NT Pod: The Extended Episodes

When I started the NT Pod, my general idea was to provide condensed comment on  the New Testament and Christian origins, in the ten minutes or so format.  Well, it started as six minutes or so and grew, but it has settled on ten-twelve minutes.  To my surprise, listeners would often ask for more and for longer episodes.  So a few weeks ago I began an experiment.  Duke has been automatically recording some lecture courses, though to call it "recording" is somewhat passé and the term now is "capture", in our case via Lectopia. I was offered the chance to include my current course, Introduction to the New Testament, under this arrangement and decided to go for it.  It then occurred to me that I could use the raw recordings as the basis for extended episodes of the NT Pod, as an experiment.

In a 75 minute class, there is a fair bit of extraneous material, including discussion of assignments, the five minute break in the middle and so on, but my idea was that I could edit the feeds to produce a 45-50 minute episode, with a short intro and outro to orientate the listener.  There is a precedent for this too.  Phil Harland's Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean Podcast is this kind of podcast, an edited lecture capture with added intro and outro (though a much longer intro. than I give).

So I edited and uploaded three back to back extended episodes on the Synoptic Problem, NT Pod Extended Episode 1 (The Synoptic Problem, Introduction and Data), NT Pod Extended Episode 2 (Marcan Priority), NT Pod Extended Episode 3 (Q and the Case against Q).

The episodes seem to have been popular with listeners.  In fact, I received more feedback on these episodes than I had done on the normal episodes, even though they are downloaded less often than the standard ones.  I have therefore decided to go on with these extended episodes from time to time and the fourth (on the Messianic Secret in Mark) is already in the can and will be uploaded soon;  and the fifth (on Mark's Passion) is almost ready too.

Patterson on DeConick on Thomas, and thoughts on form criticism

The most recent SBL Review of Biblical Literature has a lengthy and very interesting review of April DeConick, The Original Gospel of Thomas in Translation by Stephen Patterson (PDF).  It is of special interest to those of us studying Thomas because it is one of the experts in the field commenting in detail on the work of one of the other experts in the field.  It is all the more interesting in that although appreciative of the book and the contribution it makes, Patterson is critical of the central conceptualizing of DeConick's project.

Patterson feels that DeConick's work is flawed because she is using form-critical methods in order to engage in literary stratigraphy.  In other words, she is setting out the literary history of Thomas by using a method that is designed for work on oral tradition.  As Patterson puts it,

Can form criticism be used to identify literary strata? This seems doubtful. Form criticism theorizes about how sayings may be adapted and used in an oral medium to accommodate various situations in the life of a community. But, of course, Thomas is not an oral performance. It is a document that incorporates material from countless prior oral performances in which all manner of development and remodeling has already taken place. That a particular saying in Thomas bears the form critical (i.e., oral) marks of secondary development is not an indication that it represents a secondary development in the literary history of the Gospel as a whole.

Patterson's criticism of DeConick on this point may be a little too stark.  As I read her, the method is not so much old form-criticism but an attempt to integrate form-criticism, source-criticism and redaction-criticism into a newer model that also takes seriously the rhetorical culture of the emerging Christian movement.  She speaks of a "'New' Traditionsgeschichtliche Approach" (e.g. Recovering the Original Gospel of Thomas, Chapter 1) and it is a repeated emphasis across the two volumes that Thomas and Thomas traditions went in and out of different instantiations in oral performance and literary text.  These different performances interacted with one another and flowed into one another.  It is probably not fair to say, then, that she is applying form critical methods towards the goal of ascertaining literary history.  She is rejecting the idea of literary history as traditionally configured, and she is attempting to rework the usual tools used for analysis.

Nevertheless, it is interesting to reflect a little further on Patterson's general point, about the potential for confusion between form-critical methods and literary history.  On one level, I am encouraged by what he says because I have been banging away at a similar point in a different context for some time, that we should be careful not to confuse age of traditions and literary priority.  It is a mistake that I think underpins the Q hypothesis, where signs of an older tradition are always taken as signs of literary primitivity.  I have argued that Q forces the whole discussion of Christian origins onto a literary footing, with double tradition material getting projected always onto a literary text.

On the other hand, though, I wonder whether we need to avoid driving too hard a wedge between oral tradition and literary text in the thinking of the form critics.  After, the form-critics often thought of the phenomena they isolated in the oral tradition as being continuous with the phenomena they could see between different literary texts.  The same laws applied when they were tracking the development of a saying in the pre-Marcan tradition and when they were looking at the way that Matthew edited Mark, and so on.  So the process of allegorization of parables, for example, began in the pre-Marcan oral tradition, but continued with the evangelists.  The trajectories they theorized began in the pre-Gospel era and continued in the literary phase.

In the end, I think that the problems with form criticism are such that it is not particularly useful in tracking the development of the tradition, but at the same time it is worth attempting to understand how it worked in the thinking of the greats in order to work out how it still affects our thinking about Christian origins.

Richard Bauckham Homepage

Michael Bird and Jim Davila have news of a new Richard Bauckham homepage.  It's nicely done, with a full bibliography, details of speaking engagements and some full text unpublished work.

NT Pod 27: The Messianic Secret in Mark's Gospel

At the weekend I uploaded the first of three back-to-back episodes of the NT Pod on Mark's Gospel.  The topic is the Messianic Secret in Mark.  I am continuing to run the NT Pod alongside the Introduction to the New Testament course I am teaching at Duke University at the moment.  After having looked at the Synoptic Problem and redaction criticism, we move on to in-depth studies of the Gospels themselves.

Looking at the secrecy theme in Mark is an excellent way to begin one's study of Mark.  It is such a striking redactional theme in Mark.  It is a repeated feature in Mark, it comes in a range of material, including in the narrator's voice, and it occurs at key moments.  In this eleven-or-so-minutes podcast, I introduce these elements of secrecy and then ask how they can be explained, focusing, of course on W. Wrede's Messianic Secret in Mark's Gospel.

At the time of writing this blog post, I am about to upload the next podcast in this series, NT Pod 28, on the disciples in Mark.  As always, you can find the details over on the NT Pod website, or you can look for me on Duke's iTunes U.

The Bible: A History: BIble Films Review

Matt Page concludes an excellent round of reviews of the Channel 4 series, The Bible: A History over on his Bible Films blog today, with The Bible: A History: Part 7. You can catch the rest of his reviews under the label The Bible: A History.

Sir Kenneth Dover Obituaries

Both The Times and The Telegraph have obituaries of the legendary Greek scholar Sir Kenneth Dover tomorrow. He died yesterday, on 7 March:

Sir Kenneth Dover: Greek scholar and Chancellor of the University of St Andrews

Sir Kenneth Dover was one of the finest and most widely respected Greek scholars of the 20th century, and held many high positions in the academic world. He became better known to a wider public in 1994 through his remarkable autobiography Marginal Comment and the reactions that it aroused. And to generations of students, especially at St Andrews, he was always a hero . . .

Sir Kenneth Dover

Sir Kenneth Dover, who died on March 7 aged 89, was considered the finest Greek scholar of his generation and seemed to have led a life of almost oppressive decorum, crowned in 1978 by his election as President of the British Academy.

But in 1994 he published an autobiography, Marginal Comment, which deliberately shattered the image. The book portrayed a spikily intelligent man who was slave to an urge to demonstrate his emancipation from bourgeois constraints. The reader is not spared the least detail of Dover's sex life, right down to the culminating horror that at 64 he and his wife enjoyed "some of the best ----- of our life".

