Biblioblog Carnival - May 2014

Welcome to the Biblioblog Carnival for May 2014. We searched the internets all through the month of May to find interesting and compelling articles related to the field of biblical studies. There's something here for everyone, something to delight, to mystify, to tickle, to horrify (we include the N.T. Wright clip specifically to horrify and annoy Jim West), and to amuse you. If we fail to deliver this, we'll return your full ticket price.

By the way, before you get lost in the carnival grounds, next month's carnival will be hosted by Phil Long at his blog Reading Acts.  You'll want to check it out, I'm sure.  And if you're interested in hosting the carnival at your blog please (PLEASE!) contact Phil.  He is "semi-desperate..for volunteers for the rest of the year."

Oldest Reference to Israel Outside the Bible

Genesis

Bereshit - In the Beginning of...  "Let’s begin with music. In the beginning of God’s creating of the heavens and of the earth."

Noah – Hollywood Midrash  "Aronofsky’s version of the Noah story is keenly aware that traditions are living things that develop over time, and draws upon the Noah story--or stories--as they were actually being told and repeated by believers down through the centuries. Not everything Aronofsky adds can be traced to ancient sources, but I have to applaud him for actually doing some research into how the Noah story was received and interpreted before embarking on his own interpretation."

Ten Ancient Stories and the Geological Events that May Have Inspired Them "Myths have fed the imaginations and souls of humans for thousands of years. The vast majority of these tales are just stories people have handed down through the ages. But a few have roots in real geological events of the past, providing warning of potential dangers and speaking to the awe we hold for the might of the planet."

URCall: Herodotus and Babel "Being, after all, the so-called “Father of History,” Herodotus wasn’t necessarily all that great at it by modern standards. That is to say, while many of the things that he wrote about did happen, others are derived from the myths and legends of his time – the distinction was not as important to his readers as it is to us. Finding that Herodotus has repeated your particular myth is not therefore the stamp of approval Lloyd makes it out to be."

On Religious Commitment and Violence: A Reading of the Akedah "I like to go with the Jewish description (the Akedah) of this event--the binding of Isaac--rather than the typical Christian description--the sacrifice of Isaac--because, well, Isaac was bound for a sacrifice but wasn't actually sacrificed."

Exodus
Liberation Theology, Moses, and Us  "Watching The Prince of Egypt was the first time I’d really thought about Moses and The Exodus since I’ve started looking into Liberation Theology, and one of the things that stood out to me this time was what Moses had to overcome in order to become the man that could lead the Jews."

The Ten Words and their Music "Exodus has some interesting points in both music and translation. There may even be some irony in the accented musical figures created by doubling a sub-linear sign on a change in the reciting note. In the short commandments, they provide emphasis on the first and last syllables."

Deuteronomy
Did Moses Invent Secular Government?  "As I understand it, correction invited if I'm wrong, it was standard in the ancient world for the highest religious offices to be occupied by those also in the highest political offices. That is there was no way to separate the religious and the secular authorities."

Are the “Ten Commandments” in the Bible? "The first problem with the suggestion that Christians should know the Ten Commandments is the fact Bible never refers to anything called, “the Ten Commandments.” This phrase in Hebrew would be (עְַשֶׂרֶת הַמִּצְוֹת). It does not exist in the Old Testament."

Joshua
Land Allotments "The narrator follows up by describing the boundaries of the land under Israelite control on the east side of the Jordan, reminding us once more about how Moses defeated King Og and King Sihon (will he ever stop going on about that?). We are told that the Israelites had failed to drive out the Geshurites and Maacathites, who still live within Israel 'to this day'"

Judges

Is the “Song of Deborah” Sexually Suggestive and Bawdy? "The Song of Deborah and Barak in Judges 5 sounds a bit like a drinking song one might have heard in an Ancient Near Eastern bar frequented by fighting men."

Chronicles
I Chronicles 9  "This story is an example of how disturbing the Old Testament can be to modern people, who generally believe that people should be punished for their own sins, not the sins of their parents or ancestors."

Psalms

Free Adaptation, Translation without Word Boundaries – Psalm 16 

You will not throw me off into shadowy places with Dead Rulers.

You will not allow anyone within your love and mercy to see destruction.

