Teaching Paul

As the sole teacher of New Testament in the Department of Religion at Duke, it falls to me to alternate each semester between teaching the Historical Jesus and Paul. I don't know whether the choice of Jesus and Paul goes back to Ed Sanders, who came to Duke in 1990 and retired last year, or whether it predates him, but it is an arrangment I am very happy with. The way we have worked out my own undergraduate teaching load for the present is that I take Introduction to New Testament once each year, in either Fall or Spring, and I take Paul each Fall and Jesus each Spring. Having taught my first course on the Historical Jesus last semester, it's time now to teach my first course on the Life and Letters of Paul. The first class is next Monday, and I'm looking forward to it.

I taught Paul for a decade in Birmingham, but in a rather different set up. When I arrived at Birmingham in 1995, I was appointed as the teaching relief for Frances Young, who had just been promoted to Dean of the Faculty of Arts (I had the dubious honour of being known as the "Dean's relief"). She had run a course known as "New Testament Theology", which was essentially, a bit like the course of the same name I had taken as an undergraduate in Oxford, all about Paul and John, i.e. everything that didn't fit into the Synoptic Gospels course. Perhaps Hebrews might get thrown in there too, and maybe even 1 Peter, James and Revelation, but it was largely a space for reflecting on Paul -- and John. As the years went on, and as David Parker and I did more team-teaching, New Testament Theology morphed more and more into a course about Paul. From time to time we would integrate other parts of the NT into the course, usually because we felt bad about the sole focus on Paul, but really Paul was the star.

One of the things that differs hugely between my experience at Birmingham and my experience now at Duke -- and I have no idea if this is a standard difference between the UK and the USA or not -- is that here everything is done in self-contained semesters. You begin the course at the beginning of the semester, get a mid-term half-way through, then get examined at the end, you get your grade and you move on to completely fresh courses the next semester. In Birmingham, on the other hand, we had single modules and double modules, but I tended to teach all double modules -- and the doubles were year-long. So you'd begin your study of Paul (say) in the September and run right through to the following May before you'd finished. What this means to me in the new context is that there will be an intensity to our study of Paul that I have not experienced before. One Duke semester is far longer than one Birmingham term (especially as there are three Birmingham terms vs. two Duke semesters), but nevertheless, we have fourteen weeks to get on top of the life and letters of Paul.

Another big difference between Duke and Birmingham, and here I think there is a difference between the UK and the USA more generally, is that there is much more of a text book culture here. Students want to buy one or two books that will see them through the course. It's pretty unnerving to someone who is not familiar with this set up, and you can rebel against it and make adjustments all you like, but the student expectations are that they will buy two or three books and will devour them. As y'all who teach NT will know, recommending text books is not easy, and no doubt lots of you, like me, don't really approve of the text book culture. But what I tend to do is to recommend a couple of books as essential and to work from there to the rest. It puts students' minds at rest to feel they've at least got some starting points.

The two I am recommending this semester for Paul are both little books, and to this extent it may be a risky strategy. But both are, in very different ways, ideal to students beginning their study of Paul. The first is pictured at the top of this post, David Horrell's Introduction to the Study of Paul in its second edition. I think this book is a cracker. In fact it may be a bit too good -- it presents in nice, natty little sections just what you really need to know about all those key topics, the law, the future of Israel and so on. Unlike the other introductions, this one is an introduction to the study of Paul, so it will tell you about Bultmann and Sanders and Hooker and Dodd and the rest, and not just about Paul and Jesus.

But I want my students also to get a taste first hand for the ground-breaking, exciting (relatively) recent scholarship on Paul too and for that, I am recommending E. P. Sanders, Paul: A Very Short Introduction. It's one of the great services to scholarship that Sanders wrote short, undergraduate friendly books on both Jesus and Paul. Both are superb, and if they don't give an undergraduate a passion for studying either figure, they are probably beyond hope. Incidentally, the "very short introduction" is identical to the earlier Past Masters Paul -- it was a master stroke of re-packaging and re-marketing that saw it being issued under a completely new title.

These are just a handful of initial reflections ahead of the new semester next week, and I look forward to following up with further thoughts as I teach the course.

SBL Midatlantic Region

The Midatlantic Region of the Society of Biblical Literature has announced their plenary speaker for 2007 and it is . . . me! I am grateful for the invitation to speak. It's the first time I've been asked to do a plenary at a conference so I feel very honoured. I have been asked to talk about Q and the Synoptic Problem, so I am going to have to do some thinking about that topic before next March. The meeting is on March 1-2 2007 at the Radisson Hotel at Cross Keys, 5100 Falls Road, Baltimore, Maryland 21210. Apparently more details are to follow.

Call for Papers: Textual Criticism: Theological and Social Tendencies?

Over on ITSEE News at the University of Birmingham is notice of a call for papers:

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The Fifth Birmingham Colloquium on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament will be held from 16-19 April 2007 at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, Selly Oak, Birmingham.

The theme is:

"Textual Criticism: Theological and Social Tendencies?"

Proposals are invited for papers of 30 or 45 minutes. Suggestions for workshops, presenting work in progress, are also welcome. Please send these here.

Further details and a booking form will be available in October 2006.
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Lazarus, Mary and Martha

This press release is from Fortress:

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Why the Lazarus Story Meant So Much to Early Christians

MINNEAPOLIS (August 10, 2006)—The story of Lazarus in John 11–12 typically has been understood by scholars as a prototype of the resurrection of Christ. In the newly-released Lazarus, Mary and Martha: Social –Scientific Approaches to the Gospel of John, Philip F. Esler and Ronald Piper examine the raising of Lazarus, the relationship between him and his two sisters Mary and Martha, and the theological implications of a social-scientific critique of this relationship and the Lazarus story in general.

Using social identity theory, Esler and Piper set out what social identity theory actually means, how it works, and how it applies to John’s Gospel. They then show how their ecclesiological reading of the Lazarus story finds confirmation in the catacomb art from Rome. The book concludes by setting out some of the theological dimensions of the investigation, and ultimately provides fresh theological insight into this New Testament text.

Features

* Uses social-scientific insights into group identity to provide a new interpretation of Lazarus

* Includes four pages of full-color illustrations from the catacombs

Philip F. Esler is one of the foremost New Testament scholars in the world. Vice-Principal at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, he is author of many works, including Fortress Press volumes Conflict and Identity in Romans (2003) and New Testament Theology (2005).

Ronald Piper currently holds two positions: Professor of Christian Origins in the Divinity School, and University Vice-Principal for Learning & Teaching at St. Andrews. Among his works is Wisdom in the Q Tradition (Cambridge University Press, 1989).

Lazarus, Mary and Martha
By Philip F. Esler and Ronald Piper
Format: 5.5” x 8.5”, paperback, 208 pp
ISBN: 0-8006-3830-1
Price: $22.00
Publisher: Fortress Press
Rights: North American English

To order Lazarus, Mary and Martha please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the Web site at www.fortresspress.com.

To request review copies (for media), or to discuss speaking engagements or interviews, please call 1-800-426-0115 ext. 234 or e-mail toddb@augsburgfortress.org

To request exam copies for classroom use (professors) go to www.fortresspress.com/examcopy.

MiniFlash Greek and Hebrew

Thanks to Jamie Macleod for letting me know of a new URL for his MiniFlash software:

MiniFlash

I've made the adjustment on the Computer Software page of the Greek NT Gateway.

Review of Biblical Literature latest

The latest from the SBL Review of Biblical Literature under the NT heading is surely the richest offering ever, both in terms of books reviewed and reviewers:

Dale C. Allison
Resurrecting Jesus: The Earliest Christian Tradition and Its Interpreters
Reviewed by Michael R. Licona
Reviewed by J. Samuel Subramanian

Thomas L. Brodie
The Birthing of the New Testament: The Intertextual Development of the New Testament Writings
Reviewed by Margaret Daly-Denton

Ronald L. Farmer
Revelation
Reviewed by Jan A. du Rand

Christopher A. Frilingos
Spectacles of Empire: Monsters, Martyrs, and the Book of Revelation
Reviewed by Robert M. Royalty Jr.

Aaron M. Gale
Redefining Ancient Borders: The Jewish Scribal Framework of Matthew's Gospel
Reviewed by David C. Sim

Brian J. Incigneri
The Gospel to the Romans: The Setting and Rhetoric of Mark's Gospel
Reviewed by Zeba A. Crook

Loren Johns
The Lamb Christology of the Apocalypse of John: An Investigation into its Origins and Rhetorical Force
Reviewed by Robert M. Royalty Jr.

