Libraries and Life

Susan Orlean has an interesting essay in The New Yorker about libraries and life here. Near the end of the essay, a reference is made to Amadou Hampâté Bâ who "once said that, in Africa, when an old person dies, it is like a library has been burned." Orlean's reflections on libraries and life brought two passages from Ecclesiastes to mind: 1:11 and 12:12.

Journal of Biblical Literature 137:3

Volume 137:3 of the Journal of Biblical Literature is now out. Here is a list of the articles with links to abstracts.

Conceptualizing the Place of Deaf People in Ancient Israel: Suggestions from Deaf Space
Mike Gulliver and William John Lyons

Biblical Myths and the Inversion Principle: A Neostructuralist Approach
Aryeh Amihay

Once Again: The Yam Sûp of the Exodus
Philip Y. Yoo

The Gēr (Stranger) in Deuteronomy: Family for the Displaced
Mark Glanville

Separating the Wheat from the Chaff: The Independent Logic of Deuteronomy 22:25–27
Sara J. Milstein

“All That You Have Done … Has Been Fully Told to Me”: The Power of Gossip and the Story of Ruth
Philip F. Esler

Utterance of David, the Anointed of the God of Jacob (2 Samuel 23:1–7)
Mahri Leonard-Fleckman

“Your Torah Is My Delight”: Repetition and the Poetics of Immanence in Psalm 119
Sean Burt

Gabriel’s Entrance and Biblical Violence in Luke’s Annunciation Narrative
Michael Pope

Mixed Metaphors: Resolving the “Eschatological Headache” of John 5
Hugo Méndez

Romans 5:12, Once Again: Is It a Grammatical Comparison?
James W. Haring

“Wretch I Am!” Eve’s Tragic Speech-in-Character in Romans 7:7–25
Nicholas Elder

The Blood of Goats and Calves … and Bulls? An Allusion to Isaiah 1:11 LXX in Hebrews 10:4
Justin Harrison Duff

Church History, Archaeology, and Geography

Ferrell Jenkins has an excellent blog that focuses on archaeology and geography that relate to the Bible. He has now created a handy index focusing on his blog posts related to church history. You should check it out here.

Spurgeon on Sermon Helps

Here is an interesting blog post on Charles Spurgeon's view of preachers using sermon helps.

HT: Trevin Wax

Forming a Daily Writing Habit

Some good advice here.

Preaching Ecclesiastes

John Divito explains why you should preach Ecclesiastes here.

Robert Yarbrough Interview

Last week I provided a link here to Robert Yarbrough answering five questions related to the Pastoral Epistles and related to a commentary on the Pastorals that he has just written for the Pillar New Testament Commentary series. Now Mike Bird has posted an interview with Yarbrough on the Pastorals his blog here.

Free Logos Book for October: Ancient Christian Devotional

The free Logos Book for the Month for October is Ancient Christian Devotional: A Year of Weekly Readings: Lectionary Cycle A edited by Thomas Oden and Cindy Crosby. You can also purchase the volumes for cycles B and C for $2.99 and $3.99 respectively. But if you are going to do that you can buy all three volumes for $4.99 and save a $1.99. There is also a contest to win the 20 volume IVP New Testament Commentary series. For all these offers, go to the Logos' Free Book of Month page here.

Feast of Booths Libation Ceremony

See this article on a recreation of a libation ceremony which is traditionally associated with the Feast of Booths.

Resources for Biblical Aramaic

Steven Anderson has a very helpful and comprehensive discussion of resources for biblical Aramaic here.