But the issue which caught the headlines was his account of his attitude to Trevor Aston, a History fellow at Corpus Christi, Oxford, where Dover had been President between 1976 and 1986. Aston's disintegration into paranoia and alcoholism had proved a serious embarrassment to the college; Dover confessed to having thought long and hard about how to murder him . . .

Michael Goulder Bibliography

I have updated the bibliography of Michael Goulder's works and have converted the whole to PDF, which is much more pleasing to the eye than the previous web version.  Thanks to Mogens Müller for filling in some gaps. I have also added the memoir and have tidied the whole thing up:

Michael Goulder Bibliography

Jesus Films latest on FilmChat

Over on FilmChat, Peter Chattaway has a very interesting round-up of the latest news on different Jesus Films, in Newsbites: The Jesus-movie edition.

Teaching the Bible e-pub latest

The March issue of the SBL's e-publication for High School teachers is now online:

Teaching the Bible (March 2010)

It includes the second part of David Penchansky's introduction to Wisdom Literature, and a link to my NT Pod on the anonymity of the Gospels.

Donald Wiseman: The Times Obituary

Today's Times has its obituary of Donald Wiseman:

Professor Donald Wiseman: Assyriologist

Michael Goulder Memorial

I returned briefly to England last week to attend and take part in a celebration of the life of Michael Goulder, who died in January. The event itself was on Thursday 25 February, at St Francis Hall at the University of Birmingham.  Birmingham was, of course, the only place for it to take place since it was Michael's home for 44 years, from 1966 onwards, where he was staff tutor in the Extramural Department, and later Professor of Biblical Studies.  (Read The Times obituary here).

The room was packed with people, with standing room only.  People had travelled from far and wide.  I think I had come the furthest, but there were family, friends, and scholars from all over the country, and many Birmingham folk too.  It was a wonderful occasion, with some laughter at the memory of Michael's humorous stories and sayings, and some quiet tears.  Apparently the planning had been done by Michael himself, in discussion with the family, before his death. The occasion was led by friend of the family Anne Waugh, who began by reflecting on Michael's life with Krister Stendahl's tribute to Michael as a "baroque pearl".   She pointed out that Michael had been keen that there would be no fudge about his non-belief, and noted that on his death bed, when asked about his religion, he took off his oxygen mask and stated "None".

Michael's son Nicholas then read from the introduction to Michael's book, The Prayers of David, which situates Michael at Eton in his youth.  The congregation then said Psalm 15, "Domine, quis habitat", and Sir Christopher Slade, who had known Michael since he was a boy, read Michael's poem, "The Rowan Tree":

Rowans are finest when their year is ended,
October reddens them to richest rust:
So be our autumn days our time most splendid
Rich with contentment, love and trust
Before we go to dust
For so we must.

Do we deceive ourselves and spite our reason
Sensing a future that we cannot know?
Trees make their growth not for a single season:
Shall our great endeavour here to grow
Be in an hour laid low?
Have we not too a spring beyond the snow?

Michael's daughter Cathy then read from Horace's Ode 4.7, in Latin, and then we had the hymn "Fight the good fight", which had been sung at Michael's father's funeral; he died in the Second World War.  Michael's grandson Alex ably accompanied on the piano.  Michael's daughter Lizzie than read from Milton, Paradise Lost Book 3.

Michael's son  Philip had been asked to offer "a few words about The Old Man" and he spoke movingly for ten minutes or so, offering a warm and affectionate picture of his dad and how he spun dramatic tales from the classics to his children at bed time, or told them the goriest stories from the Bible, with full midrashic expansions, just like the evangelists.  There followed a reading by Cathy, from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and music from Brahms' German Requiem, part IV, "How lovely are they dwellings".  I then gave an address which offered my reflections on Michael Goulder's academic career.  I have recorded this here should you wish to listen to it:



Michael Goulder Memorial Address (mp3)

It is also available to read here (PDF).

Anne Waugh then read Arthur Hugh Clough's poem Say not the struggle nought availeth.  Music from Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutti, "Soave sia il vento" played as the ceremony concluded.


The celebration of Michael's life offered a most fitting tribute to the life of a great man.  We will miss him.

Donations in memory of Michael are made to Sight Savers.

Michael Goulder: Times Higher obituary

The Times Higher has an obituary of Michael Goulder:

Michael Goulder, 1927-2010
4 March 2010
By Matthew Reisz

It is a good tribute and it is nice to see quoted reflections from Marius Felderhof, and a mention of the Open End. There are some errors. His first degree was at Trinity College, Cambridge and not Oxford. And he read Classics and Economics there. I am not sure that it is correct to say that he "abandoned a promising career in the church"; he was in an academic position when he gave up his orders and was able to do so with relatively little fuss, at least in the formal sense. I may be wrong but I don't think he ever described himself as an "unaggressive atheist", though others have used this expression to describe him.

Thanks to John Lyons for pointing me to this obituary.

Bibledex: 2 John

What's the shortest book in the New Testament? According to Bibledex, it is 2 John. Their latest video is an appropriately short one:



Actually, 3 John is a little shorter, though it has more verses than 2 John.

E. Earle Ellis

I was sorry to read yesterday of the death of E. Earle Ellis on 3 March. I did not know Prof. Ellis and only met him once, at a meeting of the textual criticism section of the SBL, back in 1999 in Boston. I know that many have the greatest respect for him. The Baptist Press reflects on his life here:

Seminary Professor E. Earle Ellis dies at 83

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary had a tribute yesterday, Renowned New Testament scholar, professor E. Earle Ellis dies at 83. Several bloggers have weighed in with their reflections on Prof. Ellis's life including NT Resources Blog, Euangelion, Evangelical Textual Criticism, New Testament Perspectives, Christ, My Righteousness and Zwinglius Redivivus.

The Bible: A History, Ep. 7: Revelation

The final episode of The Bible: A History airs on Channel 4 (UK) this Sunday at 7.  This is the publicity photograph for the programme, featuring my former colleague Robert Beckford.  The topic is Revelation: The Last Judgement.  This one features Martin Palmer, Christopher Rowland, James Cohn and me.  The interview with me was shot in Duke Chapel last November.

New Testament Studies latest

Some very interesting stuff in the latest New Testament Studies, just out:

New Testament Studies 56 / 2 (April 2010)

… κτρϕϵτϵ αὐτὰ ν παιδϵίᾳ καὶ νουθϵσίᾳ κυρίου (Eph 6.4): Kinder in der Welt des frühen Christentums
Andreas Lindemann
New Testament Studies, Volume 56, Issue 02, April 2010, pp 169-190
doi:10.1017/S0028688509990257

Something about Mary? Remarks about the Five Women in the Matthean Genealogy
Peter-Ben Smit
New Testament Studies, Volume 56, Issue 02, April 2010, pp 191-207
doi:10.1017/S0028688509990191

Hymnus, Enkomion oder Psalm? Schattengefechte in der neutestamentlichen Wissenschaft
Samuel Vollenweider
New Testament Studies, Volume 56, Issue 02, April 2010, pp 208-231
doi:10.1017/S0028688509990269

Judaizing the Nations: The Ritual Demands of Paul's Gospel
Paula Fredriksen
New Testament Studies, Volume 56, Issue 02, April 2010, pp 232-252
doi:10.1017/S0028688509990294

Persönliche Korrespondenz des Paulus: Zur Strategie der Pastoralbriefe als Pseudepigrapha
Manabu Tsuji
New Testament Studies, Volume 56, Issue 02, April 2010, pp 253-272
doi:10.1017/S0028688509990270

Short Study

A Scribal Solution to a Problematic Measurement in the Apocalypse
Juan Hernández
New Testament Studies, Volume 56, Issue 02, April 2010, pp 273-278
doi:10.1017/S002868850999018X

Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas

THE SIXTY-FOURTH GENERAL MEETING
M. C. de Boer
New Testament Studies, Volume 56, Issue 02, April 2010, pp 279-283
doi:10.1017/S0028688509990300

Bibledex: Acts, Romans, Philippians and Facebook

Lots more from the University of Nottingham's Bibledex project.  Here are their latest videos, on Acts, Romans and Philppians:







And you can now become a fan of Bibledex on Facebook.

