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. 

Walter DietrichSamuel (1 Sam 13–26)
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11808
Reviewed by Mark W. Hamilton

David J. Downs
Alms: Charity, Reward, and Atonement in Early Christianity
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11263
Reviewed by Anthony Giambrone

Thomas J. Kraus and Michael Sommer, eds.
Book of Seven Seals
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11424
Reviewed by Garrick V. Allen

Minkyu Lee
The Breaking of Bread and the Breaking of Boundaries: A Study of the Metaphor of Bread in the Gospel of Matthew
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10658
Reviewed by Wongi Park

Alice Mouton
Rites, mythes et prières hittites
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11235
Reviewed by Robert Marineau

Anton Pritula
The Warda: An East Syriac Hymnological Collection: Study and Critical Edition
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11050
Reviewed by Robert A. Kitchen

Susanne Scholz, ed.
Feminist Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Retrospect: Biblical Books
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9644
Reviewed by Jan Jaynes Quesada

Mark A. Seifrid
The Second Letter to the Corinthians
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10006
Reviewed by James P. Sweeney

Mark R. Sneed, ed.
Was There a Wisdom Tradition? New Prospects in Israelite Wisdom Studies
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10687
Reviewed by JiSeong Kwon

Külli Tõniste
The Ending of the Canon: A Canonical and Intertextual Reading of Revelation 21–22
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11196
Reviewed by Darian R. Lockett

Reading 4Q124

This article explains how one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 4Q124, was deciphered.

Struggling Seminaries

This Wall Street Journal article highlights some of challenges facing seminaries today.

Ktiv: The International Collection of Digitized Hebrew Manuscripts

According to this article, the National Library of Israel has created a massive online database of ancient Jewish manuscripts and images from around the world. "The archive contains nearly 4.5 million images from 45,000 manuscripts, including prayer books, biblical texts, commentary, philosophy, literature and scientific writings in various Jewish-related languages such as Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino and Judeo-Arabic." You can access the database here.

Haddon Robinson Remembered

As many of you may know, Haddon Robinson recently passed away. DTS Magazine has a nice article here on the man and his ministry. The piece was actually published before Dr. Robinson's death but is still worth reading or rereading. In 2010, I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Robinson in person. I found him to be as gracious and wise as the article suggests. 

James Charlesworth's and Lee McDonald's Lectures at the Lanier Theological Library

I just noticed that the videos of James Charlesworth's talk, “The Theological Value of the ‘Rejected Texts’ and Dead Sea Scrolls for Understanding Jesus,” and Lee McDonald's "Why and When Was Scripture Written? Looking at the New Testament Writings” are now available.

The ISBN

Here is an article on the mysterious ISBN for all my book nerd friends.

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.

Margaret Aymer, Cynthia Briggs Kittredge, and David A. Sánchez, eds.
Fortress Commentary on the Bible: The New Testament
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10189
Reviewed by Jacqueline M. Hidalgo

Mark J. Boda, Michael H. Floyd, and Colin M. Toffelmire, eds.
The Book of the Twelve and the New Form Criticism
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11093
Reviewed by Aaron Schart

Joshua Ezra Burns
The Christian Schism in Jewish History and Jewish Memory
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11175
Reviewed by Michael Rosenberg

Timo Eskola
A Narrative Theology of the New Testament: Exploring the Metanarrative of Exile and Restoration
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10568
Reviewed by Abson Joseph

Wesley Hill
Paul and the Trinity: Persons, Relations, and the Pauline Letters
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10284
Reviewed by Edmon L. Gallagher

Bo Isaksson and Maria Persson, eds.
Strategies of Clause Linking in Semitic Languages: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Clause Linking in Semitic Languages, Kivik, Sweden, 5–7 August 2012
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10533
Reviewed by Benjamin J. Noonan

Max Küchler
Jerusalem: Ein Handbuch und Studienreiseführer zur Heiligen Stadt
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10984
Reviewed by James F. McGrath

Andrew M. Mbuvi
Jude and 2 Peter: A New Covenant Commentary
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10946
Reviewed by Darian R. Lockett

Mark McEntire
A Chorus of Prophetic Voices: Introducing the Prophetic Literature of Ancient Israel
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10829
Reviewed by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer

Jorunn Økland, J. Cornelis de Vos, and Karen J. Wenell, eds.
Constructions of Space III: Biblical Spatiality and the Sacred
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11305
Reviewed by Bart B. Bruehler

Tips on Writing and Scholarship

The Eerdmans Blog has tips from some of its authors on writing and scholarship here.

Learning Student's Names

This article provides some helpful tips for learning student's names.

Anti-Traditional Biases in Biblical Studies?

I posted a link to Joshua Berman's article on the corruption of biblical studies some time back and now Michael Kok has listed links to a number of responses here.

Twelve Pastoral Commitments

Kevin DeYoung has twelve pastoral commitments drawn from 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12 that are worth considering here.

Free Logos Book for August: Why I Am a Christian

The free Logos Book of the Month for August is Why I Am a Christian by John Stott. You can also purchase Stott's The Incomparable Christ for $1.99. For both offers you can go to the Logos' Free Book of Month page here.