Xavier Leon-Dufour
To Act According to the Gospel
Reviewed by Richard A. Burridge

Scot McKnight
Jesus and His Death: Historiography, the Historical Jesus, and Atonement Theory
Reviewed by Craig A. Evans

Lidija Novakovic
Messiah, the Healer of the Sick: A Study of Jesus as the Son of David in the Gospel of Matthew
Reviewed by J. R. C. Cousland

Hendrika N. Roskam
The Purpose of the Gospel of Mark in Its Historical and Social Context
Reviewed by Zeba A. Crook

Gerard S. Sloyan
Jesus on Trial: A Study of the Gospel
Reviewed by Joel B. Green

Herman C. Waetjen
The Gospel of the Beloved Disciple: A Work in Two Editions
Reviewed by John Painter

Jan G. van der Watt, ed.,
Salvation in the New Testament: Perspectives on Soteriology
Reviewed by Frank J. Matera

K. K. (Khok-Khng) Yeo, Charles H. Cosgrove, and Herold Weiss
Cross-Cultural Paul: Journeys to Others, Journeys to Ourselves
Reviewed by Veronica Koperski
Reviewed by Sigurd Grindheim

End of blogging holiday

Although I did break into the blogging holiday with the odd post here and there, the blogging holiday has now officially ended and normal service should be resumed fairly soon, though the email mountain makes that less likely than it might otherwise be. We arrived back from England late on Tuesday night / Wednesday morning, after something like 22 hours of travelling, with plenty of searches and queues and delays (I even had a pen confiscated). When we finally made it back to Raleigh-Durham airport, our luggage had not made it with us, including our house key, so we had to wake up the neighbour to get our spare key in order to get in. Viola has already blogged some of our trip on The Americanization of Emily, with several more posts to come in the coming days. It's good to be back. This will be my first full academic year at Duke (I arrived here at the end of September last year, and academic years run from the end of August) and I am looking forward to the teaching; I have some research projects I am excited about too, and hope to fit in some NT Gateway and NT Gateway blogging too.

SBL Review of Biblical Literature

I break again briefly from my blogging holiday, currently in Cambridge in England, to give the links to the latest from the SBL Review of Biblical Literature under the NT heading:

Peter Balla
The Child-Parent Relationship in the New Testament and Its Environment
Reviewed by Reidar Aasgaard

Michael J. Kruger
The Gospel of the Savior: An Analysis of P. OXY. 840 and Its Place in the Gospel Traditions of Early Christianity
Reviewed by Joseph Verheyden

Scott M. Lewis
The Gospel according to John and the Johannine Letters
Reviewed by Paul N. Anderson

Sorin Sabou
Between Horror and Hope: Paul's Metaphorical Language of 'Death' in Romans 6:1-11
Reviewed by James C. Miller

Alistair I. Wilson
When Will These Things Happen? A Study of Jesus as Judge in Matthew 21-25
Reviewed by J. Samuel Subramanian

PhD Studentship: New Testament Studies (University of Wales Bangor)

This is posted on behalf of Catrin Williams:
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University of Wales Bangor

PhD Studentship: New Testament Studies

School of Theology and Religious Studies

The School of Theology and Religious Studies is offering a PhD studentship in New Testament Studies to commence on 1st October 2006. The studentship will cover the cost of University tuition fees (at the Home/EU rate of £3168 for 2006/7) and will provide a maintenance grant of £12000 per year for a maximum of three years of full-time study. The successful candidate will be required to undertake some New Testament teaching for the School as a condition of his/her award.

The School of Theology and Religious Studies is part of the University’s College of Arts and Humanities (which comprises the Schools of Welsh, English, History, Linguistics, Modern Languages, Music, and Creative Industries). The School has nine full-time academic members of staff who teach and research in a wide variety of areas: Old Testament, New Testament, Biblical Hermeneutics, Modern Church History, Empirical Theology, Theology and Contemporary Culture, Pentecostal Theology. Details of the research interests of individual members of staff, and of the undergraduate and postgraduate courses offered by the School, can be found at http://www.bangor.ac.uk/trs. The work of the successful applicant will be supervised by Dr Catrin Williams, whose research interests include the Gospel of John, late Second Temple Judaism, rabbinic and targumic traditions.

The successful applicant will:

· Have a good first degree in a relevant field and a postgraduate qualification or further relevant academic experience.

· Demonstrate the capability and diligence required to complete a PhD by research within the period of the award.

· Provide a clear statement of his/her proposed research topic in the field of New Testament Studies; he/she will be expected to offer an outline of the questions or problems to be addressed, and of the methods to be used, in the thesis.

· Have fluent English and an excellent knowledge of New Testament Greek. A reading knowledge of German is desirable.

· Be in a position to undertake teaching duties for the School, including New Testament Greek at Level 1 and New Testament Greek Texts at Levels 2 and 3.

Applicants should send a CV, the names and addresses of two referees familiar with their academic work, and a statement (max. 1000 words) outlining their proposed research topic to: Dr Eryl W. Davies, Head of the School of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2DG (email: rss013@bangor.ac.uk; tel. 01248 382079).

The closing date for applications is 21 August, and we aim to inform our selected candidate by 1 September. The School may decide to interview candidates for this studentship as part of its selection process.

For further information, please contact either Dr Eryl W. Davies or Dr Catrin Williams (email: catrin.williams@bangor.ac.uk).
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SBL Review of Biblical Literature latest

Here is the latest from the SBL Review of Biblical Literature under the NT and related heading. (This is a combination of the last two postings of reviews, so nice and long).

Bock, Darrell L., and Gregory J. Herrick, eds.
Jesus in Context: Background Readings for Gospel Study
Reviewed by Michael Schufer

Holladay, Carl R.
A Critical Introduction to the New Testament: Interpreting the Message and Meaning of Jesus Christ
Reviewed by Jan van der Watt

Keener, Craig S.
1-2 Corinthians
Reviewed by Friedrich Horn

Lawrence, Louise J.
Reading with Anthropology: Exhibiting Aspects of New Testament Religion
Reviewed by David Watson

Lund, Jerome Alan
The Old Syriac Gospel of the Distinct Evangelists: A Key-Word-in-Context Concordance
Reviewed by Ignacio Carbajosa

Luz, Ulrich
Matthew 21-28
Reviewed by Edgar Krentz

Meeks, Wayne A.
Christ Is the Question
Reviewed by James D. G. Dunn

Olbricht, Thomas H., and Anders Eriksson, eds.
Rhetoric, Ethic, and Moral Persuasion in Biblical Discourse
Reviewed by Walter Vogels

Scaer, Peter J.
The Lukan Passion and the Praiseworthy Death
Reviewed by Robert Brawley

Weder, Hans
Tempo presente e signoria di Dio: La concezione del tempo in Gesù e nel cristianesimo delle origini
Reviewed by Johanna Brankaer

Harbin, Michael A.
The Promise and the Blessing: A Historical Survey of the Old and New Testaments
Reviewed by Clare Rothschild

Timpanaro, Sebastiano
The Genesis of Lachman's Method
Reviewed by Joseph Verheyden

François Bovon
Studies in Early Christianity
Reviewed by Joseph Verheyden

Douglas S. McComiskey
Lukan Theology in the Light of the Gospel's Literary Structure
Reviewed by Gert J. Steyn

Jack Pastor and Menachem Mor, eds.
The Beginnings of Christianity: A Collection of Articles
Reviewed by Ithamar Gruenwald

Robin Griffith-Jones
The Gospel according to Paul: The Creative Genius Who Brought Jesus to the World
Reviewed J. Brian Tucker

Richard Viladesau
The Beauty of the Cross: The Passion of Christ in Theology and the Arts--From the Catacombs to the Eve of the Renaissance
Reviewed by Hennie Stander

Lectureship in New Testament & Early Christian Studies, University of Groningen

This is posted on behalf of George van Kooten:

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TEXT VACANCY LECTURESHIP:

Job Vacancy

Faculty of Theology & Religious Studies, University of Groningen

The University of Groningen is the second oldest in The Netherlands and was established in 1614. The teaching programmes offered by the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies have been assessed as the best in the Netherlands (2006). Its research is deemed excellent, according to the latest review (2006). The principal research areas of the Faculty are: Jewish and Christian Traditions, Religion, Representation and Power and Meaning, Tradition and Change. There is a great deal of
interdisciplinary research.


University Lecturer in New Testament & Early Christian Studies

vacancynumber: 206150

Job description

The Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies seeks applications for a University Lecturer in New Testament & Early Christian Studies in the Department of Biblical Studies from 1 January 2007, or as soon as possible thereafter. The candidate appointed will be responsible for teaching New Testament & Early Christianity in the BA and MA programmes. His or her research will be in the field of New Testament & Early Christian Studies with a required specialism in: the Jewish context, heterodox early-Christian movements (e.g. Gnostic) and/or Patristics.

Requirements

- PhD in relevant field;

- a dynamic and enthusiastic approach to his/her subject area;

- knowledge of innovative and pioneering research on the New Testament & Early Christianity in its ancient context;

- a demonstrable interest in interdisciplinary co-operation;

- excellent research skills, shown among other things by articles in leading academic journals or international publications;

- the ability to successfully compete for external research funding.

