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.

C. Clifton Black, Reading Scripture with the Saints
Reviewed by Edward W. Klink III

Stephen G. Dempster, Micah
Reviewed by Daniel L. Smith-Christopher

Paul Lawrence, The Books of Moses Revisited
Reviewed by Ralph K. Hawkins

Helen Leneman, Musical Illuminations of Genesis Narratives
Reviewed by Theodore W. Burgh

Stephen D. Moore, Gospel Jesuses and Other Nonhumans: Biblical Criticism Post-poststructuralism
Reviewed by Richard Walsh

Dan Nässelqvist, Public Reading in Early Christianity: Lectors, Manuscripts, and Sound in the Oral Delivery of John 1–4
Reviewed by Peter S. Perry

B. J. Oropeza, 1 Corinthians
Reviewed by Jin Hwan Lee

Kurtis Peters, Hebrew Lexical Semantics and Daily Life in Ancient Israel: What’s Cooking in Biblical Hebrew?
Reviewed by Alison Gray

Laura Quick, Deuteronomy 28 and the Aramaic Curse Tradition
Reviewed by James D. Moore

Megan Warner, Re-imagining Abraham: A Re-assessment of the Influence of Deuteronomism in Genesis
Reviewed by Philip Y. Yoo

Should We Keep Studying a Fired Pastor’s Work?

Christianity Today addresses this interesting question here. I think the answer would depend on a variety of considerations such as the reason for the dismissal, orthodoxy, and what the resource is being used for. If one is well-grounded biblically and theologically, and can think critically, then one can use such sources with discernment. However, if one is going to refer or cite such sources in a public setting (e.g., sermon, Sunday school class, article) then citation might convey the idea of approval. Here it might be wiser to use another source.

Song of Songs

Philip Ryken posts 5 tips for reading the Songs here and 5 myths about the Songs here.

14 Must-Read Books about Israel

Jessica Halfin has a list here. The titles are not all related to biblical studies but still an interesting list.

Prophets, Priests, and Kings

This is a very basic attempt to delineate between the offices of the prophets, priests and kings in ancient Israel.

 

Kings, Priests, and Prophets in Israel
Title	King	Priest	Prophet
Function	Rules by God	Represents the people before God	Represents God before the people
Tribal	Yes (Judah)	Yes (Levi)	No
Women	Maybe (Athaliah?)	No	Yes, but rarely (e.g. Huldah)

New Acts Resource

I have been interested in the book of Acts for some time. It was the focus of both my master's thesis and doctoral dissertation. I have also had the opportunity to teach Acts verse-by-verse and thematically in a variety of contexts. So any new resource on Acts is going to pique my interest. Last week I noted that BiblePlaces was posting 28 days of

pictures corresponding to the 28 chapters in Acts. I also noted that they had released a new volume of their Photo Companion to the Bible series on the book of Acts. Having now viewed just a sampling of the photos, I think that this might be my favorite volume ever! My PowerPoint on Acts already consisted of nearly 700 slides and I know that it will need to get even bigger now. If you are planning to preach or teach this book you should at least consider adding this resource. And the good news is that BiblePlaces is offering it now at a special price.

Acts 1-12 has 1,700 photos: Reg. $99; This week: $59
Acts 13-28 has 2,500 photos: Reg. $129; This week: $79
The full collection has 4,200 photos: Reg. $149; This week: $89

Preaching by the Numbers

David Allen has some interesting thoughts about numbers and polls and relating that to preaching here.