Paying Taxes in Biblical Times

Livia Gershon talks about the process of paying taxes in biblical times here.

Biblical Chronology

Rodger You has links to a number of resources related to biblical chronology here.

HT: Kevin Woodruff

He Is Risen!

Latest Issue of 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.

Richard A. Burridge
Four Gospels, One Jesus? A Symbolic Reading
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9961
Reviewed by Matthew C. Baldwin

Derek Cooper and Martin J. Lohrmann, eds.
1–2 Samuel, 1–2 Kings, 1–2 Chronicles
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11277
Reviewed by John Herbst

Jeremy Gabrielson
Paul’s Non-violent Gospel: The Theological Politics of Peace in Paul’s Life and Letters
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9629
Reviewed by Thomas P. Nelligan

Robert H. Gundry
Peter: False Disciple and Apostate according to Saint Matthew
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10540
Reviewed by Marius J. Nel

Matthew Ryan Hauge and Andrew W. Pitts, eds.
Ancient Education and Early Christianity
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11197
Reviewed by Alex Damm

Jarmo Kiilunen and Nina Nikki
Alfasta oomegaan: Uuden testamentin kreikan tukipaketti
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10324
Reviewed by Paavo Tucker

Kasper Bro Larsen
The Gospel of John as Genre Mosaic
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11066
Reviewed by D. A. Carson

Gwynned de Looijer
The Qumran Paradigm: Critical Evaluation of Some Foundational Hypotheses in the Construction of the Qumran Sect
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10902
Reviewed by Jutta Leonhardt-Balzer

Robert W. Wall and David R. Nienhuis, eds.
A Compact Guide to the Whole Bible: Learning to Read Scripture’s Story
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10190
Reviewed by Lilly (SJ) Nortje-Meyer

Shamir Yona
The Many Faces of Repetition: Basic Patterns of Repetition in Construct-State Expressions in Biblical, Post-biblical and Ancient Eastern Rhetoric [Hebrew]
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9684
Reviewed by Jerome A. Lund

Daniel 9:24-27

Kyle Dillon has an excellent post here on the "Seventy Week" prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27. He has summarized and organized quite a bit of material.

Is Hebrew Behind the World's First Alphabet?

Doug Petrovich thinks so and he explains briefly how and why in this article. This is beyond my expertise so I will await the judgment of others but the proposal is intriguing.

Ninth Blogaversary

Today marks the ninth anniversary of the beginning of this blog. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by over the years.

Considering a PhD?

Andy Naselli has some good questions for students considering a PhD to ask here.

The Pontius Pilate Inscription and the Imperial Cult

Carl Rasmussen has an interesting post here discussing the potential connection between the Pilate Inscription at Caesarea Maritima and a tiberieum dedicated to the imperial cult.

The Scofield Reference Bible

With the proliferation of study Bibles, it is easy to forget how groundbreaking the Scofield Reference Bible was. And whether you like it or not, it did get many people into the Word of God. So check out the Oxford Blog's nice write-up on the Scofield's 100th anniversary here.

Latest Issue of 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.

Terrance Callan
Acknowledging the Divine Benefactor: The Second Letter of Peter
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10182
Reviewed by Michael F. Bird

Greg Carey
Apocalyptic Literature in the New Testament
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11281
Reviewed by David L. Barr
Reviewed by David A. Sánchez

Eryl Davies
Numbers: The Road to Freedom
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10499
Reviewed by David Frankel

Jason S. DeRouchie, Jason Gile, and Kenneth J. Turner, eds.
For Our Good Always: Studies on the Message and Influence of Deuteronomy in Honor of Daniel I. Block
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10777
Reviewed by Jeffrey G. Audirsch

Tobias Hagerland
Jesus and the Scriptures: Problems, Passages and Patterns
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11189
Reviewed by John C. Poirier

Stephen Mark Holmes, ed.
The Fathers on the Sunday Gospels
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8817
Reviewed by Jennifer S. Wyant

