Donnerstag Digest (April 7, 2011)

The past week in the biblioblogosphere: Jim Davila notes the sad news of Ben Zion Wacholder’s passing. Larry Hurtado comments on lengths of book usage in the Greco-Roman world. A. D. Riddle and Ferrell Jenkins report the beginning of new excavations at Carchemish. Nijay Gupta notes one freely available chapter from each of two Companion to Religion Series volumes from Wiley-Blackwell ( Aune, “The World of Roman Hellenism”; Riesner, “Pauline Chronology”; 44 pgs. total). The other series volumes also appear normally to have similar samples. Recently at Trinity Western University, N. T. Wright discussed “Being Human” (HT: Brian LePort).

April 7, 2011 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Thank You re:March

Although we are nearing the end of the first week of April, I just noticed that those who visited New Testament Interpretation last month made that month the busiest month here so far. So, thank you for your interest, everyone! :)

April 6, 2011 · 1 min · J. David Stark

March 2011 Biblioblog Review

Having been away this past weekend, I have just gotten to pull March’s top student biblioblogs. March’s top 10 by Alexa rank are: StudentOverallAuthor(s)Blog12Joel WattsUnsettled Christianity26Brian LePort, JohnDave Medina, Joshua Smith, Mark StevensNear Emmaus: Christ and Text313Amanda Mac, Rodney Thomas, Chad PressleyPolitical Jesus417Matthew CroweA Fistful of Farthings527Jeremy ThompsonFree Old Testament Audio Website Blog628Phillip LongReading Acts729Scott BaileyScotteriology831Mitchell PowellFont Words936Gavin RumneyOtagosh1038Bob Hayton, Jason Skipper, Damien Garofalo, Will Dudding, Erik DiVietro, and Phil DearmoreKJV Only Debate ...

April 4, 2011 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Donnerstag Digest (March 31, 2011)

Recently in cyberspace: Southern Seminary provides a set of recent lectures by Richard Bauckham (HT: Tim Henderson). Jeremy quotes Henri De Lubac “on the dangers of learning our catechism against someone.” The Center for the Study of Christian Origins provides a lecture and question and answer session by Larry Hurtado. Reports begin circulating about several lead codices that are supposed to contain stories about Jesus’ later life. Early Christianity makes available a full issue for free download (HT: Nijay Gupta). Larry Hurtado advocates additional caution vis-à-vis the recent discovery of a number of ancient lead codices, James McGrath condenses several other recent discussions about them, and Jim Davila (HT: Stephen Carlson) adds his own presently-skeptical perspective on the codices’ genuineness. Amazon launches its own cloud drive service with 5 GB of free space. The Internet Archive makes available Mark Goodacre’s Synoptic Problem: A Way through the Maze for free download (HT: James McGrath). Dictionary.com discusses a few word-choice updates in the new editions of the NIV and NAB. Google Maps adds street views of “historic sites in Italy and France.” The Center for New Testament Textual Studies at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary is featured in a NOLA.com article (HT: James Leonard). The Elaborated makes available a set of composite RSS feeds based on the Biblioblog Top 50.

March 31, 2011 · 2 min · J. David Stark

Healing Theoden (a.k.a. Submitting One's Dissertation)

For some reason, this clip, particularly Theoden’s last utterance under Saruman’s influence, seems oddly parallel to the process of concluding a dissertation. ;-) The oral defense is slated for later next month. For a brief abstract of my particular project, see here.

March 28, 2011 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Donnerstag Digest (March 10, 2011)

This week in the blogosphere: Kirk Lowery discusses “Strongs Numbers & the Problem of a Universal Index,” particularly for Biblical Hebrew morphology and lexicography. Robert Woods reviews Henry Petroski’s Book on the Bookshelf. Chris Allen and D. A. Carson discuss the Westminster Catechism via rap (HT: John Byron). The SBL Greek New Testament is now available in CROSS format. Mark Goodacre ponders the possible correlations between writing big books and having clean houses. James McGrath highlights a how-to article about reading scholarly journals.

