Sheep and Goats and Matthew 25:31-46

Ian Paul has an excellent discussion here of Matthew 25:31-46 and he is spot on concerning the identity of "the least of these."

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.

Noga Ayali-Darshan, Treading on the Back of Sea: The Combat between the Storm God and the Sea in Ancient Near Eastern Literature [Hebrew]
Reviewed by S. David Sperling

Cilliers Breytenbach and Christiane Zimmermann, Early Christianity in Lycaonia and Adjacent Areas: From Paul to Amphilochius of Iconium
Reviewed by Rosemary Canavan

Douglas S. Earl, Reading Old Testament Narrative as Christian Scripture
Reviewed by Benjamin J. M. Johnson

Jörg Frey and Enno Edzard Popkes, eds. Jesus, Paulus und die Texte von Qumran
Reviewed by Peter Porzig

Anthony Giambrone, Sacramental Charity, Creditor Christology, and the Economy of Salvation in Luke’s Gospel
Reviewed by Timothy W. Reardon

Christoph Heilig, J. Thomas Hewitt, and Michael F. Bird, eds. God and the Faithfulness of Paul: A Critical Examination of the Pauline Theology of N. T. Wright
Reviewed by Nijay Gupta

Christoph Levin and Reinhard Müller, eds. Herrschaftslegitimation in vorderorientalischen Reichen der Eisenzeit
Reviewed by Andrew Knapp
 
Alicia D. Myers, Blessed among Women? Mothers and Motherhood in the New Testament
Reviewed by Matthew S. Collins

Christian R. Thauer and Christian Wendt, eds., Thucydides and Political Order: Concepts of Order and the History of the Peloponnesian War
Reviewed by Thomas P. Nelligan

K. Lawson Younger Jr., A Political History of the Arameans: From Their Origins to the End of Their Polities
Reviewed by Stefania Mazzoni 

Esther from Memory

I was recently perusing through Morris Adler's The World of the Talmud and came upon the comment. It really does put my memorization efforts to shame.

"The process of writing text in Rabbinic times was both a difficult and costly process. Few could own copies, even of Scriptures. Rabbi Meir once came to a Jewish community in Asia Minor and could not find a single copy of the Scroll of Esther. Being a scribe by profession and a scholar by advocation, he was able to write on from memory" (The World of the Talmud. 2nd ed. [New York: Schocken, 1963], 33).

The Problem with Prophet, Priest, and King as a Modern Leadership Typology

Timothy Paul Jones has a very good caution here against using the roles of prophet, priest, and king as a pastoral leadership typology.

Raising Support for Seminary

Two posts here and here are are entitled, "How to afford Seminary," but they are really more about how to raise support for seminary. That being said, there is helpful advice to be had. Although, my approach was a bit different, support raising is one reason that I was able to complete three degrees with zero debt.

Free Dead Sea Scrolls Resource

Frank Turek has partnered with Rose Publishing to make their Dead Sea Scrolls booklet/brochure available as a free PDF download. You can access the offer here. You do have to sign up with your email to get this resource.

Psalm 139

The Zondervan Academic blog has posted here an excerpt from the new commentary on Psalm 139 from a new commentary by W. Dennis Tucker and Jamie A. Grant.

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.

Ken Brown, The Vision in Job 4 and Its Role in the Book: Reframing the Development of the Joban Dialogues
Reviewed by Tobias Häner

Danna Nolan Fewell, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Narrative
Reviewed by Hannah M. Strømmen

Dorotei Getov, A Catalogue of the Greek Manuscripts at the Ecclesiastical Historical and Archival Institute of the Patriarchate of Bulgaria: Volume I: Backovo Monastery
Reviewed by W. Andrew Smith

Dominic S. Irudayaraj, Violence, Otherness and Identity in Isaiah 63:1–6: The Trampling One Coming from Edom
Reviewed by Soo J. Kim

Robert Knapp, The Dawn of Christianity: People and Gods in a Time of Magic and Miracles
Reviewed by Lee M. Jefferson

Kevin McGeough, The Ancient Near East in the Nineteenth Century: Appreciations and Appropriations: I. Claiming and Conquering
Reviewed by Jason Anthony Riley

Jason M. Silverman and Caroline Waerzeggers, eds., Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire
Reviewed by Jenny Rose

David Stern, The Jewish Bible: A Material History
Reviewed by Barry Dov Walfish

Michael E. Stone, Uncovering Ancient Footprints: Armenian Inscriptions and the Pilgrimage Routes of the Sinai
Reviewed by Sergio La Porta

Timothy Wiarda, Spirit and Word: Dual Testimony in Paul, John, and Luke
Reviewed by Mark Matson

"Placebo Buttons"

This is an interesting article on "placebo buttons" and how they give people the illusion of control. Surely, there is a sermon illustration or two here.

Red Heifers and Dominus Flevit

See this post by Carl Rasmussen connecting red heifers with Dominus Flevit. I had seen the story on the red heifers but was not aware of the possible connection to Dominus Flevit. For biblical references see Numbers 19 and Hebrews 9:13.

The Names of the Shofar Calls

This article explains the names of three of the the traditional shofar calls. Only three are discussed because the article relates to the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah which apparently only uses three discussed. The word shofar occurs about 44 times in the Old Testament.

Free Audio: Old Testament Theology

Credo Course is offering free audio here of their Old Testament Theology course taught by Tremper Longman. I am not sure how long this offer will be available.

The Book of Revelation and a Hotel in Vietnam

See this National Geographic article on a hotel in Vietnam that is inspired by imagery from the book of Revelation.

The Garden of Eden

The post entitled, "10 Things You Should Know about the Garden of Eden" is interesting. But, the title is a bit imprecise. Actually, only five (or maybe only four) of the points relate specifically to the garden itself while the rest specifically concern Adam and Eve. The post is also pretty much extrapolations from the text rather than dealing with the text of Genesis 2-3.

Free Audio Book of the Month: How to Battle Depression and Suicidal Thoughts

Christianaudio.com's free audio book of the month is Ray Comfort's How to Battle Depression and Suicidal Thoughts,  a timely offer in light of the recent suicide of a pastor in California. To read more about this resource and to get your free audio download in either MP3 or M4B formats go 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.

Kenneth Cuffey, The Literary Coherence of the Book of Micah: Remnant, Restoration, and Promise
Reviewed by Julia M. O’Brien

T. M. Derico, Oral Tradition and Synoptic Verbal Agreement: Evaluating the Empirical Evidence for Literary Dependence
Reviewed by Arie W. Zwiep

Carl R. Holladay, Acts
Reviewed by Kenneth D. Litwak

Wolfgang Kraus, Michaël van der Meer, and Martin Meiser, eds., XV Congress of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Reviewed by Theo van der Louw

Noel Lenski, Constantine and the Cities: Imperial Authority and Civic Politics
Reviewed by Young Richard Kim

Jack R. Lundbom, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: Mandating a Better Righteousness
Reviewed by Charles L. Quarles

Heikki Räisänen, The Bible among Scriptures and Other Essays
Reviewed by Davina C. Lopez

Vítor Hugo Schell, Die Areopagrede des Paulus und Reden bei Josephus: Eine vergleichende Studie zu Apg 17 und dem historiographischen Werk des Josephus
Reviewed by Lars Kierspel

Carolyn J. Sharp, ed., The Oxford Handbook of the Prophets
Reviewed by Phillip G. Camp

Christian Stettler, Das Endgericht bei Paulus: Framesemantische und exegetische Studien zur Paulinischen Eschatologie und Soterologie
Reviewed by Jermo van Nes