Biblical Studies Carnival 51 and more

I'm back from a short trip to the UK and a temporary hiatus in blogging.  You can catch up on the latest around the blogs with the Biblical Studies Carnival 51, by Brooke Lester, at the Anumma Blog.

Meanwhile, Free Old Testament Audio Website Blog has its latest Biblioblog rankings.  NT Blog, not surprisingly, has tumbled down the rankings with the relative paucity of postings in February, but it's good to see the NT Pod hot on its heels at number 29, and the NT Gateway just behind that at 30.

Next month's Biblical Studies Carnival sees the return of Jim West to the fold.  Whatever he says about ruffling feathers, the fact is that his previous carnivals have been among the best and most thorough of any.  It's a shame that they are no longer available after the recent major blog deletion.  Perhaps we should retrieve them?

NT Pod 26: The Case Against Q, Programme Notes

I uploaded the latest episode of the NT Pod yesterday, NT Pod 26: The Case Against Q. It is the fourth and final episode in the current series of back-to-back episodes on the Synoptic Problem that I have been running in tandem with my New Testament Introduction class here at Duke.

For those who may be interested in reading more about this topic, I have a few suggestions. The New Testament Gateway has a section on the Synoptic Problem, which gathers together different resources on the issue, including websites like Stephen Carlson's Synoptic Problem Home Page and Mahlon Smith's Synoptic Gospels Primer.  There is also a Books and Articles for those who want to take things a little further.

I have a website related to the specific topic of this podcast and it is called the Case Against Q Website.   This has been on the web now for 13 years, which is quite a long time in internet history.  When I had a book published on the topic in 2002, I turned the site into a companion site for that book.  Now eight years later, I am wondering about turning it back into a free-standing site.  But that does, of course, depend on whether I can find the time to update it.   You can find lots of material on the topic there, including articles by Farrer, Goulder and me about the Farrer theory, which affirms Marcan Priority but dispenses with Q.

Website all back

My website is all back this morning, now that I have shelled out a bit extra cash for more bandwith. I think I'll keep the extended episodes of the NT Pod on my Duke server space since they are so much larger than the standard episodes and since more people have downloaded them than I expected. I am planning also to back up the NT Pod as a whole to my Duke server space.

Website bandwith issues

My website went down tonight because my monthly bandwidth limit had been exceeded. This took me a little by surprise because the last time I looked, a couple of months ago, I was only using 5-10% of my monthly allocation. The thing that has made all the difference is the unexpected success of the NT Pod. In particular, it never occurred to me that people would want to download the extended episodes in such numbers. It was only something of an experiment, to take class recordings and package them as extended episodes of the regular podcasts. Well, it is gratifying that people are enjoying the podcasts, but since this has forced the site to go down, this is a quick post to explain that it should be back again soon. I have parted with more money for extra monthly bandwidth allocation (1,000 GB) and I have also moved the extended episodes to my Duke server space, along with other recent episodes. So at the moment, you should be able to access a lot of the NT Pod via its website or via iTunes U. Let me know if you have trouble getting to it.

My main website itself is still down, though, and in the mean time, you can get to an older back up here at Duke.

I hope to have everything completely fixed and back to normal by tomorrow.

Only the true Messiah denies his divinity

We discussed the Messianic Secret in my New Testament Introduction class at Duke yesterday, and on this topic I can never help thinking of one of my favourite scenes in Life of Brian. Brian, who is being pursued by a crowd who want to proclaim him the Messiah, makes clear that he is not the Messiah. Some bright spark comes up with the line, "Only the true Messiah denies his divinity!" The exchange is towards the end of this four minute clip. Only two or three people, out of a hundred and thirty in the class, had seen Life of Brian, so this is to whet their appetites too:



Incidentally, this is a fine example of the use of Youtube by official organizations. Since Monty Python put clips like this on Youtube, sales of their DVDs apparently multiplied massively. There is a lesson there for online marketing that is still not understood by very many people.

Clark lectures 2010: Teresa Okure

This year's Clark Lectures at Duke are to be given by Teresa Okure. On the original schedule, the first lecture was to be tomorrow, but this has been adjusted now so that both are on Wednesday. From the Divinity School's website:

Teresa Okure Presents 2010 Clark Lectures

A professor of New Testament and gender hermeneutics at the Catholic Institute of West Africa, Okure will speak on Feb. 17. Please note schedule changes made on Feb. 15.

Teresa Okure, professor of New Testament and gender hermeneutics at the Catholic Institute of West Africa, will present the 2010 Duke Divinity School Clark Lectures on Feb. 17.

She will present “Reading the Gospel Miracles as Parables: Mark 5:1-20 as an Example” at 8:30 a.m. in Room 0016 Westbrook. She will present “Rediscovering ‘the New’ in the New Testament,” at 12:20 p.m. in Room 0016 Westbrook.

Both lectures are open to the public.

Okure, who lives in Nigeria, is a Sister of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus. She also has served in various leadership roles at the Catholic Institute of West Africa, including academic dean, dean of student affairs, and head of the Department of Biblical Studies.

A member of various national and international theological and biblical associations, Okure is a well-known biblical scholar who has lectured widely both nationally and internationally. She is the founding president of the Catholic Biblical Association of Nigeria (CABAN) and a co-editor of the new Biblical Commentary Series, Texts@Contexts, the first volumes of which are due to appear in November, published by Fortress Press.
--

Gerry Adams on Judas's Betrayal, The Bible: A History

Tomorrow's Times carries an article on the forthcoming fifth episode of The Bible: A History, which focuses on Jesus and is presented by Gerry Adams. The article is headed I know why Judas betrayed Jesus, says Gerry Adams in Channel 4 documentary. Except that he does not. The documentary does not actually discuss Judas at all. (I am series consultant, which is why I have seen and contributed to these materials). The Times has apparently taken this material from Helen Bond's op-ed piece for Bible and Interpretation over a month ago, Jesus through the eyes of an Irish republican (not "her blog", as the piece incorrectly has it). Helen was discussing there her conversations with Adams and how they had caused her to think about the Historical Jesus, but no discussion about Judas appears in the programme.

Meanwhile, Doug Chaplin offers his reflections on tonight's episode, "Daughters of Eve", over on Clayboy, and I have been meaning to mention The Independent's write-up of last week's episode featuring Anne Widdecombe.

Update (18.20): Jim West comments.

Michael Goulder obituary in Birmingham's Buzz

David Parker has written a fine obituary of our former colleague Michael Goulder in Birmingham University's Buzz news service:

Buzz Obituaries

. . . . He had one of the most original and powerful minds of his generation, and spanned the very separate fields of Hebrew Bible and New Testament studies in a way unique in the second half of the twentieth century. His most important contributions to New Testament scholarship included arguing long and forcibly for a fresh view of the relationship between the Gospels that overthrew a long consensus and led to a new generation of scholarship. He was also a noted authority on the Psalms.

