Repost and update: Biblical Studies Carnival XXIV

(Update note 12 July 2009. This was originally posted in December 2007 on a previous blog as “A little unofficial Biblical Studies carnivalette”. When the official one failed to materialise, it was promoted to a place in the canon. I have left the text unaltered from the original. However, where a link is now dead, I have removed it, and used “strikethrough” to indicate the deadness of the link. I have updated those links I can. If any of those posts have been moved, let me know new locations in the comments, and I will restore the link.)

In the absence (so far) of a Biblical Studies Carnival this month (James Darlack sinned and Tyler Williams has not yet redeemed the situation – he may still be waiting for your submission) I thought I’d foolishly aim for a wider and longer round-up of some of the things that have struck me this last month, while we wait in joyful expectation. So take this as a kind of carnivalette to keep us going until the real one is manifested in its glory.

I’m going to largely steer clear of most of the many SBL related posts, most of which consist of people talking about who they bumped into, what they ate, and which books they bought. But there are three areas I will pick up on:

First up is an interesting post SBL discussion on presenting. Duane Smith argues for the presenting of papers, rather than the – oh, so tedious – reading of them. There is other advice and opinion on giving papers by Kevin Wilson, Chris Heard, Mark Goodacre and Judy Redman. As someone who regularly skipped lectures when I knew the lecturer was just reading the next chapter of their last book (I read the book instead), you can guess where I stand on this one.

Next come responses to the panel session on Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: the observations about James Crossley’s questioning seem to prove that eyewitnesses see what their interpretative lenses predispose them to see. James Crossley took exception to Mike Bird’s description of his thought-experiment. Not having been there, I raised some questions to which James responded (misspelling my name in the process). James also noted some rather odd responses at the session and on the blogs. Danny Zacharias also had some useful things to say, with which Crossley interacts. Jim West tries to argue that this means eyewitness testimony doesn’t exist (out-Bultmanning Bultmann) and Michael Halcomb picks him up on it.

(Having mentioned James Crossley, I should also note a rather sniffy and snotty review of his Why Christianity Happened. Jim West takes a bit more time off from his hagiolatrous postings on the arch-heretic Zwingli to comment sharply.)

A final note of the “wish I was there” sort comes from comments on the debate between Barclay and Wright on Paul’s anti-imperial stance. The provision of these talks online means others have joined in the discussion. I note the responses of Mark Goodacre and Nijay Gupta (who were there), and Loren Rosson (who wasn’t). Michael Pahl also has some interesting observations. (Oh, and see mine.) Mark observed: “I thought Tom Wright’s response was not one of his better performances. Indeed, I think it was the closest I have seen to his being quite flustered”. Perhaps he should go into the vestry at Durham Cathedral: my spies tell me that the Dean is one of the few people whose quips can render +Tom speechless.

A parenthetical look at some OT related stuff:

John Hobbins continues to post a range of interesting pedagogical material, like his series on the human anatomy in Hebrew in these three parts of increasing difficulty. He also has a sharply polemical introduction the the study of Wisdom literature that’s worth a look.

Several posts notes the publication of the New English Translation of the Septuagint . Kevin Edgecomb loved it. Iyov sounded off about how these Jewish books weren’t Jewish. (I responded to that one.) Suzanne comments on language and gender translation choices.

Tyler Williams has a really useful post on recent work on Chronicles. This is the kind of thing I would like to see more of. Perhaps someone should work at coordinating a series that does this type of post for every book of the Scriptures. There are, I think, enough knowledgeable bibliobloggers out there.

And a little Childs shall lead them … Phil Sumpter has been blogging his way through the canonical shape of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, and Deuteronomy. I find this quite helpful, provided it doesn’t become THE way to interpret, but one of many methods in counterplay and interaction.

Back to some other NT related stuff:

The earlier part of the month saw a flurry of Q-related posts. Mark Goodacre provides a nice summary, and I sneakily copy his list here.

• The Difference Makes Q (James McGrath)
• Does the Difference Make Q (Mark Goodacre)
• Spoiling Christmas vs Spoiling Q (James McGrath)
• Christmas Still Looks Good, Q Not so Much (Rick Sumner)
• Can Matthew Count to Fourteen? (Stephen Carlson)
• There’s no Q in Christmas (moi)

Some of those arguing for Q seem to me to make the odd axception. Also take a look at Mark’s series of posts on Mark-Q overlaps.

Various NPP debates rumble on, for some given new impetus by the publication (free PDF online) of John Piper’s pulpit blast against all the works of the Wrightian devil. Chris Tilling issues his own counterblast. There’s also a (related) interesting guest post on Mike Bird’s blog from Don Garlington.

Miscellaneous bits and pieces worth noting:

The Virtual Qumran project is preparing a desktop model (Brilliant!)

Congratulations at the start of the month to Duane Smith for being nominated for a best of the lesser blogs award (sounds a bit of back-handed compliment to me!).

I started a meme at the beginning of the month on selecting ten verses (and entered some caveats about the process). I would have liked to see this spread further, but the responses I know about are all interesting: John Hobbins (with a second half), Nick Norelli, Bob MacDonald (with a second go), Sam Norton, Stephen (aka Q) (with a second half) (NB Stephen has changed his blog address to www.blogos.ca for future updates), Tim Glass, James McGrath (with a second half). Well, that’s my brief note on what’s stayed with me from November. Now we must await the official and more wide-ranging version.

Tagged as: carnivals