May 16, 2009

Hess on the Altar at Mt. Ebal


See this a post referring to Richard Hess' article in the
Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary.

Here is something that I wrote on the issue a few years ago:

Adam Zertal has suggested that an early Iron Age installation located on Mount Ebal is actually an altar.[1] The main structure is approximately nine by seven meters and preserved to a height of 3.27 meters. The structure was filled with a stratum of fieldstones, earth, ashes, pottery, and animal bones. Zertal finds support for his identification in the Mishnah’s description of the second temple altar. Furthermore, Zertal suggests that this installation is the altar described in Joshua 8:30-35. But some have not been persuaded by Zertal’s identification and suggest that the structure is not an altar but a watchtower.[2]

[1] Adam Zertal, “Has Joshua's Altar Been Found on Mt. Ebal?,” Biblical Archaeology Review 11, no. 1 (1985): 26–43.
[2] Aharon Kempinski, “Joshua’s Altar-An Iron Age I Watchtower,” Biblical Archaeology Review 12, no. 1 (1986): 42, 44–49. For Zertal’s response see Adam Zertal, “How Can Kempinski Be So Wrong,” Biblical Archaeology Review 12, no. 1 (1986): 43–53.


May 15, 2009

Eta Linnemann

It is being reported that Eta Linnemann has died at the age of eighty-two. Here is an obituary for those that can read German. Linnemann was perhaps best known for her repudiation of her earlier career as a critical scholar. You can read her testimony here. I remember meeting Linnemann at a conference in 2001 and her willingness to take the time to talk with me (a master's student) about why she believed that Paul wrote Hebrews.

Latest Issue of Review of Biblical Literature


The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews that may be of interest from a Bible Exposition perspective include:


Noam Adler
A Comprehensive Collection of Oil Lamps of the Holy Land from the Adler Collection
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6855
Reviewed by Jodi Magness

Janice Capel Anderson and Stephen D. Moore, eds.
Mark and Method: New Approaches in Biblical Studies
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6595
Reviewed by Renate Viveen Hood

David B. Burrell
Deconstructing Theodicy: Why Job Has Nothing to Say to the Puzzle of Suffering
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6769
Reviewed by F. Rachel Magdalene

Warren Carter
John and Empire: Initial Explorations
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6604
Reviewed by Stephan Witetschek

Raymond F. Collins
The Power of Images in Paul
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6723
Reviewed by Nils Neumann

Craig A. Evans, ed.
Encyclopedia of the Historical Jesus
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7022
Reviewed by Christoph Stenschke

Susan Haber; edited by Adele Reinhartz
"They Shall Purify Themselves": Essays on Purity in Early Judaism
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6736
Reviewed by Jonathan D. Lawrence

Mika Hietanen
Paul's Argumentation in Galatians: A Pragma-Dialectical Analysis
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6562
Reviewed by Johan S. Vos

Jerome Murphy-O'Connor
St. Paul's Ephesus: Texts and Archaeology
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6423
Reviewed by Jan Van Der Watt

Marvin Sweeney
Reading the Hebrew Bible after the Shoah: Engaging Holocaust Theology
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6700
Reviewed by Jon D. Levenson

Benedict T. Viviano
Matthew and His World: The Gospel of the Open Jewish Christians Studies in Biblical Theology
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6761
Reviewed by Boris Repschinski


May 14, 2009

McKnight and Commentaries on 1 Corinthians


See this
post for Scot McKnight's recommendations concerning commentaries on 1 Corinthians. There are some notable ommissions here including works by Garland, Hays, Thiselton. In any case, McKnight lists:

Gordon Fee: The First Epistle to the Corinthians.

C. K. Barrett: The First Epistle to Corinthians.

Ben Witheringon: Conflict and Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians.

Judith Kovac: 1 Corinthians (The Church's Bible).


May 13, 2009

Audio for the Duke Conference on Archaeology, Politics, and the Media


Audio for the Duke Conference on Archaeology, Politics, and the Media held on April 23-24, 2009 is available on the ASOR blog
here.

May 12, 2009

John Piper on Preaching


In this post, John Piper clearly articulates what he means by preaching. Watch the video and read the post.


Proof-Texting


I found this
post helpful on the problems and benefits of proof-texting.

May 11, 2009

Notes on 2 Timothy


Rick Brannan has made his notes on 2 Timothy, a phrasal interlinear with syntactical notes, available as a single forty-three page pdf
here.

May 10, 2009

Latest Issue of Review of Biblical Literature


The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews that may be of interest from a Bible Exposition perspective include:

John Ashton
Understanding the Fourth Gospel
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6733
Reviewed by Craig R. Koester

Yitzhak Berger
The Commentary of Rabbi David Kimhi to Chronicles: A Translation with Introduction and Supercommentary http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6210
Reviewed by Amos Frisch

Reimund Bieringer, Emmanuel Nathan, and Dominika Kurek-Chomycz
2 Corinthians: A Bibliography
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6708
Reviewed by Victor Paul Furnish

Michael F. Bird
Jesus and the Origins of the Gentile Mission
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6559
Reviewed by Andreas J. Kostenberger

James K. Bruckner
Exodus
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6555
Reviewed by Brian D. Russell

Billie Jean Collins
The Hittites and Their World
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6174
Reviewed by Willemijn Waal

Cornelia B. Horn and Robert R. Phenix Jr., eds. and trans.
John Rufus: The Lives of Peter the Iberian, Theodosius of Jerusalem, and the Monk Romanus
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6705
Reviewed by Ilaria L. E. Ramelli

Dirk J. Human, ed.
Psalms and Mythology
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6461
Reviewed by Jeffery M. Leonard

Patricia A. Kirkpatrick and Timothy Goltz, eds.
The Function of Ancient Historiography in Biblical and Cognate Studies
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6671
Reviewed by Ernst Axel Knauf

Stanley E. Porter, ed.
Dictionary of Biblical Criticism and Interpretation
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6100
Reviewed by Christoph Stenschke

Blazej Strba
Take Off Your Sandals from Your Feet! An Exegetical Study of Josh 5, 13-15
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7043
Reviewed by Ovidiu Creangă

Daniel J. Treier
Introducing Theological Interpretation of Scripture: Recovering a Christian Practice
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6649
Reviewed by Edward W. Klink III

Robert L. Webb and Betsy Bauman-Martin, eds.
Reading First Peter with New Eyes: Methodological Reassessments of the Letter of First Peter
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6447
Reviewed by Bonnie Howe


The Armor of God


Mart De Haan has a nice post on the armor of God (Eph 6)
here.