New Archaeological Resource: ASORtv

The Americans Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) has created a new resource called ASORtv which is hosted at YouTube. Here are links to some of the presentations.

“ASOR Fellowships: Excitement on a Dig”

"ASOR Fellowships: How Fellowships Help Students"

Tel Hazor Iron I and Iron IIa Slide Show

Tel Hazor Bronze Age Slide Show

Free eBook: The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor

Go here to download a free eBook entitled, The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor by John Piper and D. A. Carson. There are also links on this page to video presentations from both Carson and Piper.

"To the Unknown Preaching Method"

Do check out this post by Dr. David Allen entitled, "An Altar Inscribed 'To the Unknown Preaching Method.'” The post begins with this great paragraph.

On any given Sunday in today’s preaching pantheon, one can observe a diverse group of devotees, some paying homage to the chapel of “creativity,” others sitting at the feet of the “culturally relevant.” Some are transfixed at the nave marked “narrative,” while others have their hearts strangely warmed at the chasse of “pop-psychology.” There is never a shortage of worshippers at the “new homiletic” altar, and the “topical” shrine always receives its share of Sunday patrons. Fearful that some as of yet undiscovered homiletical “method” might be missed, the gatekeepers of the pantheon have installed an altar inscribed “to the unknown preaching method.” It is that method which I declare unto you. Actually, the method itself is not “unknown” at all, and like the true church on earth, it has always had its practitioners in every era of church history. In fact, it is the oldest method in the preaching pantheon, having been used by the earliest preachers as far back as the apostolic era of the church. It is called “expository preaching.”

Read the rest here.

Hurtado on Learning from Fallacies

Larry Hurtado has a good word here on the importance of being self-critical and cautious about new proposals in biblical studies. As Hurtado sums up, "if such great scholars of the past could hold confidently ideas that we now know to be fallacies, today’s scholars need to learn from this."  This is especially worth hearing in a discipline that seems to be enamored with novelty.

Seven Propositions for Preaching Ezekiel

I am making my way through Daniel Block’s new book By the River Chebar: Historical, Literary, and Theological Studies in the Book of Ezekiel. In the opening chapter entitled, “Preaching Ezekiel,” Block offers sevenpropositions* for preaching the book with authority and clarity (pp. 2–21). The propositions are as follows.

Proposition 1: In order to preach from Ezekiel with authority and clarity, we need to understand the prophet—his character (ethos), passion (pathos), and argumentation (logos).

Proposition 2: In order to preach from Ezekiel with authority and clarity, we need to understand his audience.

Proposition 3: In order to preach from Ezekiel with authority and clarity, we need to understand the nature and structure of the book.

Proposition 4: In order to preach from Ezekiel with authority and clarity, we need to understand the message that Ezekiel proclaims.

Proposition 5: In order to preach from Ezekiel with authority and clarity, we need to understand Ezekiel’s rhetorical and homiletical strategy.

Proposition 6: In order to preach from Ezekiel with authority and clarity, we need to plan carefully.

Proposition 7: In order to preach from Ezekiel with authority and clarity, we need to link his message with that of the New Testament resposibly.

*The heading in the book states that there are four propositions but Block goes on to enumerate seven so the heading must be in error (see. p. 2).

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.
 
Dominique Barthélemy
Studies in the Text of the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8630
Reviewed by John Engle

Matthew D. Jensen
Affirming the Resurrection of the Incarnate Christ: A Reading of 1 John
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8792
Reviewed by Toan Do

Jon D. Levenson
Inheriting Abraham: The Legacy of the Patriarch in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8721
Reviewed by Sara Koenig

William Loader
The New Testament on Sexuality
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8643
Reviewed by Lawrence DiPaolo

Paul L. Redditt
Zechariah 9–14
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8813
Reviewed by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer

Adele Reinhartz
Caiaphas the High Priest
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8952
Reviewed by Thomas Bergholz

Günther Schwab
Echtheitskritische Untersuchungen zu den vier kleineren Paulusbriefen
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9344
Reviewed by David Trobisch

Walter F. Taylor Jr.
Paul: Apostle to the Nations, An Introduction
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8644
Reviewed by Matteo Grosso
Reviewed by Jason Weaver

Barry G. Webb
The Book of Judges
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8809
Reviewed by Trent C. Butler

Problematic Pastoral Statistics

Richard J. Krejcir reports on some problematic statistics related to a survey of 1050 pastors. Here are a few of the troubling findings.

