Biblical Studies Carnival XLVIII

Welcome to the 48th Biblical Studies Carnival. It is, this time, very much a plain vanilla listing of posts – sprinkled with the occasional wry observation. I hope, in the next few days, to offer a bit of a reflection on whither the Carnival might go in future years. Two years to the month after the first (accidental) carnival I posted, it’s clear to me the job has grown like Topsy, with around 165 links this month (I probably lost count), which, let’s face it, is probably more than you will check out.

But for now, down to business, and the collection of links elected for your delectation and delight from the many blog posts of the last month. I note I have (unusually for me) a bit more Hebrew Bible material than New Testament. I don’t think I’ve been overcompensating: I think the NT bloggers have been having a lazier month. Most interesting, I think, is the way the range of non-text resources is getting more and more attention, and I’ve grouped a number of these into the first section. Enjoy.

Media Resources Old and New

Chris Heard posts links to what he calls his mini-lectures over on YouTube, this time on the Deuteronomic history. I wonder whether the boundary between vlogging and podcasting lectures is turning into a semantic nightmare. Oh, and some more videos here. Chris also has some name the body parts Hebrew flash cards – fear not, his model is fully clothed. He also has numbers. Chris’s site is becoming the go to place for Hebrew Bible multimedia links. Make sure he’s bookmarked if that’s your bag. Post SBL he has added videos on bibical poetry, and guides to typing Hebrew in OS X among other videos.

Karyn Traphagen has her own visual tools for learning Hebrew. John Hobbins offers his guide to what he calls the very best online resources for Biblical Hebrew.

Rick Brannan is among those noting the arrival of Logos 4 (well, he would be now that he’s released from NDA and developer hell). He also posts several demonstration videos he prepared earlier. Mark Hoffman welcomed the arrival on his Technological Tools blog, and added some Windows installation notes. The arrival of Logos 4 provoked a bit of a spat among bloggers who support rival platforms and software. At least one post has subsequently (I think mistakenly) been taken down by its author Rick Mansfield (see below in the SBL section)

Claude Mariottini notes a programme of videos from a conference about the moral character of God as portrayed in the texts of the Old Testament and freely available. John Anderson points us to a very helpful collection of lecture material from Baylor Truett seminary. Kevin Scull particularly recommends the Bruce Winter one.

Mark Goodacre continues to enlarge his NT Pod. Among other things he asks “Was Jesus a carpenter?” (Programme notes here). Deidre Good posts a link to a Dale Martin lecture course with video and audio. Kevin Scull comments in particular on one lecture. Mark Goodacre uncovers a John P Meier lecture via YouTube on Jesus’ Jewishness. Mark also keeps us up-to-date with the Nottingham bibledex videos noting ones on 1 Thessalonians and Ephesians. Celucien Joseph notes a video of a lecture by Amy-Jill Levine on re-assessing Jewish Christian relations. Nijay Gupta uncovers yet more online lectures.

Mark Hoffman draws our attnetion to the West Bank and East Jerusalem searchable map.

You might have noticed that this section is quite long. There are, however, quite a few professors and places for whom the idea of electronic resources is a bit suspect. Danny Zacharias has a good go at them for their technophobic obscurantism. One of the key markers for the way new media resources for biblical study have blossomed like myrtle and acacia in the post-exilic wilderness has been the evolution of the NT Gateway. Mark usefully chronicles the inside story in several parts: the abstract, then two, three, four, five and six. Danny was taken by this and did his own “Markan copycat” chronicling the devlopment of deinde in parts one, two, three and four.

I also note there are good listings of resources (lectures and iTunes content) especially but by no means exclusively with a conservative flavour on the Text Community & Mission blog

Archaeology

Claude Mariottini, Jim West and Duane Smith were among those noting and commenting on the discovery of a Minoan (that might need to be in quotation marks) fresco.

April DeConick is annoyed again with National Geographic, this time over the “Gabriel stone”. PaleoBabble follows up here and here.

Hebrew Bible / Old Testament

Back in the world of boring old paper resources, Deane Galbraith of the Dunedin School is excited by the arrival of The Concise Dictionary of Classical Hebrew. Doug Mangum is also looking forward to it.

This could belong elsewhere, but it’s the OT bit which seems to have got people’s attention as both new and superior. Kevin Edgecomb was among those who noted the arrival of the Zondervan Bible Background commentary. In a vastly overcrowded field this one actually has a USP.

Julia O’Brien took a look at how we find value in biblical Law. Daneil McClellan reports on a lecture by James Kugel looking at the role of angels.

Linguistics has a lot to teach any discipline that studies words quite as closely as biblical scholars do. Peter Bekins has an interesting post on the use of definite markers which is part of a series. See, for example, here and here.

This could belong in the resources section as well – Tyler Wiliams ponders the disturbingly violent portrayals of God in the Hebrew Bible (with links to videos of conference talks on the subject) and he followed this up with a relevant book review.

Daniel McClellan wants to be very clear that אלהים does not mean judges.

John Anderson reviews another writer’s ideas of deception in Genesis.