- excellent teaching skills;

- the capacity to contribute to BA and MA programmes in both theology and religious studies;

- the capacity to collaborate actively with the other members of Biblical Studies within the yearly Themes in Biblical Narrative conferences, the proceedings of which are published in the Brill series (www.xs4all.nl/~fvds/tbn);

- The willingness to participate actively in the producing of the /Review of Articles /of the /Journal for the Study of Judaism/, which is issued by the Qumran Institute of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the University of Groningen;

Conditions of employment

The University of Groningen offers a salary, dependent on qualifications and work experience, of € 3024,- (scale 11) up to a maximum of € 4705,- (scale 12) gross per month for a full-time position, and 8% holiday allowance. The appointment will be on temporary basis for 1 year (probationary period) with the possibility of a permanent
position after the first year.

Further information

Informal enquiries may be made to Professor George van Kooten (E-mail: g.h.van.kooten@rug.nl). Further information
about the department and faculty are available via the faculty's website at: www.rug.nl/theology.

Application

Candidates whose main teaching and research experience is in any area relevant to the teaching and study of New Testament & Early Christianity are encouraged to apply.

You can apply for this job before 15 September 2006 by sending your application to:

University of Groningen
Personnel and Organization Department
P.O. Box 72
9700 AB Groningen
The Netherlands

E-mail: vmp@bureau.rug.nl

When applying for this job always mention the vacancy number 206150.
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Beyond Belief on Mary Magdalene

I interrupt my blogging holiday to note that while driving from Birmingham to South Derbyshire yesterday, it was a pleasure to catch my friend Bridget Gilfillan Upton on the latest Beyond Belief on Radio 4. (It's great being in the UK -- you can get Radio 4 just by switching on the radio in the car! You don't even have to have your laptop and an internet connection!). You can listen again here:

Beyond Belief: 24 July 2006

As well as Bridget Gilfillan Upton, there was a second woman whose name I have forgotten (sorry) and also Timothy Freke, whom I've met on a couple of occasions, most recently on a previous episode of Beyond Belief on Gnosticism.

Blogging holiday

I'm taking a break from blogging for the next few weeks, but I look forward to seeing y'all again later in the summer.

Tyndale Tech March 2006

One of the things mentioned in the Biblical Studies Bulletin 40 (see previous post) is the most recent Tyndale Tech from David Instone Brewer. A quick search shows that I have not blogged this previously, and it's certainly worth doing so:

Tyndale Tech: March 2006: Bibles in English and Ancient Languages on the Web

As usual, it's an excellent and informative post. I'd add just one thing: zhubert.com, which is a fantastic site for the Greek NT and tends to be the first place I go to these days.

Biblical Studies Bulletin 40

The latest Biblical Studies Bulletin, for June 2006, is now available on-line. It's edited by Michael Thompson at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and is connected with Grove Books, and is always worth reading:

Biblical Studies Bulletin 40

There's one slightly troubling note to regular readers:

This is your opportunity to stand up and be counted! For ten years now I have spent roughly four days per year editing BSB. My boss and others are urging me to simplify my lifestyle. One way to do so would be to give up BSB. But would anyone miss it? If you think the tradition is worth continuing, please send a postcard or an email to me (mbt2@cam.ac.uk). If I hear from thirty righteous people (not including Grove employees, group members, or Ridley Hall staff or students), before the next issue is due, I’ll keep doing this for a while. Otherwise, it’s the eschaton.

Here's my vote: please keep it going, Mike, if you can. I'd like to delay the eschaton.

By the way, the link on the main page to BSB 40 points to BSB 39, but I managed to sniff out the actual link.

More on the BBC Passion drama

The Stage today has the latest on the BBC's planned The Passion drama, due to air in 2008 (see previous, BBC plans big budget Jesus drama, 26 April 2006):

Prime Suspect’s Deasy to pen £4m Passion

Frank Deasy, one of the writers of Prime Suspect, will pen the BBC’s new £4 million drama The Passion, which is understood to be scheduled for 2008.

The mini-series will follow the week leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Producer Nigel-Stafford Clark, who recently worked on the Corporation’s award-winning adaptation of Bleak House, told MediaGuardian that he had selected Deasy because he had an instinctive understanding of the task.

It is reported that the format will take the same soap opera scheduling approach as Bleak House - in half hour episodes each night.

The production, which was the brainchild of the BBC religion department, will also see input from new head of religion and ethics, Michael Wakelin, while Mark Goodacre, a British academic expert on Jesus, has also been engaged as a consultant.

Sounds like they've got some top people involved, then.

E. W. Lummis, A Case Against "Q"

Some recent discussion on Synoptic-L led me to nibble around in some earlier twentieth century British Synoptic scholarship. The specific thing we were discussing was the reception of the Q scepticism of E. W. Lummis, whose How Luke was Written (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1915) anticipated Austin Farrer's On Dispensing with Q by some forty years. B. H. Streeter does not mention Lummis in The Four Gospels, in spite of the fact that he had earlier reviewed the book for the Journal of Theological Studies 17 (1915–1916): 125. Vincent Taylor does mention Lummis on several occasions, but he groups him together with Matthean priorist H. G. Jameson, The Origin of the Synoptic Gospels (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1922), and one is easily thrown off the scent, as I once was. See, for example, Vincent Taylor, The Synoptic Gospels, and Some Recent British Criticism, The Journal of Religion, Vol. 8, No. 2. (Apr., 1928): 225-246 (228). Others make the same mistake, e.g. Peter Head, Christology and the Synoptic Problem: An Argument for Markan Priority (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 17 and Edward C. Hobbs, A Quarter-Century Without "Q", 11 n. 4.

Now what was new to me was a reference in the above mentioned Vincent Taylor article to the effect that "Mr Lummis has recently defended his theory in the Hibbert Journal (July, 1925)" (228, n. 12). My good friend and fellow Q sceptic Jeff Peterson has kindly supplied me with a copy of the hitherto unknown (to us) article from the Hibbert Journal and it turns out that it has a great title and some very interesting content. Bibliographical details are:

The Rev. E. W. Lummis, D.D., "The Case Against 'Q'", Hibbert Journal 24 (1925-6): 755-65

It is my intention to make the article available on-line, on the assumption that it is now out of copyright (though I'll check), as I earlier made Farrer's and other Q sceptics' articles available on-line on my Case Against Q website. In the mean time, here are some choice quotations, with thanks to Jeff Peterson for transcribing:

"Many (if not most) theologians are unable to appreciate the law of probability. They are often, in fact, indignant at the introduction of such a peremptory thing as a mathematical argument into their guessing-game. A rigid measure ought not, they maintain, to be applied to an elastic material. But the value of the mathematical check is that it defines the degree of elasticity in the material. It disposes of the contention 'Since this material is elastic, we may stretch it as far as we please.'" (759)

"This imaginary document [Q] will not do the work for which it was invented unless it accounts for the non-Marcan community of Luke and Matthew in the Baptism, the Temptation, and certain other passages to which Mark presents a parallel. But when the common non-Marcan passages are detached it as at once to be seen that they cannot have stood in any document without connecting links, and the links which are logically required are precisely those which appear in due place in Matthew and Luke. These links, however, appear also in Mark. Hence it is held that Mark was acquainted with 'Q,' and that in these places his work represents a 'mutilation' or abridgement of 'Q.' . . . Now it can also be shown beyond reasonable doubt that the passage which occurs in Matthew iv.23–25 was made use of by Luke in his paraphrase of certain Marcan notices; and also that this passage is, in Matthew, a summary of those same Marcan notices. If 'Q' is to work, this passage, since it was known both to Matthew and to Luke, and is non-Marcan, must have appeared in 'Q.' That is to say, 'Q' must have contained a synopsis of certain consecutive passages in Mark. We obtain the curious result that Mark was familiar with 'Q,' and 'Q' was skillfuly avoided in Mark's supplementary work; but this supplementary work of Mark was at the same time a basis for a passage in 'Q.' One is reminded of Baron Munchausen sitting on his horse whle he lifts it by its ears out of the bog. The 'Q' hypothesis lands in an absurdity." (761)

"My grudge against 'Q' is this, that it inaugurated a vicious fashion in New Testament scholarship. Instead of obeying the tenor of facts that lay before them, scholars have taken to calling up imaginary documents out of the unknown. There is not the slightest scrap of evidence for 'Q,' or for 'Corrected Mark,' or for Dr Stanton's 'other documents' which served as sources both for Matthew and for Luke, or for such special selective assimilation sa he posits in the ancestral manuscripts of the New Testament. Such facile fabrications, invented to evade the clear suggestion of the actual texts as we have them, are a sin against learning. Nor can I understand the grounds of the obstinate refusal of divines to admit—in face of overwhelming evidence—that Luke was acquainted with Matthew." (761-2)

Silverscreen Beats 3 and 4

The third and fourth Silverscreen Beats programmes were broadcast on Radio 4 yesterday (15.45 BST) and today (15.45 BST) and they are now available on-line to listen again:

Jesus Christ Superstar (July 5)

Lyricist Tim Rice reveals that the movie only came about because the stage show was such a flop, and how Tom Jones inspired the title to the film.