Of the one thousand fifty (1,050 or 100%) pastors we surveyed, every one of them had a close associate or seminary buddy who had left the ministry because of burnout, conflict in their church, or from a moral failure.

Nine hundred thirty-five, (935 or 89%) of the pastors we surveyed also considered leaving the ministry at one time. Five hundred ninety, (590 or 57%) said they would leave if they had a better place to go-including secular work.

Eight hundred eight (808 or 77%) of the pastors we surveyed felt they did not have a good marriage!

Three hundred fifteen (315 or 30%) said they had either been in an ongoing affair or a one-time sexual encounter with a parishioner. 

You can read the rest here.

HT: Rob Bradshaw

Twelve Church History Myths

Michael Svigel has a great post entitled, "Twelve Myths of Church History Unraveled" here.

Psychological Secrets to Public Speaking

Bryan Kelly has some interesting observations about public speaking in a post entitled, "Six Psychological Secrets to Public Speaking." Those of us who preach and teach might do well to consider what he has to say.

HT: Brandon

Two Forthcoming Commentaries on Acts

The Fall 2013 Baker Academic catalog is out. I am particularly interested in two Acts commentaries that are scheduled to be available this year. Hopefully, both will be done in time for SBL/ETS. 

Craig Keener's Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, vol. 2: 3:1-14:28 is due in October. You can read more about this volume here.

 
William Kurz's Acts in the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture series is due in November. You can read more about this volume here.

The Growing Seminary Debt Problem

See this article on the growing problem of seminary debt. I am so thankful that I was able to finish seminary without any debt.

HT: Steve Lemke

The Number of Languages in the World

See this interesting blog post at Lingua Franca on the challenges and politics of delineating and counting the languages of the world. The work of the Summer Institute of Linguistics receives special notice.

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.

Johann Cook and Arie van der Kooij
Law, Prophets, and Wisdom: On the Provenance of Translators and Their Books in the Septuagint Version
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9164
Reviewed by Sean A. Adams

C. L. Crouch
War and Ethics in the Ancient Near East: Military Violence in Light of Cosmology and History
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8206
Reviewed by Tyler Mayfield

Camille Focant
The Gospel according to Mark: A Commentary
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8867
Reviewed by Geert Van Oyen

Richard Hidary
Dispute for the Sake of Heaven: Legal Pluralism in the Talmud
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7945
Reviewed by Kris Lindbeck

Othmar Keel
Corpus der Stempelsiegel-Amulette aus Palästina/Israel: Von den Anfängen bis zur Perserzeit: Katalog Band IV: Von Tel Gamma bis Chirbet Husche
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9243
Reviewed by Brent A. Strawn

Sigmund Mowinckel
Religion and Cult: The Old Testament and the Phenomenology of Religion
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8552
Reviewed by Nicole Ruane

Pheme Perkins
Reading the New Testament: An Introduction
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8617
Reviewed by M. Eugene Boring

Jonathan Stökl
Prophecy in the Ancient Near East: A Philological and Sociological Comparison
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9153
Reviewed by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer

Thomas L. Thompson and Thomas S. Verenna, eds.
‘Is This Not the Carpenter?’: The Question of the Historicity of the Figure of Jesus
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8846
Reviewed by James F. McGrath

Manuel Villalobos Mendoza
Abject Bodies in the Gospel of Mark
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9058
Reviewed by Greg Carey

There is also a response by author John E. Anderson has responded to Koog P. Hong’s review of Anderson’s Jacob and the Divine Trickster. See http://rblnewsletter.blogspot.com/2013/03/20130320-anderson-jacob-and-divine.html.

Greek with Douglas Huffman

Sometime back I reviewed Douglass Huffman's The Handy Guide to New Testament Greek: Grammar, Syntax, and Diagramming (click here). Now Credo Magazine has a short but helpful interview with the Huffman here.

A New Interpretation of a Phrase from the Psalm Scroll

Haaretz has an interesting article on a new interpretation of a phrase from the Dead Sea Scrolls' Psalm Scroll in a poem called the “Apostrophe to Zion.” You can read the article here.

Paul and the Road to Assos

Carl Rasmussen has an interesting post on Paul's journey on the road to Assos (Acts 20:13-14) here. The post contains some nice illustrations.

Review of The World of Jesus

William H. Marty, The World of Jesus: Making Sense of the People and Places of Jesus’ Day (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2013). 

