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.

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.

Barbara Aland, Kurt Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, and Bruce Metzger, eds.
The Greek New Testament with Dictionary
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10092
Reviewed by Timothy A. Brookins

Herbert W. Basser with Marsha B. Cohen
The Gospel of Matthew and Judaic Traditions: A Relevance-Based Commentary
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10403
Reviewed by Akiva Cohen

Martin Leuenberger, ed.
Segen
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10551
Reviewed by Bob Becking

Jack R. Lundbom
Jeremiah: Prophet Like Moses
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10784
Reviewed by Samuel Hildebrandt

Robert D. Miller II, ed.
Between Israelite Religion and Old Testament Theology: Essays on Archaeology, History, and Hermeneutics
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11323
Reviewed by Ryan P. Bonfiglio

B. J. Oropeza
Exploring Second Corinthians: Death and Life, Hardship and Rivalry
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11261
Reviewed by Elliott C. Maloney, OSB
Reviewed by Adam White

Christopher R. Seitz
Colossians
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10027
Reviewed by Devin L. White

Joan E. Taylor, ed.
Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and His Times via Monty Python’s Life of Brian
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10866
Reviewed by Brian LePort

Risto Uro
Ritual and Christian Beginnings: A Socio-cognitive Analysis
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11290
Reviewed by Maria Karyakina

Staff Bios

Thom Rainer has some good suggestions here on six things to include in church staff bios. I think this would also relate to faculty bios as well.

Archaeological Conservation

During my recent participation at the Tel Gezer dig, I learned that what is uncovered must either be protected or conserved. So sometimes what is uncovered is re-covered to protect it. In other cases, what has been exposed is left exposed. In such instances, conservation or preservation is undertaken. In this post, Leen Ritmyer gives an excellent explanation of what is involved in conservation and his involvement at Tel Shiloh.

Fly Through Animation of Ai (Khirbet el-Maqatir)

Fly Through Animation of the fortress of Ai based on the archaeological excavations at Khirbet el-Maqatir.

The Corruption of Biblical Studies?

This essay does a decent job in pointing out the tensions between religious and academic studies of the Bible and how the latter is not as agenda driven as the former. As the subtitle points out, the "Academic scrutiny of scripture, a discipline prey to intellectual fashion since its inception, is today pursued by many in the service of secular liberal positions."

HT: Rob Bradshaw

Five “Fake News” Stories Related to Early Christianity

Michael Kruger identifies five “fake news” stories that many people believe about early Christianity here.

Project Habakkuk

This story might need to be put in the bizarre file, but you can read about a secret proposal called "Project Habakkuk," to build aircraft carriers out of ice during WW II.