The February 2013 Biblical Studies Carnival!

Welcome to the February 2013 Biblical Studies Carnival! What is this you may ask (and I have already been asked)? A list of interesting articles from around the internet regarding Bible and related studies. Less devotional and personal content (such as is usually found here), more in depth articles of a specific nature. It is posted once a month on a different blog each month – and this month it will be on Delving into the Scriptures.

Being the shortest month of the year, the carnival may be a little shorter than normal! Apologies to any who feel missed out, and please comment any corrections at the bottom. Please note – whilst all of these articles are valuable, I don’t guarantee I fully agree with all of them, but found them useful in study and discussion… Anyhow, less preamble more content, here we go.

Old Testament

Claude Mariottini has a post (and scanned PDF) on The Geographical challenges of the Sinai. The photos certainly solidify his point about wilderness and reliance on God! Jacob Cerone looks at Hosea 1:9 as an example of where translation and interpretation go very closely hand in hand.

Jeff carter takes a (dangerous) look at interpretations of the Song of Songs - A challenging book to be sure. He also clears up some translation issues in Song of Solomon 7:2 - using a limerick to help with ‘unmentionable’ and embarrassing words. You have been warned. This was definitely one of those verses you giggled at while at youth camp.

James McGrath also takes an overview look at Exodus and Conquest, starting with the book of Exodus through to Joshua. It’s only 20 minutes, so very high level, but a great discussion starter. I took a quick listen, but will have to listen again myself as there is a lot of content there.

New Testament

Mark Goodacre discusses Myths of Mary and the Married Jesus. I listened to the audio and as usual, Mark was very persuasive in his views, and presented an excellent case for ‘Mary Confusion’ in our popular culture. Especially relevant around the use then of Biblical characters and scenes in other media… Speaking of which, The Bible – TV Series is coming out. No, this isn’t even out yet (so is a stretch to qualify), however considering the amount of scholars who are talking about it, provided input to it, etc, it will at the very least be a great discussion starter with many, and I have no doubt, start a flurry of blog posts arguing the theological underpinnings of many scenes… Keyboards loaded and ready for argument!

Larry Hurtado has an interesting post on why did the gospel of Mark survive. The premise is most of the content can be found in the other gospels – which are more frequently quoted in the texts we have, so why was it kept along with the other three? Craig Bennet as usual had some good posts, including this one on Luke 5:20-23.

Phil Long from Reading Acts had a lot of good content this month, but I found this particular article on Peter and Simon the tanner to be particularly good. Doug Chaplin also takes a quick run at 1 Corinthians and claims that Paul is not a Protestant. Craig Bennett decides to follow some rabbit trails around 2 Timothy 15-16 – Scripture is God Breathed. Dangerous ground indeed.

Joshua Smith questions whether we are using numismatics (study of currency) enough in our look at the ancient world. Paul Himes takes a look at what he calls ‘The Hardest verse in the NT’ - yes, that is a tough one, but one of at least the best presented arguments for interpretation I have seen.

Archaeology and Old Stuff

Deane Galbraith takes a look at (another) inscription, this time from Gath which looks like it just might have the name Goliath on it. Just throwing this out there, the media is not here for our benefit – keep that in mind when ‘reading’ any sensationalist claims! And one more from Deane, Ham for Hanukah (just click it for the picture). OK  the article really is about discussions which try and create geographic boundaries for the nation of Israel based on the amount of pig bones found in an area.

James Tabor has a plug to the latest Biblical Archaeology Review, with an article on the historicity of Sodom and Gomorrah. It must just be one of those things we love – when people digging holes in the ground find old stuff – and connect it to things we know from the Bible.

Theology and Stuff (and Popes)

To start on a serious note, Abram at Words on the Word took on the meaty task of reviewing Zondervan’s ‘theologian trading cards’. Geeky, yet cool.