March 10, 2011 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Donnerstag Digest (March 3, 2011)

This week in the blogosphere: Rod Decker highlights The Illustrated Guide to a PhD. Archaeologists begin excavating an Abrahamic-era water tunnel (HT: Joel Watts). The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae has released a version of the Liddell-Scott-Jones lexicon tagged to their textual database (HT: Tommy Wasserman). The E-corpus Digital Library has added 344 Georgian, Arabic, and Syrian manuscripts from St. Catherine’s Monastery (HT: Charles Jones). The Cardo font receives an italic companion. Seth Rodriquez collects a list of free Kindle edition books relevant for biblical studies. Others are also available at Project Gutenberg. Charles Halton provides a slideshow about the “Theology of Genesis 32 through Contemporary Art.” Peter Head provides an essay on “Textual Criticism and the Synoptic Problem.”

March 3, 2011 · 1 min · J. David Stark

February 2011 Biblioblog Review

Matthew Crowe has February’s Biblical Studies Carnival. In February’s biblioblog rankings, Jim West and Joel Watts again top the Biblioblog Top 50 Alexa chart, and James McGrath and Daniel Kirk top the vote-based rankings. By Alexa rank, then, February’s Student Biblioblog Top 10 lines up as follows: StudentOverallAuthor(s)Blog12Joel L. WattsUnsettled Christianity23Brian LePort, JohnDave Medina, Joshua Smith, and Mark StevensNear Emmaus: Christ and Text314Thomas VerennaThe Musings of Thomas Verenna418Daniel O. McClellanDaniel O. McClellan523Matthew CroweA Fistful of Farthings625Jeremy ThompsonFree Old Testament Audio Website Blog726Bob Hayton, Jason Skipper, Damien Garofalo, Will Dudding, Erik DiVietro, and Phil DearmoreKJV Only Debate836Phillip LongReading Acts939Gavin RumneyOtagosh1044Mitchell PowellFont Words ...

March 1, 2011 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Donnerstag Digest (February 24, 2011)

This week in the biblioblogosphere: Dirk Jongkind discusses the colophons of the miniscule manuscripts 223 and 1305. The Center for the Study of Christian Origins now has recordings of the recent James Dunn and N. T. Wright lecture day at the University of Edinburgh (HT: Larry Hurtado). Brian LePort highlights a snippet from Eugene Peterson on the storied nature of human experience and Christian ministry, begins pondering Brevard Childs’ thoughts about New Testament canon, and collects Richard Hays’ recent lecture series “Reading Scripture Alongside the Gospel Writers.” Cynthia Nielsen discusses “Fanon and Foucault on Humanism and Rejecting the ‘Blackmail’ of the Enlightenment” ( pt. 1; pt. 2). James McGrath collects several YouTube clips about the Mandaeans and highlights a video series about oral tradition. Seth Rodriquez discusses ancient slinging techniques. John Cook and Robert Holmstedt advocate the relevance of diachronic linguistics for dating biblical texts, and Ian Young responds to the contrary (HT: Charles Halton).

February 24, 2011 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Donnerstag Digest (February 17, 2011)

This week in the blogosphere: The Oriental Institute continues making additional titles available online as free PDF downloads (HT: Todd Bolen). Rod Decker makes available a conversion chart for the old and new reference systems for the Shepherd of Hermas. Tim highlights some forthcoming books in Pauline Studies. Karen Radner has several essays online about the Neo-Assyrian period (HT: Charles Halton). Logos releases the NIV 2011 for free “to everyone who has a Logos 4 base package that includes the old NIV.” Ancient Faith Radio is podcasting C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia (HT: Brian LePort).

February 17, 2011 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Donnerstag Digest (January 20, 2011)

This week in the blogosphere: Bob Cargill notes, courtesy of Jim West, the discovery of a new manuscript of Ben Sira. Kirk Lowery highlights a list of resources for linguistic research. Phil Gons compiles a good deal of recent “Bonhoeffer Buzz.” Joe McGarry reviews Eric Metaxas’s Bonhoeffer for Christianbook.com Academics. Charles Ellwood notes open access to select theses and dissertations through ProQuest’s UMI Dissertation Publishing.

