Teaching the Bible e-pub latest

The latest Teaching the Bible e-pub is now available from the SBL. It's the last one until September, and features articles on Sacrifice in Ancient Israel, Justice in the New Testament, and audio on Animal Sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible.

Latest Bibledex Videos: Mark

There are lots more Bibledex videos now available from the University of Nottingham. You may remember that this is the project to produce short videos on every book in the Bible. One of the latest is on Mark:

NT Pod 34: Was Luke a Historian?

I noticed the other day that I have not kept up to date here with the latest episodes of the NT Pod. So this is to mention NT Pod 34: Was Luke a Historian?.

Over on the NT Pod pages, I have also added a new media player. It's the third one I have tried. One of the problems with using blogger for podcasts is that it does not automatically add a media player for those who wish to listen directly on the web. I tried two different solutions, but both depended on a web player present on another site, and eventually they vanished. So I have finally uploaded a web player to my own site. Thankfully it seems to be working fine.

Is the Synoptic Problem tedious?

In a recent post on The Golden Rule, Mike Koke speaks of the Synoptic Problem as one of those "seemingly tedious aspects of studying the NT", echoing, perhaps unconsciously, similar remarks made my Raymond Brown in his Introduction to the New Testament.  I must admit to being somewhat baffled by those who find the Synoptic Problem boring.  It is so basic to so much of what we do in studying the New Testament that saying that it is boring is a bit like saying that New Testament study is boring.  It's a literary enigma, it's a historical puzzle, it's a theological essential.  What is not to enjoy?

I have never had anyone explain to me clearly why the Synoptic Problem is supposed to be dull or tedious.  I have a couple of theories, though, why people otherwise interested in New Testament study come to this odd conclusion:

(1) People find it dull because it is taught badly.  In fact, the Synoptic Problem is often not taught at all.  In so far as New Testament introductions and introductory courses teach it, they focus on one particular solution (the Two-Source theory) and then they refract all the data through that theory.  Simply setting out a solution deprives students of all the interest in the process of history, all the enjoyment in puzzling out the literary enigma.

(2) People find it dull because they do not actually study it.  The only way to engage in serious study of the Synoptic Problem is to get down and dirty with the Synopsis, and to spend enjoyable time working with the texts, ideally doing some colouring.  It's one of the guilty secrets of the guild that too many scholars simply do not do the work with the texts that they should, preferring instead to keep wading through the pile of largely mediocre pieces of secondary literature.

(3) People find it dull because they think that there is an obvious solution (the Two-Source Theory).  Alternatives are thought to be unpersuasive and not worth attention.  To an extent, Mike's post bears this out -- he engages only the Two-Source Theory and the Griesbach Theory.  I think that this is a shame given the strong case that can be made for the Farrer Theory, engagement with which can make the Synoptic Problem interesting again.

In my experience, students love to study the Synoptic Problem.  I have run graduate courses on the Synoptic Problem and they have produced excellent intellectual stimulation and publishable work from the students involved.  In my undergraduate classes, colouring and analyzing the Synopsis has proved to be one of the most popular assignments I have given and student feedback has been very positive.  These students had never heard that the Synoptic Problem was supposed to be dull, and found the tasks engaging, not least because it is "hands on" -- actually working seriously with texts rather than reading textbooks describing the supposed results of scholarship.

My diagnosis, then, is that the Synoptic Problem needs to be studied in detail, taught effectively and represented fairly.  It is amazing what fun it then becomes.

Philip Pullman on the Gospels on the Daily Bacon

One of my favourite podcasts these days is the Daily Bacon. I never thought I would warm to Richard Bacon when he took over from Simon Mayo in the BBC Radio FiveLive afternoon slot earlier this year, but the programme is great, and I rarely miss the podcast.

Yesterday's featured Philip Pullman talking about his novel The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. It turns out that Pullman is surprisingly well informed about the Gospels and the interview is so interesting that it almost persuades me to read the book. At this stage it is only "almost", though.

The podcast will be available to download for the next six days or so. [Subscribe to the Daily Bacon; Programme details].

