Journal of Biblical Literature 141:4

 Volume 141:4 of the Journal of Biblical Literature is now out. Here is a list of the articles with links to abstracts.

The Literary-Historical Memory of Sargon of Akkad in Assyria as the Background for Nimrod in Genesis 10:8–12
Christopher W. Jones

The Tabernacle Manual: Exodus 25:1–31:18 in Light of the Cuneiform Procedural Genre
Brian Donnelly-Lewis

Kingship and Covenant: Reconsidering the Oath of David and Jonathan
Sophia R. C. Johnson

Mourning for Tammuz: Prophecy and Projection in Ezekiel 8:14
William S. Morrow

4QpaleoExodm and the Gerizim Composition
Hila Dayfani

The Relationship between 3 Maccabees and the Vetus Latina of Esther
Jonathan A. Thambyrajah

The Golden Rule and Ancient Jewish Biblical Exegesis: The Pluriformity of a Tradition
Menahem Kister

Matthean Conflations and Luke’s Utilization Procedure under the Farrer Hypothesis: In Defense of F. Gerald Downing
Olegs Andrejevs and David B. Sloan

Our Cloud of Witnesses: A Writing of Hebrews 11:1–12:2 in Memory of the Asian and Asian American Women Killed 16 March 2021
Yii-Jan Lin

The “Community Setting” of the Ascension of Isaiah: A New Analysis
Jonathan Knight

The Calling of the First Disciples

Ian Paul does a nice job here in unpacking some of the details of Jesus' calling of the first disciples.

How to Properly Dispose of a Bible

Interesting post here on how one should properly dispose of a presumably old or worn out  Bible that is otherwise no longer usable. As the post points out, the Bible itself does not directly address the issue and owning a Bible was not really possible for most people until the invention of the printing press nearly 600 years ago.

The Pool of Siloam

Carl Rasmussen has nice post on the forthcoming excavations on the Pool of Siloam here.

Explore the Gap Online Seminar

Jerusalem University College is offering a free online two-day seminar on topics of biblical history, geography, and culture, February 3-4, 2023.

Friday, February 3, the event will run from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm EST and on Saturday, February 4, the seminar will take place from 9:00am to 1:30 pm EST.

To learn more about the seminar and to register, please visit www.juc.edu/online-seminar-2023

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.

Florian Durner, Die Trostschriften des Ambrosius von Mailand: Consolatio mortis im Denken der Spätantike (Mohr Siebeck)
Brian Dunkle, S.J.

Catherine Hezser and Diana V. Edelman, eds., The Use and Dissemination of Religious Knowledge in Antiquity (Equinox)
Mark W. Hamilton

Jaeyoung Jeon and Louis C. Jonker, eds., Chronicles and the Priestly Literature of the Hebrew Bible (De Gruyter)
David Rothstein

Jessica M. Keady, Vulnerability and Valour: A Gendered Analysis of Everyday Life in the Dead Sea Scrolls Communities (Bloomsbury)
Michael DeVries

Tat-siong Benny Liew and Fernando F. Segovia, eds., Reading Biblical Texts Together: Pursuing Minoritized Biblical Criticism (SBL Press)
Néstor Medina

Eunyung Lim, Entering God’s Kingdom (Not) Like A Little Child: Images of the Child in Matthew, 1 Corinthians, and Thomas (De Gruyter)

Sharon Betsworth

Edwina Murphy, The Bishop and the Apostle: Cyprian’s Pastoral Exegesis of Paul (De Gruyter)
Steven Edward Harris

Joseph Sievers and Amy-Jill Levine, eds., The Pharisees (Eerdmans)
William Sanger Campbell

Cleaning Hacks for Used Books

There is helpful advice here for all you bibliophiles out there. Although I don't buy as many used books these days, there are still helpful titles out there that are out of print and not digitally available. So I will be following some of these suggestions.

Preaching: The Year’s Best Bibles and Reference

Preaching has provided a pretty nice discussion here of 2021's best Bibles and Bible reference materials. I know it is a year behind but still worth looking at.

Psalm 101

I am working on a commentary on the Psalms. I have decided to compile some helpful links that I discovered during my research. It includes a mix of exegetical and sermonic links. Here is what I have for Psalm 101 (in no particular order). Feel free to mention any that you find helpful in the comments section.

Analysis by C. J. Labuschagne: https://www.labuschagne.nl/ps101.pdf

William Barrick’s notes: https://drbarrick.org/files/studynotes/Psalms/Ps_101.pdf

James Hamilton Sermon, “The King’s Values” : https://kenwoodbaptistchurch.com/sermons/the-kings-values

Psalm 101 devotional: https://www.generations.org/devotionals/114

Daniel Akin sermon resources: https://www.danielakin.com/12-marks-of-a-wise-and-trustworthy-leader-psalm-101

John and Matthew

This is an interesting post on whether John is aware of or uses Matthew.

Psalm 100

I am working on a commentary on the Psalms. I have decided to compile some helpful links that I discovered during my research. It includes a mix of exegetical and sermonic links. Here is what I have for Psalm 100 (in no particular order). Feel free to mention any that you find helpful in the comments section.