Michael was incisive in debate, with a brilliant wit . . .

The entry also mentions the memorial service at St Francis Hall on 25 February at 2.30pm.

NT Pod 25: Q

Well, it was inevitable that in the end I would get to Q on the NT Pod. So to have waited until episode 25 might be thought of as some kind of achievement. This latest episode is the third in a back to back series on the Synoptic Problem, beginning with NT Pod 23: What is the Synoptic Problem? and continuing with NT Pod 24: Was Mark the First Gospel?. I am running these episodes alongside my New Testament Introduction course which I am teaching at Duke at the moment.

I had initially planned to do three back to back episodes on the Synoptic Problem, but decided that it would be better and fairer to take one episode to lay out the case for Q, the current one, and then to give my reasons for disagreeing with that case in the next episode. That one will be along soon.

I have also continued with the extended episodes of the NT Pod, using recordings of the lectures, and I will blogging those here in due course. In the mean time, NT Pod subscribers will already have received them.

The Bible: A History on the blogs

Over on the T & T Clark blog, Dominic Mattos notes the presence of several T & T Biblical Studies authors on TV. On The Bible: A History, there have been appearances from Francesca Stavrakopoulou (episodes 1-2) and Henry Wansbrough (episode 3), and Dominic also notes that I am the Series Consultant. And there are more T & T Clark authors to come, Paula Gooder in episode 4 ("Daughters of Eve" with Bettany Hughes) this Sunday, Helen Bond in episode 5 on Jesus (the Gerry Adams episode), James Crossley in episode 6 on Paul (the Tom Holland episode) and me in episode 7 on Revelation (the Robert Beckford episode). Larry Hurtado also appears in episode 6, though I don't think he's published with T & T.

Elsewhere on the blogs, Matt Page, in Bible Films Blog, comments on the Ann Widdecombe episode, The Bible: A History, part 3 and Doug Chaplin, in Clayboy, has comments on the same episode, Going clubbing with the Bible (mainly anyone who disagrees).

Michael Goulder on the Resurrection, Bibliography

I posted an audio clip yesterday of Michael Goulder being interviewed about the resurrection of Jesus. There have been several interesting comments on this, including on The Busybody. I should perhaps have added that the brevity of the interview (just four minutes) means that it gives one just a little flavour of Michael's thinking on the topic. My main reason for posting was to get a chance to listen to his voice again. I hope to publish more in due course. But for those who are interested in investigating his views on this subject further, he published several articles:

“Did Jesus of Nazareth Rise from the Dead?”. In J. Barton and G. N. Stanton (eds.), Resurrection. Festschrift Leslie Houlden (London: SPCK, 1994): 58-68

“The Baseless Fabric of a Vision”. In Gavin D'Costa (ed.), Resurrection Reconsidered (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1996): 48-61

“The Explanatory Power of Conversion-Visions”. In Paul Copan, and Ronald K. Tacelli (eds.), Jesus' Resurrection: Fact or Figment? : a Debate between William Lane Craig & Gerd Lüdemann (Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 2000): 86-103

“Jesus' Resurrection and Christian Origins: A Response to N.T. Wright.” Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 3 (2005): 187-195

That Top 50 Biblical History Blogs list

I and many others blogged about a blog offering the Top 50 Biblical History Blogs the other day. Over on BiblePlaces.com blog, Todd Bolen has sussed out what is going on over there in a well written exposé on How "Top 50" Lists Work. Looks like he is right on the money or, rather, their attempts to get to the money.

Michael Goulder on the Resurrection and Losing Faith

This is a short clip from an episode of the BBC Radio 4 series Beyond Belief (25 March 2002) in which Michael Goulder was asked by Ernie Rea about his coming to doubt the resurrection of Jesus, and his giving up his Anglican orders:

Update (10 October 2018): If you can't see the audio player above, try this direct link to the audio file.

Michael Goulder: The Times obituary

Tomorrow's Times carries its obituary of Michael Goulder who died on 6th January:

Professor Michael Goulder: Biblical Scholar [dead link; see below]

Michael Goulder was Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Birmingham, well known for his creative approach to the Gospels and the Psalms and for resigning his orders as an Anglican priest not long after contributing to The Myth of God Incarnate, a celebrated collection of essays that questioned the traditional Christian doctrine of the Incarnation . . .

Update (20 July 2010): The Times has now placed a lot of its content behind a paywall.  The obituary is still available to view at no cost at the link above, but now in a no-frills version and without the picture that originally appeared, and which I have reproduced here (left).

Update (23 February 2014): the obituary is now available at the following URL:

Professor Michael Goulder: Biblical Scholar

--

Mary Daly Obituary

Tomorrow's Times also carries an obituary of Mary Daly, who died earlier this year:

Mary Daly: Feminist and Theologian

Mary Daly was one of the first American women to train as a Roman Catholic theologian. She became a controversial philosopher of religion, criticised for her audacity and creativity as “a radical lesbian feminist”. Her initial challenge to established theological doctrines and emerging feminist movements may not appear radical today but Daly’s “theology” shocked the Establishment. From the beginning, she challenged what she saw as the oppression of women; that is, the implicit “patriarchy” of the Catholic Church . . .

Douglas MacDowell Obituary

Tomorrow's Times has an obituary of Douglas MacDowell:

Professor Douglas MacDowell: Classical Scholar

Douglas MacDowell was one of the most distinguished Classical scholars in Britain and beyond. He occupied the Chair of Greek in the University of Glasgow from 1971 to his retirement in 2001, the longest period of office of any Glasgow Professor of Greek since Edmund Lushington, Tennyson’s brother-in-law, retired in 1877 . . .

The Palaeography Chair at Kings College, London

Over on Paleojudaica, Jim Davila draws attention to the scandal that the last Palaeography chair in the UK, at King's College London, is being eliminated. Jim notes an article in today's Guardian:

Writing off the UK's last palaeographer
The decision by a London university to axe the UK's only chair in palaeography has been met by outrage from the world's most eminent classicists. John Crace on why the study of ancient writings matters – and why history will be lost without it

Jim offers an important criticism of an otherwise excellent article,

One criticism of the piece though; it shouldn't assume that subjects like paleography can't bring in research grant money. The research councils and other funding sources recognize the value of such things and are quite willing to fund projects on them if they are well thought out.

Indeed. Some of the most successful units in gaining research grants have been those specializing in ancient texts. In addition to Jim's own successes, you need only to think of ITSEE at the University of Birmingham.

So what can be done? For a start, we can spread the word. There are already 4,774 members of this Facebook group:

Save Palaeography at King's London

5,995 people have signed the petition:

Save Palaeography at King's College London

When you're done, don't forget to tweet it. Moreover, if you have a blog, why not blog it too?

Top 50 Biblical History Blogs

Several bloggers are rightly celebrating their inclusion on a new list of the Top 50 Biblical History Blogs. Neither the NT Blog nor the NT Pod themselves make the cut, nor does the NT Gateway make it into the "other studies and study tools" section, but those absences give all the more room for all the other fine resources listed there.

NT Pod 24: Was Mark the First Gospel?

I uploaded the latest NT Pod at the weekend, the second in the current series of back-to-back episodes on the Synoptic Problem, asking Was Mark the First Gospel?. In it I cover some of the main arguments for Marcan Priority, but I decided to save the argument from editorial fatigue for another NT Pod later in the year.