Ten Ways to Organize Your Bookshelf

This article discusses ten ways to organize your bookshelf. But for an OCD academic like myself, organizing by color or randomly (is that an oxymoron?) is anathema!

The Problem of Academic Language

This article bemoaning the difficulties associating with much academic language probably also relates to biblical studies as well.

Four Common Misconceptions about Learning

Here is a brief but helpful reminder concerning four common misconceptions about learning. I actually shared similar points with a student recently.

Schreiner on the Law in Galatians

Check out Tom Schreiner's comments here on the role of the Law in Galatians

The Distinction between Genre and Style

Leslie Allen, provides a helpful explanation of the distinction between genre and style noting that, 

Genre can provide the skeleton of a passage, but rhetorical style is an aspect of its flesh and blood. If genre helps the informed reader by providing typicality, a stylistic analysis uncovers the passage’s individuality that sets it apart from other examples of the same genre.

(Jeremiah: A Commentary, Old Testament Library, ed. William P. Brown, Carol A. Newsom, and David L. Petersen [Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2008], 6).

The Danger of Obscuring the Text

As I was preparing to teach Romans again, I came across the following reminder from Doug Moo. 

The interpreter of Romans is faced with the danger that the text of what Paul himself wrote will become obscured by the reams and reams of material that other people have written about the text. Thomas Hobbes is reputed to have said, “If I read as many books as most men do, I would be as dull-witted as they are.” Certainly it is easy for the interpreter of Scripture to substitute broad reading in books about the text for deep reading in the text itself. In no book of the Bible is this more of a temptation than in Romans, and I hope I have not succumbed to it.

(The Epistle to the Romans, New International Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), xviii.

How Many Members Did the First Century Church at Philippi Have?

Eduard Verhoef suggests that the church numbered around 33 in the AD 60s. He arrives at this number by noting that, “All in all we can list 11 people who had chosen to go the way indicated by Paul: Lydia, the goaler [sic, jailer], two bishops, two deacons, Epaphroditus, Eudia, Syntyche, the ‘companion’ and Clement.”

He also then notes, “The 11 people mentioned above will have belonged to different families. The average family may have consisted of two parents, two children and two slaves. Let us say that half of those people comprised the congregation, there were 11 x 3 = 33 members of the congregation. Verhoef is cautious about the number, noting the uncertainties and hypothetical nature of the data. But he also suggests that 33 is “defendable.” Eduard Verhoef, Philippi: How Christianity Began in Europe: The Epistle to the Philippians and the Excavations at Philippi (London: Bloomsbury, 2013), 21–22.

New Open Access Journal: Text and Archaeology

There is a new open access journal entitled Archaeology and Text, edited by Itzik Shai and David Small. You can access the first volume here. 

HT: Aren Maier

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.

Michael F. Bird
The Gospel of the Lord: How the Early Church Wrote the Story of Jesus
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9962
Reviewed by Albert Lukaszewski
Reviewed by Youngju Kwon

Ellis R. Brotzman and Eric J. Tully
Old Testament Textual Criticism: A Practical Introduction
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11490
Reviewed by Terry Giles

Andrew J. Brown
The Days of Creation: A History of Christian Interpretation of Genesis 1:1–2:3
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10844
Reviewed by James F. McGrath

Alexandra Gruca-Macaulay
Lydia as a Rhetorical Construct in Acts
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11359
Reviewed by Marianne Blickenstaff

David Luckensmeyer and Pauline Allen, eds.
Studies of Religion and Politics in the Early Christian Centuries
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8152
Reviewed by Aaron Ricker

Dinh Anh Nhue Nguyen, ed.
The Bible and Asian Culture: Reading the Word of God in Its Cultural Background and in the Vietnamese Context
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11146
Reviewed by Jione Havea

Peter Oakes
Galatians
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10275
Reviewed by Bart J. Koet and Jaap F. van der Meij

David Lee Phillips
The Samaritan Version of the Book of Numbers with Hebrew Variants: A Close Textual Study
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10796
Reviewed by Nathan R. Jastram

Daniel Y. Wu
Honor, Shame, and Guilt: Social-Scientific Approaches to the Book of Ezekiel
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11457
Reviewed by Tobias Häner

Canonization as a Card Game

Apparently, there is now a card game related to the biblical canon. You can read about it here.

The Idea of Missions in the Old Testament

"J. H. Bavink once observed that “at first sight the Old Testament appears to offer little basis for the idea of missions,” adding that “that entire pagan world is portrayed more as a constant threat and temptation to Israel than as an area in which God will reveal his salvation.” However, when the Old Testament is more thoroughly studied, it soon appears that there is much concern for the future of the nations and that God’s plan of salvation has the whole world in view. Any account of missions in the Old and New Testaments must take account of the fundamental principles found in the revelation of God. The perspective of Holy Scripture is from the beginning universal, ecumenical and missionary. The first concern of the Bible is not with Hebrews but with humanity, The Bible does not begin with the birth of Abraham, father of the people, or with Moses, prophet of God, but with the creation of the world and the advent of man.” 

Richard R. DeRidder, Discipling the Nations, Twin Brooks Series (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1975), 14.

Repetition in Genesis

Sam Bray notes here the importance of noting and translating repetitions in the Bible, notably in this case Genesis.