The World of Jesus is a popular-level introduction into the history and culture that serves as the context for the world of Jesus and the early church. Marty uses both biblical and extrabiblical sources to highlight the most significant persons, events, and philosophies for the thought world of the first century AD. The author’s approach is basically chronological, starting with the Persian period and ending with the Roman period. Each chapter concludes with helpful discussion questions. There is also a nine-page glossary to round out the study. 

This work is user-friendly in its brevity, readability, and use of timelines, tables, and various excurses. It is a fairly comprehensive but not exhaustive treatment. My only minor criticism is that each chapter typically begins with a vignette that mixes historical fact with a bit of artistic license (e.g., pp. 19-20, 103-4). This is okay, but a reader might be confused as to where the former ends and the latter begins. But this only barely diminishes the value of this work to introduce lay-readers to the world of Jesus. 

Thanks to Bethany House for providing the book used in this unbiased review.

Atonement App

G-dcast, a "nonprofit that uses new technology to do Jewish education, is synthesizing the scapegoat and PostSecret.com in its “Atonement App,” which allows users to confess, anonymously, with the help of an animated goat who roams the web."

You can read more about this app here.

Christians and Cremation

Michael Svigel has a balanced discussion on Christians and cremation here.

Themelios 38:2

This announcement might be a bit late, but the latest issue of Themelios is available as a free PDF here.

Lost Faces of the Bible

National Geographic is planning to present a program during the Christmas season entitled, "The Lost Faces of the Bible." The four part series will include:

Lost Face of the Bible: Delilah Revealed
A 3,000-year-old female skull gives the forensic team the chance to reconstruct the face of a Philistine lady.

Lost Face of the Bible: Sacrifical Child
The discovery of a tiny infant in a clay jar leads the team to explore humanity's history of sacrifice, and put a face to the mysterious child.

Lost Face of the Bible: Ancient Warrior
Over 6,000 years after 'The Warrior' was laid to rest in a remote desert cave the team try to find out how he lived and what he looked like.

Lost Face of the Bible: The Man Who Saw Jesus
Archaeologists reconstruct the life of a skeleton found in Galilee as the forensic team prepares to unveil the 2,000-year-old man's face.

You can read more about the program at the National Geographic website here.

Back-to-School Sale on Pictorial Library of Bible Lands

Bible students and professors might be interested in a back-to-school sale on Pictorial Library of Bible Lands. In my opinion, this Pictorial Library is the best photographic resource available for teaching and personal study of the Holy Lands as it relates to the Bible.

For the next 10 days, 5 volumes are on sale for $100, including free shipping in the US. When the sale ends, the price will return to $170. To get the sale price, click here.

They are also offering a $100 discount on the complete 18-volume Pictorial Library of Bible Lands or only $289. This set includes 17,500 photographs in jpg and PowerPoint format, including detailed explanations about the sites, history, and biblical significance. To get $100 off, click here.

The Promise of Jeremiah 29:11

Last week while teaching through Jeremiah, I cautioned my students about claiming the promise found in Jeremiah 29:11. Here is a recent article on the controversy surrounding the Christian appropriation of the verse.

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.

Judith Baskin and Kenneth Seeskin, eds.
The Cambridge Guide to Jewish History, Religion, and Culture
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7798
Reviewed by by Alan Avery-Peck

G. K. Beale
A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9016
Reviewed by by Stephen Moyise

John T. Carroll
Luke: A Commentary
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8739
Reviewed by by Daniel L. Smith

Jan Joosten
Collected Studies on the Septuagint: From Language to Interpretation and Beyond
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9091
Reviewed by by Sean A. Adams

Ingrid E. Lilly
Two Books of Ezekiel: Papyrus 967 and the Masoretic Text as Variant Literary Editions
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8621
Reviewed by by John Engle

Marty Alan Michelson
Reconciling Violence and Kingship: A Study of Judges and 1 Samuel
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8763
Reviewed by by Gregory Mobley

John J. Pilch
A Cultural Handbook to the Bible
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8684
Reviewed by by Jacobus Kok

Konrad Schmid
The Old Testament: A Literary History
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8508
Reviewed by by Trent C. Butler

James W. Thompson
Moral Formation according to Paul: The Context and Coherence of Pauline Ethics
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8339
Reviewed by by David G. Horrell

Jane S. Webster and Glenn S. Holland, eds.
Teaching the Bible in the Liberal Arts Classroom
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9081
Reviewed by by Phillip Sherman

Facebook Tips for Pastors

Seven common-sense Facebook tips for pastors here.