Category: Weblog
Biblioblog Top 50 (November 2009)
Despite a self-enforced blogging hiatus to complete an ETS paper that was almost itself three things that were never satisfied and four that never said enough (cf. Prov 30:15b), New Testament Interpretation rose 17 spaces in November to slot 134 from the drop to 151 that it had seen the previous month at the front…
Maturing Scientific Communities
As young scientists routinely obtain, through education, their introduction into mature, scientific communities, young scientific communities may require some time to mature and develop their communities’ paradigms (Kuhn 11). During this early phase, nascent scientific communities typically involve different schools of thought that seek “relevant” facts somewhat individualistically according to whatever paradigms they find most…
Better News for Biblical Studies at Sheffield
The Facebook group “Don’t Shut down Biblical Studies at Sheffield” has reported to its 1100+ members that “[t]he Biblical Studies Department is essentially back from the dead.” Jim West has the university’s memo to this effect posted on his blog.
Good News for Biblical Studies at Sheffield
Biblical studies students at Sheffield apparently now have some good news. According to Christianity Today, Following student protests, the University of Sheffield in England decided to not close the department of biblical studies. A review by the pro-vice-chancellor had recommended shutting down the department down after current and 2009-2010 students completed their degrees, citing the…
מורה הצדק and Qumran Hermeneutics
In working through some bibliography recently for a conference paper proposal about מורה הצדק (the teacher of righteousness), I came across the following: Der Lehrer [der Gerechtigkeit] ist von Gott autorisiert, die Geheimnisse der Prophetenworte zu enträtseln, denn die Worte der Propheten sind Geheimnisse (רזים [pHab] 7,5), die man ohne Auslegung des Lehrers nicht verstehen…
Hermeneutics and “the Near”
Concerning interpreters’ obligation to look beyond themselves, Hans-Georg Gadamer observes the following: We are always affected, in hope and fear, by what is nearest to us, and hence we approach the testimony of the past under its influence. Thus it is constantly necessary to guard against overhastily assimilating the past to our own expectations of…