Life of Brian (July 6)

Composer Geoffrey Burgon reveals how he wrote a traditional, serious score to counteract the comedy in a controversial film. Director Terry Jones admits that he was surprised that the song Always Look on the Bright Side became such a hit.

There are several contributions from me in both programmes. The last part, on The Last Temptation of Christ, is broadcast tomorrow.

Update (Friday, 10.54): see Matt Page's comments in Bible Films Blog: Silverscreen Beats: Godspell and Superstar and Silverscreen Beats: Life of Brian

Blogging as theological reflection round-up

It turns out that several have answered Francis Ward's Blogging as theological reflection questions. Here is a round-up:

NT Gateway Weblog (Mark Goodacre)
The Busybody (Loren Rosson)
postmodernbible (Pete Phillips)
Singing in the Reign (Michael Barber)
Ricoblog (Rick Brannan)
Sean the Baptist (Sean Winter)
Hypotyposeis (Stephen Carlson)
Thoughts on Antiquity (Chris Weimer)

Lots of interesting material there. Anyone else joining in?

Updated (Friday, 10.16): Sean the Baptist added above.

Updated (Saturday, 01.20): Hypotyposeis added above.

Updated (Saturday, 11.17): Thoughts on Antiquity added above.

Review of Biblical Literature latest

Latest from the SBL Review of Biblical Literature under the NT heading:

Paul, Dagmar J.
Untypische Texte im Matthäusevangelium? Studien zu Charakter, Funktion und Bedeutung einer Textgruppe des matthäischen Sonderguts
Reviewed by Boris Repschinski

Bolt, Peter G.
The Cross from a Distance: Atonement in Mark's Gospel
Reviewed by Elliott Maloney

Moloney, Francis J.
The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary
Reviewed by Heike Omerzu

Dunn, James D. G., and Scot McKnight, eds.
The Historical Jesus in Recent Research
Reviewed by Stephan Joubert

Polaski, Sandra Hack
A Feminist Introduction to Paul
Reviewed by Holly Hearon

Osiek, Carolyn, Margaret Y. MacDonald, and Janet H. Tulloch
A Woman's Place: House Churches in Earliest Christianity
Reviewed by Jorunn Økland

Sturcke, Henry
Encountering the Rest of God: How Jesus Came to Personify the Sabbath
Reviewed by Boris Repschinski

Pascuzzi, Maria A.
First and Second Corinthians
Reviewed by Reimund Bieringer

Thurston, Bonnie B., and Judith Ryan
Philippians & Philemon
Reviewed by Jeremy Punt

Bartholomew, Craig G., Joel B. Green, and Anthony Thiselton, eds.
Reading Luke: Interpretation, Reflection, Formation
Reviewed by John Squires

Muilenberg on John

The latest addition to the Gospel of John: Articles page is:

James Muilenberg, “Literary Form in the Fourth Gospel”, Journal of Biblical Literature 51 (1932): 40-53

It's many thanks to Rob Bradshaw at BiblicalStudies.org.uk for this. He has also made available the following:

F.F. Bruce, "The Chester Beatty Papyri," The Harvester 11 (1934): 163, 164

One of these days I'll have to add a page for TC articles and then I can catalogue pieces like this too.

[Update, Thursday, 21.11: I had intended this as the first in a fresh series of "link a day" posts but I realised today that I didn't have the energy for it. But the feature will return soon, I hope.]

Busybody anniversary round-up

Happy bloggiversary to Loren Rosson's The Busybody. Loren celebrates with a Looking Back post including some interesting highlights from the past year.

While catching up, I notice too that Loren has answered Francis Ward's Questions about blogging (see my answers). I haven't seen anyone else tackle these yet. Any takers?

Silverscreen Beats 2: Godspell

The second episode of Silverscreen Beats was broadcast yesterday afternoon, the topic Godspell. You can listen on-line here:

Silverscreen Beats: Godspell

Miles Jupp presents a series looking at music in movies about Jesus.

Composer Stephen Schwartz reveals that he took five weeks to write the classic songs such as Day By Day. Another song, Beautiful City, became the unofficial anthem of the World Trade Centre disaster, and virtually all the words in Godspell are derived from the New Testament.

There is a bit more of me in there. I sound quite chirpy; I do remember enjoying the interview, as it happens.

Biblioblog of the month: Dave Black

Thanks to Brandon Wason and Jim West for this month's Blogger of the Month feature, on Dave Black, round the corner from me at the Southeast Baptist Theological Seminary:

Dave Black: Blogger of the Month for July 2006

I am grateful to Dave for his kind words about my blog. I also like the description of himself as "incurably eclectic".

Biblical Studies Carnival VII

Like others in the biblioblogging community, I warmly welcome the latest Biblical Studies Carnival, produced over on Daily Hebrew by Chip Hardy:

Biblical Studies Carnival VII

As regular readers will know, I am a big fan of the Biblical Studies Carnivals -- they are an ideal way of catching up on the latest in the ever-expanding biblioblogosphere and we are all greatly in the debt of those like Chip Hardy who have done great jobs. Indeed this month I've been pleased to discover Chip Hardy's Daily Hebrew blog, which is new to me and which I have added to my blogroll (though it has about 4,000 different RSS feeds and I don't know if I've got a good one). But I want to add a point this month of (mild) criticism and (stronger) confession. The point of criticism is that I think there is a possible danger that the Biblical Studies Carnivals are over-dependent on the submissions made by individual bloggers. I say this because I think there are some great blog posts that are getting missed, indeed entire blogs that never get mentioned. And this is where I want to add my point of stronger self-criticism and confession: I have never yet submitted anything to any of the Carnivals. I often talk about them and always advertise them, but somehow I never get round to submitting anything. I know that in my own case it's a certain self-effacing shyness at submitting anything I've written. In the case of recommending other people's blogs, it's sheer laziness. I just don't get round to doing it.

So this is partly a memo to self: in future make more of an effort to submit materials. And it is partly a call to others: do try to keep the Carnivals strong by submitting your favourite materials, especially in others' blogs. I think this is important as the blogosphere continues to expand because we will not always be able to rely on the time and ability of those like Chip Hardy who are putting good carnival posts together.

Marcionism in Washington Times article on Cash

There's an enjoyable review of Johnny Cash's last album, American V: A Hundred Highways, in The Washington Times today, in which the author drifts into Marcionism:

Cash bares his soul on final recording
By Adam Mazmanian

Though the star's profound Christian faith is known to fans of his music, people who know Mr. Cash through the 2005 biopic " Walk the Line" will be forgiven for not understanding the extent to which themes of sin and forgiveness, prayers to God and references to prophecy inform not only in his lyrics but in his posture and tone. Like much of his recent work, the songs written and covered by Mr. Cash exhibit a tension between the wrathful God of the Bible's Old Testament and the forgiving son of God in the New Testament.

It's a shame that so blatant a piece of Marcionism is stated as if a self-evident truth, and it's another good reason why education about Biblical Studies and early Christian history is good for you.

Goodacres make it to Duke News

We made it to Duke News recently, for watching and blogging on the World Cup:

World Cup Fever
Duke community joins global facination [sic] of soccer
By Rony Camille

One Duke family that still has a rooting interest in the outcome is the Goodacres, who emigrated from Birmingham, England, last September. Mark Goodacre, an associate professor of religion, and his wife Viola are blogging about their experiences in America (http://uktous.blogspot.com), but also commenting about the games, the quality of the broadcasters and other World Cup-related topics.

For example, Viola recently wrote that she remains concerned about her favorite team, even though the English team has advanced to the quarter-finals: “As for England, we finished top of our group. Even so, during each of their matches, I couldn't help thinking that they needed someone to light a fire under them to get them going.”

Ah, that already seems like a long time ago now, and no one ever got around to lighting that fire.

More Americanizing

The latest in my series of posts on "How to Cope without British TV and Radio" on The Americanization of Emily is on-line at:

How to Cope Without British TV and Radio: Wimbledon Supplement

Miracles of Jesus Documentary

Also on Bible Films Blog, Matt Page notes that there is a New BBC Documentary Series -- "The Miracles of Jesus". Details are on the BBC Religion and Ethics website here:

The Miracles of Jesus

The series is produced and directed by Jean-Claude Bragard, with whom I once appeared on Channel 4's The Big Breakfast. As Matt notes, he was behind the successful series Son of God (Jesus: The Complete Story in the US). He also directed St Paul and several other key BBC Religion and Ethics programme. I've been asked in correspondence if I was involved with The Miracles of Jesus and the answer is: yes, but only unofficially. I spent some time with Jean-Claude and with Anna Cox discussing the series a couple of years ago in Birmingham, and have had extended phone calls and email correspondence with them since then, and with series researchers, especially David Waters. I was also a reader for the series book by Michael Symmons Roberts (picture left). On this occasion I did not make it to the final mix, as it were, either as consultant or participant, but I look forward to seeing it. If I remember correctly, the US version has already aired on Discovery.