I have also released two extended episodes, which use the audio from my recent classes on the topics, and I will post separately on those in due course.

KGO Radio Guest Spot on the Synoptic Problem

You can listen to my guest spot on KGO Radio's God Talk with Brent Walters either via their archive, which has a streaming and an mp3 download function. My contribution starts about seven and a half minutes in and lasts off and on for the hour. The broad topic is the Synoptic Problem, though it ranges onto related topics too.

Guesting on KGO Radio, Sunday morning

I'll be guesting on God Talk with Brent Walters on KGO Radio, tomorrow morning. The topic will be the Synoptic Problem. God Talk is on from 6am to 9am PST, which is 9am to 12pm my time here on the east side of the USA. I'll be on during the last hour of the show, between 8am and 9am PST, between 11am and 12pm my time. You can listen along on the internet if you are not in the San Francisco area, at KGO Radio. It will be my second time on the show; I did slot on Paul last June.

NT Pod 23: What is the Synoptic Problem?

I have now reached the part of the New Testament Introduction class where we look at the Synoptic Problem, naturally one of the most enjoyable elements in any New Testament Introduction course. This term, I am following along my teaching with episodes of the NT Pod. The latest episode is NT Pod 23: What is the Synoptic Problem? I released it on Wednesday and it is the first of three back-to-back episodes on the Synoptic Problem. This one introduces the problem and surveys the data.

The next episode will deal with Marcan Priority and the one after that with the existence of Q. For those who are interested, I am also experimenting, for this topic, with extra, extended versions of the NT Pod which use the audio feed from my lectures on the topic. The first of these is already available, and I will cover it here in a separate post later. The second is ready and will go online this weekend, along with NT Pod 24.

If you'd like to subscribe to the NT Pod, it's available on Duke iTunes U or through your reader or at the NT Pod site.

Pericopes and periscopes

When I am reading manuscripts or editing or examining, one of my favourite typos is "periscopes" for "pericopes". The word pericope is a favourite among Biblical scholars, for a unit of text, a passage, especially in the Gospels, especially in contexts connected with form-criticism. Even as I type this entry, "pericopes" is getting underlined in red as a spelling error, while "periscopes" is not. Since the advent of spell-checkers over the last generation or so, I suspect that this typo has become much more common. The eye misses the extra "s" and it is not, of course, picked up by the spell-checker. The other day I glanced at my hand-out in class and saw the word "periscopes" there where it should have been pericopes, so I had fallen prey to the same error. Perhaps this is a reason to stick to the slightly affected plural "pericopae"?

Biblical Studies Bulletin latest

Grove have updated their website so that now all the Biblical Studies Bulletins for 2009 are online. The most recent one, for December 2009, includes reflections on the SBL Annual Meeting 2009, and reviews of books by Francis Watson and James D. G. Dunn. Thanks to Dr Richard Briggs for letting me know.

PhD position Qumran Institute, University of Groningen (NL)

The following is posted on behalf of Mladen Popovic.

--
PhD position The Jewish Revolt against Rome (0,9 fte) (210026) at the Qumran Institute of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands

The department of Theology and Religious Studies of the University of Groningen is looking for a PhD candidate (0,9 fte) for the project 'The Jewish Revolt against Rome: Religious Groups and the Shaping of Identities in First-Century Judaea'.

This PhD position is financed by a grant of the SNS/Reaal Fund. It will run parallel to the interdisciplinary NWO VENI project The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Jewish War against Rome (66-70), which investigates the impact of Rome on the self-understanding of a Jewish group at Qumran prior to the revolt. PhD candidates are expected to carry out research within the historical and archaeological framework of first-century Judaea in relation to the impact of the Roman Empire on the region and the conflict of 66-70/73. Projects may investigate e.g. Flavius Josephus' position, specific tions, specific sites, regions or interregional connections from different perspectives and on the basis of different sources (literary, archaeological and/or numismatic). The final form of the PhD project will be determined in consultation with the PhD candidate.

We are looking for enthusiastic candidates with a Master's degree or equivalent, in a (sub)discipline in which the doctoral study will take place. Candidates with a degree in Hebrew Bible, Jewish Studies, Ancient History, Classics, or Archaeology are especially encouraged to apply.

The degree must have been obtained within a reasonable period of time and with results that justify the expectation that the student will be able to successfully complete the programme in four years.

This PhD position is available as of September 1st, 2010.

For additional information see:

http://www.rug.nl/ggw/vacatures/10PhDJRR
--

Donald Wiseman (1918-2010)

The death of the Old Testament scholar Donald Wiseman (1918-2010) has been mentioned in several of the blogs, including BiblicalStudies.org.uk and Zwinglius Redivivus, both of which carry material from Pete Williams, the warden of Tyndale House, and reflections from Alan Millard. Remarkably, the picture shows Wiseman standing next to Agatha Christie.

T. G. H. James obituary

Tomorrow's Times carries a delightful obituary of Egyptologist T. G. H. James, who died in December, aged 86. I particularly enjoyed the following note:

The highlight of the departmental Christmas party was the presentation of a cake, baked by James and iced with an ancient hieratic text, which had to be identified before the cake could be cut.

Mary Beard on Desert Island Discs

It's not that often that classicists or Biblical scholars are on Desert Island Discs, but it's little surprise that Mary Beard appeared on the programme last week. It's a very entertaining and quirky episode, as you might expect. She defends her notorious post-9/11 column, talks about her parents and her past and says that life as an academic is "bloody hard work" and yet the ideal job. Not sure Kirsty Young should have allowed her the Elgin marbles as her luxury item, though.

The nice thing about Desert Island Discs these days is that you can download it as a podcast too, with the tracks reduced to an even shorter length (10 seconds or so?!) than on the actual programme.

Also mentioned on Rogue Classicism.

Helen Bond on the Apocalyptic Jesus (and Doctor Who!)

Helen Bond's latest op-ed piece on Bible and Interpretation is an enjoyable piece on The Relevance of an Apocalyptic Jesus including this gem:

Against this background, a non-apocalyptic Jesus sounds oddly complacent, stuck in an 80s time warp, when the only thing to rail about was conspicuous consumption and social inequalities. Of course, these things are important, and I don’t doubt that Jesus had something to say on the matter, but in a modern context these reconstructions seem to lack an important dimension. There is no point in teaching others to fiddle a better tune if Rome is about to burn all around you.

It's naturally a pleasure to see that other NT colleagues enjoy Doctor Who, but Helen is clearly not a geek, as this comment shows:

Over Christmas and New Year, six-million people in Britain tuned in to the popular TV series Dr Who, in a lengthy two-part special called "The End of the World" (luckily David Tennant averted disaster).

The two-parter was actually called "The End of Time", though Helen is quite right that its apocalyptic scenario witnesses to some taste for such things among the British public, who gave the two parts unprecedented appreciation indexes of 87 and 89 respectively. Helen's viewing figures are grossly underestimated; the total viewing figures for each episode were in fact over twelve million (source: Blogtor Who). If I were being really geeky, perhaps I might add too that while David Tennant clearly "averted disaster" he did so at the expense of his own identity, and now we have Matt Smith to look forward to.

NT Pod 22: The Anonymity of the Gospels

I released the latest episode of the NT Pod at the weekend. The topic is The Anonymity of the Gospels.

This semester, I am teaching New Testament Introduction here at Duke and I am running the NT Pod alongside classes, providing episodes related to the topics that arise in class. This one came out of the lecture on the authorships and dates of the Gospels. It is a topic I have blogged on here before, and you can read some of my thoughts on it in a little more detail in The Dating Game VIII: John, Thomas and Authorial Self-Representation (cf. the disciples writing the Gospels), as well as in forthcoming publications, of course.