Bibledex: Titus

The latest Bibledex video from the University of Nottingham is on the book of Titus:

Bibledex: Jude and 1 Peter

The University of Nottingham's project to produce videos on every book of the Bible continues with Jude and 1 Peter:

Anthony Flew Obituary

Tomorrow's Times has its obituary of Anthony Flew, who died last week:

Professor Anthony Flew: philosopher

Anthony Flew was one of the best-known atheists of his generation but he finally repudiated the label. As an academic philosopher he subjected the question of God’s existence to careful, non-polemical analysis. When he declared himself a theist in his old age he annoyed many of his admirers — which might have been the intention . . .

Update (15.28): The Telegraph also has its obituary of Anthony Flew tomorrow.

Ellen Davis on Duke's uStream Channel Today

Last semester, I took part in Duke's new Online Office Hours project, when I answered live questions on the New Testament. Today, Ellen Davis, Amos Ragan Kearns Professor of Bible and Practical Theology in the Divinity School, is the latest victim in this format. Details here:

Ellen Davis on 'Christians and Creation' in Live Online Interview

Bibledex: Luke

There is a new Bibledex video from the University of Nottingham:



As usual, it's nicely done. My only criticism is that they should put the scholars' names on screen the first time they appear. They are Anthony Thiselton, Alison Milbank, Emily Gathergood and I think Pete Watts.

NT Pod 33: The Passion Narrative in John's Gospel

I uploaded the fourth and final episode of this week's back to back Passion Podcasts in the early hours of this morning.  In this one, we turn to John's Gospel, NT Pod 33: The Passion of Jesus in John's Gospel.

I have enjoyed this experiment in doing something a little different on the NT Pod, and to do something that is seasonal.

NT Pod 32: The Passion of Jesus in Luke's Gospel

I uploaded the third of this week's four Passion Podcasts early on Thursday morning.  In this one, we turn to Luke's Gospel, NT Pod 32: The Passion of Jesus in Luke's Gospel.

It is certainly my most ambitious plan so far on the NT Pod, but it's something I have enjoyed doing.  I am pleased that the regular release schedule is not quite so demanding, though, and look forward to returning to normal again next week.

NT Pod 31: The Passion of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel

I uploaded the second of this week's four Passion Podcasts early on Monday morning.  In this one, we turn to Matthew's Gospel, NT Pod 31: The Passion of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel. Apologies again for the lack of extended programme notes this week, but I am prioritizing recording, editing and releasing these back-to-back episodes.

The King of Kings -- 1927 Film Trailer

Among the many delights at archive.org, you can view the trailer for Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings from 1927:

NT Pod 30: The Passion of Jesus in Mark's Gospel

I uploaded the first of this week's four Passion Podcasts on Sunday.  Naturally, we turn to Mark's Gospel first, and NT Pod 30 deals with the Passion Narrative in Mark.  Apologies for the lack of extended programme notes this week, but I want to prioritize getting these episodes out on time.

Passion Week Podcasts

I have an ambitious plan this week to release four back to back episodes of the NT Pod on the Passion Narratives in the Gospels. The idea arose from the fact that I am focusing on the Passion Narratives in the Gospels in my New Testament Introduction class. Instead of putting out the podcasts on these episodes as I teach them, I thought it might be interesting to group them together and release them during Holy Week. I released the first tonight, NT Pod 30, on Mark's Passion Narrative. I turn to Matthew next, and hope to have all four out by Good Friday.

NT Pod 29: The Matthean Riddle

Just bringing things up to date here on the NT Blog with respect to episodes of the NT Pod, NT Pod 29 deals with what I call "the Matthean Riddle". Why is Matthew so Jewish and yet apparently so anti-Jewish? It is the latest in a series that goes alongside my New Testament Introduction class here at Duke. I apologize that I have not had the time to write fuller programme notes for this one, but it is certainly a topic that I plan to return to in due course.

NT Pod 28: The Disciples in Mark

I have just uploaded NT Pod 30 and took a look here on the NT Blog to check that I was up to date with adding notices of episodes here, and it turns out I am a couple behind. So this is a note about NT Pod 28: The Disciples in Mark. I recorded it on the back of a class here at Duke on the topic, part of my NT Introduction. Time prevents me from writing fuller notes here, but since some people access the NT Pod through this blog, I wanted at least to mention it. More anon.

Who is your favourite Herod?