January 20, 2011 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Donnerstag Digest (December 16, 2010)

This week in the blogosphere: To Do: Dissertation highlights a series of time management tips. Matt Evans returns from his blogging hiatus. Deane Galbraith and Joseph Kelly discuss new policies for students’ involvement at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. Matthew Montonini notes a video interview with Douglas Campbell. Matthew Miller excerpts Miroslav Volf’s new book Captive to the Word of God. Brian Tucker discusses You Belong to Christ on the Paul Edwards Program. Matthew reports that Borders has filed intent-to-purchase paperwork for Barnes and Noble. Carlos Alonso reflects on the commodification of graduate education. Timothy Beal discusses American Evangelicalism. Mike Aubrey begins digesting the deponency panel session at the annual SBL meeting. James McGrath quotes Daniel Kirk on “rule-proving exceptions,” notes a new “top 50” list of blogs by “theology professors,” recommends Brad Matthies’ post “Academic Blogging?” and highlights a free PDF version of Kató Lomb’s Polyglot. Milo Medin discusses the progress of Google’s developing fiber network. Brian LePort gets congratulations as he counts down. Scott Bailey reports on the winter weather’s “archaeological expedition” on Israel’s coast. Pat McCullough urges participation in the SBL Student Advisory Board’s survey for student members. Charles Jones adds a number of publication preprints to the Ancient World Online feed.

December 16, 2010 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Donnerstag Digest (December 9, 2010)

This week in the blogosphere: Chris Brady highlights the Maccabeats. Firefox gets two new representatives. Michael Holmes begins a new blog. Joel Watts notes the launch of SAGE Open on January 1, 2011 and highlights, ultimately via Everett Ferguson, a few inscriptions relevant to the discussion of infant baptism.

December 9, 2010 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Donnerstag Digest (December 2, 2010)

This week in the biblioblogosphere: Bob Cargill notes that, on December 11, the National Geographic Channel will re-air its special on “Writing the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Brian LePort hypertextually ponders Derridean non-extra-textuality and deconstruction, and he notes twenty-nine doctoral theses that the University of Durham has recently made available. Michael Bird shows how to benefit most from the new SBL Greek New Testament and notes that the new Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters now has its own blog. Google Editions are poised to hit the e-book market later this month and allow fee-based full access to copyrighted titles. For some additional details and thoughts, see Blog Kindle and Google Books Help.

December 2, 2010 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Student Biblioblog Top 10 (November, 2010)

Jim West and Joel Watts again top out this month’s Biblioblog Top 50. Among these entries, the top 10 student biblioblogs for the month are: StudentOverallAuthor(s)BlogAlexa Score12Joel WattsUnsettled Christianity112762210Jeremy ThompsonFree Old Testament Audio Website Blog247561311Scott BaileyScotteriology254643413Jonathan Robinsonξένος331840514Thomas VerennaThe Musings of Thomas Verenna337137617Mark StevensScripture, Ministry, and the People of God372159722Brian LePort, JohnDave Medina, and Robert JimenezNear Emmaus: Christ and Text412289824Phillip LongReading Acts441701930Stephen SmutsBiblical Paths4840941033Gavin RumneyOtagosh514808 ...

December 1, 2010 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Biblical Studies Carnival נז (November, 2010)

Deane Galbraith has November’s Biblical Studies Carnival available and organized into the following topics: (1) “Academy, Biblioblogging and Handy Hints”; (2) “Christian Origins”; (3) “Emerging Judaism”; (4) “Language, Text and Translation”; (5) “Reception History”; (6) “Humor and Gossip”; and (7) “Biblioblog [Qualitative] Top 30.” HT: Marc Cortez ...

December 1, 2010 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Ecclesia Reformanda 2.2

This year’s second issue of Ecclesia Reformanda includes: John Frame, “Review of Michael Horton, Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church, Part 2” Simon Wakeling, “The Minor Prophets as a Unity Developing Theodicy” Neil Jeffers, “Reformed Defences of God’s Righteousness in Ordaining the Fall”

November 15, 2010 · 1 min · J. David Stark

SBL Contingent Faculty Survey

In conjunction with the Coalition on the Academic Workforce, the Society of Biblical Literature is conducting a survey about contingent faculty, and the survey has already garnered more than 20,000 responses. To continue making the survey results as complete and informative as possible, this afternoon, SBL has written the membership’s current survey respondents to request help in attracting additional participation from contingent faculty members. ...

November 8, 2010 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Biblioblog Top 50 (October, 2010)

This post is a bit late, but among the top 50 biblioblogs for October, 2010, the top 10 student biblioblogs are: StudentOverallAuthor(s)BlogAlexa Score12Joel L. WattsUnsettled Christianity9552128Scott BaileyScotteriology212042312Jeremy ThompsonFree Old Testament Audio Website Blog294803415Jonathan RobinsonXenos300343518Brian LePort, JohnDave Medina, and Robert JimenezNear Emmaus: Christ and Text382933621Mark StevensScripture, Ministry, and the People of God420079722Phillip LongReading Acts431256825S. DemmlerYou Can’t Mean That!503362926Gavin RumneyOtagosh5039271029Bacho BordjadzeReading Isaiah533766 ...