For the next couple of episodes of the NT Pod, I am planning to talk about the Synoptic Problem. Well, it had to happen sooner or later, didn't it?

Teaching the Bible e-pub latest

There is a new Teaching the Bible e-pub available at the SBL site, for February 2010. For those unfamiliar with this regular publication, it is "designed to support teachers of high school Bible electives" and "it features easy to read and reliable resources that you can use in your classroom". There is a special focus on Wisdom Literature in the latest edition.

Biblical Studies Carnival 50

Duane Smith has posted the latest Biblical Studies Carnival, number 50, over on Abnormal Interests. (At least I think it's supposed to be 50?). There is a lot of stuff there, nicely divided into two halves, the first of submissions from outsiders, the second of Duane's own selections.

Meanwhile, the Biblioblog top 50 continues over in Free Old Testament Audio Website Blog.

NT Pod 21: A Historical Approach to the New Testament

With another NT Pod on the horizon, I was reminded tonight that I had not mentioned the previous episode here on the NT Blog. So this corrects that lack. Let me add a few words about where we are with the NT Pod at the moment.

This semester, I am teaching Introduction to the New Testament at Duke and I have decided to use the NT Pod to supplement the classes, to add short pieces that relate to what we are covering in class. I like to begin with some reflections on what is involved in a historical approach to the New Testament, and this gave me the opportunity to add some reflections on the topic in the NT Pod. Since the beginning, the NT Pod has had the subtitle "A Historical Approach to the New Testament" and now, in episode 21, we finally have the chance to explore what an historical approach involves.

As usual, you can find the NT Pod at its own site, you can subscribe in your reader, or you can subscribe via Duke's iTunes U.

The Bible: A History First Reviews

I am delighted to see several positive reviews of The Bible: A History, the new seven part series on Channel 4 (UK), the first episode of which aired on Sunday (see my posts on The Bible: A History). The Independent writes:

The Weekend's Television: The Bible: A History, Sun, Channel 4
Reviewed by Tom Sutcliffe

. . . . The principal punchbag in this programme was Richard Dawkins, criticised by Jacobson for intemperately attacking certitude with a mirror-image certainty. I guess Dawkins's prose style riles Jacobson – its impatience and asperity with certain kinds of human folly. And one might point out (from a safe distance) that if you want to excoriate irascibility and fierceness of language, it might help to be a bit less tetchy and short fuse than Howard Jacobson. But then this was a writer's appreciation of the Creation story, from a man who understands that the Authorized Version reverberates through English prose and poetry, and isn't too worried that some people choose to take it literally . . .

There are similarly appreciative comments from Fraser Nelson in The Spectator, Atheism as Extremism, and Sholto Byrnes in The Staggers blog on the New Statesman, The Importance of Myth. There are briefer comments in The Times, but still fairly positive.

Doug Chaplin offers his thoughts on the first episode on Clayboy, Nutritious Religion? Creation and C4's Bible: a History and Matt Page has his thoughts on the first episode over on Bible Films Blog.

The Bible: A History begins on Channel 4 today

If you're in the UK, don't forget that The Bible: A History begins on Channel 4 tonight, at 7pm. It's a seven part series and each week a different figure tackles a topic from the Bible (All posts on this topic). In the first episode, Howard Jacobson tackles the creation stories. Since I worked on this as Series Consultant, I am of course prejudiced, but I think this first episode is superb, engaging and nicely paced.

Channel 4 have added an a new interview on their website:

interview with Howard Jacobson

And the Telegraph have a piece on the episode:

Richard Dawkins pushing a form of 'aggressive atheism', says presenter
Professor Richard Dawkins has been accused of “parading his own failure of imagination” by failing to consider the possible existence of God in an attack by the author Howard Jacobson.
By Urmee Khan

Update: Doug Chaplin offers his thoughts on the first episode on Clayboy, Nutritious Religion? Creation and C4's Bible: a History.

Update (Tuesday): Matt Page has his thoughts on the first episode over on Bible Films Blog.

Morna Hooker to give C. K. Barrett Lecture

Thanks to Anthony LeDonne for sending this one over:

--
Durham University
C.K. BARRETT LECTURE
(A public lecture open to the university community, the churches and the wider public)

PROFESSOR MORNA HOOKER
(University of Cambridge)

‘Scriptural Holiness: Paul’s Understanding of Sanctification’

Tuesday 16 February 2010
7.30pm

Kingsley Barrett Lecture Room, Calman Learning Centre,
Science Site (behind the Library)
Stockton Road, Durham
(For map, see http://www.dur.ac.uk/map/durham/)

Refreshments After the Lecture
Free Entry

Morna Hooker is Lady Margaret’s Professor Emerita in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Robinson College. She was the first woman to be elected President of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, an international society of New Testament scholars. In 2004 she was awarded the Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies by the British Academy.
--

World of the Bible Survey

Several other bloggers have already mentioned this, but it's worth another plug. This survey is looking for your views on the forthcoming SBL World of the Bible project. It only takes five or ten minutes to fill in, and it will be good to get your voice heard on the direction of this project. It's of special interest to me as one of the advisors. The project has already impressed the National Endowment for the Humanities who are funding it in its initial stages.

World of the Bible Website Survey

The Bible: A History: air date

The date of the first episode of the Channel 4 series The Bible: A History has now been confirmed as Sunday 24 January at 7pm. Channel 4's website on the programme is here. All NT Blog posts on The Bible: A History here.

The Biblioblog Top 50 Archives comes back

Ask and you shall receive! After whinging about the way that people simply delete or hide massive blog archives, the archives of the Biblioblog Top 50 are back. It turns out that its authors were raptured. So those of us left behind now have the archives as well as Free Old Testament Audio's new version of the chart.

Life after the Biblioblog Top 50

Seems I am a bit slow off the mark since returning from England last week. I hadn't noticed that the Biblioblog Top 50 had finally thrown in the towel, after threatening to do so for some time. The Biblioblog Top 50 blog has gone the way of its author's earlier NT Wrong blog and has decided to hide the whole thing behind password protection. For what it's worth, I think it's a real shame. Although not as much fun as the old NT Wrong blog where it originated, the Biblioblog Top 50 was still a good laugh. I always felt that the real interest was in the annotations that accompanied the chart, the pictures and the gentle humour and sarcasm. But there were other things of use too, not least the big list that had become a great resource in its own right, and which I had linked on my NT Gateway blogs page. So that link is going to have to go. It seems that the Biblioblog search engine is still working, and that the database was last updated in November 2009, but you can no longer access it from the Biblioblog Top 50 site itself (of course). Instead, go to this Google link, or search directly from my NT Gateway Blogs page. But a search engine is only as good as the database it is searching, and if the dean of the Biblioblog Top 50 has given up that blog, it's doubtful that he is going to continue updating the complete list that feeds the search.

I now understand what I had not realized earlier, that the Free Old Testament Audio Website blog is attempting to replace the Biblioblog Top 50 itself and not just the occasional updates that used to appear on Jim West's deleted blog. So thanks to Jeremy for that, and kudos to the artist formerly known as NT Wrong that his absence is so clearly felt that others spring up to fill the void. I wish people would not do this, though, and delete or hide old blogs. It doesn't make a lot of sense. Even if you become convinced that there is so little value in it yourself that it should be removed from the web, it might just be that others have a higher opinion of your efforts and that the archives might continue to be of use. Luckily, there are ways of accessing archive material if you know how, but it would be so much more beneficial to keep the archives for such blogs publicly available. So this is me informally registering some general grumpiness about the whole business of hidden and deleted blogs, with perhaps a bit more to come in due course.