Who is your favourite Herod Antipas? Jesus Christ Superstar is perhaps not as well known these days as it once was. When I mentioned it in class on Wednesday, I was surprised at how few in my New Testament Introduction class had seen it in any form, either the 1973 film or a stage production. It came up because we were talking about the distinctive elements in Luke's Passion Narrative, one of which is of course Luke 23.7-12, in which Herod appears. Here is Herod's song from Jesus Christ Superstar (1973):



Or do you prefer Rik Mayall's more recent Herod in the 2000 filmed stage version of Jesus Christ Superstar?



Although I love Rik Mayall, this performance doesn't quite do it for me. I still like Josh Moshtel's camp performance in the 1973 film version (above) directed by Norman Jewison.

But what about non-musical Herods? I think you have to go a long way to beat Jose Ferrer in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), earnest, brooding, menacing, troubled, understated and believable. (And his father, Herod the Great, is played by the great Claude Rains who is also great, though somewhat more manic). This is one of my favourite scenes in the film, at about the half-way point, where Salome's dance leads to the death of John:



There is an interesting segue here from the scene with Ferrer's Herod commanding the arrest of "the Nazarene", and the troops going to carry out this mission, to Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount beginning not with "Blessed are the poor in spirit" but instead, more appropriately, "Blessed are you when you are persecuted . . ."

Sir Kenneth Dover Obituaries and Lives Remembered

A week or so ago, I mentioned the Obituaries of Kenneth Dover that appeared in The Times and the Telegraph. The Times has followed up with several enjoyable reminiscences in Lives Remembered:

Lives Remembered: Sir Kenneth Dover

. . . . Kenneth Dover was an extraordinarily gifted teacher. His classes on Thucydides, for example, brought his own painstaking scholarship to his students with that rare ability that invited them to share his interest and excitement. I remember the alarm with which we were told to use the French edition “as the only decent one around just now” (his own had not yet been completed); it was a toss-up which created more of a headache for the first-year undergraduate: the French notes or the Greek original . . . .

There is another brief entry in Lives Remembered earlier this week, and The Sunday Times commented briefly.

Also this week, a full obituary in the Independent:

Professor Sir Kenneth Dover: Hellenist best known for his work on Greek homosexuality and for two controversial presidencies

Professor Sir Kenneth Dover was the foremost Hellenist of his generation, a skilled and authoritative interpreter of almost all the multifarious genres of ancient Greek literature. Somewhat to his regret he was probably most widely known as a disarmingly frank pioneer historian of Greek male same-sex gendering and sexuality, but he should better be remembered, and his work long revisited, as a quite formidable exponent of a unique combination of precise philological mastery with broader historical, sociological, and aesthetic exegesis, both of major canonical texts and of Greek (mainly Athenian) popular thought and morality. His career of high academic office-holding was attended by some considerable notoriety as well as renown . . . .

Geoffrey Rickman Obituary

Today's Times has its obituary of Geoffrey Rickman who died on February 8:

Professor Geoffrey Rickman: head of Roman history at the University of St Andrews

Professor Geoffrey Rickman was a man of integrity whose scholarship was never advertised. He was devoted to the study of ancient history and especially Rome: appropriately he was known at St Andrews University, where he taught for more than 35 years, as “the father of ancient history”. He was an inspiring teacher and a charismatic lecturer who was respected and much admired by generations of students. He built up, by his own sheer enthusiasm and commitment, the Department of Ancient History to one of international repute . . . .

Sadly, with no picture.

New Duke Department of Religion Website

Our new website here at the Duke University Dept of Religion went live today.  Please take a look and let me know what you think, if you get a chance.  I think it's a great improvement on the old one and is the result of a pretty lengthy process in recent months:

Duke University Religion Departmemnt

We will continue to work on it in the coming months.

Was the Last Supper a Passover Seder?

The most recent Bible Archaeology Review features an excellent article by Jonathan Klawans, "Was Jesus' Last Supper a Seder?".  I won't here summarize the article because it is available for all to read on the Bible Archaeology Review website but I would like to make a few comments on the details.  I will simply quote the passages I would like to comment on, and will then add my comments.

Of course a number of New Testament scholars—the Jesus Seminar comes to mind—tend to doubt that the Gospels accurately record very much at all about Jesus, with the exception of some of his sayings. Obviously if the Gospels cannot be trusted, then we have no reason to assume that there ever was a Last Supper at all. And if there was no Last Supper, then it could not have taken place on Passover.

