Mar 17, 2018

Comparing the World’s Oldest Torah Scrolls and the Recent

Gary Rendsburg writes about the world’s oldest Torah scrolls and the recent acquisition by the Library of Congress here.

Mar 16, 2018

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.

Aaron Chalmers
Interpreting the Prophets: Reading, Understanding and Preaching from the Worlds of the Prophets
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10623
Reviewed by Paul L. Redditt

István Czachesz
Cognitive Science and the New Testament: A New Approach to Early Christian Research
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11647
Reviewed by L. Gregory Bloomquist

Nathaniel P. DesRosiers and Lily C. Vuong, eds.
Religious Competition in the Greco-Roman World
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11358
Reviewed by Evgenia Moiseeva

Lewis R. Donelson
Pseudepigraphy and Ethical Argument in the Pastoral Epistles
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10957
Reviewed by Charles Bumgardner

Yosef Garfinkel and Madeleine Mumcuoglu
Solomon’s Temple and Palace: New Archaeological Discoveries
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11414
Reviewed by Ralph K. Hawkins

Joel S. Kaminsky, Joel N. Lohr, and Mark Reasoner
The Abingdon Introduction to the Bible: Understanding Jewish and Christian Scriptures
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9769
Reviewed by Marcel V. Macelaru

Christos Karakolis, Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr, and Sviatoslav Rogalsky, eds.
Gospel Images of Jesus Christ in Church Tradition and in Biblical Scholarship: Fifth International East–West Symposium of New Testament Scholars, Minsk, September 2 to 9, 2010
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8857
Reviewed by Valeriy A. Alikin

Francis M. Macatangay
When I Die, Bury Me Well: Death, Burial, Almsgiving, and Restoration in the Book of Tobit
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11614
Reviewed by Micah D. Kiel

Dennis R. MacDonald
The Dionysian Gospel: The Fourth Gospel and Euripides
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11778
Reviewed by Jo-Ann A. Brant

Charlene van der Walt
Toward a Communal Reading of 2 Samuel 13: Ideology and Power within the Intercultural Bible Reading Process
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10762
Reviewed by Anne Létourneau

Mar 15, 2018

Determining the Jewishness of the Pseudepigrapha

While the Jewishness of the pseudepigrapha was generally accepted in my theological training, recent scholarship has challenged this assumption. In seeking to address this issue, James Davila has identified “five signature features” that help to verify the Jewishness of a given text. Davila’s features are:
  • Substantial Jewish content and evidence of a pre-Christian date;
  • Compelling evidence that a work was translated from Hebrew;
  • Sympathetic concern with the Jewish ritual cult;
  • Sympathetic concern with Jewish Law/Torah and halakah;
  • Concern with Jewish ethnic and national interest.
James R. Davila, The Provenance of Pseudepigrapha: Jewish, Christian, or Other? (Leiden, Brill, 2005), 65 as referenced in John J. Collins, “Early Judaism in Modern Scholarship,” in Early Judaism: A Comprehensive Overview, ed. John J. Collins and Daniel C. Harlow (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 9.

One though struck me as I was thinking through this list. Namely, what if one applied the list to the New Testament. Would it affect the debate about the Jewishness of the New Testament?

Mar 14, 2018

Köstenberger on Bblical Theology

You can find two recent addresses by Andreas Köstenberger on biblical theology in print here and here and in video here and here.

Mar 13, 2018

The Function of the Transfiguration in 2 Peter

I think Michael Kok is spot on here in suggesting that the reference to the Transfiguration in 2 Peter 1 is more than a validation of Peter as an eyewitness (although I believe it is that) but fits within the broader eschatological argument within the epistle.

Mar 12, 2018

Another New Testament Greek Resource

Hopefully, by now you are aware of, and better yet using, the wonderful resources of Daily Dose of Greek and Daily Dose of Hebrew. But now NT Resources, a website established by the late Rod Decker, is starting "Greek for a Week," a series of short videos that will go through the Greek of Philemon. The first two videos are available here and here.   

Mar 11, 2018

Free Productivity Apps

David Miller has discusses some free apps that you might want to consider here.