Jul 16, 2021

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 to read them.

Herbert R. Broderick, Moses the Egyptian in the Illustrated Old English Hexateuch: (London, British Library Cotton MS Claudius B.iv)
Reviewed by Anthony Swindell

Terrance Callan, A Voyage around the Second Letter of Peter: Collected Essays
Reviewed by James Starr

Kristine Henriksen Garroway and John W. Martens, eds., Children and Methods: Listening to and Learning from Children in the Biblical World
Reviewed by Amy Lindeman Allen

Moshe Halbertal, The Birth of Doubt: Confronting Uncertainty in Early Rabbinic Literature
Reviewed by Eliezer Diamond

Benedikt Hensel, Dany Nocquet, and Bartosz Adamczewski, eds., Yahwistic Diversity and the Hebrew Bible: Tracing Perspectives of Group Identity from Judah, Samaria, and the Diaspora in Biblical Traditions
Reviewed by Brandon R. Grafius

Joachim J. Krause, Omer Sergi, and Kristin Weingart, eds., Saul, Benjamin, and the Emergence of Monarchy in Israel: Biblical and Archaeological Perspectives
Reviewed by Zachary Thomas

Andrew N. Palmer, The Life of the Syrian Saint Barsauma: Eulogy of a Hero of the Resistance to the Council of Chalcedon
Reviewed by Robert A. Kitchen

Carolyn J. Sharp, Joshua
Reviewed by Pekka Pitkänen

Thomas B. Slater, Revelation as Civil Disobedience: Witnesses Not Warriors in John’s Apocalypse
Reviewed by Thomas W. Martin

Devin L. White, Teacher of the Nations
Reviewed by Laura B. Dingeldein

Jul 15, 2021

Collaborative Sermon Writing

Paul Taylor suggests five ways that it can help here. I have found it helpful to be able to discuss my messages with others.

Jul 14, 2021

Suffering in the Book of Lamentations

Adele Berlin presents here a stark picture of the human suffering related to destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. For those of us who have thankfully not seen the ravages of war first hand (like me), this article helps one to get a better sense of the awful human toll.

Jul 13, 2021

Top Judges Commentaries

Michelle Knight lists and annotates her top "six" (actually 7 are listed) commentaries on Judges at Nijay Gupta's blog here.

Jul 12, 2021

Jerubbaal Inscription

It is being reported that an inscription containing the name Jerubbaal and dating to around 1100 BC was uncovered in the excavations at Khirbat er-Ra‘i, near Kiryat Gat. This is interesting because Jerubbaal was also a name of one of the judges in the book of Judges (aka Gideon, see Judg 7:1). Caution needs to be exercised in drawing too many conclusions or connections except that it seems that there is now evidence for the existence of the name outside of the Bible.
 

 
 
The Jerubbaal inscription, written in ink on a pottery vessel.
(photo credit: DAFNA GAZIT/ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY)