Biblical Interpretation

On Paleojudaica, Jim Davila notes the contents of the last two editions of Biblical Interpretation. I don't think I've blogged on the either of these, so mention it here. As usual, it is subscriber or institutional subscriber only, though access to the abstracts is free for all. Go to Paleojudaica for contents list, or click below for contents and abstracts:

Biblical Interpretation

Here's another interesting fact from the Biblical Interpretation site: the free issue available to all visitors changes. When I set up my Journals page three years ago, I noted that there was "free access to the January 2000 edition for all visitors". In fact, I even made this a Featured Link. But now the free issue available is January 2003. Two thoughts:

(1) If you do not have individual or institutional access to these journals, make sure you save the contents of any free issues to your PC while you have the chance. It might have disappeared before you visit again; and in time you might be able to build up a bit of a library!

(2) The fact that these free issues move confirms my decision not to index these separately on the New Testament Gateway. At first my inclination was to index such articles, but there was always the concern that they would not hang around. And that's what has now happened. For this and other reasons (like the frustrating disappearance of all those Harvard Theological Review articles on FindArticles.com), it seems that it is a good idea to prioritise the indexing of articles that appear on scholars' homepages, which tend to be more stable, and also more useful to users.

Pete Phillips's ISBL Report

They are coming in thick and fast now (well, three at least). On postmodernbible, Pete Phillips offers his comments on the International SBL Meeting in Groningen:

ISBL Groningen

On the paper sessions, Pete comments:

People are given half an hour to present but this must also include question time. So technically you time your paper for 22 minutes and leave five minutes for questions (and a few minutes for panic in the middle!). However, people tended to speak for 29 minutes thus removing most of the potential for questions. Sad really when some of the papers demanded a response and some were so shocking they deserved five minutes silence!

I know this experience from the SBL annual meeting. Two comments. First, it never ceases to amaze me that many academics have apparently not mastered the art of timing a paper. What are their lectures to undergraduates like? Would they run over into the next person's time? Second, if speakers cannot time their presentations properly, it is essential that the sessions in question are well chaired. I had my first nerve-racking experience of chairing one of the SBL two-and-a-half hour sessions last November and I found it tougher than expected, especially as several of the speakers did not behave and some were such big characters that they managed to muscle their way to snatching an extra few minutes here and there. A more seasoned chair told me afterwards that the only way to do it was to be a fascist. A method I liked was used by Eddie Adams at the BNTC Short Papers section a couple of years ago -- the use of cards with messages on them, discreetly handed to the speaker with increasing urgency as the time limit approached.

Voices from the Dark

In Paleojudaica, Jim Davila comments on an interesting radio programme broadcast on Radio 4 this morning all about Syriac and presented by Martin Wainwright of The Guardian. Details are here:

Voices from the Dark

I'm listening to it on the web at the moment. You can do so from this link, also given by Jim (Real Audio):

Programme 1: The Tongue that Wouldn't Die

And here's the related article in today's Guardian, on which Jim also comments:

In the language of Jesus
Turkey's Christian revival has a message for Iraq's own communities
Martin Wainwright

Visual Greek

One of the links on David Capes's web page (see previous post) is to this remarkable piece of work:

Visual Greek
By Peter Coad

This is a 200+ page coloured book in PDF format which aims to make learning New Testament Greek a lot of fun:

Yes! A way for visual learners to learn how to read and enjoy the Bible in Greek!

Devour these cartoons—and you will be equipped to read
4 out of 5 words in the Greek New Testament!

Introducing the Visual Greek™ System

I have not yet had chance for a careful read-through, but at first glance this looks like a really useful tool. Do visit it -- you'll enjoy it.

Update (14.12): Rubén Gómez comments in Bible Software Review Weblog; Carl Conrad comments on b-greek (and follow thread).

Update (6/8/04): Peter Coad comments on b-greek.

David B. Capes

On Scholars: C, I've added the following homepage link:

David B. Capes
Houston Baptist University, Texas, U.S.A.

The page features some course materials and some interesting links, on one of which more in a moment.

John Paulien homepage

New on Scholars: O, P, Q is the following web page:

John Paulien
Andrews University Theological Seminary, Michigan, U.S.A.

The page features several full text article reproductions, especially on Revelation (though some of the formatting looks a bit odd on my PC, especially Moyise Anthology, which features strings of      Â). Nevertheless, it's great to see another scholar joining in the steadily moving revolution of placing reproductions of their peer-reviewed articles on-line for all to view.