Robert D. Holmstedt
The Relative Clause in Biblical Hebrew
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11312
Reviewed by Frank H. Polak

Hieronymus Horn
Anfänge, die Geschichte schrieben: Das Buch Genesis (1–11) neu kommentiert
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9342
Reviewed by Matthias Millard

Teresa J. Hornsby and Deryn Guest
Transgender, Intersex, and Biblical Interpretation
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11332
Reviewed by Jo Henderson-Merrygold

Simon J. Joseph
The Nonviolent Messiah: Jesus, Q, and the Enochic Tradition
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9811
Reviewed by Blake A. Jurgens

Thomas W. Mann
The Book of the Torah
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9496
Reviewed by Cody Eklov

Elvira Martín-Contreras and Lorena Miralles-Maciá, eds.
The Text of the Hebrew Bible: From the Rabbis to the Masoretes
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10528
Reviewed by James R. Blankenship

Dieter T. Roth
The Text of Marcion’s Gospel
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10399
Reviewed by Hugh Houghton

Emanuel Tov
Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, Qumran, Septuagint: Collected Essays, Volume 3
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10398
Reviewed by Randall X. Gauthier

First Century Jews Still in Exile?

Mike Bird discusses the question of whether first century Jews considered themselves to be still in exile here. The discussion is brief and will not shed much light on the particulars but Bird does provide a good bibliography on the topic. 

The AD 33 Date for Jesus' Death

This article by Andreas J. Köstenberger and Justin Taylor came out a few years ago but it provides a good argument for AD 33 rather than 30 for the death of Jesus.

Fake Dead Sea Scrolls?

See this article on the possibility that some of the Dead Sea Scroll fragments that have been sold/purchased recently are likely fakes.

The “Para” in Parachurch Ministries

Eric Davis has a good word here on keeping the “para” in parachurch ministries.

Coins in the Bible Conference

I really wish I could attend this conference on coins in the Bible.

HT: Larry Hurtado

The Center of the Old Testament

Trying to identify a center for Old Testament has proven to be a daunting task. In a recent article, Richard Davidson notes that he has identified 28 different centers and has added his own seven-fold multiplex suggestion to the pile.[1] The article itself does not provide the list but in an earlier work he lists the following 50 which presumably includes the aforementioned 28.[2]