Analysis by C. J. Labuschagne: https://www.labuschagne.nl/ps100.pdf

“Global Gladness” sermon by S. Lewis Johnson: http://sljinstitute.net/miscellaneous-topics/global-gladness

William Barrick’s notes: https://drbarrick.org/files/studynotes/Psalms/Ps_100.pdf

John Piper, Education for Exaltation: https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/education-for-exultation

Psalm 100 devotional: https://www.generations.org/devotionals/113

Daniel Akin sermon resources: https://www.danielakin.com/the-lord-is-god-and-he-is-good-through-the-psalms-series

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.

Jeannine K. Brown and Kyle Roberts, Matthew (Eerdmans)
Akiva Cohen

Reed Carlson, Unfamiliar Selves in the Hebrew Bible: Possession and Other Spirit Phenomena (De Gruyter)
Mareike Verena Blischke

Jože Krašovec, God’s Righteousness and Justice in the Old Testament (Eerdmans)
David G. Firth

Steven L. McKenzie, 1 Kings 16–2 Kings 16 (Kohlhammer)
Cameron B. R. Howard

Jocelyn McWhirter and Sylvie T. Raquel, eds., Teaching the Bible with Undergraduates (SBL Press)
Sandie Gravett

D. Francois Tolmie, Pointing Out Persuasion in Philemon: Fifty Readings of Paul’s Rhetoric From the Fourth to the Eighteenth Century (Mohr Siebeck)
Harry O. Maier

Charlie Trimm, The Destruction of the Canaanites: God, Genocide, and Biblical Interpretation (Eerdmans)
Rory J. Balfour

Barbara Villani, ed., Kyrill von Alexandrien, De adoratione et cultu in spiritu et veritate, Buch 1: Einführung, kritischer Text, Übersetzung und Anmerkungen (De Gruyter)
Konrad F. Zawadzki

Free Webinar: Contextualizing Your Preaching

David Allen is offering a free webinar on Thursday, January 19, on how to contextualize preaching. You can sign up here.

Praying the Psalms

Claude Mariottini has a nice post on the topic here.

Free eBook: Of Martyrs, Monks, and Mystics

Wipf and Stock is offering a free eBook copy of Of Martyrs, Monks, and Mystics: A Yearly Meditational Reader of Ancient Spiritual Wisdom by Charles Ringma and Irene Alexander. I did not see an expiration date so you might want to act sooner rather than later. Here are the instructions to get your copy.

1. Click on this link.
2. Click "BUY" on the eBook option.
3. Click "Add Coupon" and use the code "RINGMA22"
4. Upon checkout completion, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions of how to download your free eBook.

The OT Background to Jesus' Baptism

Ian Paul has an interested discussion here on the OT background to Jesus' baptism focusing particularly on Matthew's account. 

I would make just one minor comment concerning Paul's statement that, "Contrary to all artistic depiction (including the mosaic above from Ravenna), what happens next occurs after Jesus has ‘gone up out of the water’, in other words, once he has left the river and is on the bank once more." While the text does state, "Jesus came up immediately from the water" (NASB), this does not have to mean that he would have have to have go to shore. For example, one could say that "a whale came up out of the water." Furthermore, the idea of "immediately" (εὐθὺς) seems more naturally to refer to coming up out from under the water than hastening back to shore. So, I am not sure certainty is warranted in either case.

Bible Reading

One of my regular practices is to read through the Bible every year. There are many reasons to do this and Tim Casteel give five of them 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.

Israel Finkelstein and Mario A. S. Martin, eds., Megiddo VI: The 2010–2014 Seasons (Eisenbrauns)
Avraham Faust

H. H. Hardy II, The Development of Biblical Hebrew Prepositions (SBL Press)
Elitzur A. Bar-Asher Siegal

Brian Larsen, Archetypes and the Fourth Gospel: Literature and Theology in Conversation (T&T Clark)
Paul N. Anderson

Hanne Løland Levinson, The Death Wish in the Hebrew Bible: Rhetorical Strategies for Survival (Cambridge University Press)
David G. Firth

Kevin M. McGeough, Representations of Antiquity in Film: From Griffith to Grindhouse (Equinox)
Philippa Carter

Nicolò Rizzolo, Pesher: L’interpretazione della Parola per la fine dei giorni (Peeters)
Jeffrey L. Morrow

Love Lazarus Sechrest, Race and Rhyme: Rereading the New Testament (Eerdmans)
Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder

Wilbert P. Stelzer, A New Reconstruction of the Text of 2 Corinthians in Pelagius’s Commentary on the Pauline Epistles (Gorgias)
W. Andrew Smith

Free Logos Resources for January

Logos is offering two freebies this month: After God’s Own Heart: The Gospel According to David by Mark Boda and Herbert McCabe's The New Creation. You can also purchase other resources at significant discounts and enter to win the 13-volume Eerdmans Commentary Collection." These offers can be accessed here and here.

Year in Review

Faculty Focus has posted a nice year in review here. For those who are teachers, there are posts that are worth reading or reading.