James Tabor looks at the prophecies of St Malachy - or at least the ‘so called’ prophecies. Conspiracy theorists unite, this stuff is gold for all of them. And to finish the Papal theme quickly, Andrew reminisces on if he was pope. Ben Witherington has some suggestions for the new Pope, and Scott Mcknight summarizes - basically, don’t pick a Catholic. I am thinking we are not being helpful here…

James McGrath (among others) takes a look at Logos from an iPad perspective. I moved to Logos 5 about 3 months ago – it is so large I am sometimes struggling to come to grips with the sheer volume of content, but at the same time have found it a very valuable tool – both on the PC and the iPad. As the world moves more and more to the digital age, this is where we are going – whether we like it or not I say. (caveat, computers and technical things are also my day job, so my perspective may be skewed!). James also looks at (and gets a little excited, proving his scholarly credentials) the book Greek Apocryphal Gospels, Fragments, and Agrapha by Rick Brannan.

Hard Hitter warning – Jeff (the scripture zealot) takes a long hard look at suffering, Job, and ‘happy Christians’ who through ignorance seem to think that all suffering is from personal sin, and if that person would just ‘give it all to God’ they would be better (rather than maybe just showing a little compassion)… Carl Trueman also asks is there Any Place for the God of Job? - Some great quotes in there, as well as what I would call good theology. This is well worth your time to read. Lastly Peter Enns calls out what he believes is the most sobering verse in the Bible

Mark Stevens interviews Jack Levinson on his book ‘Fresh Air’ . I have since purchased the book (see, great marketing!), but haven’t got far enough to provide a solid review. Mark however is convinced. And to top it off, he summarizes Barthian theology for us in a helpful and thorough post. This is the kind of summary I like to see – detailed and yet concise.

And that is it for this month’s Carnival! Normal service will be resumed on this blog tomorrow. Hopefully everyone finds something interesting to read!

Next month’s Carnival is hosted by Phil at Reading Acts.  If you have any post suggestions, please send them through to Phil at plong at gmail dot com.

Also, if you want to host a carnival on your blog, there are still slots free this year… Contact Phil before they are all taken!

Last Call for Submissions – Feb 2013 Biblical Studies Carnival

This is it… Last call for submissions to the shortest (day wise) carnival of the year!

I have collected already some good content – but there is always room for more… If you have a blog post from February, from an academic standpoint  you would like submitted (though you don’t need to be a professional scholar) - contact me soon (piston9 at gmail.com) and I will look at adding it to the carnival!

Otherwise, I will see you all again in two days with all of the fun, fair, frivolity, fairy floss and games of the February 2013 Biblical studies carnival…

January Biblical Studies Carnival

Just a quick note of apology to all – I was right in the middle of studies in 2 Peter and ‘other things’ (read: family and my day job) have prevented me from posting further… I have my next post almost lined up – Jesus IS coming back (and if I don’t hurry up and post He may well come back before i hit publish)- and it should be around in the next few days!

For those that are interested in ‘Biblical Studies’ – in other words, scholarly study into the Bible and related matters, the January 2013 Biblical Studies Carnival is up at Zwinglius Redivivus. This usually isn’t your everyday blog stuff, but (generally) very deep and interesting articles from the world of Biblical studies. A word of warning – I (and you) may not agree with everything on this page, but there are still some good reads there. These carnivals happen every month, and are hosted on a different blog each month.

The Feb 2013 carnival will be held…. Here! So I am extra busy collating articles posted this month to collate at the end of the month! Hopefully there will be some great content posted by others this month so it is a worthwhile read.

Honor, Virtue, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings!

In preparation for the release of The Hobbit Movie, our family has been watching through the extended editions of Lord of the Rings over the past week or so (works out well with the kids to watch an hour or so a night – it just takes a while!). One of the things that struck me again watching the movie, is that virtue and honor mustn’t sell.

For those that have read the books as well as watched the movie, you will know what I mean. For those that haven’t (that’s ok!), there were a lot of changes in story line and character from the book. One of the key changes is that a lot of characters who show significant honor and virtue in the book no longer do so. And the more you look, the more you find!

The obvious one was always Faramir – in the book, he is completely honorable, but this is broken in the movie with his actions. I personally felt it takes away from the story not having him as honorable as he was in the book – it was almost a dichotomy in the book between Boromir and Faramir – Boromir fell (but through his actions was then redeemed), but Faramir never did, making the right choice, despite the personal consequences.