Silverscreen Beats

Over on Matthew Page's Bible Films Blog (note originating in Peter Chattaway's Filmchat: Jesus Movie Soundtracks on the BBC), there's a post about a new BBC Radio 4 programme:

Silverscreen Beats

It is on all this week at 3.45 pm BST, five episodes at 15 minutes each, taking the music for King of Kings, Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Life of Brian and The Last Temptation of Christ. You can listen again from the link above. Matt asks:

As for the series as a whole, I suspect it is a repeat. Certainly before Mark Goodacre's brief quote he is introduced as being from Birmingham University which would make it at least a year old! If that is the case, it's a very much welcome one.

Well, the clip of me speaking, as well as a lot of the rest of the content, is taken from a BBC Scotland documentary broadcast on Easter Day 2004 and entitled Silverscreen Superstar. I blogged on it briefly at the time (Silverscreen Superstar, 15 April 2004). I didn't know about the new version, so I am interested to see how it pans out and whether they'll be using any more of me in it.

Scholars' web pages: Petersons and Philips

I've updated the Scholars Page: O, P, Q with Pete Philips and Jeff Peterson. I've deleted Birger Pearson -- can't find him anymore. I've updated the link to Brian K. Peterson.

Scholars' web pages: Wright, Wansbrough etc.

Thanks to Imhotep Newsome for noting that I hadn't listed the N. T. Wright Page among my Scholars pages on the NT Gateway. As regular readers will know, I often refer to the latest updates on the N. T. Wright Page so it's a real oversight on my part that I had not yet linked to it in the appropriate place on the NT Gateway. Anyway, while updating that page, Scholars: U to Z, I noticed that Dom Henry Wansbrough has lots more materials available since I last visited. Check out his Booklets for some great teaching materials, including a new Introduction to Mark (Word Document), 2006.

Blogging as theological reflection answers

Now my answers to Francis Ward's questions:

1. How long have you been blogging?

Since September 2003.

2. What got you started?

Reading Paleojudaica and realizing that the blog format would help me a great deal with managing my NT Gateway website which had been on the web since 1997. I realized that I could merge several aspects of the that site (Logbook, Featured Links, etc.) into the blog and could at the same time add comment on much more.

3. Do you have a history of diary/journal/log writing beforehand?

I had a logbook on the NT Gateway, which this blog replaced. And yes, I used to write a personal diary for years, from about age 12 to about age 25. (I stopped when I got married). But this blog does not resemble a diary except on the relatively rare occasions I add a work-related travel diary here.

4. How in your own mind do you negotiate the boundary between private and public? E.g. are there things that you would not put on your blog that you would put in a journal?

I like to avoid relating personal information on this blog because I see it as self-indulgent and I don't imagine that my readers, who are here because of the academic NT theme, will be interested in my taste in music, sport, film, TV, etc. It is largely a professional blog and so I try to keep it focused. Nevertheless, I realize that the occasional pieces of personal reflection can keep the blog lively since, after all, it is not an academic journal or a published book. But the key thing for me is to keep those to a minimum and to resist the temptation to self-indulgence. But my wife has a blog too, called The Americanization of Emily and that is a very different kind of blog from this. The focus is on our recent move from the UK to the USA and occasionally I add a guest post there. Also, I know that some of the readers of that blog are readers of this one.

5. How do you decide? What criteria do you use for inclusion/exclusion?

It's about relevance to the topic of academic New Testament studies, and that is the key criterion. Related topics come in too, e.g. matters of broader interest to the British or American academic community (because I've worked in both countries and many readers are British and American academics), the New Testament in film and media (a matter of related interest, and in which I have been involved myself), academic blogging, ancient history. But the joy of blogging is that you make your own decisions about what goes in and what does not. That freedom brings a kind of responsibility, as I see it, of keeping the content interesting and relevant to your readers. There are so many blogs out there now, and dozens in the New Testament area alone, that you keep your readers' loyalty by not abusing the privilege of having the platform you have gained.

6. How much time, on average, do you spend blogging each day or week?

It varies wildly in my own case, so I can't speak of an average. I like to blog every day and my ideal is to post two or three posts a day. But there are several key constraints: (1) There are others blogging in the area and they cover a lot of the material that I might have covered if they were not there. I avoid simply repeating material covered by others. (2) There are times when I can't get to the blogging machine, and more so since we moved to the States because we have more longer-stay visitors coming over and we take longer trips away from home. (3) The email mountain often makes blogging tough. (4) I don't get enough sleep.

7. How many other people do you actively engage with – e.g. are part of your blog community?

Yes, there are is a loose community of bloggers in the area of academic Biblical Studies, and you can get a feel for the kind of people doing this by going to Biblioblog.net and Biblioblogs.com. There are also others I engage with who are not, strictly speaking, in the Biblical Studies area, but most of those I engage with are what have loosely been called "bibliobloggers". I used to read everything published on all those biblioblogs, but now I am lucky to be able to read more than five or six of them on a regular basis -- I just don't have the time to devote to that.

I organized a session at last year's Society of Biblical Literature on biblioblogging and about seven of us involved in blogging spent a couple of hours reflecting on our experiences (You'll find lots on the blogs about it from last November). One of the interesting outcrops of that session was some talk about issues of identity, of inclusion and exclusion, and in particular the issue of gender. The panel at the session was all male and there was some real concern that we were effectively setting ourselves up as a kind of in group and excluding others. As time has gone on, these concerns have dissipated a bit because the biblioblogging community (if one can still call it that) has grown out of all recognition. There are now many more women bibliobloggers, and the massive expansion of the biblioblogging community has illustrated that even if there ever were problems about identity / inclusion / exclusion, they are not here now.

The most important recent development in this area is the regular Biblical Studies Carnival. Every month one of the bibliobloggers gathers information from all over the Biblical Studies blogging community and publishes what s/he regards as the best posts of that month. It's been a great help for those like me who have lost touch with the ever expanding blogging community in the Biblical Studies area.

8. Who is your readership – literally; as far as you know?

My regular readership, in so far as I can gather from the correspondence and comments, is made up of academics, graduate students and a few undergraduate students in the area, but by far the biggest constituency is the "interested layperson", those looking to keep up with the area, or to develop their interests in the area. That includes a number of clergy too (I know it's odd to call them "lay", but I am speaking, of course, with respect to the professional academics and otherwise, not church and otherwise). I have about 2,000 visitors a day to the NT Gateway site as a whole (including the blog) and I would say that the majority of those come through Google searches.

9. and metaphorically? Do you imagine someone to whom you write/with whom you engage?

Not really. I try to make sure that I write clearly and in a way that can be understood by anyone intelligent and reasonably well informed, but if one spends too long trying to visualize one's audience, one would go nuts. To be honest, I don't like to imagine too huge an audience or I get too self-conscious. One useful lesson I have learnt too is that one should never assume that a scholar one is criticizing will not look at one's blog. There have been occasions when I have been flattered to discover that a scholar I am engaging with here has actually read what I am saying. So the moral is -- and this is something that helps with all scholarly writing -- don't write something you wouldn't be happy saying to someone's face.

10. What counts as successful blogging?

That's too big a question, really, and so many things go into good blogging. What I would say is that one needs to work hard to get the balance right. One simply cannot realistically expect a scholar's blog to have the same degree of careful research and reasoned argument that one would find in published work. The blog is often a place of experimentation and enjoyment, a scholarly playground, as it were. If one can't toss out the odd idea and try out different things and comment on what one happens to be interested in, then it is hardly worth it. But at the same time, one can be too frivolous, over-opinionated, and one has to watch out for that. It's easy to relax too much when one is blogging. For me, a professional blog is a university Senior Common Room; it is not the bar. We are drinking coffee while we blog and not beer.

11. What does blogging offer as a method of theological reflection?

To be honest, I am not very good at theological reflection and my own blog tends to veer more towards items of historical interest. That's just a reflection of my own interests. As stated previously, blogging gives one the opportunity to try things out in a more relaxed, informal kind of atmosphere, with a readership outside the four walls of one's own university. I like the democratic medium of blogging, as of the internet generally. People are judged by the academic quality of their posts rather than by their credentials, and that's one of the reasons that you get some star bloggers who are amateurs (amateurs in the sense that they are not paid academics, or graduate students in the area).

12. What potential do you see for blogging as a method of theological reflection?

See previous. Just look at the best of what's available in the current scene and imagine how that can be consolidated and strengthened.

13. Do you know of examples of theological education programmes where students are required to keep a learning journal and blog as a form of journal?

No. I've toyed with the idea myself, but I am not persuaded that it would work well. I think it would be too gimmicky.

14. Blogging and gender: do you think gender makes any difference to any of the above questions?

No, though note the above comments on when the issues was raised in the biblioblogging community. It is of course the case that women are still woefully under-represented in the guild in general, and there are also many fewer women bloggers than male ones. But I am optimistic and look forward to seeing the balance change, and doing everything I can myself to help to change things.