Jesus: The Evidence, Episode 3, featuring Koester and Quispel

In several recent posts, I have drawn attention to the 1984 documentary, Jesus: The Evidence. The third and final episode is also available on Youtube. The uploader has mashed the aspect ratio horribly, but it's still fascinating viewing, especially if you are interested in the history of NT scholarship. The first three minutes is here and the main part is here:



The last three minutes is here.

The topic is the resurrection, Nag Hammadi and Gnostic Christianity (and the Gospel of Thomas), Paul, Marcion and the canon, and Constantine. It features lots of a young(er) Helmut Koester (in Jerusalem and a couple of other locations, one indoors) and, like The Gnostics (1987) documentary, the late Gilles Quispel (in Rome).

Missing the biblioblog rankings?

Missing the regular updates on the Alexa rankings of biblioblogs that used to appear on Jim West's now deleted blog? Thought not. Well, in the unlikely event that you are, Jeremy at the Free Old Testament Audio Website blog has kindly stepped into the breach and has got the whole process automated. The NT Blog and the NT Pod seem to have fallen down the list since days of old, but I am in good company further down the list, so I'm not complaining (much).

Richard Hays Megapost

For those who enjoyed the interview with Richard Hays on Hesed we 'emet, Duke ThD student Andy Rowell follows it up with a big post with tons of resources on Richard Hays including audio, video and more -- see his blog Church Leadership Conversations.

Hurtado on the ending of Mark

Back at the British New Testament Conference in (I think) September 2005, in the Synoptic Gospels section, Larry Hurtado presented a paper on Mark 16.1-8, which argued for a different view than the one now common in the scholarship, suggesting "(a) that Mark is not a dark, ambiguous text, but instead very upbeat, and (b) that the named women are not failures but to be understood as fulfilling what they were charged to do, functioning thereby as crucial witnesses to the bodily resurrection of Jesus." I am pleased to hear that this interesting paper has now been published. Here's the reference:

Larry W. Hurtado, "The Women, the Tomb, and the Climax of Mark," in Zuleika Rodgers, Margaret Daly-Denton, Anne Fitzpatrick McKinley (eds.), A Wandering Galilean: Essays in Honour of Sean Freyne (Leiden: Brill, 2009): 427-50

Interview with Richard Hays on Hesed we 'emet

Stephen Carlson has already mentioned this (also on Duke Newt), but John Anderson has a fascinating interview with my colleague here at Duke, Richard Hays, over on Hesed we' emet. It is detailed and full of interest.

The Morton Smith segment of Jesus: The Evidence excerpted

Over on Salainen Evankelista, Timo Paananen follows up my post on Jesus: The Evidence, Episode 2 on Youtube (the one with Morton Smith) by helpfully excerpting the section of Jesus: The Evidence Episode 2 that features Morton Smith, at the same time correcting the aspect ratio. As Timo says, there is a lot in the episode of interest, for me not least in seeing footage of the late Werner Kümmel, but those specially interested in Secret Mark and Morton Smith may find the repackaged clip more accessible and helpful:

Latest JSNT

While we are mentioning the Journal for the Study of the New Testament, it would be worth drawing attention to the full contents, including an article by a fellow blogger, Rafael Rodríguez, and one of my former students at Duke, Joshua Jipp, now at Emory. Click on the link for abstracts and further information:

Journal for the Study of the New Testament 32 (December 2009)

Lochlan Shelfer
The Legal Precision of the Term πάράκλητος (131-150)

Rafael Rodríguez
Reading and Hearing in Ancient Contexts (151-178)

John C. Poirier
The Synoptic Problem and the Field of New Testament Introduction (179-190)

Alan J.P. Garrow
The Eschatological Tradition behind 1 Thessalonians: Didache 16 (191-215)

Joshua W. Jipp
Rereading the Story of Abraham, Isaac, and ‘Us’ in Romans 4 (217-242)

John Poirier on New Testament Introduction and the Synoptic Problem

Over on Verily Verily, Rafael discusses Poirier on NT Introductions and the Synoptic Problem, following on from a fine article in the new JSNT, John Poirier, "The Synoptic Problem and the Field of New Testament Introduction", JSNT 32/2, 179–190. The abstract is as follows:

The synoptic problem is an important and visible subfield within NT studies, yet, for some reason, almost every NT introduction written in the past forty or so years has passed on a defective understanding of that subfield. Two problems in particular plague these NT introductions: (1) their discussions of the synoptic problem tend to rely on a logical argument disproven almost sixty years ago, and (2) they tend to misrepresent the current state of the question by marginalizing the Farrer hypothesis, which today is the Two-Source Theory’s leading competitor.

It's an excellent article, based on a paper Poirier gave in the Synoptics section at the SBL Annual Meeting in 2008. As Rafael points out, the article's claims are further born out by the recent publication of Mark Allan Powell, Introducing the New Testament, which I recently discussed in a post on Mark Allan Powell on the Synoptic Problem.

Michael Goulder

I am sorry to be sharing the sad news that Michael Goulder passed away yesterday. He was 82. Michael was a brilliant scholar and he was greatly loved. He will me remembered with great affection, and his scholarly legacy will be felt, I think, for generations to come.

I saw Michael last a couple of weeks ago, when I was over in England for Christmas. He was unwell, but I had the chance to say a last goodbye. I will write about Michael's life at greater length in due course when I have composed my thoughts. It's a very sad day.

Whatever happened to the Gospel of Mark film?

Over on The Golden Rule, Mike Koke blogs on The Gospel of Mark - A Good Hollywood Script? and embeds the teaser trailer of Visual Bible International's proposed Gospel of Mark film:



I have often blogged about this in the past (see Gospel of Mark film) and from time to time I receive emails asking if I know any more about it. The teaser trailer first came out in March 2005 and as far as I can tell, filming never began on this project, as Visual Bible International fell into every greater financial problems. It is my impression that the teaser trailer was released to encourage interest in making the film, and that it was not released after any actual filming had been done. (The video does feature Henry Ian Cusick's eyes, but this and the other images were probably gleaned from the Gospel of John filming).

There does appear to be one new piece of information, though, among comments on the Youtube upload of the teaser trailer above, as follows:

I just received a reply to my email question from Philip Saville the director himself of the Gospel of John and He replied, I quote

" Many many thanks for your enquiry about The Gospel of Mark.
Regrettably we haven't as yet been able to put it together.
Sorry to disappoint........Maybe next year?
Meanwhile I wish you and all your youtube-rs well over Thanksgiving.

Stay well
Philip Saville "

This comment is dated to November 2009. It's interesting that Saville does not declare the project dead, and the reference to "put it together" is intriguing since that expression might be more appropriate to editing rather than filming. But he may, of course, simply mean put together the funding and so on. So it is not promising.

I agree with Mike that the Gospel of Mark would be fantastic for film treatment. It ought to be more amenable than Matthew, which was the Visual Bible's first film, or John, which was their second.

2009 Review of Biblical Studies and Tech Tools

Don't miss Mark Hoffman's excellent 2009 Review of Biblical Studies and Tech Tools over on the Biblical Studies and Technological Tools Blog.

