1 Samuel and Hermeneutics

If you have not read it yet, the Eerdword blog has this good interview with Stephen Chapman. The blog is about the new commentary,1 Samuel as Christian Scripture, but it actually has more to say about hermeneutics.

Journal for the Study of the New Testament

Here are the articles to the forthcoming issue of the Journal for the Study of the New Testament. The links will take you to an abstract.

Demonic Symposia in the Apocalypse of John
Robert M. Royalty, Jr

Hearing the Word and Seeing the Light: Voice and Vision in Acts
Brittany E. Wilson

The Seams and Summaries of Luke and of Acts
David L. Mealand

The Narratives of the Gospels and the Historical Jesus: Current Debates, Prior Debates and the Goal of Historical Jesus Research
Chris Keith

New Bible Study Website

The Israel Bible is a new, or at least new to me, Bible study website focusing on the Hebrew Bible wend of things. The website claims that,

The Israel Bible is the world’s first Bible to highlight the Land of Israel, the People of Israel, and the unique relationship between them. The Israel Bible provides an original commentary which seeks to explain God’s focus on the Land of Israel. In doing so, our commentary features comments pertaining to the Land of Israel, the People of Israel and the language of Israel.

Features of the website include:

• Full text of the Tanakh in English and Hebrew. The English text is based on the 1917 JPS English translation, which has been preferred by individual Jews and synagogues for nearly one hundred years. The Israel Bible follows the traditional Jewish ordering of the books and the customary Hebrew division of chapters.
• Unique commentary on Tanakh focused on the Land of Israel, the People of Israel and the Hebrew language.
• Transliteration of select Hebrew verses, most of which focus on the Land of Israel, so that they can be read by everyone in the original Hebrew.
• Proper Hebrew pronunciation of key biblical names and places in order to stay as Search The Israel Bible for words and phrases
• Study the weekly Torah portion with The Israel Bible Reading Plan
• Register for a personalized daily reading plan of each of the books of Tanakh
• Video courses on each of the books of the Tanakh (Coming Soon)
• Maps, charts and related resources for an enhanced learning experience

A Bibliography on Studying Marcion

As many Bible students know, Marcion of Sinope was a second century "Christian" heretic whose ideas concerning the Old Testament and New Testament were ultimately rejected. Michael Kok has provided a brief bibliography odf secondary sources on Marcion here.

Fortress Press Sale

Fortress Press is offering 50%-off of many of its titles from now until March 31. Keep in mind that you need to factor in postage and taxes but it might still be a good deal. You can access the sale here.

Applying Genesis 1:28?

This is probably not the best way to apply Genesis 1:28.

Two Checklists for Preachers

David Murray has a couple of helpful checklists for preachers. Here is one on exegesis and here is one on introductions.

New Commentary Series

Bloomsbury T&T Clark launched a new commentary series entitled the International Theological Commentary (ITC) Series. The first volume is Joel by Christopher Seitz. You can read more about this volume and the series through an interview with the series editors here.

E.Y. Mullins Lectures: Mark Dever on Preaching

You can listen to or watch Mark Dever's three messages on preaching that he recently gave at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for the E.Y. Mullins Lectures here.

Jude in the Southwestern Journal of Theology

You can access a free PDF of the latest issue of the Southwestern Journal of Theology for free here. The theme of this issue is the book of Jude. Other free issues are also available at the same link.

Another Ancient Seal Found in Jerusalem

A seal found in Jerusalem and dated to the first temple period belonging to a woman named Elihana bat Gael has been found. You can read about it here,  here, and here. A seal like this might help illustrate passages such as Proverbs 31:16.

Craig Blomberg's Research Methodology

Nijay Gupta continues his helpful "How I Do Research" series with Craig Blomberg here.

Pagan Worship at the City Gate

Carl Rasmussen has a nice post here on pagan worship at the city gate using et-Tell as an example.

Online Education: Something to Consider

Here is another take on online education and the real value of attending a "brick and mortar" institution.

Corinthian and New Testament Studies Bibliography

The Corinthianmatters blog has made available a pretty nifty open bibliography for sources related to Corinth and New Testament studies here. This is particularly nice if you are using the free bibliographic program Zotero.

Old and New Testament Essays

Rob Bradshaw continues to provide older but still helpful digitized resources for free. Here are three of his recent offerings.

Notes on Some Problems in the Book of Daniel
Essays on the Patriarchal Narratives 
New Testament Interpretation: Essays on Principles and Methods

Free Logos "Book" of the Month

The free Logos "book" for March is not a book but it is free. The resource is over 100 videos by John Piper entitled "Look at the Book." You can also purchase Finish the Mission: Bringing the Gospel to the Unreached and Unengaged for $1.99 and enter to win the Crossway John Piper Collection . For all these offers go the Logos' Free Book of Month page.

Usury in the Bible

Ian Paul has an interested post here on the biblical teaching concerning usury.

Leap Year Sales

Oxford University Press is offering 60% site-wide (see here) and Barnes and Noble has 20% off (see here). These sales are for today only.

Free Interpretive Guides to the Bible

My friend, Dr. Steven Anderson, is making his eight interpretive guides to the Bible available as free PDF downloads here. Check it out. This is a great resource.

Authorship of the Gospels?

Torrey Seland interacts in this post with Brant Pitre's assertion that the Gospels were not originally anonymous and that the traditional ascriptions to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are likely correct

Preachers and Teachers

"We, in theological colleges must be preachers as well as teachers. We must not only model good preaching but show students how to become good preachers. We must persuade our students that it is the word which is powerful, accurately interpreted, applied by God’s Spirit, and not the style, winsomeness, humour, or anecdotal ability of the preacher which is the most important. There is so little Old Testament preaching done in our pulpits, and what is done is often so bad, that there is a big job to be done for theological students."

Paul Barker, “Correctly Handling the Word of Truth — Teaching the Old Testament as a Christian Book,” in Make the Old Testament Live: From Curriculum to Classroom, ed, Richard S. Hess and Gordon J. Wenham (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 70.

Expository Preaching

Ed Stetzer has posted a third installment on expository preaching here. You can see post 1 here and 2 here.

Did David Author 4,050 Psalms!

Recently while doing some reading I was reminded of a statement in one of the Dead Sea Scrolls that David might have been much more prolific than might be indicated by the 73 psalms associated to him in the Psalter. In fact, we are told that David composed 4,050!

Col. XXVII (Compositions of David Sam 23:7) I and the haft of his spear and he cast them in the fire
leaving no trace of them.

² Blank And David, son of Jesse, was wise, a luminary like the light of the sun, learned, ³ Blank knowledgeable, and perfect in all his paths before God and men. And to him ⁴ Blank YHWH gave a wise and enlightened spirit. And he wrote psalms: ⁵ three thousand six hundred; and songs to be sung before the altar over the perpetual ⁶ offering of every day, for all the days of the year: three hundred 7 and sixty-four; and for the sabbath offerings: fifty-two songs; and for the offering for the beginning ⁸ of the month, and for all the days of the festivals, and for the day of atonement: thirty songs. ⁹ And all the songs which he composed were four hundred and forty-six. And songs ¹⁰ to be sung over the possessed: four. The total was four thousand and fifty ¹¹ He composed them all through the spirit of prophecy which had been given to him from before the Most High. Blank (11Q5 27:2–11)

Translation from Florentino García Martínez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 309.

Standing Stones at Gezer

Carl Rasmussen has a nice post here on the standing stones found at Gezer.