Latest from the SBL Review of Biblical Literature

under the NT heading:

Harrill, J. Albert
Slaves in the New Testament: Literary, Social, and Moral Dimensions
Reviewed by Joseph Verheyden

Harrill, J. Albert
Slaves in the New Testament: Literary, Social, and Moral Dimensions
Reviewed by Marcus Sigismund

Moloney, Francis J.
Mark: Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist
Reviewed by Heike Omerzu

Wright, N. T.
Paul: In Fresh Perspective
Reviewed by Valerie Nicolet Anderson

Wright, N. T.
Paul: In Fresh Perspective
Reviewed by Seyoon Kim

Erickson, Richard J.
A Beginner's Guide to New Testament Exegesis: Taking the Fear out of the Critical Method
Reviewed by Peter Judge

Thompson, Marianne Meye
Colossians and Philemon
Reviewed by Verlyn Verbrugge

Blogging as theological reflection

Francis Ward emails:
-----
Hi! I’m Frankie Ward and with Elaine Graham and Heather Walton we’re the speakers at the British and Irish Association of Practical Theology conference that meets in Manchester July 18 – 20th this year, with the theme of theological reflection. I’d like to do something at the conference on blogging as a method of theological reflection – and would be really grateful if you could answer any or all of these questions – and forward them on to anyone else you know who might be prepared to answer them too. I need responses, if possible, by July 3rd … I don’t blog (yet!) so responses to my email address at fefward@btinternet.com although if there’s any way that some dialogue can be generated within whatever blogging community you belong to, it would be great to be notified of any links etc that I might otherwise miss.
Many thanks in anticipation …

1. How long have you been blogging?
2. What got you started?
3. Do you have a history of diary/journal/log writing beforehand?
4. How in your own mind do you negotiate the boundary between private and public? E.g. are there things that you would not put on your blog that you would put in a journal?
5. How do you decide? What criteria do you use for inclusion/exclusion?
6. How much time, on average, do you spend blogging each day or week?
7. How many other people do you actively engage with – e.g. are part of your blog community?
8. Who is your readership – literally; as far as you know?
9. and metaphorically? Do you imagine someone to whom you write/with whom you engage?
10. What counts as successful blogging?
11. What does blogging offer as a method of theological reflection?
1. Its opportunities
2. Its draw backs
12. What potential do you see for blogging as a method of theological reflection?
13. Do you know of examples of theological education programmes where students are required to keep a learning journal and blog as a form of journal?
14. Blogging and gender: do you think gender makes any difference to any of the above questions?
------
I'll provide my own answers to these questions on the blog later today.

Forthcoming Biblical Studies Carnival

H. H. Hardy emails:
-----
The June edition of the Biblical Studies Carnival will be posted in just a little over a week. The submissions have been sparse for this month (understandable for the first month of the summer). If you could mention the carnival on your website and/or email your own submission, I would appreciate it.

Carnival Website: http://biblical-studies.ca/carnival/

Carnival Email: biblical_studies_carnival@hotmail.com

Submission Form: http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_203.html
-----
I have to admit that I've not yet submitted a post to a Carnival, either one of my own or anyone else's. That's rather selfish because I do enjoy the carnivals when they are published. But it seems like self-promotion to recommend one's own posts and I am not a rich enough consumer of others' blogs these days to be able to recommend others' blog posts. This is one of those occasions where I'd say: do not do as I do. The Carnivals are such fun and so helpful, so please help out H. H. Hardy if you have a moment.

Bart Ehrman on the Colbert Report

You can see Bart Ehrman's appearance on The Colbert Report (with thanks to Jim West on Xtalk for the heads-up) on-line:

Comedy Central: The Colbert Report

As I commented on Xtalk, it doesn't make easy watching. I'd say Colbert's tactics back-fired rather. If he is attempting to make fun of fundamentalist Christians, it certainly doesn't work. If he is attempting to make fun of Ehrman, then it just comes across as bullying. Just stop going on and actually listen to what your guest is saying! I must admit that I'd take Jon Stewart over the irritating Colbert every day of the week. Stewart's interview with Ehrman a few weeks ago was a model of how to engage intelligently, by contrast. (See Bart Ehrman on the Daily Show). For one thing, it was pretty clear that Stewart had actually read and enjoyed the book.

I once did a live programme in the UK where I felt that we were on more to be laughed at than to be interviewed, and watching Bart on this programme reminded me of that. It was a programme called The Big Breakfast on Channel 4, back in the spring of 2001, when I'd been involved with the BBC's Son of God (Jesus: The Complete Story in the USA). I was on with Jean Claude Bragard, who had directed that series. My policy was just to laugh along with them rather than to get antagonised, and Jean Claude was very good and just cracked jokes, which was about the right method, I thought. Not sure how I would have coped if I'd been on my own, though.

Update (23.50): thanks for the helpful comments (see below) and emails. I must admit that I've never been a big fan of the Colbert Report -- I have found it so loud and irritating that I've never really managed to get into it in the same way that I've (just about) managed with The Daily Show. It may be that it will take a little more time. At the moment, I watch it until about 11.40, having left the channel on after Jon Stewart, and then I get annoyed and switch it off. The comments are, of course, quite right -- Colbert is ironically playing a character who is parodying right wing, evangelical Christians. What I suppose I meant to say is that in this context I don't know how well it works given that Bart Ehrman did not appear to be particularly comfortable with Colbert's character's interview and thus any attempted attack on fundamentalism backfires. All I can say is that if it had been me, I would not have been too chuffed. But then Bart at least gets on these programmes. As I mentioned previously, Bart is now -- surely -- the new Dom Crossan.

Latest Americanizing

There will be more NT Gateway blogging in due course, but in the mean time I have a post on The Americanization of Emily on World Cup Coverage in the USA.

Update (Friday, 18.16): the above post, World Cup Coverage in the USA, has now been updated further, with lots more reflections after exposure to more American coverage and more UK coverage. And Viola has her half-way stage reflections in Hurry up England, Come On.

Terminology of Christianities and Judaisms

Is it just me or is there something rather annoying about the trend over the last twenty years or so to talk about early Christianity as "Christianities" and early Judaism as "Judaisms"? I must admit that I am hoping that this is going to prove to be just a fad and something that we will look back on in twenty years time as an odd terminological aberration that characterized a particular kind of scholarship at the turn of the millennium.

I understand, of course, the anxiety people feel about attempting to convey just how varied Judaism and Christianity were in this period, and it is natural to want to stretch language norms when one is examining emerging Judaism and Christian origins. But I can't help feeling that there is nothing helpful, interesting or insightful about this particular terminological oddity. If the variety of Christianity is not properly understood as "Christianity", then I don't see how calling it "a" Christianity in any way advances the discussion. It is either a variety of Christianity that might legitimately be described as a variety of Christianity, or it is not. Calling it "a" Christianity simply doesn't change anything. Likewise Judaism.

And is it not the case that Christianity is far more diverse today than it was in the first two centuries? Many Christians within particular traditions do not recognise those in other competing traditions as Christians; there are Christian sects that are not called Christian by their founders; there are Christian sects that are not called Christian by their critics. We have every possible variety of belief and practice within contemporary global Christianity yet we don't feel the need to use the term Christianities. And likewise Judaism. Why, then, do we feel it necessary for the early centuries?

Review of Biblical Literature latest

Latest from the SBL Review of Biblical Literature under the NT and Early Christianity heading:

Deines, Roland, Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr, eds.
Philo und das Neue Testament: Wechselseitige Wahrnehmungen
Reviewed by Peter Frick

Epp, Eldon Jay
Perspectives on New Testament Textual Criticism: Collected Essays, 1962-2004
Reviewed by J K Elliot

Kysar, Robert
Voyages with John: Charting the Fourth Gospel
Reviewed by Tom Thatcher

Reasoner, Mark
Romans in Full Circle: A History of Interpretation
Reviewed by Elliott Maloney

Smith, James A.
Marks of an Apostle: Deconstruction, Philippians, and Problematizing Pauline Theology
Reviewed by Joseph Marchal

Braun, Willi, ed.
Rhetoric and Reality in Early Christianities
Reviewed by John Kloppenborg

Finlan, Stephen
Problems with Atonement: The Origins of, and Controversy about, the Atonement Doctrine
Reviewed by Christian Eberhart

Horsley, Richard A., ed.
Christian Origins
Reviewed by Clare Rothschild

Superman and Messianic Connotations

It's nice to have an excuse to blog on the forthcoming Superman Returns and as regular readers will know, I insist on a NT related excuse before I'll blog on something. On Filmchat, Peter Chattaway (Let us now compare Jesus and Superman . . .) notices an Associated Press article:

For Some, Man of Steel Has Messianic Echo

First there were the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Now, for many Christian moviegoers comes another gospel.