November 5, 2010 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Biblioblog Top 50 (September, 2010)

September’s Biblioblog Top 50 is available. Despite Joel Watt’s slippage to third in the overall rankings, his blog continues to hold the lead among the top ten student biblioblogs: StudentOverallAuthor(s)BlogAlexa Score13Joel L. WattsThe Church of Jesus Christ12848525Scott BaileyScotteriology173966311Jeremy ThompsonFree Old Testament Audio Website Blog271870416Stephen SmutsBiblical Paths319523517Mark StevensScripture, Ministry, and the People of God333878619Justin AllisonOld Testament and Ecology404624720Jonathan RobinsonXenos426276823Brian LePort, JohnDave Medina, and Robert JimenezNear Emmaus: Christ and Text536573924Phillip LongReading Acts5421871029Gavin RumneyOtagosh620744 ...

October 1, 2010 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Biblioblog Top 50 (August, 2010)

Jeremy Thompson has August’s Biblioblog Top 50 available. Jim West remains in the top seat this month, despite Jeremy’s temporary coup d’état that had crowned Joel Watts. Still, Joel’s matriculation to United Theological Seminary earns him the top slot on August’s list of the top ten student biblioblogs. The full top-ten list is as follows: StudentOverallAuthor(s)BlogAlexa Score12Joel L. WattsThe Church of Jesus Christ10893727Stephen SmutsBiblical Paths210494311Mark StevensScripture, Ministry, and the People of God299339415Scott BaileyScotteriology332160518Brian LePort, JohnDave Medina, and Robert JimenezNear Emmaus: Christ and Text373283619Jeremy ThompsonFree Old Testament Audio Website Blog436755722Gavin RumneyOtagosh462138823Bob Hayton, Jason Skipper, Damien Garofalo, Will Dudding, Erik DiVietro, and Phil DearmoreKJV Only Debate465858933Jonathan RobinsonXenos6773451038Rick MansfieldThis Lamp768595 ...

September 2, 2010 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Biblical Studies Carnival (August, 2010)

Jim West has August’s Biblical Studies Carnival available. This month’s carnival has six “rides” from which readers can choose: Old Testament, New Testament, Church History, Systematic Theology, Archaeology/Dead Sea Scrolls, and Uncategorized.

September 1, 2010 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Blog (Revival) Notice: Beginning with Moses

Beginning with Moses has been substantially refreshed, and the site is scheduled to have regular updates begin again on September 1. If you like, you can also follow Beginning with Moses on Twitter and Facebook. The Biblical Theology Briefings have carried over from the old site, and the site’s principal editor, Mark Owens, invites fresh contributions for this section. ...

August 30, 2010 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Donnerstag Digest (August 26, 2010)

This week in the biblioblogosphere: Mark Goodacre finds and makes available a PDF version of Wilhelm Wrede’s Paul. Daniel and Tonya draw attention to Alex Andrason’s recent article on the use of yiqtol in Biblical Hebrew (via Uri Hurwitz) and Randall Buth’s response to the article. Via Ekaterini Tsalampouni, Holger Szesnat mentions the availability of the new Journal of Ancient Judaism. Christian Askeland notes the availability of a stable, Unicode-compliant Coptic font. At BioLogos, Peter Enns interviews N. T. Wright about Jesus’ humanity. Kirk Lowery ponders current developments in the peer review process for scholarly publications. Scot McKnight prepares his readers for a change of blogging address. Larry Hurtado uploads an essay on Martin Hengel’s impact on English-speaking, New Testament scholarship. Charles Halton considers cartographic hermeneutics and some of their implications for readers of biblical texts.