Update (14.06): As Darko rightly points out in Comments, you just need to make sure that your encoding is adjusted to Unicode (if in IE, go to View/Encoding). I have my default selection as Auto-Select but it did not pick this up. Another thing of interest in this article is the way that John Paulien has set up the footnoting, with anchors in the text and footnotes appearing in just that location on-click. It appears to have been generated by Microsoft Word.

Another SBL International Report

Ken Ristau provides a short report, with more promised, from the International SBL at Groningen in his blog, my blog@anduril.ca.

Update (Wednesday, 01.32): Ken Ristau now adds a much fuller report:

Day by Day at the I-SBL

Ken makes a couple of interesting points along the way. One relates to the considerable cost of the conference and the difficulties this presents for some Eastern European scholars to attend. He also comments on the expense of the hotels selected, both at this meeting and at the Annual Meeting, asking whether the SBL rates represent a real saving on booking with the given hotel directly. This is a question I've heard people voice before. The only time I have looked into the comparison between rates was for the annual meeting in Orlando, Florida in 1998, when I know I made a substantial saving in my hotel by paying the SBL rate rather than the standard rate. But since that occasion, I've never investigated the difference again -- I've just assumed that the SBL rate represents good value. Since this is a question that often gets asked, I would be interested to hear an SBL response to it. Ken has some interesting comments on the need for scholarships for students.

It's perhaps worth mentioning that in the British New Testament Society we do have a "travel fund" and each year take up a collection at the conference. This enables several post graduate students to receive help with their travel to the conference; and British universities will often help out with the conference fee.

Review of Bibical Literature latest

Latest from the Review of Biblical Literature on the NT and related themes (though the review of Hurtado had been announced previously)

Bartlett, David L.
What's Good about this News: Preaching from the Gospels and Galatians
Reviewed by Vaughn Crowetipton

Gillman, Florence Morgan
Herodias: At Home in That Fox's Den
Reviewed by Donna Wallace

Hurtado, Larry W.
Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity
Reviewed by Tobias Nicklas

Iversen, Gertrud Yde
Epistolarität und Heilsgeschichte: Eine rezeptionsästhetische Auslegung des Römerbriefes
Reviewed by Aage Pilgaard

Spencer, F. Scott
What Did Jesus Do?: Gospel Profiles of Jesus' Personal Conduct
Reviewed by John Daniels

Theissen, Gerd
Fortress Introduction to the New Testament
Reviewed by Darian Lockett

Witherup, Ronald D.
101 Questions and Answers of Paul
Reviewed by Jeffery Lamp

Lieu, Judith
Image and Reality: The Jews in the World of the Christians in the Second Century
Reviewed by Russell Arnold

Neusner, Jacob, ed.
Dictionary of Ancient Rabbis: Selections from The Jewish Encyclopedia
Reviewed by Joshua L. Moss

Schaberg, Jane, Esther Fuchs, and Alice Bach, ed.
On the Cutting Edge: The Study of Women in Biblical Worlds: Essays in Honor of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza
Reviewed by Lillian Klein-Abensohn

SBL International Report

And in case you've not already seen it, Jim Davila has posted his report on the SBL International Meeting on Paleojudaica:

Conference Report

Jim sets a new standard for such reports by including several colour pictures.

AIBI report

On Deinde, Paul Nikkel provides an interesting report of the recent AIBI (Association Internationale Bible et Informatique) conference in Louvain:

AIBI VII

SBL Forum August Content

The SBL Forum has some new content for August:

SBL Forum

Here are the links to the "features":

When a Biblical Scholar Becomes an Editor
by Jon L. Berquist
Editors succeed when authors and readers alike claim ownership of the book.

The Biblical Scholar in Librarianship
by David Suiter
Graduate work in biblical studies is excellent preparation for a career in librarianship

Teacher to Journalist? Here's the Scoop
by John Dart
A scholar versed in biblical studies, one who also can translate that knowledge into news vernacular, would have some opportunities for good stories that many in the religion-writing corps pass up.

The Earliest Christian Artifacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins
by Larry W. Hurtado
The earliest extant artifacts of Christianity are manuscripts, but they hardly receive the attention that they deserve, even among specialists in Christian origins.