You will show me the path of life,

satisfaction, gladness, your continuing presence,

pleasures in your governance always.

This is the Sunday School Pageant I’d Love to See: Psalm 82 "Psalm 82 is a dazzlingly weird passage. It’s a lot more like something out of Neil Gaiman than most of the Psalms. The scene is a “divine council” in which God meets with all the other Gods and informs them that they’re all in danger of losing their jobs and dying like mere mortals if they don’t get their act together and defend justice for the weak and needy."

Isaiah
Ramblings on Isaiah 58, the Sabbath, and Edward J. Young "I was consulting Young’s commentary because I had a question: Was Isaiah 58 saying that the Israelites should help the poor while they are fasting from food, or that they should help the poor instead of fasting?  What does it mean to call helping the poor a “fast”?  Is the author here saying that helping the poor will accomplish what the Israelites are looking to fasting to do: to get God’s attention so that Israel will be blessed?"

LXX
An Increasing Awareness of Resurrection Theology in the LXX  "I wanted to draw attention to a few passages in the Septuagint which actually alter the Hebrew text into a more ‘resurrection themed’ theology."

The Septuagint Sessions #6 – A Problem with the Apocrypha "In this podcast, I wanted to talk about a problem in research on the LXX that stems from a canonical bias."

The Gospel of Matthew
The Politics of Biblical Genealogies  "...despite scholarly attention tending to focus on the unusual inclusion of the four female names in the genealogy, there are also strong echoes of sociopolitical displacement within the text. This is evident both from the repeated emphasis on the Babylonian exile, but also by the simple (but original as far as I am aware) observation that of the forty or so names in the genealogy, at least fifteen can be explicitly linked to episodes of forced displacement, wandering, and political instability in the Old Testament."

Was Jesus Employed? "The assumption that Jesus himself wasn’t overly affected by the economic and political turmoil in ancient Galilee is surprisingly common. And even though scholars devote considerable attention to exploring this ancient context, Jesus still seems able to move about and make economic decisions with relative ease. This, I would contend, reflects more about capitalist middle-class assumptions of individual entrepreneurship and full employment, than it does the marginalizing reality of itinerancy  or underemployment in the ancient world."

Jesus as Teacher of Happiness  "The ever-impressive Luke Timothy Johnson explores Matthew's portrait of Jesus as teacher in this lecture. LTJ sets Jesus' view of happiness in conversation with other ancient philosophers."

John the Baptist Evoking the Sodom and Gomorrah Memory I find the kerygma of John the Baptist to be rather interesting. He is in the same region at the Sodom and Gomorrah incident. He preaches repentance and the coming wrath which will, coincidentally, involve a judgment with fire, just like the fires of judgment mentioned in Genesis 19. John tells his audience that they should not presume that their relationship to Abraham would grant them immunity in the coming judgment, as it did with Lot. No, they should produce fruit worthy of repentance.

The Gospel of Mark
The First Century' Gospel of Mark, Josh McDowell, and Mummy Masks: What They All Have in Common  “And you start pulling it apart. You say, “What?” Yep! They’re layered on top of each other. You start pulling them apart. Most scholars have never touched a manuscript. You have to have gloves on and everything…we just wash them and hold them in our hands. [Laughing] We don’t even make you wash your hands before.”

Apparently this is very funny to McDowell.

Jesus as the Primary Actor "I suggest Jesus believes God has abandoned Israel and therefore acts to take within himself the chaos of a God-abandoned cosmos. I arrive at this conclusion by reading the narrative of Jesus through the lens of the Roman poet Lucan and his work, Pharsalia — focusing especially on his characterization of Cato the Younger. What emerges is an image not of a sacrifice whereby Jesus was a willing victim of God, but a “divine man” and “hero” who freely chooses to die in order to save an Israel abandoned by God."

Was the Ending of Mark’s Gospel Lost?  "NT Pod 71 discusses the ending of Mark's Gospel. It is just under fifteen minutes long."

Mark’s Ending "Can we really say that everyone throughout church history has found Mark's short ending a problem?  I don't think so."