August 26, 2010 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Donnerstag Digest (August 19, 2010)

This week in the blogosphere: James McGrath helpfully notes that John Byron, Associate Professor of New Testament at Ashland Theological Seminary, is now blogging at The Biblical World. Sadly, Gerald Hawthorne passes away (HT: John Byron). Helen Bond discusses the composition of the Sanhedrin in first-century Palestine. Trevor provides a good summary of a variety of different ways to add records to Zotero. Happy Dissertating suggests priming the writing pump as necessary via 750 Words. Based on what the site provides, it looks like a fully private blog could also be used in much the same way, but particularly for those who would prefer not to need to ensure for themselves that all their privacy settings are correct or who might enjoy some of the other features that 750 Words offers, the site may be worth a look. Pat McCullough begins a bibliography of resources about the application of Social Identity Theory to biblical studies and invites suggestions for additions.

August 20, 2010 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Advice for Academic Blogging

Although the post is now comparatively a bit dated, Corey Tomsons still has some very good advice about academic blogging (HT: Kirk Lowery via Facebook). http://thoughtcapital.wordpress.com/2007/03/11/how-to-write-an-academic-blog/ ...

August 17, 2010 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Biblioblog Top 50 (July, 2010)

Jeremy Thompson has July’s Biblioblog Top 50 available. Jim West and Joel Watts again take the top two spots respectively. The top ten student biblioblogs are: StudentOverallAuthor(s)BlogAlexa Score18Stephen SmutsBiblical Paths22490929Matt DabbsKingdom Living228817311Mark StevensScripture, Ministry, and the People of God240043414Jeremy ThompsonFree Old Testament Audio Website Blog328123515Brian LePort, JohnDave Medina, and Robert JimenezNear Emmaus: Christ and Text331730616Scott BaileyScotteriology342515718Gavin RumneyOtagosh408591835JasonEis Doxan729697936Rick MansfieldThis Lamp7365221038Brandon WasonSitz im Leben791601 ...

August 16, 2010 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Donnerstag Digest (August 12, 2010)

This week in the blogosphere: Baker acquires Hendrickson’s academic arm (HT: Nijay Gupta and Rod Decker). Larry Hurtado rightfully lauds and recommends careful attention to Harry Gable’s Books and Readers in the Early Church. Cynthia Nielsen continues her discussion of interconnections between Joerg Rieger and Frederick Douglass with a post about duality in identity construction. Michael Halcomb has a new website specifically dedicated to Getting (Theological) Languages. Kirk Lowery returns to the biblioblogosphere after a hiatus for the development of the Groves Center as an independent research unit. I had the privilege of doing an Aramaic and a Hebrew Bible text-linguistics seminar under Kirk and am again looking forward to seeing what shows up on his “scratchpad.” Happy Dissertating suggests PhD2Published as a potentially valuable resource for new PhD graduates in humanities disciplines. James McGrath spots several video recordings of presentations at this past year’s annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion. Michael Bird starts reading a recent biography of Ernst Käsemann and reproduces several, brief quotations from Käsemann that are, as one might expect, particularly insightful. Todd Bolen reports a recent spectrometric analysis that suggests a Jerusalem origin for a newly discovered cuneiform tablet. Ken Schenck discusses the reading of biblical literature as Christian scripture. Brian LePort discusses the relationship between scripture and tradition in view of the Trinitarian-Oneness debate. On this relationship, our Writing Center director at Southeastern recently brought to my attention F. F. Bruce’s edited volume, Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. I have yet really to peruse it, and the book is scarcely findable in print at this point. Still, it does look like a very interesting volume, and much of it is available through Google Books. Google and Verizon propose, regarding Net Neutrality,“that ‘wireline broadband providers [sh]ould not be able to discriminate against or prioritize lawful Internet content, applications or services in a way that causes harm to users or competition’, but broadband providers [sh]ould be able to offer ‘additional, differentiated online services’.” Chris Brady shares some of his conclusions from his recent International Organization for Targumic Studies presentation about Boaz in Targum Ruth.

August 12, 2010 · 2 min · J. David Stark

Biblical Studies Carnival (July, 2010)

As promised, Jim West’s revival of the Biblical Studies Carnival has begun. HT: Mark Goodacre.

August 2, 2010 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Hello, World!—ΕΚ ΣΤΟΜΑΤΟΣ ΝΗΠΙΩΝ

Blogging has unfortunately gotten edged out by too many other things the past few months, but I hope the dearth of posts here recently will be reversing itself shortly. In any case, last week, Carrie and I were blessed with a beautiful baby girl, Ella Grace. Ella came a bit early, but I can now officially enter her as my vote for the “most precious baby ever” award: [slideshow]

July 25, 2010 · 1 min · J. David Stark