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.

Linda L. Belleville and B. J. Oropeza, eds., Scripture, Texts, and Tracings in 1 Corinthians
Reviewed by H. H. Drake Williams III

Constanza Cordoni, Seder Eliyahu: A Narratological Reading
Reviewed by Joshua Schwartz

David L. Eastman, The Many Deaths of Peter and Paul
Reviewed by Rafael Rodríguez

Te-Li Lau, Defending Shame: Its Formative Power in Paul’s Letters
Reviewed by Jackson Wu

Bruce W. Longenecker, In Stone and Story: Early Christianity in the Roman World
Reviewed by Kay Higuera Smith

Collin McAllister, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Apocalyptic Literature
Reviewed by Gerbern S. Oegema

Michael S. Moore, WealthWarn: A Study of Socioeconomic Conflict in Hebrew Prophecy
Reviewed by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer

Maik Patzelt, Über das Beten der Römer: Gebete im spätrepublikanischen und frühkaiserzeitlichen Rom als Ausdruck gelebter Religion
Reviewed by Boris Paschke

Daniel Prokop, The Pillars of the First Temple (1 Kgs 7:15–22): A Study from Ancient Near Eastern, Biblical, Archaeological, and Iconographic Perspectives
Reviewed by Michael Avioz

Katherine E. Southwood, Job’s Body and the Dramatised Comedy of Moralising
Reviewed by David Penchansky

Free Audio Book of the Month: All of Grace

Christianaudio.com's free audio book for the month of May is Charles Spurgeon's All of Grace. To read more about this resource and to get your free audio download in either MP3 or M4B formats go here.

Free Daniel Commentary

The Good Book Company is giving away a digital version of Daniel Helm’s Daniel for You in exchange for an email address here.

HT: Antony Billington

The Bible in Assyriology, Past and Present Seminar

The recent online seminar entitled, "Jehu's Tribute: The Bible in Assyriology, Past and Present" is now available at the Institute for the Liberal Arts at Boston College Youtube channel (Day 1) here and (Day 2) here. You can access the schedule of speakers and presentations here.

Mapping Five Movements in Isaiah

Davy Ellison suggests here that one way to navigate the book of Isaiah is to view the book in five movements. I'm not sure I would agree with every point but I appreciate efforts like this to coherence in the flow of a book.

Obadiah and the Three Sins of Edom

Clint Archer looks here at the three sins that Edom was guilty of according to the book of Obadiah.

Free Logos Resources for May: The Storied World of the Bible Course and Christian Philosophy in the Early Church Book

The free Logos resources for the month for May are a course by N. T. Wright, The Storied World of the Bible and a book by Anthony Meredith, Christian Philosophy in the Early Church. You can also purchase the following courses and books at reduced prices.

• 15 Essential Biblical Texts Course by N. T. Wright for $9.99
• Paul and His Letter to the Romans Part 1 Course by N. T. Wright for $24.99
• Paul and His Letter to the Romans Part 2 Course by N. T. Wright for $34.99
• Paul and His Letter to the Romans Part 3 Course by N. T. Wright for $19.99The God of Philosophy by Francis Aveling for $1.99
• Scripture and Tradition in the Church by Yves Congar for $5.99
• The Ethics of Aquinas by Stephen Pope for $5.99
• A New Introduction to the Synoptic Gospels by Roland Meynet for $9.99

You can also register for a chance to win the 514-volume N. T. Wright Collection. For all these offers, go to the Logos' Free Book of Month page here and here.

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.

Garrick V. Allen, Kai Akagi, Paul Sloan, and Madhavi Nevader, eds., Son of God: Divine Sonship in Jewish and Christian Antiquity
Reviewed by D. Clint Burnett

Sherri Brown and Francis J. Moloney, Interpreting the New Testament: An Introduction
Reviewed by John W. Martens

Josette Elayi, Sargon II, King of Assyria
Reviewed by Shawn Zelig Aster

Matthew C. Genung, The Composition of Genesis 37: Incoherence and Meaning in the Exposition of the Joseph Story
Reviewed by Edward L. Greenstein

Jörg Jeremias; Judith Gärtner and Friedhelm Hartenstein, eds., Studien zum Dodekapropheton II: Gesammelte Aufsätze zu Joel, Obadja, Jona, Micha und Nahum
Reviewed by Anna Maria Bortz

Mark J. Keown, Discovering the New Testament: An Introduction to Its Background, Theology, and Themes—Volume: 1: The Gospels and Acts
Reviewed by Craig L. Blomberg

Mark R. Meyer, trans., Exodus according to the Syriac Peshitta Version with English Translation
Reviewed by Brett LaPrad

Jens Schröter, Die apokryphen Evangelien: Jesusüberlieferungen außerhalb der Bibel
Reviewed by Zacharias Shoukry

Jason Scully, Isaac of Nineveh’s Ascetical Eschatology
Reviewed by Patrik Hagman

Keith W. Whitelam; Emanuel Pfoh, ed., Revealing the History of Ancient Palestine
Reviewed by Aaron Koller

The True Vine in John 15

Ian Paul has a helpful post on Jesus as the True Vine in John 15 here.