Gospel of Luke

Jesus, Clobber Texts and the Centurion’s ‘Companion’ "It’s not unusual for words to have such very different meanings. Think of the many ways we use the word 'companion.' Strictly speaking, it just means someone with whom one travels or with whom one spends a lot of time. It’s thus a common term for personal assistants — people in an economic relationship with an employer who would, in a more class-candid culture, be referred to as 'servants.' So we might say, for instance, that 'Adrian Monk arrived at the crime scene accompanied by his companion, Natalie Teeger,' and it would be a mistake to infer anything more intimate or romantic implied by the term."

Rossano Gospels: The Good Samaritan "The Rossano Gospels depict two parables: the Good Samaritan and the Wise and Foolish Virgins. The depiction of the Good Samaritan is placed in the cycle of pictures that depict the Passion of Jesus—between Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane and healing of two blind men on one side and Jesus’ trial before Pilate on the other. Its placement in the cycle indicates its connection to the death of Jesus, spiritual conversion (symbolized by the healing of the blind), and redemption (through the Passion of Jesus)."

Jens Schröter on the Need to Assess the Historical Value of Acts on Multiple Levels  "…this will be the first of three posts that focus more specifically on Jens Schröter’s perspectives on the historical value of Acts in From Jesus to the New Testament, which will presumably inform his forthcoming HNT commentary on Acts."

Gospel of John
The Pericope Adulterae Conference "Why am I telling you all this?  Well, in my original argument in my 2009 book, I described the katagrapho/grapho reading as the "majority" reading several times.  I was wrong on this point (I was soon to find out), and for my life I cannot remember what made me think this was the case."

Against Theodicy "But the problem is that to even try to answer the question of theodicy is, it seems to me, to take the Gospel backwards."

Historical Jesus
Questioning a Common Assumption "Why should this be taken as some kind of threat to the theological legitimacy of traditional Christian faith?  Why should the clever Deist tactic of the 18th century continue to be treated as a self-evident truth and the basis for apologists and critics of Christian faith in their continuing wrangles and debates?  The fundamental theological basis given in the NT for treating Jesus in the “high” terms advocated is a theo-centric one:  God’s actions form the basis of the responding christological claims and devotional practices.  Considering this might be a really helpful move for all sides in any theological debate."

Sending Language and the Origins of Jesus "Too often interpreters of the Bible read the various statements which depict Jesus as having been “sent from God” with such wooden literalness. They assume that, since God is in heaven and Jesus was on earth, then Jesus must have literally descended from the location of the one who sent him (heaven). I contend that the language of sending needs to first be placed into its wider context before making an assessment of its meaning in regard to Jesus and his place of origin." 

Did Jesus Identify with the Poor or Was He Poor? "Within New Testament scholarship, Jesus’ experience of poverty and homelessness is often presented as a lifestyle choice; i.e. he wasn’t actually poor, but he readily chose to identify with the destitute and downtrodden in his society as part of his God-ordained mission. This is an assumption that easily takes root within the middle-class mindsets of most biblical scholars who themselves are not usually poor, but recognize the importance of helping those less fortunate. The assumption is then read back into the biblical text. Jesus is in some sense regarded as separate from and economically superior to those among him and to whom he ministers."

From Jesus’ Parables to Parables of God with John Dominic Crossan "We will discuss the last 30 years of historical Jesus research, its role in the academy, the growing audience in the public square, changes in the church and his two most recent books The Power of Parable & The Greatest Prayer."

Acts of the Apostles
The Politics of an Unknown God "Paul’s message at the Areopagus received a lukewarm response. His declaration of a God who lays claim to us in Jesus Christ—his revealed and appointed agent of blessing and judgment—cut entirely against the grain of speculative and superstitious religion. The listless Athenian preoccupation with hearing something new was answered with a demand for absolute commitment. The darkness of superstition was scattered by the dazzling light of divine revelation. The council desiring to cast judgment on a new religion found itself called to account before the bar of heaven. It is this same message that we are called to declare to the powers of our own age."

Mars Hill Mistake?  "Yesterday in Sunday school, someone suggested that Paul in Athens, as described in Acts 17, had tried to reach people by adapting his message to his audience, and being philosophical and rational in his approach. The result, the person claimed, was disappointingly ineffective, and so Paul never did it again."

Revelation
Apocalypse When? New Documentary Examines Failed Prophet Harold Camping "

Three years ago today (May 21), radio evangelist Harold Camping and his followers awaited the end of the world. It didn’t come that day, or in October as part of a revised doomsday timeline, and Camping died last December at age 92." 

