The Church and Facebook

  
See this article.
 

BibleWorks 9

  

I am pretty excited to get my review copy of BibleWorks 9. I look forward to loading it up, checking it out, and telling you about it. Stay tuned.

  

Church Planting Resources

  
See Andy Naselli's post here.
 

Latest Issue of Review of Biblical Literature

  

The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews can be accessed by clicking the links below.

Richard Bauckham
The Bible and Ecology: Rediscovering the Community of Creation
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7931
Reviewed by Norman Habel
 
Ehud Ben Zvi and Diana V. Edelman, eds.
The Production of Prophecy: Constructing Prophecy and Prophets in Yehud
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7650
Reviewed by Bob Becking
 
Kamila Blessing
Families of the Bible: A New Perspective
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7753
Reviewed by Yolanda Dreyer
 
Naomi Koltun-Fromm
Hermeneutics of Holiness: Ancient Jewish and Christian Notions of Sexuality and Religious Community
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7800
Reviewed by Michael L. Satlow
 
Joel M. LeMon
Yahweh's Winged Form in the Psalms: Exploring Congruent Iconography and Texts
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7830
Reviewed by Jeremy M. Hutton
 
Martin McNamara
Targum and Testament Revisited: Aramaic Paraphrases of the Hebrew Bible: A Light on the New Testament
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7816
Reviewed by Joshua Ezra Burns
 
Sebastian Moll
The Arch-Heretic Marcion
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7657
Reviewed by Mark DelCogliano
 
Daniel O'Hare
"Have You Seen, Son of Man?": A Study of the Translation and Vorlage of LXX Ezekiel 40-48
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7817
Reviewed by Francis Dalrymple-Hamilton
 
Calvin J. Roetzel
The Letters of Paul: Conversations in Context
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7691
Reviewed by Nijay K. Gupta
 
José Manuel Sánchez Caro, Rosa María Herrera García, and Inmaculada Delgado Jara, eds.
Alfonso do Madrigal, el Tostado: Introducción al Evangelio según San Mateo
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7324
Reviewed by David E. C. Ford
 

More Free Holy Land Maps

See this post with links to some free Holy Land Maps from the Eran Laor Cartographic Collection.
  

Acts in Three Minutes

HT; Peter Cockrell

Journal for the Study of the New Testament 34:1

  

The latest issue of the Journal for the Study of the New Testament is out. Here is a list of the articles and links to abstracts.

  

A Liturgical Tradition behind the Ending of James

Dale C. Allison, Jr

Journal for the Study of the New Testament 2011;34 3-18
http://jnt.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/34/1/3

Faith in Romans: The Salvation of the Individual or Life in Community?

Ben C. Dunson

Journal for the Study of the New Testament 2011;34 19-46
http://jnt.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/34/1/19

Paul’s Intentional ‘Thankless Thanks’ in Philippians 4.10-20

David Briones

Journal for the Study of the New Testament 2011;34 47-69
http://jnt.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/34/1/47

Luke’s Use of Mark as παράφρασις: Its Effects on Characterization in the ‘Healing of Blind Bartimaeus’ Pericope (Mark 10.46-52/Luke 18.35-43)

Timothy A. Brookins

Journal for the Study of the New Testament 2011;34 70-89
http://jnt.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/34/1/70

‘Praise the Lord, All you Gentiles’: The Encoded Audience of Romans 15.7-13

A. Andrew Das

Journal for the Study of the New Testament 2011;34 90-110
http://jnt.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/34/1/90
  

That's a Lot of Sermons

  
David Buttrick, writing nearly twenty years ago (The Mystery and the Passion, 1992) noted that by a conservative estimate there had been at least three billion sermons preached since the time of Christ. Now, I am not sure how Buttrick arrived at that number and I am not sure how many sermons have been added to that number since 1992, but I am pretty sure of two things. First, it is unlikely that the next sermon that we preach will be the best sermon ever. And second and conversely, the numbers are on our side that the next sermon we preach won't be the worst sermon ever. So be faithful and just preach the Word.
 

Hurtado on Oldies but Goodies

  
See Larry Hurtado's post on older works that are still worth reading.
 

Witherington on Philippians

  
See this post with Ben Witherington discussing writing the final volume of his socio-rhetorical commentary series and the book of Philippians.
 

Listening to Mark's Gospel

  
See this post.
  

Inscribed Temple Columns and Revelation

  
Carl Rasmussen has an interesting post here on inscribed columns and Revelation 3:11-13.
 

Schnabel on Genre, History, and the Book of Acts

“Genre remains important. We can read the gigantic Chicago phone book as a poem celebrating shared humanity, as an ode to ethnic diversity, as a sonnet on the relevance of facts and figures, or as the meta-story of the hidden identities of the Chicago mafia. As interesting as such literary games might be, they would miss the point of the book. If we accept that the Book of Acts is a short historical monograph, or apologetic historiography, or a ‘lively political theology in its time,’ or a biography, or a ‘biographical history of important developments in earliest Christianity,’ historical questions are an integral, indeed foundational part of Luke’s concerns. Scholars who do not want to engage historical reality of the first century should, perhaps, seek other objects of inquiry than the Acts of the Apostles.”

Eckhard J. Schnabel, “Fads and Commen Sense: Reading Acts in the First Century and Reading Acts Today,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 54 (2011): 257–8.