As the hype machine shifts into high gear for the upcoming release of "Superman Returns," some are reading deeply into the film whose hero returns from a deathlike absence to play savior to the world.

"It is so on the nose that anyone who has not caught on that Superman is a Christ figure, you think, `Who else could it be referring to?'" said Steve Skelton, who wrote a book examining parallels between Superman and Christ . . .

. . . . Many simply see the story of a hero sent to Earth by his father to serve mankind as having clear enough New Testament overtones. Others have taken the comparison even further, reading the "El" in Superman's original name "Kal-El" and that of his father "Jor-El" as the Hebrew word for "God," among other theological interpretations.

"Superman Returns," which premieres June 28, has been drawing its own comparisons to biblical accounts, especially after the appearance of its trailer earlier this year.

The preview shows the hero with his eyes closed as the voice of his father Marlon Brando's, courtesy of 1978's "Superman" tells him he was sent to Earth because humans "lack the light to show the way."

"For this reason," continues the voice, "I have sent them you, my only son."

Online message boards and Web logs quickly latched onto the biblical resonance of those lines . . .

. . . Not everybody welcomes the Superman-Jesus comparisons.

"It's a misrecognition," said Amy Pedersen, who is writing her doctoral thesis in art history at the University of California, Los Angeles, on superhero comic books.

Pedersen said Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who introduced Superman in 1938 in a comic book, were Jews who were inspired by the Old Testament story of Moses and the supernatural golem character from Jewish folklore.

The Christian allusions are recent innovations that compromise the integrity of the Superman myth, she said . . . .

Good article -- gets the balance about right. Echoes, allusions and motifs there, part of the stock from which everyone draws; don't get your knickers in a twist about them.

Specialization within New Testament Studies

While mowing the lawn, just after catching the Brazil v. Croatia match, I found myself thinking about a conversation I'd had with a recent Duke graduate about the perils of specialization in New Testament studies and I thought I'd share my musings here. What we have in New Testament studies at the moment more than ever is over specialization within the field. It is common for scholars to introduce themselves as a "Paulinist" or a "Synoptics person" or an "expert on Revelation", or a "Luke-Acts specialist". Now there is, quite clearly, a reason for this for recent PhD graduates. You've just spent the best part of three or four years becoming the world's number one expert on a particular verse in Luke, a particular theme in Galatians, a particular manuscript of the Gospels. You are the expert; it's your special project that you've proved yourself on and you deserve your PhD. But what comes next? If you are the world expert on Luke 12.13, is it the wisest thing now to become the world expert on Luke 12.14? (NB: these are all hypotheticals, drawn at random. If I have accidentally hit on anyone's actual research topic, please be assured that it is an accident!).

What I find surprising and disappointing is the way in which we allow ourselves to feel under pressure to stick within our particular narrow fields, to draw a circle around ourselves and only allow ourselves to play within it. Of course there are many exceptions, but most of the exceptions, those who are authorities equally on Jesus and Paul, on the Synoptics and John, on second Temple Judaism and Josephus, tend to be senior scholars with already established reputations. There are several extraordinary things about our over-specialization, and we tend not to notice them because we are so caught up in the system that we ourselves bolster. Let me list a few of the oddities and absurdities as I see them:

(1) There are very few New Testament Scholars who do not in fact teach a wide range of NT and related topics. Why is it that we think that we are competent to teach Paul but not to write about him, or to offer an introduction to New Testament course without having investigated carefully the topics we are pretending to be an expert on?

(2) Given that we do teach a range of topics, it is inevitable that we are all the time thinking fresh, original, publishable thoughts on those topics. Does this mean, then, that there are lots of fresh and interesting thoughts and ideas out there that are never seeing the light of day outside the classroom because we are allegedly not experts on the given topic?

(3) We need to remember that studying the New Testament is already a specialization itself. It's already subset of other bigger topics, Biblical Studies, second temple Judaism, early Christian history, Theology, etc., yet we treat it as if it is the global header under which we select some appropriate topic.

(4) One of the dangers of "Paulinists" not publishing on the Synoptics (and vice versa, etc.) is that the practitioners of the particular topics in question become rather entrenched in their ways of doing things, and it becomes difficult for others to penetrate the new field. And frankly, there is that feeling of a massive body of literature to get through, so we stick with our given topic all too easily.

(5) The conferences are so big that they encourage us to follow, to nurture our specialization. How often do I go along to a Pauline epistles section at the SBL Annual Meeting? Well, occasionally, but not very often. How often do I go to African-American Biblical Hermeneutics? Never, I am afraid. And so on. How is the field going to resist the increasing splintering unless we find some ways to encourage people to act differently?

So what can be done about this situation? Here are some thoughts:

(a) The key, formative moments are, I think, when our graduate students are doing their research. I think we need to encourage them not to think of themselves as a developing "Paulinist" or a "Historical Jesus expert" etc. I think we ought to encourage them to aspire to be a good, rounded scholar with things to say about lots of different topics.

(b) In relation to this, we need to encourage people to avoid playing safe. Take a few risks, explore different areas, don't be afraid of making an idiot of yourself.

(c) If you have done a good, solid Masters and some good, solid course work for your PhD, you are well equipped to see yourself as expert in a variety of topics. And one consequence of this is to be careful of PhD courses that don't encourage you to be broad.

(d) Teaching is key. As a graduate student, it is ideal to get as much teaching experience as possible, and to be as broad as possible in that teaching. But don't see the teaching as something you are competent in, but think of it as developing expertise.

(e) And now some advice to myself and people like me, i.e. those whose research and writing is primarily associated with one area but who have much broader interests. Avoid the comfort zone of staying inside your own natural hunting ground (sorry about the mixed metaphors). If you have an interesting idea on a topic outside that usual hunting ground, prioritise it, or you may never emerge. And think seriously about the following:

(f) Discipline yourself at the conferences to visit sessions outside of the ones you naturally associate yourself with.

(g) Don't just read what you think you need to read in a given area to keep your teaching up to date. Read widely.

(h) It is easy to think you need to read everything in existence on a given topic before you can write an authoritative paper on it. What I'd say here is: look at the top brass who publish widely. Have they read every last article before they go to print?

Brainstorm and semi-rant over for now.

Latest Americanizing

My latest guest post on The Americanization of Emily is about How to Send International Texts (SMS). I also made a couple of small contributions to Viola's World Cup post, It's Coming Home, and am making notes on the (most enjoyable) American TV coverage for a future post.

SBL Annual Meeting 2006: Synoptics Section

Here are the details of the four sessions of the Synoptic Gospels Section at this year's SBL Annual Meeting. I won't put any of the times of the sessions on here until they are confirmed on the SBL website. I am pleased with this year's programme, I think the strongest we have ever had (if I may be so bold). It is certainly the most we've ever had, at four sessions, two themed and two open. And we had to turn away a lot of very good proposals this year, which we regretted very much.

Session 1: Open Session:

Mark Matson, Milligan College, Presiding

Stephen C. Carlson, Fairfax, VA
Luke’s Panel Technique for his “Orderly” Narration (25 min)
Discussion (5 min)

Turid Karlsen Seim, University of Oslo
The Resurrected Body in Luke-Acts (25 min)
Discussion (5 min)

Gary Gilbert, Claremont McKenna College
Luke-Acts and the Second Sophistic: Roman Imperium and Subordinate Responses (25 min)
Discussion (5 min)

Douglas Sivers, Drew University, Stewart Moore, Drew University and Joshua J.F. Wall,
Losing the Things We Do Not Have: Interpreting the Parable(s) of the Talents and Pounds (25 min)
Discussion (5 min)

Bradley W. Root, University of California, San Diego
Parable and Reality in Jesus' Galilee (25 min)
Discussion (5 min)


Session 2: The Birth Narratives

Loveday Alexander, University of Sheffield, Presiding

Jane D. Schaberg, University of Detroit Mercy
The Illegitimacy of Jesus after Twenty Years (20 min)

Gail Streete, Rhodes College, Respondent (20 min)
Amy-Jill Levine, Vanderbilt University, Respondent (20 min)

David Landry, University of Saint Thomas
Hostile Takeover: An Intertextual Reading of Luke 1-2 (20 min)

Robert Miller, Juniata College, Respondent (20 min)
John Darr, Boston College, Respondent (20 min)

Discussion (30 min)


Session 3: Panel discussion of Simon Gathercole, The Pre-existent Son: Recovering the Christologies of Matthew, Mark and Luke (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006)

Mark Goodacre, Duke University, Presiding

James Dunn, Durham University, Panelist (15 min)
Rikki Watts, Regent College, Panelist (15 min)
Deirdre Good, General Theological Seminary, Panelist (15 min)
Maurice Casey, University of Nottingham, Panelist (15 min)
Simon Gathercole, University of Aberdeen, Panelist (25 min)

Break (15 min)

Discussion (50 min)


Session 4: Open session

Greg Carey, Lancaster Theological Seminary, Presiding

Michael F. Bird, Highland Theological College
Sectarian Gospels for Sectarian Communities? The Non-canonical Gospels and Bauckham's "Gospel for All Christians" (25 min)
Discussion (5 min)

Jeffrey B. Gibson, Harry S Truman College
The "Bread Petition in the Lord's Prayer: A Lack of Alas? (25 min)
Discussion (5 min)

Jason Robert Combs, Yale University
"They Thought it was a Ghost:" Understanding an Absurdity in Mark 6:49-50 (25 min)
Discussion (5 min)

Clinton Wahlen, AIIAS Theological Seminary
The Impurity of Spirits in the Synoptic Gospels (25 min)
Discussion (5 min)

Aaron M. Gale, West Virginia University
"A 'Golden' Gospel of Matthew?: Money, Economic Status, and Taxation in the Synoptics" (25 min)
Discussion (5 min)

What's wrong with redaction criticism?