Chris Brady has some things to say about the Hebrew calendar.

Nathan McDonald wonders whether Genesis 1 is a polemic. Joseph Kelly responds. Scott Bailey uncovers just how 18-rated some creation myths can be.

John Hobbins posts on compositional technique in biblical poetry.

Bob MacDonald, having finished his translation of Job, continues to muse on the characters.

Jim Getz offers a satirical cartoon take on the Akedah which might just provoke some interpretative thought.

Deane Galbraith posts a summary of Juha Pakkala’s ten reasons for a (very) late date for Deuteronomy. I have no idea how plausible those arguments seem to experts who are not already convinced minimalists.

Duane Smith asks a question (which may or may not be abnormally interesting to Hebrew experts) about plurals and repetition.

James McGrath has been doing a seemingly interminable series on John Walton’s The Lost World of Genesis One, which he has finally terminated and lists the complete series here.

New Testament

Phillip Long kicked off the month with a reflection on reconciliation in 2 Corinthians.

Art Boulet takes a look at the way the death of Judas is portrayed, and some of Luke’s possible antecedents.

It’s always dificult to know whether to stick stuff on Q in a section with the gospels or with the apocryphal literature. (I haven’t got a section on imaginary books, else I’d know where to put it!) However, Mike Kok explores whether the existence of Q would mean greater diversity in the earliest churches. If you like watching cats chase their tails …

Oh, and another commentary series. Scot McKnight gives a positive notice of Mike Bird’s volume on Colossians and Philemon in the New Covenant Commentary series. Whether this series is sufficiently distinct – well, make your own minds up.

Kevin Scull, fresh from his labours on the previous carnival, lists his top five commentaries on Galatians. Stcking with Galatians and commentaries, Ben Myers posted an excerpt of his AAR paper on J Louis Martyn’s commentary.

Mike Bird draws attention to a CBQ article by A. Andrew Das which is looking for a middle ground on the NPP debate and previews the conclusion.

One of the big books of the year – in every sense, although we will have to see what its impact is over time, is Douglas Campbell’s The Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul. Andy Rowell has a set of blurbs, review links and comments. (And see below for SBL material)

Richard Fellows starts his new blog, and (in the sort of post I suspect we’ll be seeing much of) suggests Stephanas is to be identified as Gaius Titius Justus. Unsurprisngly I disagree. Even less surprisingly Richard mounts a further (dare I say robust but unpersuasive?) defence of his identification.

Gary Manning has (in a number of posts listed in backwards order here) his ETS paper on the (non-) identification of Jesus and Elijah.

Mike Bird, in relation to James McGrath’s book, makes some observations about NT christology – high or low. (Those terms are a little anachronistic, but what else is there?)

General Bible Stuff

Oh, did I mention commentary series? Rod Decker notes the promise of a new commentary series – the Evangelical Exegetical Commentary, for which he’s writing the volume on Mark. But don’t just stop at one, there’s also another which Scot McKnight and Mike Bird want to draw to your attention. If none of these are to your taste, I’m sure there’ll be another one along next month. I’m equally sure these will be very good but the third and fourth mention of another “new” commentary series this month has words such as “needs”, “like”, “hole” and “head” chasing themselves round my brain in ever decreasing circles. Joel Willitts (implicated in the latter of these two series) defends the idea of the mass proliferation of commentaries by reporting on a lecture by Tremper Longman. Karyn Traphagen also reports on the lecture.

Charles Halton had a sharp observation about biblical theology being treated as a soft substitute for historical study. (His actual point was on Hebrew Bible, but it has more general application.)

John Hobbins draws attention to the Lutheran Study Bible and some of the problems of confessional study texts.

Loren Rosson marks five years of biblioblogging with his list of the most thought provoking books of that period.

I note the general spat following some ill-considered comments by Ben Witherington about Sheffield. Jim Linville’s acerbic post has a good number of links as well as food for thought. In a not unrelated matter Dan Wallace bemoans the ways in which liberals fail to give conservatives a fair hearing – I don’t think he helps himself gain a fair hearing by defining a Christian scholar as one who believes in penal substitution and bodily resurrection.

Around the edges of the Canon.

And for the first item under this heading, possibly around the edges of scholarship, Mark Goodacre notes some discussion of Morton Smith and recalls an older documentary in which Secret Mark is discussed. Stephen Carlson sees what he thinks is a knowing smirk on Smith’s face (presumably holding that there’s no smirk without a liar). Judge for yourself whether he’s right.

Ken Schenk has started posting some material on his introductory course on intertestamental literature. His initial musings are here, and a sampler of intersections is here. The third part is cunningly numbered 2, but he’s back in sequence for the fourth. Then come parts five, six (which for some mysterious reason never showed up in my feed reader) and seven.

Rick Brannan has produced his own translation of the Didache with notes. Do take a look.

On a very different note, Mike Whitenton makes sure that November doesn’t lose sight or sound of a recording of an Oxyrhynchus hymn that got mentioned elsewhere at the tail end of October.