But there is more. All of the key characters are ‘damaged’. Elrond, who never held his love for his daughter above that of her love for Aragorn. Aragorn, who never thought of letting Arwen go (though it is nowhere near the major story line the movie makes it!). Frodo, who remains honorable to Sam to the end. Even Treebeard and the Ents – who in the book do the right thing, though they know it may be their last action – and that they could stay out of trouble if they wanted, but chose to act. Rather than in the movie where they choose not to – but then only act when faced with the personal effect to them.

So what then? Virtue doesn’t sell (or at least they don’t think it does – Lord of the Rings certainly sells a lot of copies!). The world we live in doesn’t understand honor and virtue, or at best thinks it is ‘boring’.

Philippians 4:8 (ESV)
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

But we are called to something else. We are called to be honorable – to honor God, to honor our parents, to honor our spouse, to honor our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are called to do the right thing – as God commanded – not to do our own thing and then only change our path when we are caught or the effects start to catch up with us. We are called to be pure and holy before God, not to live ‘up’ to the standards of this world.

I guess I wish they had made the movie along the line of the books, rather than corrupt most of the characters! But one thing it does do, is give us a platform to think and talk about these things – to talk about God’s standards, and man’s standards, even if our starting point is Lord of the Rings! I know as a family we sat down and talked about these things, maybe The Hobbit Movie will give you a chance to do the same…

Book Review and Give Away – The Jesus Paradigm – David Alan Black

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to win a copy of The Jesus Paradigm from Energion Publications. I’ve been a reader of ‘Brother Dave’s’ blog for a while now, as was definitely interested when the publisher offered to give a few copies away!

The core of the book is essentially this. ‘Christianity’ and ‘Church’ have become more and more removed from Jesus. Rather than becoming followers of Jesus, we are becoming at times followers of the church, or followers of a certain preacher, or followers of a certain political party – not followers of Jesus. Many organizations and people want to claim Jesus as their own – and so create their own followers, rather than direct people back to Jesus!

Sounds simple doesn’t it?

Dr Black (yes, he is a New Testament Greek scholar) then takes on various aspects of our lives, and even of what we consider Christianity, and measures it against the Gospel. As you would expect, the result is challenging to our daily lives – to live as followers of Jesus, not ‘members of the church’.

The good – Dr Black speaks from personal experience, as well as drawing from many historical groups to make his point. In many cases drawing form the early Anabaptist traditions, showing how they came to believe what they did and how that is focussed on the Gospel. This is not an Anabaptist book however by any means, as even by the title we can see that Dr Blacks primary goal is to draw us back to focussing on Jesus – not another church or denomination!

The average – There is a lot of very specific criticism of the American political environment right now. Not that this area isn’t due for some honest criticism, but as someone who lives outside of America, it is significantly less relevant. Fortunately however this doesn’t  make the whole book inaccessible, it was for me just less relevant than the rest of the message.

The very good – you might think from my comments above that the book is primarily one of criticism and negativity – not so! In fact I would dare say it is one of the most positive treatments of the issues in the church that I have read of late. Rather than be negative and browbeat the reader into depression over the state of the church (I read a book like that recently), and Christianity as a whole, Dr Black spends a short time focussing on the issue – but then more time going back to Jesus for the solution. This was an entirely positive experience, and one many writers could learn from!

To conclude? Though you might not agree with absolutely everything, and though all of it may not be applicable to you, this was still a good book, not only challenging you to grow closer to Jesus, but providing solid answers on how you might respond. Highly recommended.

Want a free copy of this book? (I’m giving away 2)

Well, though I was sent a hard copy of The Jesus Paradigm, I read the book on Kindle, so my copy is perfect. And this book is challenging enough I would love for someone else to read it as well – so I’m giving away the print book and a Kindle edition.

Leave a comment below, using the form to enter your name and email (so I can contact you!). And let me know whether you would prefer the print book, Kindle edition, or either (meaning you don’t mind and are in both opportunities). On the 19th of August I will be drawing the winner from the comments below. Easy!