Two Forthcoming Commentaries on Acts

The Fall 2013 Baker Academic catalog is out. I am particularly interested in two Acts commentaries that are scheduled to be available this year. Hopefully, both will be done in time for SBL/ETS. 

Craig Keener's Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, vol. 2: 3:1-14:28 is due in October. You can read more about this volume here.

 
William Kurz's Acts in the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture series is due in November. You can read more about this volume here.

The Growing Seminary Debt Problem

See this article on the growing problem of seminary debt. I am so thankful that I was able to finish seminary without any debt.

HT: Steve Lemke

The Number of Languages in the World

See this interesting blog post at Lingua Franca on the challenges and politics of delineating and counting the languages of the world. The work of the Summer Institute of Linguistics receives special notice.

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.

Johann Cook and Arie van der Kooij
Law, Prophets, and Wisdom: On the Provenance of Translators and Their Books in the Septuagint Version
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9164
Reviewed by Sean A. Adams

C. L. Crouch
War and Ethics in the Ancient Near East: Military Violence in Light of Cosmology and History
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8206
Reviewed by Tyler Mayfield

Camille Focant
The Gospel according to Mark: A Commentary
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8867
Reviewed by Geert Van Oyen

Richard Hidary
Dispute for the Sake of Heaven: Legal Pluralism in the Talmud
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7945
Reviewed by Kris Lindbeck

Othmar Keel
Corpus der Stempelsiegel-Amulette aus Palästina/Israel: Von den Anfängen bis zur Perserzeit: Katalog Band IV: Von Tel Gamma bis Chirbet Husche
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9243
Reviewed by Brent A. Strawn

Sigmund Mowinckel
Religion and Cult: The Old Testament and the Phenomenology of Religion
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8552
Reviewed by Nicole Ruane

Pheme Perkins
Reading the New Testament: An Introduction
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8617
Reviewed by M. Eugene Boring

Jonathan Stökl
Prophecy in the Ancient Near East: A Philological and Sociological Comparison
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9153
Reviewed by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer

Thomas L. Thompson and Thomas S. Verenna, eds.
‘Is This Not the Carpenter?’: The Question of the Historicity of the Figure of Jesus
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8846
Reviewed by James F. McGrath

Manuel Villalobos Mendoza
Abject Bodies in the Gospel of Mark
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9058
Reviewed by Greg Carey

There is also a response by author John E. Anderson has responded to Koog P. Hong’s review of Anderson’s Jacob and the Divine Trickster. See http://rblnewsletter.blogspot.com/2013/03/20130320-anderson-jacob-and-divine.html.

Greek with Douglas Huffman

Sometime back I reviewed Douglass Huffman's The Handy Guide to New Testament Greek: Grammar, Syntax, and Diagramming (click here). Now Credo Magazine has a short but helpful interview with the Huffman here.

A New Interpretation of a Phrase from the Psalm Scroll

Haaretz has an interesting article on a new interpretation of a phrase from the Dead Sea Scrolls' Psalm Scroll in a poem called the “Apostrophe to Zion.” You can read the article here.