Mike Kok offers a short bibliography on the Epistle of Barnabas. (Incidentally, why are we still more likely to use the term epistle for non-canonical literature, but letter for the canonical?) He follows up with a short series in parts one, two and three.

Jim Davila posts news of the Enoch seminar.

Translating the Bible

Joel Hoffman started the month with an interesting take on how translation theory can skew translation. Mike Aubrey offered an example of problems in translating Greek perfects as English perfects.

The first sighting of the CEB came this month with the publication of a draft of Matthew’s gospel. Wayne Leman was first out of the blocks. Some of the initial comment can be found here, here, here and here. Generally people appear underwhelmed.

Charles Halton has an excellent open letter to the revisers (translators?) of the NIV 2011, or as I prefer to think of it, the N squared IV. Meanwhile, Rick Brannan illustrates his dislike of the NIV.

Mike Aubrey takes (yet another) look at the meaning and translation of κεφαλή.

Joel Hoffman’s eagle eye spots a very odd translation and footnote.

Miscellany

Various people noted the death of Claude Levi-Strauss. John Hobbins and Mark Goodacre were among them. It will be interesting to look back in 50 years time or so when we are all post-post-post structuralist or something and assess whether he made any lasting impact on the discipline.

Turning to living scholars, and indeed resurrected departments, Matt Evans has an interview with Sheffield’s James Crossley.

Want to know about sin? Joel Hoffman has a review of a book outlining its history.

Mid-month I pondered attitiudes to canon formation, and am still a bit baffled by some of the comments.

Jim Getz is delighted to list various posts on (but fortunately not in) Ugaritic.

Tommy Wasserman has a longish piece on “Archaic Mark” over on ETC.

Suzanne McCarthy reminded us of an older but excellent satire on the work of interpretation.

Almost finally, some SBL stuff.

Beforehand there were lots of posts about schedules and meals and various other things only of real interest to attendees, and afterwards lots of “guess who I’m standing next to” photos. Matthew Montonini noted that some actual papers from the Paul and Scripture seminar were online. Subsequently Sean Winter posted a page of links to all the online NT SBL material he could find. Michael Halcomb went one better and made a massive collection of the available material.

One of the bigger SBL stories was the review panel of Douglas Campbell’s The Deliverance of God. Michael Gorman posted some previews of his contribution in four parts, one, two, three and four, with a retrospective part five after the panel. Amomng other bloggers Chris Tilling was quick off the mark, and his very brief review of the session has a detailed comment thread with Campbell also joining in– but under his wife’s name – behaviour we may perhaps label practically pseudonymous marital entryism or PPME for short. (Sorry, bit of an in-joke there.) The session is recorded by Andy Rowell and you can listen to it for yourself, although as he admits it’s not the world’s highest quality audio.

Andy Rowell also has audio of another big session on Romans as Christian theology, otherwise under-reported. Rod Decker describes the session on Schnelle’s New Testament Theology. On the Hebrew Bible front Doug Mangum has a report of the session looking at Levinson’s Legal Revision and Religious Renewal in Ancient Israel. John Bergsma gives a brief note of a lecture by Eckart Otto.

Some people gave us their papers after the event. Among them Ben Witherington posted his paper on Matthew’s gospel and scribal wisdom, and Chris Brady put up his on reading the story of exile and restoration after Hurricane Katrina.

As always the text critical aspects of the conference get well covered. I suspect they will continue over several more posts, but so far the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog has two reports on Peter Head’s paper, and two other reports.

A different kind of session was a competetive software shootout, covered here by Rick Mansfield. Michael Heiser pronounced his beloved Logos the winner, and a row ensued. Rick Mansfield has subsequently taken down his feisty and fighting response. (I’ve re-read it, and can’t see why, apart from his first question which seems to be down to a confusion / mistake in the conference programme.) You can read another account on Deinde with a whole lot of further links. Pat McCullough also chimes in.

Also under the “a bit different” heading comes Jim Linville’s reproduction of Hector Avalos’ letter on a new SBL section for secular criticism of the Bible, based apparently on “a compromise of sorts” between those who are non-religious and those who are anti-religious in their approach to the Bible.

April DeConick has three posts here, here and here, which together with some others suggest a fairly fragmented and fragmentary experience. It’s interesting, but the same people all seem to be at different events while meeting up from time to time. Other posts worth reading include Chris Heard in media res, Jim West attempting to convey a thesis on Mt Gerizim by taking photos of the presenter’s slides, Mike Kok on sessions on Mark and Paul, and last, but by no means least, James McGrath’s top secret report is a very enjoyable romp through the whole thing.

And now for something completely different …

You know those sections of the Oscars and so on where they tear up at the long procession of names who have died in the last year – some of whom you have actually heard of. Well, I wonder if we should note, less as a tombstone and more as a summons to resurrection, those whose blogs seem to be pining for the fjords. There seems to be every possibility that Judy’s Research Blog is nailed to its perch.

Finally

Yes, really finally, a big thank you to all those who sent in suggested posts for this carnival, especially those who also pointed to good things other people had said. Time for bed!

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