One of my tasks this summer is to complete several encyclopaedia and dictionary entries for different projects, one of which is a short piece on Redaction Criticism. In thinking about this entry, my mind turns not just to the strengths of redaction criticm -- and some of my best friends are redaction critics -- but also to its weaknesses. Here, in summary, are my thoughts about what is wrong with redaction criticism as it is normally practised in Synoptic criticism:

(1) As normally practised, one of the goals of redaction criticism is to reconstruct the history and character of the community behind the Gospel in question. But the assumption that the Gospels are all written for a specific community has recently been called into question by Richard Bauckham et al in The Gospels for All Christians: Rethinking Gospel Audiences (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998). My own general verdict on this book is that it scores important points against the traditional scholarly view, but that it does not sufficiently distinguish between the communities from which the Gospels were written from the communities to which the Gospels were allegedly written. Gospels with large target audiences are still inevitably Gospels that reveal information about their author's context. So with some nuancing and rethinking, redaction criticism still has a role to play, but it is a role that does require some work.

(2) Redaction criticism's excessive emphasis on what is distinctive in each Gospel can be misleading. Matthew, for example, might like something in Mark so much that he reproduces it verbatim – he might think that a given section of Mark expresses his own view better than anything he can add himself. I have argued in a forthcoming article (given as a paper at the SBL 2005 Matthew Section) that Matthew's view of Peter, for example, is remarkably similar to Mark's and that we tend to miss this because we are obsessed with where Matthew is different from Mark, and so miss key ways in which Matthew underlines Mark when he reproduces material. In teaching, I try to make this point by noting the way in which students often go to quotation when they find something that they really like in their secondary literature source material. They use quotation, in other words, to underline their own view in a "they said it better than I can" sort of way. Sometimes when Matthew reproduces Mark verbatim, he does so because he has found something with which he is extra specially in agreement. We need to be wary of the assumption that Matthew includes a given passage because he is doing some kind of docile reproduction.

(3) This is a related point. Redaction criticism tends not to allow sufficiently for the effect that a source gospel might have had on a given evangelist. What if Mark fundamentally altered Matthew's views? Gospels are works of propaganda or persuasion and were presumably designed to persuade others, yet we tend to imagine Matthew taking up an utterly critical stance to Mark as if his (Matthew's) views were all fully formed before he came across Mark. My view is that Mark has a profound and overwhelming effect on Matthew, changing and developing his thinking on all sorts of fronts. He likes the book so much that when he rewrites it in order to replace it, he incorporates a large amount of it into his own work. To take one example, I have argued in an as yet unpublished piece on John the Baptist in Mark and Matthew that the idea of depicting John as Elijah was a Marcan innovation. Before Mark, it was always Jesus who had been seen as Elijah. Matthew takes the identification forward, while Luke reverts to the pre-Marcan Jesus as Elijah.

(4) Sometimes, there is too speedy a correlation between the page of the text and the evangelists and their communities. The evangelists are not always recounting material because they see a poignant or important link with the experiences in their community. Sometimes they are simply "telling the story". They are writing Gospels about Jesus, attempting to persuade readers about the good news of Jesus the Messiah's life, death and resurrection. Of course the selection, presentation and creation of material is done in engagement with their own and their communities' interests, but too often redaction criticism works as if those interests do not include some good, old-fashioned "telling the tale".

(5) One of my developing concerns about redaction criticism relates to the way that it is used in some Q scholarship. Redaction criticism is largely the means by which the text of Q is reconstructed, yet there have been recent claims that the reconstructed Q will now help us in the job of doing redaction criticism of Matthew and Luke. The circularity here ought to be obvious, but the increasingly concrete nature of the reconstructed Q text causes it to be missed.

Resurrection film

Over on Filmchat, Petter Chattaway has the scoop on a proposed new film called The Resurrection. This is via Hollywood Reporter, from Reuters:

'Resurrection' to appear at Easter

Using the Bible for its source material, "Resurrection" will tell the story of Jesus Christ beginning the day he died on the cross and ending about 40 days later with his ascension into heaven.

So it's the Luke-Acts take on resurrection, which makes sense given that this is the first serious attempt to narrate the resurrection story in sequence.

According to insiders, Sony's mid-budget Screen Gems division commissioned a script several months ago from Lionel Chetwynd, the veteran screenwriter, producer and director whose credits include the feature "The Hanoi Hilton" and the Emmy-nominated TV movie "Ike: Countdown to D-Day."

Set to produce is Tim LaHaye, co-author of the best-selling "Left Behind" series of books. A popular minister and frequent TV news pundit, "Resurrection" will mark LaHaye's first foray into mainstream filmmaking. . . .

As Peter says, this is not so encouraging, but you never know.

"'The Passion' ends with Jesus being taken from the cross, and 'The Resurrection' opens with the empty cross," a person familiar with the script said.

Is "The Passion" here referenced Gibson's The Passion of the Christ? If so, the detail is of course inaccurate because the Gibson film ends with Jesus getting up to walk out of the tomb. But I like the idea of a sequel to that film!

According to the Bible, women who visited the tomb of Jesus Christ three days after his crucifixion found it empty, and his disciples and other acquaintances, including Mary Magdalene, encountered him postresurrection on various occasions during a 40-day period.

Well, after two days really ("on the third day"). As mentioned above, this is the Lucan narrative.

The film will focus on these dramatic encounters and their implications for the Roman garrison in Judea and the broader Roman Empire, insiders said.

"This is not a fanciful rendering. It's a serious attempt to understand the Roman world in which Christ moved and the Christian era was born," a person familiar with the project said.

Sounds good. Most Jesus films are heavy on the attempt to integrate the story into the politics of the Roman world and it sounds like this is no different. Given that the resurrection is usually done so badly in Jesus films, it is intriguing to think of a film specially devoted to the topic. So often, the resurrection is but a coda to the main action of the film, and sometimes (Jesus Christ Superstar, Last Temptation) it is absent altogether.

Biblical Studies Carnival VI

For those, like me, who can't get to blogland as often as they'd like, Ben Myers has done a first class job with the latest in the Biblical Studies Carnivals. In fact, this is a model of how to do a Carnival post:

Biblical Studies Carnival VI

Review of Biblical Literature Latest

Latest from the SBL Review of Biblical Literature under the NT heading:

Evans, Craig A.
Ancient Texts for New Testament Study: A Guide to the Background Literature
Reviewed by Jerome Neyrey

Karris, Robert J.
Galatians and Romans
Reviewed by Mark Reasoner

Lincoln, Andrew T.
The Gospel According to Saint John
Reviewed by Craig Keener

Patella, Michael F.
The Gospel According to Luke
Reviewed by Joel Green

Riches, John and David C. Sim, eds.
The Gospel of Matthew in Its Roman Imperial Context
Reviewed by Markus Oehler

Stepp, Perry L.
Leadership Succession in the World of the Pauline Circle
Reviewed by Ronald Clark

van Veldhuizen, Piet
Geef mij te drinken: Johannes 4, 4-42 als waterputverhaal
Reviewed by R. Roukema

Zetterholm, Magnus
The Formation of Christianity in Antioch: A Social-Scientific Approach to the Separation Between Judaism and Christianity
Reviewed by Eric Stewart

Recent Americanizing

Although absent without leave here on the NT Gateway blog for too long, I have recently resumed my guest role on Viola's Americanization of Emily blog with an illustrated post on my first experience of an American elementary school Field Day (= Sports Day in the UK):

Field Day

I also contributed to an earlier post on Eurovision.

Apocalypse Yesterday

On Paleojudaica, Jim Davila noted the coming of 6/6/06 yesterday, and David Parker at the University of Birmingham had these reflections on the ITSEE site:

Thought for the Day

MANUSCRIPT COPIES OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION give different ‘numbers of the beast’. Exciting though this number is for people who believe the Bible literally, the interest of this number of scholars of Revelation is the light it sheds on the development and use of Revelation in early Christianity. The two numbers which are best known are 666, the number found in the majority of manuscripts, and 616, found in some of the oldest copies, and those with an early form of text . . . .

(Read on).