Justin Taylor Colloquium on Biblical Studies

I am late on everything at the moment (it's summer and I'm very busy), but I should have mentioned that there is an on-line colloquium on the Biblical Studies E-List with Justin Taylor of the École Biblique. This began yesterday and continues for two weeks. You can follow along by going to the following link:

Biblical Studies

But to be able to participate, you will need to subscribe to the list. In the archive, note that Justin Taylor's answers are hidden in that they have been forwarded by Jim West, with (no subject) in the subject line.

Ehrman's Apostolic Fathers

On Νεφελοκοκκυγία , C. R. Culver notes the arrival of the first volume of Bart Ehrman's new Apostolic Fathers translation:

Newer Apostolic Fathers Translation

Culver comments that it does not depart greatly from Lake, but that there are fuller introductions, and that he does not like the Greek font.

Update (3 Aug, 08:38): Stephen Carlson comments on the series in Hypotyposeis and he contrasts with 1999 update from Baker Books of Lightfoot and Harmer's edition by Michael W. Holmes.

Bible and Interpretation: Come back soon!

Let me join with other bibliobloggers and say a big "Come back soon" to the Bible and Interpretation web site. The site has made a major contribution to the world of academic Biblical Studies over the last couple of years, not only in gathering together interesting news items in its "Breaking News" section, but also in commissioning and making available articles from scholars on a wide variety of interesting topics. If I remember correctly, the site went on hiatus once before; let's hope that the funding difficulties are soon sorted out and that we see a return to this excellent service. In the mean time, it will be missed.

Degrees for sale?

I woke up to this story on Radio 4 this morning, its source a report in today's Observer:

'Degrees for sale' at UK universities
· Failing students passed to keep funds flowing · Lecturers fear academic standards are slipping
Martin Bright

Cash-strapped British universities are awarding degrees to students who should be failed, in return for lucrative fees, The Observer can reveal.

The 'degrees-for-sale' scandal stretches from the most prestigious institutions to the former polytechnics and includes undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, foreign and home students. In the most extreme case, The Observer has evidence of a professor ordering staff to mark up students at risk of failing in order to keep the money coming in.

Lecturers at institutions across the country, including Oxford, London and Swansea, told The Observer the scandal is undermining academic standards, but they cannot speak publicly for fear of losing their jobs.

The only thing that rings true for me in this article is that there is indeed a funding crisis in the British Universities, but I have no experience, either direct or anecdotal, of the kinds of thing this article alleges. I have been most impressed by the rigour of examination, the quality of teaching and the maintenance of high standards in British Universities, at least in the area of Theology and in Birmingham and in other universities where I have examined. One of the reasons that I think the standard is, on the whole, strong is the external examining system whereby every department of every institution has several external examiners who carefully scrutinise a given department's assessment.

One of the examples given in the article is at best anecdotal and does not add up to much:

This impression has been passed to the students themselves. Gilbert Cervelli, an American theology and history student who spent six months at Oxford this year for a credit towards his American Bachelor of Arts degree said he received all A grades.'For a majority of my time at Oxford, I wondered if I could write an absolute crap essay and still have my tutor tell me it wonderful just because I was a huge investment. To think that the only reason I was admitted to Oxford University was because I had money and came from America is a rather cynical view, one that I hope is not true.'

I think that this is cynical and I doubt that it's true, not least because those doing the teaching and assessment do not have anything to gain personally from marking up a poor student, and they have a great deal to lose, especially in terms of their reputation. For what it is worth, I did some tutoring in Oxford while working on my doctorate and I did not get paid any extra if I was teaching a foreign student! Nor do I know of any institution where you get a bonus for teaching more overseas students. The suggestion of corruption here sounds like utter nonsense to me. Since it is so potentially damaging, I think it is very important indeed that such serious allegations are either properly substantiated or dropped. The Observer does follow on with with this comment:

A statement by Oxford University said: 'The university sets great importance on both the rigour and fairness of its examination procedures. Candidates are examined anonymously, with numbers rather than names or other identifying details on exam papers. Papers are blind double-marked, with external examiners carrying out random quality control checks and adjudicating in borderline cases or where there are discrepancies in the double marking.'

This is exactly right; in my experience the assessment process in this country remains at a very high standard.

Amazon clamp down on anonymous reviews

Back in February, I commented on an interesting story in The Observer on Amazon's anonymous reviews (Authors reviewing their own books on Amazon). Amazon have now, at last, acted on this and only allow real names with credit card numbers. This is from today's Guardian:

Amazon halts tit-for-tat critics
Authors and publishers face credit card barrier to anonymously puffing their books
Andrew Clark in New York

The change, which was quietly introduced earlier this month, is intended to put an end to authors and publishers anonymously showering their own books with praise while trashing the work of their rivals. An Amazon spokeswoman said: "This is the latest step in an ongoing effort to continually improve the content of the site." . . . .