Jürgen Moltmann on the Gnostic Escapism in Left Behind "Moltmann’s eschatology focuses on the Christian hope of resurrection not on speculative theories that piece together various biblical passages into a timeline of the future."

Patristics / Gnostics / Talmud
The Problem of Evangelicals in and with Patristics "Evangelicals value the Bible, and get trained in the Historical Critical method, and then at their worse think that Patristics is negligible because they were all bad exegetes who got their Doctrine wrong. Furthermore, they are prone to hear the unfortunate apologetic claims of Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox churches saying "these are our Fathers" which makes Evangelicals suspicious, and see church Fathers as dangerous/other/possibly a temptation to depart from Evangelicalism..."

St. Hippolytus’ Careers Christians Should Never Have  "The Apostolic Tradition, a third-century text attributed to St. Hippolytus of Rome, has its own list of unacceptable careers for prospective candidates for baptism. While a few—prostitute, brothel keeper, and garment trimmer—seem unlikely to feature in anyone’s second-grade “what I want to be when I grow up” masterpiece, there are other professions forbidden by church fathers that are routinely glamorized by the secular media."

Rethinking Gnostic Intellectuals? Categories as Weapons and History as Construct "The question of whether the so-called Gnostics are intellectuals is a wonderful case study. Here we have a noted scholar of early Christianity aligning his “facts” along conflicting classification lines with what seems like a very modern apologetic subtext."

“Gnosticism” and Religious Rivalry in Early Christianity (part 1) "This week on the Inquisitive Minds Podcast, we will examine how scholars explain "Gnosticism" and the related idea of "Gnosis" (knowledge or insight). If Gnosticism is not a viable category as some scholars argue, should we not simply drop the expression? Is there any evidence of Gnosticism at the the turn of the first century CE or prior to that time period? Which ancient religious texts can be considered as Gnostic? How was Gnosis understood by philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle?"

  

Did Christianity Influence the Development of the Talmud?

News
Defeating Satan at Harvard "The reason Satan is so dangerous is not because Satan is a mythical figure with horns and a pitch-fork. Satan is so dangerous because Satan represents an anthropological reality. Satan has no independent existence outside of humanity. Humans provide oxygen for Satan’s survival whenever we accuse others and exclude them from our community. Following Girard’s use of Satan’s titles, Satan is the anthropological principle that 'tempts' us to unite in 'accusation' against a scapegoat, or a common enemy. Satan is the 'prince of this world' and the 'prince of darkness' because the world runs on accusations. Whenever we experience accusations against us, we respond with accusations of our own. This leads us down a dark path of mimicking verbal and physical violence against one another."

NRB Forces Out WaterBrook Multnomah Publishers Over Sister Imprint's 'Gay Christian' Book  "I believe that Multnomah is in serious danger of crashing its brand in terms of evangelical trust…I am quite certain that a host of evangelical authors share this deep concern."

Pope, Netanyahu Spar Over Jesus' Native Language  "'Jesus was here, in this land. He spoke Hebrew,' Netanyahu told Francis, at a public meeting in Jerusalem in which the Israeli leader cited a strong connection between Judaism and Christianity."

Mitri Raheb Interview on the Pope’s Visit to the Holy Land 

In Remembrance: Maya Angelou "My fruitless effort to hold back tears was proven vain as I made my way into the bowels of a D.C. Metro station — tears streaming. I felt silly."

Megachurch Methods: Pastor Fired Because He Wouldn’t Sign Non-Compete Clause  "This is essentially a non-compete clause but one which Poirier rejected. I call it a non-compete clause because Mars Hill appears to view churches within a ten mile radius as a competing church."

Nicea III in 2025?  "We agreed to leave as a legacy to ourselves and our successors a gathering in Nicaea in 2025, to celebrate together, after 17 centuries, the first truly ecumenical synod, where the Creed was first promulgated."

Book Reviews
What is Relational Theology? "It is a theology that emphasizes God‘s interaction with humanity and creation, as well as the Creator’s capacity to be affected by the creation. In this theology, the passage, “God is love,” is invoked repeatedly.  Nothing is predetermined or foreordained in this perspective, and both the divine and humanity have more or less, libertarian free will, but for the sake of community."

