Nehemiah's Jerusalem in 3-D

I'm not sure that this video recreation of Post-Exilic Jerusalem is entirely accurate and there by necessity is a significant amount of artistic imagination but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Sermon or Soliloquy?

Larry Robertson has a a good word for all pastors and preachers here.

Praying the Psalms

Christopher Ash offers seven reasons here.

Studying Ezra

Jesse Johnson explains here why it should be done.

Preaching Ecclesiastes

Willem VanGemeren briefly explains why in a video here.

Free Logos Book for October: Freedom of the Will

The free Logos Book for the Month for October is Jonathan Edwards' Freedom of the Will from The Works of Jonathan Edwards. You can also purchase Edwards' Ethical Writings and Notes on Scripture in the same series for $1.99 and $4.99 respectively. You can also register for a chance win the three-volume Archaeology of the Land of the Bible. For all these offers, go to the Logos' Free Book of Month page here.

Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry 16:2

You can access a free PDF copy of just released Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry here.

Theological Interpretation of Scripture

Stephen Chapman talks about the theological interpretation of Scripture here. I particularly enjoyed the following paragraph.

"A major difference in the most recent call for theological interpretation is thus its awareness of biblical theology’s shortcomings. As especially Stephen Fowl has stressed, it is inadequate to imagine that the Bible contains eternal theological concepts that can simply be mined, like gold ore, from their contextual bedrock. The Bible is not only about ideas but affections, practices, and a communal manner of life. Furthermore, every effort to delineate a theology “in” the Bible is also necessarily a constructive attempt to articulate a theology “of” the Bible, whether this is admitted or not. Biblical theology retains a valuable role, but something more is needed."

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.

John A. Davies, Lift Up Your Heads: Nonverbal Communication and Related Imagery in the Bible
Reviewed by Paul Korchin

Kathleen Gallagher Elkins, Mary, Mother of Martyrs: How Motherhood Became Self-Sacrifice in Early Christianity
Reviewed by Alicia D. Myers

William G. Fowler and Michael Strickland, The Influence of Ezekiel in the Fourth Gospel: Intertextuality and Interpretation
Reviewed by Chris Blumhofer

Richard Hidary, Rabbis and Classical Rhetoric: Sophistic Education and Oratory in the Talmud and Midrash
Reviewed by Thomas H. Olbricht

Jill E. Marshall, Women Praying and Prophesying in Corinth: Gender and Inspired Speech in First Corinthians
Reviewed by H. H. Drake Williams III

Kevin Mattison, Rewriting and Revision as Amendment in the Laws of Deuteronomy
Reviewed by Bradford A. Anderson

David T. Runia and Gregory E. Sterling, eds., Studia Philonica Annual: Studies in Hellenistic Judaism, Volume XXVIII (2016)
Reviewed by Tyler Smith

Aaron Tugendhaft, Baal and the Politics of Poetry
Reviewed by Christine Neal Thomas

Shira Weiss, Ethical Ambiguity in the Hebrew Bible: Philosophical Analysis of Scriptural Narrative
Reviewed by Jaco Gericke

Recent Romans Commentaries

Phil Long does a nice job of summarizing three recent Romans commentaries by Moo, Longenecker, and Thielman here. Currently, I only have Moo of the three so this is helpful.

Reading and Preaching

Brandon Hilgemann argues here that we should read better to preach better. I think he is right.

10 Key Discoveries from the Holy Land

Aren Maeir has created an annotated list here. One can always quibble with lists like these and I certainly would. Also, the fact that several artifacts/places are mentioned in several of the ordinals really makes the list to be able to include more than ten.

Jonah and the Whale" The Abbott & Costello Version

Singing the Psalms

Justin Taylor has a helpful summary and links here to Christopher Ash's recently delivered lectures on singing the Psalms.

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.

T. Desmond Alexander, Exodus
Reviewed by Ralph K. Hawkins

Jan Assmann, Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt
Reviewed by Nili Shupak

Edwin K. Broadhead, The Gospel of Matthew on the Landscape of Antiquity
Reviewed by J. Andrew Doole

R. Alan Culpepper and Jörg Frey, eds., The Opening of John’s Narrative (John 1:19–2:22): Historical, Literary, and Theological Readings from the Colloquium Ioanneum 2015 in Ephesus
Reviewed by Sherri Brown

David R. Nienhuis, A Concise Guide to Reading the New Testament: A Canonical Introduction
Reviewed by Caryn A. Reeder

Frederik Poulsen, Representing Zion: Judgement and Salvation in the Old Testament
Reviewed by Barry A. Jones

Charles L. Quarles, Matthew
Reviewed by Tobias Ålöw

Caryn A. Reeder, Gendering War and Peace in the Gospel of Luke
Reviewed by Shawn Kelley

Joseph Schubert, Dating Deuteronomy: The Wellhausen Fallacy
Reviewed by Philippe Guillaume

Lukas Stolz, Der Höhepunkt des Hebräerbriefs: Hebräer 12,18–29 und seine Bedeutung für die Struktur und die Theologie des Hebräerbriefs
Reviewed by David M. Moffitt

Steven Weitzman, The Origin of the Jews: The Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age
Reviewed by Lester L. Grabbe

K. K. Yeo, What Has Jerusalem to Do with Beijing? Biblical Interpretation from a Chinese Perspective
Reviewed by Yi-Sang Patrick Chan

Ziony Zevit, Subtle Citation, Allusion, and Translation in the Hebrew Bible
Reviewed by Jacques van Ruiten

Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies Vol. 6

The latest issue of the Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies is available online for free both as individual articles here or the entire journal here.

HT: Antony Billington

Journal of Biblical Literature 138:3

Volume 138:3 of the Journal of Biblical Literature is now out. Here is a list of the articles with links to abstracts.

“He Said, He Said”: Repetition of the Quotation Formula in the Joseph Story and Other Biblical Narratives
Richard C. Steiner

What Happened to the Sons of Korah? The Ongoing Debate Regarding the Status of the Korahites
Itamar Kislev

Absalom’s Audience (2 Samuel 15–19)
Seth L. Sanders

Micaiah ben Imlah (1 Kings 22) and the Grammar of the Biblical War Oracle
Jesse Rainbow

On הבל in Qoheleth: A Reply to Mark Sneed
Michael V. Fox

From Prophetic Words to Prophetic Literature: Challenging Paradigms That Control Our Academic Thought on Jeremiah and Ezekiel
Dalit Rom-Shiloni

Jeremiah and the Balag-Lament? Jeremiah 8:18–23 Reconsidered
Robin Baker

Out of the (Model) City, into the Fire: The Meaning of Ezekiel 5:3–4
Michael A. Lyons

Fourth Maccabees 1:1–6 in Sahidic Coptic
Ivan Miroshnikov

Of Social Death and Solitary Confinement: The Political Life of a Gerasene (Luke 8:26–39)
Luis Menéndez-Antuña

Climbing the Ethnic Ladder: Ethnic Hierarchies and Judean Responses
Philip A. Harland

Women διάκονοι and Gendered Norms of Leadership
Susan E. Hylen