1939)
Condition: VG Hardcover $24.00

Martin, Dale
SLAVERY AS SALVATION: THE METAPHOR OF SLAVERY IN PAULINE CHRISTIANITY
(Yale University Press, 1990)
Condition: VG Hardcover $20.00
Comments: DJ

Moore, George Foote
JUDAISM IN THE FIRST CENTURIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA (3 VOLS)
(Harvard University Press, 1962)
Condition: VG Hardcover $60.00
Comments: DJs

Robinson, James M; Helmut Koester
TRAJECTORIES THROUGH EARLY CHRISTIANITY
(Fortress, 1971)
Condition: GC Hardcover $20.00
Comments: Minor pencilled UL; DJ (worn)

Sanders, E P
JESUS, THE GOSPELS AND THE CHURCH: ESSAYS IN HONOR OF WILLIAM R FARMER
(Mercer University Press, 1987)
Condition: VG Hardcover $32.00