NT Blog

Happy birthday to me, seven years old today. The first post on this blog was on 2 September 2003, Welcome to the NT Gateway Weblog where I wrote that

I've been inspired to set this up by Jim Davila's fine Palaeojudaica weblog at http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/, not least because of a comment he made in that recently that it would be helpful to have more people doing the same kind of thing. I've very much enjoyed reading his blog over the last few months and while I doubt I will be able to do as good a job as he, I am nevertheless encouraged to try something similar myself.

Well, Jim's still at it, I'm still at it, and now there are lots more people too, as well as many others who have come and gone.

For the first five and a half years of this blog, I was blogging under the NT Gateway banner, but now, as I hope you know, that has a blog of its own where I post along with Holger Szesnat, mainly on new internet items of interest that appear on the site.   So this is the first full year of the morphed NT Blog and I continue to work on my NT Pod too, a podcast that now has forty episodes and is just over a year old.

Thanks for the continued encouragement and support for these seven years.  Here's to the next seven!

Labels: Blogiversaries

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The Teaching the Bible epub from the SBL is back after its summer break:

Teaching the Bible, September 2010

It includes an article by Jeff Staley on The Crucifixion of Jesus in Films and in the Gospels which looks well worth a read. Thanks to Jim Dvorak for pointing out that article to me.

Labels: Bible Films, Teaching the Bible

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For the second month running, Jim West has done an excellent job of producing a Biblical Studies Carnival, rounding up all sorts of interesting posts on Biblical Studies and related areas from all over the blogosphere:

August 2010 Biblical Studies Carnival

I am proud to say that I actually remembered and got round to nominating several posts this time around.

Meanwhile, several have the good news that the University of Sheffield Biblical Studies Department has a new blog.

For those interested in who has the most popular Biblical Studies related blogs at the moment, Free Old Testament Audio Website Blog has the latest.

And while we are on the subject, I was disappointed to notice recently that the Biblioblogs.com website had gone down. It looks like the domain name was not renewed, and the content has all gone, at least for now, which is a shame.

Labels: Biblical Studies Carnivals, Biblioblogs

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Speaking of Greek Alphabet songs, don't forget Danny Zacharias's catchy number:



There is an industry going on Greek alphabet songs over on Youtube, and this is one of the best:

Labels: Learning Greek

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Beginning your Greek classes this week?  Here's a nice help in learning the Greek alphabet, "with apologies to Kanye".  Thanks to Andy Rowell for the link, over on Justin Taylor's blog, and by a student from Southeastern Seminary called Micahel (sp?) Graening:

Learning the Greek Alphabet can be heartless

Labels: Learning Greek

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I have been thinking about a podcast on 2 Cor. 11.24, "Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes less one"; it is an interesting verse and Anthony Harvey has a good article on it. I am also planning to talk about this a bit in one of my classes on the Life and Letters of Paul starting next week. I did not expect to see in the Jerusalem Post (via Antonio Lombatti) that this week the same punishment would be doled out, "'Sinner' singer given thirty-nine lashes by rabbis".  According to the report, the punishment was for performing in front of a "mixed audience".

Labels: 2 Corinthians, Apostle Paul

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In the face of Worries for UK Theology and Religion departments, Helen Ingram has an excellent shout out, 101 Reasons to Study Theology and Religion: The Call for Comments. Helen herself is a University of Birmingham BA in Theology and PhD in New Testament studies and she speaks with authority as well as humour. I think she is right that university leadership often thinks of Theology and Religion as "soft touch" and I would add that this is often born out of ignorance. It's important for those of us working and studying in the sector to let the powers know what we do and why it's worthwhile.

Labels: UK Universities

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Tomorrow's Independent has its obituary of Frank Kermode:

Sir Frank Kermode: Academic and pre-eminent literary critic who reached out to a non-specialist audience
By Paul Levy

Labels: frank kermode, obituaries

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It's time I got up to date with posting the latest episodes of the NT Pod here also on the NT Blog. NT Pod 38 asks "Who is the Beloved Disciple in John's Gospel?"

You can listen to the NT Pod online or subscribe in your preferred reader or subscribe via iTunes. Or, of course, you can follow the NT Pod on Twitter or on the NT Pod Facebook page.

Labels: Beloved Disciple, John's Gospel, NT Pod

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The New York Times has its obituary of Frank Kermode here:

Frank Kermode, 90, a Critic Who Wrote With Style, Is Dead
By Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

It adds a series of Excerpts from Frank Kermode's Writing.

HT: James Tabor on Facebook.

And the Washington Post has its obituary here:

British literary critic Frank Kermode dies at age 90
By T. Rees Shapiro

Labels: frank kermode

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Over on the NT Gateway blog, I noted yesterday that William Wrede's Paul is now available in toto on Google Books. Accordingly, I added a link to the Paul: Books and Articles page. But then it appeared that a lot of people were unable to access the book. In comments, Holger Szesnat, my colleague on the NT Gateway, noted:

In my experience, most google books that are available in full view in the U.S.A. are not accessible outside of that country. I don’t even get ’snippet’ view of the ET of Wrede’s book. The publication date seems to make no difference. Particularly galling when, as I once noticed, a scan had been made at the Bodleian library in Oxford, but UK web visitors would be prevented from accessing the google book scan. Even worse when you live on the other side of the globe, with absolute no way of reading that book.

One thing that U.S.-based people can do though is this: download the google books PDF, and then upload it to archive.org – from where it is accessible to anyone. So much for google’s supposed copyright concern behind all this, incidentally. The German original is available on that site already: http://www.archive.org/details/pauluswred00wred

The rest of us (i.e. those who do not live in google-land) can use proxy servers like hotspot shield to get around the problem – as long as you are prepared to put up with slow speed and annoying advertisements.

Well, this was news to me. I am really surprised that books like this, over one hundred years old, are not showing up in some countries. I realize, of course, that copyright laws differ from country to country. Nevertheless, I am curious to know how widespread this kind of difference between Google Books at home and abroad is. Anyone else experienced this?

Now, if anyone would like to upload the PDF of Wrede's book to archive.org, it would be great to hear from you. As an interim measure, I have uploaded the PDF to my web space here:

W. Wrede, Paul (translated by E. W. Lummis; London: Philip Green, 1907) [PDF]

Update (14.01): Roger Pearse comments.

Labels: google books, NT Gateway Updates, Wrede

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BBC Wear had a nice little feature on the forthcoming retirement of of Tom Wright as the Bishop of Durham, and his move to St Andrews University, Scotland, to work on his Paul book. And it turns out that he is a keen amateur golfer too, and there is some footage of him playing. It's about three minutes long:

Bishop of Durham approaches retirement

Is it just me or is Bishop Tom now sounding a bit more like Archbishop Rowan in the bishopy way he enunciates? Perhaps after a few months at St Andrews, that will all change and he will begin talking like Jim Davila.

Labels: N. T. Wright

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The Daily Telegraph has its obituary of Sir Frank Kermode, who died yesterday:

Sir Frank Kermode
Sir Frank Kermode, who died on August 17 aged 90, was the most eminent critic of English literature since FR Leavis; his teaching career culminated in the senior English professorship at Cambridge University, a post he surrendered in 1982 in the aftermath of a widely reported doctrinal rift within the faculty.

The Guardian also has also just published its obituary:

Sir Frank Kermode obituary
Pre-eminent critic who with easy erudition explored how ideas work in literature

Labels: frank kermode, obituaries

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