Jesus: The Evidence, Episode 2 on Youtube (the one with Morton Smith)

A little further searching on Youtube reveals that Episode 2 of Jesus: The Evidence is also available, though with an incorrect aspect ratio. This is the one I previously mentioned, featuring Morton Smith discussing Secret Mark. Smith first appears at the beginning of the 34th minute here, outside the Mar Saba monastery, so my earlier memory of the appearance turns out to be correct, and now one can see the whole context of the appearance:



There are other things of interest in this episode including more Geza Vermes and also Anthony Harvey. Ignore the "3 of 6" on the uploader's heading; this is episode 2, and the first few minutes of the episode are in a separate upload, headed 2 of 6. The character you see in the still above is Ian Wilson, the author of books on the Turin Shroud, who also authored the book Jesus: The Evidence that accompanied this series.

Jesus: the Evidence, Episode 1 on Youtube

I blogged recently about the 1984 Channel 4 documentary, Jesus: The Evidence, first in connection with Morton Smith's appearance on the programme, and then in relation to Geza Vermes's. Since then, someone has uploaded the entirety of the first episode of the documentary to Youtube. It makes fascinating viewing now over 25 years on, especially in giving us the chance to catch appearances from some famous scholars, Werner Kümmel, Dennis Nineham, I. Howard Marshall as well as Geza Vermes. There is attention to text-critical matters, Codex Sinaiticus and P⁵². There is a bit of discussion of P.Oxy. 1 and also Nag Hammadi and the Gospel of Thomas. There are re-enactments of Nicaea and of a young Rudolf Bultmann in the study and the pulpit, and also of the discoveries at Nag Hammadi in 1945 (with a terrible reconstruction of the codices with huge letters):



Fascinating viewing. As I mentioned previously, it is quite different from the contemporary style of documentary in that the scholars speak directly to the camera rather than to an off-screen presenter or director. Moreover, it is clear that they are speaking from a script and not arranging the words as they speak.

There is another version of the episode available here, but the aspect ratio is horrible, even if it is a bit less wobbly.

Catto on "Synagogues" in the New Testament Period

Stephen Catto has a new article at Bible and Interpretation on ancient synagogues:

‘Synagogues’ in the New Testament Period

For those who have not seen it, Catto recently published Reconstructing the First-Century Synagogue: A Critical Analysis of Current Research in the Library of New Testament Studies.

Teaching the Bible e-pub latest

SBL has released its latest Teaching the Bible e-publication, aimed at high school teachers, for January 2010:

Teaching the Bible

There is a bit of a "work" theme here, with an essay by Jim West on All in a Day's Work, and a link to my NT Pod 18 on the topic Was Jesus a Carpenter? Also featured are articles on Form Criticism by Joshua James and Moses’ Birth, the Abandoned Hero Motif, and Form Criticism by Isaac Alderman.

Not the Messiah -- listen while you can!

As Matt Page mentions on Bible Films Blog, the new oratorio based on Monty Python's Life of Brian was broadcast on Radio 3 on New Year's Day. Of course there was a lot to think about that day, not least with the regeneration of the tenth doctor into the eleventh in "The End of Time (Part 2)" (still buzzing about that one), and so it is quite likely that a lot of people will have missed the live broadcast. No need to worry! It's available on BBC's iPlayer, details here:

Not the Messiah

A comic oratorio inspired by Life of Brian, celebrating 40 years of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Eric Idle, Michael Palin and fellow Pythons join the BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra. Every musical style and genre is included, from Handel to Gilbert and Sullivan to Mariachi band.

Eric Idle and John du Prez: Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy)

Eric Idle (bariton-ish)
Judith ...... Shannon Mercer (soprano)
Mandy ...... Rosalind Plowright (mezzo)
Brian ...... William Ferguson (tenor)
Reg ...... Christopher Purves (bass)
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
John du Prez (conductor)
With guest appearances by fellow Pythons Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam.

It's wonderful and hilarious and I strongly recommend it. And the good news is that it is not locked-down to UK listeners only, so you don't even need to perform the usual hocus-pocus to listen to it. I must admit that I've grabbed a copy while I can, pending, of course, the release of the CD in due course.

Previous posts on Not the Messiah here.

The Bible: A History Latest

I recently mentioned the forthcoming Channel 4 (UK) series, The Bible: A History (The Bible: A History, Channel 4 Series), made by Pioneer TV, on which I've been series consultant. We are now only weeks away from broadcast and the series is getting some attention around the web. Helen Bond, who appears in the episode on Jesus, today offers her reflections on Jesus through the Eyes of an Irish Republican over on Bible and Interpretation,

. . . . My role in the program was to act as Gerry’s mentor, to accompany him on his trips (including one dark evening when we found ourselves paddling in the Sea of Galilee in a thunderstorm discussing Jesus’ miracles), and to discuss the days’ findings with him every evening. We spent hours arguing whether first-century Galilee was “occupied”; the meaning of “democracy” in ancient societies; high priestly “collaboration” (and alternatives); and whether Jesus foresaw his own death. I’ve not often had the chance to discuss these things with a man who has been on the run from political authority, who has experienced internment, who has been shot at (and still bears the scars), and who is now protected from the “real IRA” who regard him as a traitor – and I have to say that I learned from him too . . .

Tommy Wasserman shares his thoughts on Evangelical Textual Criticism, Sinn Fein Leader Gerry Adams in Search for Jesus and Papyrus 45, including comments about filming of P45. And Matt Page comments over on Bible Films.

Paul writing in TV Documentaries

Over on the Dunedin School, Deane Galbraith comments on a complaint by Jack Kilmon about the way television documentaries depict Paul writing his letters, with close-ups of Paul "writing gibberish". A new documentary called "After Jesus" is the occasion for the remarks (and Deane has an enjoyable comment, "at least they are getting something right!").

One of the issues that has always bothered me on this topic is the depiction of Paul actually doing the writing when we know full well that Paul dictates his epistles (Romans 16.22; Galatians 6.11;cf. NT Pod 2: Paul the letter speaker). When I was consultant on the BBC / Discovery Channel documentary Saint Paul (2003), I suggested that it would be fantastic if we could actually depict this one correctly, and have Paul dictating. Sometimes, though, historical accuracy alone is not incentive enough so I pointed out that by having Paul dictating his letters, we make it easier to depict dramatically. If Paul dictates, we are able to listen to him speaking the words of his letters.

I am happy to say that they took my advice, and even had the scribe writing on his lap rather than on an anachronistic desk. All was not completely plain sailing, though, and they disliked the idea of actually making the scribe Tertius (Romans 16.22) and so he was merged instead with Timothy, in part because they had a limited cast. And when it came to Paul in prison, they couldn't resist having Paul doing his own scribing work. Still, it shows that academic consultants can make a slight difference to perceptions of these things. All too often, the documentary makers don't actually ask them.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all and thanks for reading the NT Blog throughout 2009. I haven't been posting for the last couple of weeks because I have been enjoying our traditional couple of weeks away for Christmas in England. I may (or may not) write about that a bit over on The Resident Alien, but then I haven't been near that blog for some time.

While I have been away, I have been following the progress of the NT Pod and have been pleased to see it go into the iTunes U Top 10 for the first time, mainly on account of the two seasonal podcasts I put out. It peaked last week at Number 8. I will have further announcements about the future NT Pod episodes soon.

I doubt that I will get through all the posts on my blogroll, though I couldn't help noticing after a brief scan that Jim West has deleted his blog again. I had missed this at first because Jim had unfriended me on Facebook, where he put his announcement, but I would guess that Loren Rosson is right that Jim will be back.