Joshua Humor

HT: Kevin Larsen 

Free eBook: Politics, Conflicts, and Movements in First-Century Palestine

Wipf and Stock is offering a free eBook copy of Politics, Conflicts, and Movements in First-Century Palestine by Richard A. Horsley. Act quickly because I am not sure when the deal expires. Here are the instructions to get your copy.

1. Click on this link.
2. Click "ADD TO CART" on the eBook option.
3. Use the code "HORSLEY25"
4. Upon checkout completion, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions of how to download your free eBook.

The Latest Issue of the Review of Biblical Literature

The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews can be accessed by clicking the links below but unfortunately you must be a SBL member to read them.

Blessing Onoriode Boloje, Reading Micah in Nigeria: Ethics, Wealth, and Corruption (SBL Press)
Michael Ufok Udoekpo

Chance E. Bonar and Julia D. Lindenlaub, eds., Authorial Fictions and Attributions in the Ancient Mediterranean (Mohr Siebeck)
Sigurvin Lárus Jónsson

Erin Darby and Izaak J. de Hulster, eds., Iron Age Terracotta Figurines from the Southern Levant in Context (Brill)
Rachel Nabulsi

Matthijs den Dulk, Joshua Schwartz, Peter J. Tomson, and Joseph Verheyden, eds., Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries: Mapping the Second Century (Brill)
Paula Fredriksen

Bruce Henning, Matthew’s Non-Messianic Mapping of Messianic Texts: Evidences of a Broadly Eschatological Hermeneutic (Brill)
David Parris

Theodora Suk Fong Jim, Saviour Gods and Soteria in Ancient Greece (Oxford University Press)
Teresa Morgan

Jennifer M. Matheny, Judges 19–21 and Ruth: Canon as a Voice of Answerability (Brill)
Esther Brownsmith

David Stein, Beth Lieberman, and Hilary Lipka, eds., The JPS Tanakh: Gender-Sensitive Edition (Jewish Publication Society)
Susanne Scholz

Pastors and AI

Noah Senthil has a thoughtful post here related to four questions pastors should ask before using AI.

Archaic Hebrew Poetry in the Torah

Tania Notarius has an interesting discussion here regarding possible remnants of archaic Hebrew poetry in the Torah.

The Latest Issue of the Review of Biblical Literature

The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews can be accessed by clicking the links below but unfortunately you must be a SBL member to read them.

Michael Allen, Ephesians (Brazos)
William Horst

Michael Coogan, The Bible: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press)
Francisco de Assis Nogueira Barros

Walter Dietrich, Hauptfiguren und Kernthemen der Samuelbücher (Kohlhammer)
Mark W. Hamilton

Anthony Julius, Abraham: The First Jew (Yale University Press)
Stephen Spector

Thomas Kazen, Impurity and Purification in Early Judaism and the Jesus Tradition (SBL Press)
Hannah K. Harrington

A. G. Long, ed., Immortality in Ancient Philosophy (Cambridge University Press)
Ilaria L. E. Ramelli

Aaron Schart, Malachi (Kohlhammer)
Michael H. Floyd

Patrick Schreiner, The Transfiguration of Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Reading (Baker Academic)
Ruth Barasa

Acts and the Eyewitnesses

Steve Walton has made his slides from a recent talk available here. Walton notes, "I had the privilege of giving the 2025 Tyndale New Testament lecture on 30 June, on ‘Acts and the Eyewitnesses’—yes, the title is a deliberate imitation of Richard Bauckham’s justly well-known book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses . . . The lecture examines the book of Acts for what it has to say about eyewitness testimony, both to Jesus and the Gospels events, and to the events in the book of Acts itself."

Some Teaching Resources

As a Bible teacher, I am interested in resources that might help in my pulpit, class, or small group ministries. I have found that on some occasions a physical prop can be of value. Recently, I came across two such resources, one devoted to the Dead Sea Scrolls and other the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1–13.

These resources come from Zak's Jerusalem Gifts, a shop in the Old City of Jerusalem. I have known Zak for over twenty years and have been in and purchased from his shop many times. Here are the links for the Dead Sea Scrolls set and the Wise Virgins Parable set. Or you can check out the shop here for many other items.