Well, there is also the testimony of Paul in 1 Cor. 11.23-26, which most take as the earliest witness to some kind of Last Supper tradition.  Of course it does not help us a lot with the question of dating, though it parallels the Gospel traditions by locating the meal on "the night that Jesus was handed over".  And there are interesting Passover motifs elsewhere in the letter, especially 1 Cor. 5.7, "Christ our paschal lamb has been sacrificed" (which Klawans later mentions in another context).  The letter may have been written around Passover time since Paul wishes to stay at Ephesus "until Pentecost" (16.8).

While three of the four canonical Gospels strongly suggest that the Last Supper did occur on Passover, we should not get too comfortable based on that. The three Gospels that support this view are the three synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke. As anyone who has studied these three Gospels knows, they are closely related. In fact, the name synoptic refers to the fact that these three texts can be studied most effectively when “seen together” (as implied in the Greek etymology of synoptic). Thus, in fact we don’t really have three independent sources here at all. What we have, rather, is one testimony (probably Mark), which was then copied twice (by Matthew and Luke).

This is a common claim, and it is important to explain to newcomers that it indeed simplifies things to make it three vs. one.  Matthew and Luke know and use Mark's Gospel therefore they probably derive their dating from Mark.  All that is quite right.  However, some caution is necessary.  Eliminating Matthew and Luke as witnesses on the basis of their familiarity with Mark assumes that their only source of information was Mark.  That may be the case -- and I am very much a minimum sources man, especially when it comes to the Passion -- but we should bear in mind that Matthew and Luke may sometimes have been familiar with parallel traditions.  In other words, the likelihood that Matthew and Luke have Mark as a literary source does not automatically rule out the possibility of familiarity with other traditions.  They are sometimes willing to modify Mark in line with alternative traditions, for example Luke in his eucharistic discourse, which has parallels with Paul, or in his resurrection account, which has appearances in Jerusalem that cohere with the presence of the leaders in Jerusalem at a later date.

It's worth adding too that John may not be an independent witness either.  If John knows the Synoptics (the best evidence for which is, in my opinion, his account of the Anointing), we have to reckon with the possibility that he has simply adjusted the timing for theological reasons, with no parallel tradition about the dating.

According to John, Jesus died just when the Passover sacrifice was being offered and before the festival began at sundown . . . Any last meal—which John does not record—would have taken place the night before, or even earlier than that. But it certainly could not have been a Passover meal, for Jesus died before the holiday had formally begun.

This is a minor error here -- John 13.2,4 speak of a last supper, though indeed one that is before the Passover.

The article also features a sidebar,  but it does not render well in the web version -- it is practically incomprehensible.  What I would recommend here is Felix Just SJ's table, The Death of Jesus in Mark vs. John, which is clear and accurate.

But what of Klawans's major conclusion, that the Last Supper was most likely not a Passover Seder?  I think this may be right.  I have argued in favour if a liturgical origin of the Passion narratives in the Gospels, that they were developed in the context of worshipping communities.  This had the effect of fixing the dating of the narratives to the times when the communities were celebrating the events of Jesus' Passion, whether on 14th Nisan (the Quartodecimans, perhaps in continuity with some first century communities) or in a Passion vigil on the Thursday night / Friday after Passover, a custom that eventually came common but which may have had roots in the first century.  The difficulty with the celebration of events on particular days is that those celebrating quickly come to think of the day of celebration as the day on which the events happened.  My guess is that Jesus died at around Passover time, that this was remembered, that his death and resurrection were then celebrated around this time, but that the precise details were forgotten.

Klawans may well be right to lean towards the Johannine dating, though.  Although the Synoptics clearly locate Jesus' death on the Passover (Mark 14.12, 16, 17), there are remnants of the alternative view in Mark 14.2.  It is two days before the Passover (Mark 14.1) and the chief priests and scribes want to execute Jesus but they say, "Not during the festival, lest there will be a riot among the people".  I suspect that this note assumes a Johannine style chronology according to which Jesus was arrested and executed on 13/14 Nisan, the day before Passover.  The same underlying chronology is I think present in the idea that they were rushing to get Jesus' body buried in time for the Sabbath (Mark 15.42), an artificial idea if this is in fact Passover day, but a coherent notion if John is right that Sabbath and Passover coincided.

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.