Plagiarizing Sermons

I have posted on the topic of sermon plagiarism several times over the years and sadly it continues to be a problem. In fact it is probably even bigger now because technology has made it even easier. See this article from Religion News Service.

HT: Scot McKnight

Tattoos in the Old Testament and Rabbinic Tradition

David Bernat has a nice discussion here on on the permissibility of tattoos in Leviticus 19:28 and in rabbinic tradition.

Themelios 46:1

I just realized that the April issue of Themelios is out. You can access it for free on several different platforms here.

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.

David J. H. Beldman, Judges
Reviewed by Eric D. McDonnell Jr.

Joseph Blenkinsopp, Essays on the Book of Isaiah
Reviewed by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer

Johann Cook and Martin Rösel, eds., Toward a Theology of the Septuagint: Stellenbosch Congress on the Septuagint, 2018
Reviewed by A. Jordan Schmidt

Melissa Eppihimer, Exemplars of Kingship: Art, Tradition, and the Legacy of the Akkadians
Reviewed by Sebastian Fink

Tchavdar S. Hadjiev, Joel, Obadiah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah: An Introduction and Study Guide
Reviewed by Andrew T. Abernethy

Walter A. Maier III, 1 Kings 12–22
Reviewed by David B. Schreiner

Edoardo Maria Palma, Transformàti in Cristo: L’antropologia paolina nella Lettera ai Galati
Reviewed by Gudrun Nassauer

Madison N. Pierce, Divine Discourse in the Epistle to the Hebrews: The Recontextualization of Spoken Quotations of Scripture
Reviewed by J. Michael McKay Jr.

Martin Schott, Sacharja 9–14: Eine kompositionsgeschichtliche Analyse
Reviewed by Edgar Kellenberger

Ruth Sheridan, The Figure of Abraham in John 8: Text and Intertext
Reviewed by Adele Reinhartz

Hagith Sivan, Jewish Childhood in the Roman World
Reviewed by Joshua Schwartz

David L. Stubbs, Table and Temple: The Christian Eucharist and Its Jewish Roots
Reviewed by Lori Baron

The Samaritans

There is a pretty good article here on the Samaritans, both past and present.

Parables on the Kingdom of God/Heaven

Steve Walton has made his slides from a recent talk he gave on the parables and the kingdom of god/Heaven available here as a free PDF.

The Beatitudes

Nijay Gupta has a good interview with Rebekah Eklund on the Beatitudes here. It sounds like her forthcoming book on the reception history of the Beatitudes will be helpful.

Skin Diseases in Leviticus 13

Albert Baumgarten has an interesting post here that focuses on why partial skin infections are apparently "unclean" and complete skin infections considered "clean" (Lev 13). Although the article is framed by that issue it also addresses the issue of skin diseases more generally.

Worship Fail

Recently while teaching through Zechariah 14, I was struck by the idea that worship is an expression of obedience and as such failure to worship has consequences. This can be seen in vv. 17-19. Here, failure to observe the Feast of Tabernacles leads to the withholding of God's blessings ("rain") and the reception of God's punishment ("plagues"). So, although care needs to be exercised here since this is an eschatological passage, a principle derived from this text suggests that we might fail to experience God's goodness because we fail to acknowledge God's greatness.

Latest Issue of THink

Tyndale House has just released a new and free issue of their journal THink. You can access it here.

 

Mail Ministry

 Gary Shogren has a good post here on how answering mail is also ministry. I agree wholeheartedly.

How Biblical Geography Shapes Our View of God’s Mission

When I first began studying the Bible, I was not very interested in the geographical elements in the text. But the more time I have spent in the Scriptures, the more I have come to appreciate how the geography is part of its story. So I was happy to see Kelsa Graybill explaining five ways that biblical geography shapes our view of God's mission here.

The Christian and Leviticus 18

I am very interested in how the issue of Mosaic Law relates to the Christian. So, I was happy to see Thomas Willoughby's article "Does Leviticus 18 Apply to New Testament Believers?" (here). Unfortunately, the question in the title is barely addressed and concludes with something like believers should be aware and concerned about issues of sexual ethics. I don't think that this conclusion is altogether insightful or helpful.

"Y'all" Is Biblical

Folks down here in Texas already know this but Ryan Martin explains why it is true here.

2 Samuel in the Photo Companion to the Bible Series

Todd Bolen and the folks at BiblePlaces have just released their newest volume in the Photo Companion to the Bible series.This volume focuses on 2 Samuel and provides a beaucoup of pictorial resources (2,900 photos!) arranged by chapter/verse in well-designed PowerPoint presentations. Check it out here. It is currently at the significantly discounted price of $39, a price that includes the option for immediate download, the DVD, and free shipping. If you are working in, or plan to work in, 2 Samuel, this resource really is one you should have. You might also want to check out the other available volumes here.