Three Pastoral Sacred Cows that Need to be Tipped

Jared Moore has written about ten pastoral and ministerial sacred cows that need to be tipped and in this article identifies his top three. The three are:
 
Sacred Cow #1: Entertaining Sermons
Sacred Cow #2: Relevant Sermons
Sacred Cow #3: Successful Ministry

See Jared's article for an explanation for each of these cows. 

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.

John J. Collins
Joel, Obadiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9152
Reviewed by Bradford A. Anderson

Avraham Faust
The Archaeology of Israelite Society in Iron Age II
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8631
Reviewed by Aren M. Maeir

Sidney Greidanus
Preaching Christ from Daniel: Foundations for Expository Sermons
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8785
Reviewed by Jordan M. Scheetz

Vahan S. Hovhanessian, ed.
The Canon of the Bible and the Apocrypha in the Churches of the East
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8951
Reviewed by Lee Martin McDonald

Aaron W. Hughes
Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8773
Reviewed by Walter Brueggemann

Gary A. Long
Grammatical Concepts 101 for Biblical Hebrew
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9163
Reviewed by Perry J. Oakes

Kenton L. Sparks
Sacred Word, Broken Word: Biblical Authority and the Dark Side of Scripture
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8932
Reviewed by Hector Avalos
Reviewed by Joel Stephen Williams

Chad S. Spigel
Ancient Synagogue Seating Capacities: Methodology, Analysis and Limits
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8757
Reviewed by Joshua Schwartz

Roger Stronstad
The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke: Trajectories from the Old Testament to Luke-Acts
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8836
Reviewed by Richard I. Pervo

The Value of Commentaries

Tom Finley has a good basic explanation of the value of commentaries for those seeking to study the Bible here.

Witherington on Preaching

Ben Witherington provides some interesting observations related to what the New Testament does and does not state about preaching here.

IVP Academic: Pauline Studies Sale

IVP Academic is celebrating the release of Brian Rosner’s Paul and the Law by offering a 50% off sale through Friday, September 27 on their website, including print and ebooks (if available): Use the coupon code 405-24 to get your discount at check-out.

Paul and the Law by Brian Rosner
Paul and Judaism Revisited by Preston Sprinkle
A Week in the Life of Corinth by Ben Witherington III
Introducing Paul by Michael F. Bird
Spirituality According to Paul by Rodney Reeves
The Living Paul by Anthony Thistleton
Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes by Kenneth Bailey
Paul the Missionary by Eckhard Schnabel

Completion of SBL Fonts

I know that not all of my readers are members of the Society of Biblical Literature. So some may not have received the news that regarding the completion of SBL fonts project. You do not have to be an SBL member that to use the fonts. In any case, here is a portion of the SBL announcement.

"The Society of Biblical Literature is pleased to announce the newest font in the SBL fonts series, SBL BibLit. This font contains Latin, Greek, and Hebrew characters, including the characters suitable for the transliteration of Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean languages. When combined with appropriate software keyboards, SBL BibLit allows for the use of one font for all biblical languages. This release is of a regular weight only; italic and bold weights will not be released at this time.

"In addition to the release of the SBL BibLit font, SBL is also making available software keyboards for both Windows and Macintosh OS X operating systems that give easier access to the diacritics necessary for the transliteration of Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean languages. These keyboards, along with the font file and the previously-released SBL fonts, can be downloaded from the SBL website. Instructions for their installation and use are also available in the updated Biblical Fonts FAQ, including platform-specific instructions for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Macintosh OS X.

"Joining SBL Hebrew and SBL Greek, SBL BibLit is the third font of the SBL font series. All of these fonts were commissioned by the Society of Biblical Literature to assist in the society's mission to foster biblical scholarship. John Hudson of Tiro Typeworks designed each font, ensuring that each one represented the cutting edge of font technology, maintained full Unicode compatibility, and that each would be as beneficial as possible to scholars in biblical studies and related disciplines. SBL is pleased to present this font as the final installment and the culmination of the initial font series."

Ph.D.'s in Peril?

I am thankful to the Lord for the opportunity to pursue and complete a Ph.D. But David Fitch raises some very practical considerations and concerns here that future students need to be aware of.