. . . Reviews on Amazon's site are of variable quality and many are tongue in cheek. A review of the King James Bible from one reader in Indianapolis describes the tome as "a rollicking, non-stop, action-adventure which ends with a thrilling conclusion and a hearty 'Amen'". Meanwhile, Bill Clinton's recently published memoirs receives a rough ride from a New York customer, who advises buyers: "Give your money to charity instead of enriching this pants-on-fire liar."

I suppose we are a bit more lucky in the slightly more rarefied atmosphere generated by academic books on the Bible. But even here, there are some quite funny reviews, whether you agree with them or not. This, for example, is an excerpt from an amazon review on Crossan's Birth of Christianity from a certain "phranger":

When I got the book I was struck by how physically light it is for its size. The paper is made from pulp somewhat cleaner than newsprint, which is blown up during drying to perhaps twice the thickness good newsprint would have, using the same amount of pulp. The enclosed air makes it more opaque. This is a fine figure for Crossan's writing.

Kaler on Ehrman's Lost Christianities

One of the latest reviews I particularly enjoyed from Review of Biblical Literature (see previous) was Michael Kaler's Review of Bart Erhman's twin Lost Christianities and Lost Scriptures. I have recently obtained and begun reading Lost Christianities myself and am finding it compelling reading, full of interesting insights and well worth its cover price. I am a particular fan of scholarly writing that is accessible to the broader public and Ehrman is a master of the art. One of the things I particularly like about the way Ehrman goes about this is that he appears always to be thinking not just about that broader public but also about the graduate students and scholars too. I would defy anyone to find nothing new here. Anyway, Kaler is an enthusiast for Ehrman's books too, though he adds some useful points by way of criticism.

The point in Kaler's review that caught my attention was his footnote 2 on the first page, relating to the Secret Gospel of Mark:

While his discussion of the issue is gossipy (in a good way) and engrossing, I found Ehrman's conclusion to this intricate and fascinating affair to be artificially ambivalent. He spends most of the chapter clearly implying that Morton Smith forged the letter of Clement that contained the Secret Gospel and then at the end refuses to commit himself. "I am not willing to say that Smith . . . forged the letter which he claimed to discover. . . . But maybe Smith forged it. . . . Or maybe this is a genuine letter by Clement of Alexandria" (89). To my mind, Ehrman should either have taken an explicit and definite stand or rewritten the chapter so as to present the facts in a truly neutral, unbiased way."

I quite agree with Kaler here and found myself reacting in the same way to this chapter. In fact Ehrman's "artificially ambivalent" attitude surprised me somewhat given his robust presentation of the same material in a talk to the Textual Criticism section of the SBL Annual Meeting in Toronto (2002). My memory of that talk (other than my colleague David Parker flashing up on screen for some time a picture of his back garden as he attempted to get his powerpoint presentation together while Bart was speaking) was that it was strong in its implication, allowing the circumstantial evidence to point the finger at Smith; Ehrman's tone was at best faux naif.

So why is Ehrman so reticent to state more strongly in print that he thinks Morton Smith may have forged the Secret Gospel of Mark? His stated reason is the following:

I am not willing to say that Smith was a latter-day Dionysius the Renegade, that he forged the letter of Clement which he claimed to discover. My reasons should be obvious. As soon as I say I am certain he did so, those pages cut from the back of the book will turn up, someone will test the ink, and it will be from the eighteenth century." (Lost Christianities: 89).

I am not sure that this is strong enough. Scholarship of this kind is about taking risks, but risks that are staked on one's careful and considered reading of the evidence. I've written a book arguing against the existence of Q and attempted there, as well as elsewhere, to make quite clear that I do not think that such a document ever existed. I could have held back for fear that someone might dig it up and show me up for a fool, but it's a risk that I was willing to take because I am fully persuaded that the Q sceptical case is right. In other words, it's always possible that someone will produce Q and surprise me, but my research persuades me that this is unlikely to happen. I'm not sure what is gained by holding back for fear of future possibilities that one thinks are unlikely to materialise.