1. Covenant (Walter Eichrodt)
2. God as Lord (Ludwig Köhler)
3. Holiness of God (Ernst Sellin)
4. The “experience of God” (O. J. Baab)
5. Communion (Theodorus C. Vriezen)
6. Christ (Henry L. Ellison and J. Alec Motyer)
7. God-Man-Salvation (George A. F. Knight)
8. Israel’s election as the people of God (Hans Wildberger and Horst D. Preuss)
9. No center (the early Gerhard von Rad and G. Ernest Wright)
10. Yahweh, with the Deuteronomistic theology of history as the secret center (the later Gerhard von Rad)
11. Covenant-kingdom (Rudolph Schnackenburg)
12. Rulership of God (Horst Seebass)
13. Heilsgeschichte, or Salvation History (Oscar Cullmann)
14. The rule of God and communion between God and man (Georg Fohrer)
15. Covenant of Sinai and covenant of David (Frederick Prussner)
16. The exclusiveness of God (W. H. Schmidt)
17. The Kingdom of God (Günther Klein)
18. Yahweh the God of Israel; Israel the people of Yahweh (Rudolf Smend)19
19. The book of Deuteronomy (Siegfried Herrmann)
20. “I am Yahweh your God”: First Commandment (Walther Zimmerli)
21. God as the dynamic unifying center (Gerhard Hasel)
22. Creation faith (H. H. Schmid)
23. The atoning work of Christ (J. Sidlow Baxter)
24. Promise-blessing (Walter Kaiser, Jr.)
25. A multiplex center “expressed diagrammatically by an elliptical cylinder. The center is Christ; the foci are God (Yahweh) and people (Israel); concentric layers of the cylinder are election, promise, covenant, kingdom, etc.; and the length of the cylinder is the time in which Israel experienced God in history” (D. F. Baker)
26. The dialectic of law and promise (Ronald E. Clements)
27. The elusive presence of God, with a dialectic of the ethical and aesthetic (Samuel Terrien)
28. The dialectic of deliverance and blessing (Claus Westermann)
29. The dialectic of providence and election (the earlier Walter Brueggemann)
30. God’s design (plan and purposes), involving a fourfold center of deliverance, community, knowledge of God, and abundant life (Elmer A. Martens)
31. Righteousness and justice (Rolf Knierim)
32. Messianic eschatology (John Sailhamer)
33. Righteousness (Walter Dietrich)
34. Covenant and the new creation (Graeme Goldsworthy)
35. A drama with five acts—creation, sin, Israel, Christ, church (N. T. Wright)
36. The courtroom trial metaphor/imagery: legal claims—testimony, dispute, advocacy—asserted for Yahweh, God of Israel (the later Walter Brueggemann)
37. Warfare worldview and theodicy (Gregory Boyd)
38. Monotheism—the existence and worship of one God (Paul R. House)
39. God’s steadfast love (Hermann Spieckermann)
40. Geography and genealogy, dominion and dynasty (Stephen G. Dempster)
41. God’s order, God’s servant, God’s people, and God’s way (Charles H. H. Scobie)
42. God’s mission—announcing His kingdom (Arthur F. Glasser)
43. The hermeneutics of grace (J. Clinton McCann, Jr.)
44. A drama with six acts (Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen)
45. The paradigmatic story of Israel—sin, exile, restoration (C. Marvin Pate et al.)
46. The mission of God (Christopher J. H. Wright)
47. The sovereign reign of God through human agency (Eugene H. Merrill)
48. The glory of God in salvation through judgment (James Hamilton)
49. The “in-breaking of God’s rule” (Bruce Waltke)
50. The sanctuary/temple (Roberto Ouro)

[1] “The Legacy of Gerhard Hasel’s Old Testament Theology: Basic Issues in the Current Debate Revealed in Old Testament Scholarship of the Last Four Decades,” Journal of the Adventist Theological Society 26 (2015): 15.

[2] Richard M. Davidson, “Back to the Beginning: Genesis 1–3 and the Theological Center of Scripture, in Christ, Salvation, and the Eschaton: Essays in Honor of Hans K. LaRondelle, ed. Jiří Moskala (Berrien Springs, MI: Old Testament Department, Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University, 2009), 5-9.

Free Logos Book for April: Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible

The free Logos Book of the Month for April is Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible by Brandon O’Brien and E. Randolph Richards. You can also purchase Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers for $1.99. For both offers you can go to the Logos' Free Book of Month page here.

New Testament Related Archaeological Discoveries

Gary Shogren's post here relates his five favorite recent New Testament related archaeological discoveries.

Tips for Creating Effective Instructional Videos

I really want to add videos to my teaching repertoire. This post on "10 Tips for Creating Effective Instructional Videos" looks helpful.

Passover Rube Goldberg Machine

Strange Anti-Climaxes in Ezra–Nehemiah?

I have found The Bible Project's videos to be creative, well-done, and helpful. I recently watched the video on Ezra-Nehemiah. The presentation is fairly straightforward but the video presents Ezra 4, 9–10 and Nehemiah 13 as  strange anti-climaxes.This explanation is interesting but I am not sure I would view the events in these chapters as negatively as they do. In any case, you can check it out for yourself. Feel free to let me know what you think.

Tom Schreiner on Tithing

Tom Schreiner explains here why he believes that Christians are not required to tithe.

Free Audio: Gary Habermas on the Historicity of the Resurrection

Credo Courses are offering free audio of Gary Habermas' course on the historicity of the Resurrection. You can access the offer here.

Paul's Soteriology

Dr. Mike Burer has provided a nice diagram created by some of his students on Paul's soteriology. Check it out here.