NT Pod 35: How does John differ from the Synoptics?

It's time I got up to date with posting the latest episodes of the NT Pod here also on the NT Blog. NT Pod 35 asks "How does John Differ from the Synoptics?"

You can listen to the NT Pod online or subscribe in your preferred reader or subscribe via iTunes.

H. B. Swete is on Twitter

One of the problems with Twitter is that it is so full of modern people.  Nowhere near enough nineteenth century theologians for my liking.  So it is good to see Henry Barclay Swete (1835-1918), "Professor of Divinity, Cambridge. Great christian theologian" with his own daily twitter feed.  Thanks to Richard Vervoorn of the Henry Barclay Swete site for letting me know.

Interview with me and Kavin Rowe in Duke's Religio Magazine

Duke's nicely produced undergraduate magazine that focuses on Religion, Religio, recently published its last issue of the academic year and it included a feature "Reading Scripture: A Conversation with Scholars: Interviews with Mark Goodacre and Kavin Rowe".  The interviews were done separately, so it is quite interesting to read our sometimes overlapping and sometimes differing answers to the same questions.  (They are transcripts of audio). The magazine is available in toto as a PDF download.

Update (31 May): the above link is now defunct, but you can access the issue at a new link here: Volume 4 Issue 1, or go to the journal's web page here.

Q in the Top 7 Lost Bodies of Work (That Would Have Changed Everything)

Speaking of Q, my friend NT Wrong helpfully draws attention to the 7 Lost Bodies of Work (That Would Have Changed Everything), which features "The (Supposed) Lost Sayings of Jesus".  "The Q Document, if it exists, is probably the single most influential thing recorded, like, in the history of ever," the page claims.  It goes on to espouse a maximalist position on what Q may have contained, including "more specific writings from Jesus on, say, slavery, or homosexuality, or abortion, or women's rights. Or gun control".

In other words, it sounds much more interesting than the Critical Edition.

Until, of course, we remember that the reconstructed text of Q does have a bit to say about slavery, a whole story about a centurion who says to his slave, "'Do this,' and he does it" (Q 7.8), behaviour apparently commended by Jesus (Q 7.9).  Is it not also Q that commends the faithful and wise slave ("Blessed is that slave", Q 12.43) and condemns the unfaithful slave to being "cut in pieces" (Q 12.46)?

Q is for . . . . Q and Q reading Q

Neil Cameron has put together a fantastic A-Z of Awesomeness and it features a fine representation for "Q" (left), featuring Q and Q reading Q.  Unfortunately, the Q that Q and Q are reading is Q the popular British magazine and not Q the hypothetical text, but it's still a great cartoon.

Incidentally, the A-Z also features excellent illustrations covering Buffy bravely battling Beelzebub and the Doctor Who Defeating Doctor Doom in a Deadly Disco Dance-Off.

Thanks to Jeff Peterson for pointing this out to me, via the Unreality site.

JSNT Latest

There is a new Journal for the Study of the New Testament out, with abstracts available to all and full text to subscribers and subscribing institutions:

JSNT 32/4 (June 2010)

Stephan Witetschek
Going Hungry for a Purpose: On Gos. Thom. 69.2 and a Neglected Parallel in Origen

Harm W. Hollander
Seeing God ‘in a riddle’ or ‘face to face’: An Analysis of 1 Corinthians 13.12

Brian S. Rosner
Paul and the Law: What he Does not Say

Peter Head
Susannah Heschel’s The Aryan Jesus: A Response

Robert Morgan
Susannah Heschel’s Aryan Grundmann

More on Jesus of Nazareth (1956)

Back in 2007, I blogged about Jesus of Nazareth, a BBC Television production from 1956, produced by Joy Harington, now little known or remembered and very rarely seen. I promised back then to follow up on the post, and it looks like I never did. Well, I did subsequently buy the book of the film and never blogged it here. That's something I'll have to get to, perhaps with a cover pic., since there don't seem to be any on the net.

Now, Matt Page has More on Jesus of Nazareth (1956) over on his Bible Films Blog, with a link to a page from Whirligig, including pictures from the filming.

Bibledex Completed

Thanks to Brady Haran for letting me know that the Bibledex Project is now complete. You can watch all their New Testament related videos here in this player:



Or the all 66 books of the Bible are here:



Or you can simply go to the main Bibledex page and choose your video there.

Bibledex: Galatians

And finally, here is the Bibledex video on the Epistle to the Galatians, from the University of Nottingham's Theology and Religious Studies department:

Bibledex: 2 Timothy

Here is the Bibledex video on 2 Timothy, from the University of Nottingham's Department of Theology and Religious Studies:

Bibledex: Gospel of John

Here is the Bibledex video on the Gospel of John, from the University of Nottingham's Department of Theology and Religious Studies:

Bibledex: Colossians

Here's the Bibledex video on Colossians:

Bibledex: 2 Thessalonians

Also from Bibledex, 2 Thessalonians:

Bibledex: Revelation

The University of Nottingham's Bibledex has reached the end of its remarkable task to produce videos on every book of the Bible. Pace has really picked up recently and I have a few to post. Here's their entry on Revelation:

Dura-Europos Gospel Harmony Fragment Image Online

Thanks to David Parker for letting me know about this image of the Dura-Europos Gospel Harmony fragment now online, from Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Papyrus Collection:

Dura-Europos Gospel Harmony Fragment

I had some trouble opening the "zoom" file, the one that enables you to see the image in real detail, but found a solution. It is a SID file and requires a special plug-in so that it can be viewed. There is a useful walk-through here: Working with SID Files. It is well worth it to be able to study the fragment in all its glory. I wish we had had this available when we (David Parker, David Taylor and I) wrote our article on this fragment back in 1999.

Bibledex: Hebrews

Another of the new Bibledex videos is on the Epistle to the Hebrews:

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.