Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies Vol. 6

The latest issue of the Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies is available online for free both as individual articles here or the entire journal here.

HT: Antony Billington

Journal of Biblical Literature 138:3

Volume 138:3 of the Journal of Biblical Literature is now out. Here is a list of the articles with links to abstracts.

“He Said, He Said”: Repetition of the Quotation Formula in the Joseph Story and Other Biblical Narratives
Richard C. Steiner

What Happened to the Sons of Korah? The Ongoing Debate Regarding the Status of the Korahites
Itamar Kislev

Absalom’s Audience (2 Samuel 15–19)
Seth L. Sanders

Micaiah ben Imlah (1 Kings 22) and the Grammar of the Biblical War Oracle
Jesse Rainbow

On הבל in Qoheleth: A Reply to Mark Sneed
Michael V. Fox

From Prophetic Words to Prophetic Literature: Challenging Paradigms That Control Our Academic Thought on Jeremiah and Ezekiel
Dalit Rom-Shiloni

Jeremiah and the Balag-Lament? Jeremiah 8:18–23 Reconsidered
Robin Baker

Out of the (Model) City, into the Fire: The Meaning of Ezekiel 5:3–4
Michael A. Lyons

Fourth Maccabees 1:1–6 in Sahidic Coptic
Ivan Miroshnikov

Of Social Death and Solitary Confinement: The Political Life of a Gerasene (Luke 8:26–39)
Luis Menéndez-Antuña

Climbing the Ethnic Ladder: Ethnic Hierarchies and Judean Responses
Philip A. Harland

Women διάκονοι and Gendered Norms of Leadership
Susan E. Hylen

N. T. Wright at Samford University

You can access five videos of N. T. Wright's different talks when he recently visited Samford University here. 

HT: Roy Ciampa

Egypt and Israel in Genesis 47

The reason for the inclusion of Joseph's economic policy in Genesis 47:13-26 is debated. But one likely explanation is that it is included to portray a contrast between Egypt and Israel as a way of highlighting the covenantal faithfulness of the Lord to his people. Egypt then is functioning as a literary foil. In fact, both Egypt (where Israel is) and Canaan (where Israel was) are described as languishing or wasting away (v. 13) while Israel prospers (v. 27). I recently shared the following table with one of my classes.

 

The Contrasting Situations of the Egyptians Versus Israel
Egypt	Israel
Situation presented negatively (e.g. draught)	Situation presented positively (i.e., fruitful and multiplying, v. 27)
Egyptians lose possessions	Israel gains possessions (v. 27)
Priests were exempted	Israel seems exempted (foreshadowing a priestly status, see Exodus 19:6?)

Teaching When You Are Preaching

See Matt Beasley's post entitled, "Teaching How to Interpret in the Sermon." I often tell my students that you will do at least two things when you preach or teach. (1) You will communicate content. That is, you will have something to say.  (2) You will communicate method. This is typically less direct and obvious but you will teach how one is to handle the text by how you handle it. You may do more than these two but you will not do less.

Teaching Micah

Nancy Guthries talks to Stephen Um about teaching Micah here.