Review of Bibical Literature latest

New reviews added to the Review of Biblical Literature under the New Testament heading:

Cook, John Granger
The Interpretation of the New Testament in Greco-Roman Paganism
Reviewed by Thomas J. Kraus

Ehrman, Bart D.
Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
Reviewed by Michael Kaler

Ehrman, Bart D.
Lost Scriptures: BooksThat Did Not Make It into the New Testament
Reviewed by Michael Kaler

Ehrman, Bart D.
The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings: A Reader
Reviewed by Tobias Nicklas

Hurtado, Larry W.
Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity
Reviewed by Moschos Goutzioudis

Kok, Ezra Hon-seng
The Truth of the Gospel: A Study in Galatians 2:15-21
Reviewed by Arthur J. Dewey

Lee, Dal
The Narrative Asides in the Book of Revelation
Reviewed by Jan A. Du Rand

McLay, R. Timothy
The Use of the Septuagint in New Testament Research
Reviewed by Robert Hiebert

McLay, R. Timothy
The Use of the Septuagint in New Testament Research
Reviewed by Tobias Nicklas

Nodet, Étienne
Histoire de Jésus?: Nécessité et limites d'une enquete
Reviewed by Douglas Geyer

Philo Blogger back

Torrey Seland left a comment here and it made me wonder if he was blogging again after his summer break. And I notice that he has been blogging for a good week or so:

Philo of Alexandria Blog

It seems that one of the RSS feeds is not working, or at least is not working with Bloglines (this one). So it may be that others, like me, need to adjust to an alternative feed which is working (this one). Anyway, welcome back Torrey.

Harland wins F.W. Beare Award

Another one from my catch-up file, going back a couple of weeks. Congratulations to Philip Harland, author of the fine web site on Associations, Synagogues and Congregations, who receives this award for the book of the same name. This press-release is from Fortress Press:

Harland wins F.W. Beare Award from Canadian Society of Biblical Studies

MINNEAPOLIS (July 7, 2004) Fortress Press is happy to announce that Philip A. Harland’s book, Associations, Synagogues, and Congregations: Claiming a Place in Ancient Mediterranean Society, was awarded the 2004 Canadian Society of Biblical Studies (CSBS) F.W. Beare Award during the Annual CSBS Dinner, held on May 30th as part of the Society’s Annual Meeting in Winnipeg.

The F.W. Beare Award is offered annually by the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies in recognition of an outstanding book in the areas of Christian Origins, Post-Biblical Judaism and/or Graeco-Roman Religions written by a member of the CSBS and published during the previous two years. The Award is determined by a panel of judges drawn from members of the Society with a publishing record in at least one of the areas covered by the Award.

“A groundbreaking study. Harland’s focus on associations in Roman antiquity as a way better to understand civic social life and the social sensibilities of those involved in such associations sets the stage for a reconsideration of the place of ancient Christianities and Judaisms in the Roman order. What emerges is a realistic picture of the ancient Christian associations of Asia Minor that produced such texts as 1 Peter, the Apocalypse of John, and the Pastoral Epistles. This new picture emphasized the concrete, day-to-day ways in which ancient Christians did claim a place for themselves within the empire, and soundly dismisses conceptualizations of Christianity as an isolated sect. This is an indispensable step toward re-imagining ancient civic life, ancient religion, and the origins of Christianity as well.”

-—William Arnal, University of Regina, Saskatchewan

This award has been established in honor of Francis (Frank) Wright Beare, one of Canada’s most renowned New Testament scholars. He was born in Toronto in 1902, studied in Toronto, Paris and Cairo, and taught at the Presbyterian College in Montreal (1933-46) and Trinity College in Toronto (1946-68). He participated actively in the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies and was named President of the Society in 1942; he was also President of the Society of Biblical Literature in 1969.

The Canadian Society of Biblical Studies is the oldest humanities academic society in Canada. The Society provides a meeting place for those interested in all aspects of the academic study of the Bible — Hebrew Bible, Septuagint, New Testament — in its literary and historical context.

Philip A. Harland is Assistant Professor of Christian Origins in the Religion Department at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.

Format: 272 pp. 6 x 9" paper 4-color cover

ISBN: 0-8006-3589-2

Price: $22.00 Publication Date: May 2003

###
To order Associations, Synagogues, and Congregations please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the web site at www.fortresspress.com. To request review copies or exam copies please visit the website at www.fortresspress.com, click on “Contact Us” and follow prompts for requesting review copies or exam copies or call 1-800-426-0115 ext. 234. For interviews, speaking engagements, and writing assignments please call 1-800-426-0115 ext. 234 or email toddb@augsburgfortress.org.

----End of press release-----