Bart Ehrman’s – How Jesus Became God: Introduction "I've decided to walk through Ehrman's book as well. I'm also working through Bird's response book, but I don't want to compare the two books. I want to read through Ehrman's book as if I were a "none" who is not particularly interested in religion or as if I were a Christian who has never encountered ideas like Ehrman's before. My goal is thus not to write an apologetics piece like Bird but more to play the role of a consultant of sorts, thinking through it with the person for whom these are pretty much new ideas."

An Interview about my Agnosticism

The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions "Anyone familiar with Second Temple and New Testament studies will probably be aware of the proliferation of traditions associated with angels that were floating about. This collection of essays probes into the traditions associated with the fallen angels that arose from Gen. 6:1-4. These traditions elaborate upon this passage of Scripture by detailing what the angels (the “Sons of God” in Genesis 6, later to be called the “Watchers” in 1 Enoch) actually did, who they were, what resulted from their actions, and what their punishment was."

Early Arabic Contributions to Trinitarian Theology "It looks at the way Qur'anic concepts of "Word" and "Spirit" were used to explain the unity of the triune God. The later chapters explore theories of divine attributes, predication, and analogy. The book focuses especially on the strategic use of Aristotelian concepts, since Aristotelian philosophy was a shared authority among Christians and Muslims. Another major theme is the delicate way these Arabic Christians utilised scripture in their arguments, at times restricting themselves to those parts of scripture that Islamic teaching did not view as corrupted."

Review of God and the Gay Christian "It is written by a conservative Christian who is gay. It accepts the authority of Scripture. And it makes a convincing case within that framework that what the Bible says does not provide a basis for disapproving of same-sex marriage. Although Vines is not a scholar, by drawing on scholarship and carefully investigating the subject, he comes up with interpretations of the relevant Biblical texts, against the backdrop of their cultural setting, that are thoroughly persuasive."

Archaeology and Antiquities
Barabbas and the Crucified "One also needs to consider the possibility of borrowing from or interference between a historical story about a Hasmonean who is crucified and denied honorable burial and subsequently given a burial in a borrowed grave, and the story of something similar happening to Jesus. But it is also possible that this sort of thing happened more than once, and that it would not have been unexpected for Jesus’ followers to have sought to recover his remains and give them a proper burial with the honor they felt he deserved."

The Brephos Papyrus: Fetal Assault "So how do we make sense of this? Obviously, if you are trying to hurt someone, throwing a fetus at them probably won’t do too much harm. Instead, scholars agree that what we have here is a case of a fetus being used as part of a magical spell."

2 Baruch and 4 Ezra – Another Syriac Lectionary Manuscript "Today I have some real news for those of you who are fans of 2 Baruch and 4 Ezra: Lections from 2 Baruch and 4 Ezra have been identified in yet another, hitherto unpublished, Syriac lectionary manuscript."

Creating Replicas of Biblical Artifacts: An Interview with ‘Biblical Reproductions’  "All of us have had, these past few years, our attention drawn to numerous artifacts purporting to be ancient and so it has set me to wondering about the legitimate business of creating replicas of ancient stuff.  I contacted the nice folk at Biblical Reproductions up in Canada and they have been kind enough to ‘sit down’ for an interview."

  

Ever Thought about Plastering the Skulls of your Dead Loved Ones? "The funerary practices witnessed here may at first appear to be very different from our own experiences. One example of this is the plastering of skulls. The dead would initially be buried beneath house floors. But then the skull (or cranium) would be retrieved some time later, once the head had skeletonised and no flesh remained. Then, a face would then be skillfully built on the skull, using mud, lime or gypsum plasters."

Aren Maier – New Light on the Philistines 

Endangered Archives Program Opens up Priceless Palestinian Heritage "As with the al-Aqsa collections, the urgent need to preserve the documents highlights the threat posed by Israeli aggression and neglect to Palestinian heritage. The Akka manuscripts, according to the EAP, 'provide a unique insight into centuries of Arabic culture in Palestine,' and conserving the collection has become a pressing need due to 'periods of political unrest, and more recently through vandalism and theft.'"

Temples and Temple Builders at Early Bronze Age Megiddo "Tel Megiddo lies in the heart of the Jezreel Valley, at the hub of international roads between Egypt and Syria. Its local importance in all periods of the Bronze and Iron Ages cannot be understated but while major excavations have taken place at well-known sites like Megiddo, Jezreel, and Taanach, the valley itself has received little archaeological and historical attention. The Jezreel Valley Regional Project (JVRP) is designed to focus attention at the regional level through long-term, multi-disciplinary survey and excavation."

Khirbet et-Tannur: A New Approach  "The Nabatean people were lost in the sands of the desert for centuries only to recently be lost in the pages of books.  This fascinating and important culture existed in the ancient Near East, stretching from Arabia, across Jordan, and into the Negev and the Sinai.  They were skillful merchants and vital to the spice trade. They are best known for their architecture; specifically the cliff side carved building of Petra."

Fort Found Was Home Quarters to Roman Infantry Unit Wielded To Vanquish the Jews  “Four years after starting to dig up an ancient Roman outpost in southern Jordan, a team of archaeologists from Tennessee found a unique, and well-preserved, inscription on a rock - revealing that the site is the previously unknown base of a Roman infantry unit involved in crushing the Bar-Kochba rebellion.”

Theology  

Is Kyrios Christology a High Christology? "I suggest that we have better evidence (if you want to try and dig down to “earliest” layers) for what I call a Kyrios Christology – where Jesus is associated with the identity of Yahweh himself in some special way (hence “Jesus is Kyrios” and maranatha appear to be earliest creedal/liturgical statements). If this is true, then Jesus could not have been viewed as a man exalted after his death to divinity, because Yahweh would not want to share his own title (Kyrios) with an exalted man."

How High is Kyrios Christology? "And so the New Testament kyrios Christology is indeed rightly called a 'high' Christology. It has a human being exalted to a status second only to God himself, and having bestowed upon him the very name of God, enabling him to exercise rule over all things on God’s behalf. Calling such a Christology 'low' would be inaccurate. But so too would be claiming that these texts depict Jesus as sharing in the divine 'nature.'"

  

El Shaddai and the Gender of God "But I wanted to add another element to the debate because, as far as I know, no one has considered it: the possibility of a feminine name for God in the Hebrew Bible." 

Art

What Would Characters from the Bible Have Looked Like? "Lewis' "Icons Of The Bible" photo series depicts some of the most famous characters from the Old and New Testament exclusively as people of color, including Simon Peter, Elijah, King Solomon and the archangel Gabriel. The series, which will be fully released in October, features 70 models who identify as either Asian, Native American, Hispanic, African, Middle Eastern, Black American and West Indian."

The Beauty of Ottoman Palestine, Lovingly Explored and Documented "In the basement of a house on the Mount of Olives is a collection of 100-year-old photographs of Ottoman Palestine — published here for the first time — that document the people, sites and lifestyle of Palestine in the twilight years of Turkish rule."

Whatever is Leftover

Animals and Religion "Did you know that animals engage in what appears to be ritualistic behaviors which appear to show some awareness of the luminous, if not the spiritual? It’s true. In particular, a variety of animals have death rituals." 

The Danger and Beauty of Acculturation "That's right: Jesus is a wizard."

Top 10 Strangest Miracles of the Middle Ages "While most miracles were typical stories of healing or assistance, there were many unusual ones as well. Here is our list of the top 10 strangest miracles of the Middle Ages."

Why Your Miracles Aren’t Really Miracles

40 Maps that Explain the Middle East "Maps can be a powerful tool for understanding the world, particularly the Middle East, a place in many ways shaped by changing political borders and demographics. Here are 40 maps crucial for understanding the Middle East — its history, its present, and some of the most important stories in the region today."

Recommended Summer Reading “I work at the James P. Boyce Centennial Library, and the staff there are putting together a suggested summer reading list for students. Here are the books related to biblical studies I suggested, in no particular order.”

You may also like to check out Jim West's Avignon Carnival (all Twitter edition).


And just to repeat, here at the end of the carnival, next month's carnival will be hosted by Phil Long at his blog Reading Acts.  You'll want to check it out, I'm sure.  And if you're interested in hosting the carnival at your blog please (PLEASE!) contact Phil.  He is "semi-desperate..for volunteers for the rest of the year."