Jesus as Dennis the Menace in the Infancy Gospel

In a recent post on the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, I mentioned John Dominic Crossan's comparison of the child Jesus in the Infancy Gospel with Dennis the Menace.  When I heard him say "Dennis the Menace", I instantly thought of the character pictured above on the left, Dennis the Menace from the British comic The Beano.  It occurred to me later that since this was an American programme, Banned from the Bible, broadcast on the History Channel, he was perhaps referring to the character pictured in the middle above, the American Dennis the Menace, who is almost exactly the same age as his British namesake, both first published in March 1951.

But which one was John Dominic Crossan referring to?  Both of them are mischievous young boys, but my ignorance of the American version makes it difficult for me to compare and contrast.  The British Dennis is undoubtedly a "brat", but which would Crossan have known?  His time spent in both Ireland and America will have given him exposure to both versions, but I'd guess it's the American one he will have known best, perhaps especially if he has children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews over here.

New Testament Scholarship Worldwide on Facebook

Johnson Thomaskutty has set up a new group headed New Testament Scholarship Worldwide on Facebook. He writes:

This group is exclusively a scholarly, theological, exegetical, hermeneutical, reflective, and open-minded one by combining both the past and present New Testament scholarship worldwide.

It's an open, public group and there are already 407 members.

Typo in Elliott's Apocryphal New Testament, on Infancy Gospel of Thomas?

There is a cross-reference in J. K. Elliott, The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993): 78 that I think may be in error. The passage is Infancy Gospel of Thomas 12.1-2:

Again, in the time of sowing the child went out with his father to sow corn in their field. And as his father sowed, the child Jesus also sowed one grain of corn. 2. And when he had reaped it and threshed it, he brought in a hundred measures, * and he called all the poor of the village to the threshing-floor and gave them the corn, and Joseph took the residue. He was eight years old when he performed this sign.

At the point marked here by the *, there is a footnote referencing Luke 16.7. Luke 16.7 reads, "Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’" That is clearly not right. I think the intended reference must be Luke 8.8, "Some [seed] fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.”

Update (Saturday, 13.25): In comments, Andrew Criddle notes that the word κόρος occurs both in Luke 16.7 (ἑκατὸν κόρους σίτου) and in Tischendorf's Greek A recension of the Infancy Gospel. Moreover, κόρος is a hapax in the New Testament. That is clearly the point of the cross-reference in Elliott, so I withdraw my suggestion that it is a typo, even if it is a strange choice of cross-reference given the clearer content parallels with the Synoptics here and elsewhere that are not marked. Incidentally, a look at Tony Burke's Critical Edition of the text shows some interesting variation in the Greek witnesses at this point, κόρους ρ in his Gs, μέδιμνους ρ in his Ga and μόδια ἑκατόν in his Gc (Burke, 192-3).

Infancy Gospel of Thomas on Youtube

We are into the second week of a junior / senior seminar on the Non-canonical Gospels here at Duke. It's the first time I have taught a course like this at the undergraduate level and it is already proving really stimulating. We took as our first text the Protevangelium of James and we are now moving on to the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. It gives me the opportunity to share one of my favourite Youtube clips, an animated version of Infancy Thomas 9:



There is another short video of interest on Youtube that relates to the Infancy Gospel. It is about four minutes long and is clearly a clip from a longer documentary. From the look of it, it is an American (Discovery Channel? History Channel?) piece surveying non-canonical Gospels. Of particular interest in this clip are the comments from John Dominic Crossan, who is as engaging as ever. He comments on Jesus as a "divine brat" in the text, "Dennis the Menace as god", but adds that Jesus learns ultimately that "The function of great power and great wisdom is to do good":



Update (Friday, 9.55): In comments, Tony Burke mentions that the clip above is from Banned from the Bible (History Channel, 2003).

New Testament Studies latest

The latest NTS is out:
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NEW TESTAMENT STUDIES
Volume 56 - Issue 04 - October 2010

PDF version of this Table of Contents

Articles

The Eagle and the Dove: Roman Imperial Sonship and the Baptism of Jesus (Mark 1.9-11)
Michael Peppard
New Testament Studies, Volume 56, Issue 04, October 2010, pp 431 - 451
doi:10.1017/S0028688510000159

Die markinischen Summarien—ein literarischer und theologischer Schlüssel zu Mark 1–6
Eve-Marie Becker
New Testament Studies, Volume 56, Issue 04, October 2010, pp 452 - 474
doi:10.1017/S0028688510000093

Lilies Do Not Spin: A Challenge to Female Social Norms
Lee A. Johnson, Robert C. Tannehill
New Testament Studies, Volume 56, Issue 04, October 2010, pp 475 - 490
doi:10.1017/S0028688510000135

Abraham geschworen – uns gegeben. Syntax und Sinn im Benediktus (Lukas 1.68–79)
Friedrich Gustav Lang
New Testament Studies, Volume 56, Issue 04, October 2010, pp 491 - 512
doi:10.1017/S0028688510000147

‘Some were saying, “He is good”’ (John 7.12b): ‘Good’ Christology in John's Gospel?
Jane Heath
New Testament Studies, Volume 56, Issue 04, October 2010, pp 513 - 535
doi:10.1017/S0028688510000111

Mutual Brokers of Grace: A Study in 2 Corinthians 1.3-11
David Briones
New Testament Studies, Volume 56, Issue 04, October 2010, pp 536 - 556
doi:10.1017/S002868851000010X

The Son's Entrance into the Heavenly World: The Soteriological Necessity of the Scriptural Catena in Hebrews 1.5-14
Joshua W. Jipp
New Testament Studies, Volume 56, Issue 04, October 2010, pp 557 - 575
doi:10.1017/S0028688510000123

Short Study

Keine Quästoren in Korinth: Zu Goodrichs (und Theißens) These über das Amt des Erastos (Röm 16.23)
Alexander Weiss
New Testament Studies, Volume 56, Issue 04, October 2010, pp 576 - 581
doi:10.1017/S0028688510000160

Abstracts available for all at New Testament Studies, and electronic access to subscribers.

McAfee Symposium on the Johannine Epistles

This is from Tom Thatcher -- news of a symposium on the Johannine Epistles to take place beginning a couple of days before this year's SBL Annual Meeting:

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McAfee Symposium on the Johannine Epistles

The 2010 Peter Rhea and Ellen Jones
Lectures in New Testament
McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University
Atlanta, Georgia

November 17-19, 2010
Registration: $150 payable to McAfee School of Theology
Location: Atlanta Academic and Conference Center, 2930 Flowers Road, Atlanta, GA 30341


The Symposium will feature major presentations by:

D. Moody Smith, Jr
Judith Lieu
Jan G. van der Watt
Urban C. (Cam) von Wahlde

and short papers by:

Paul Anderson
R. Alan Culpepper
Peter Rhea Jones
Craig Koester
Andreas Kostenberger
William Loader
Gail R. O’Day
David Rensberger
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More details here: McAfee Symposium on the Johannine Epistles

Nathan Eubank, "A Disconcerting Prayer"

The best thing about Duke is the quality of its students.  Nathan Eubank, from our Graduate Program in Religion, has an article in the latest JBL,

A Disconcerting Prayer: On the Originality of Luke 23:34a, JBL 129/3 (2010): 521–536
Nathan Eubank

The online access is only available for SBL subscribers and for institutions with subscriptions to the JBL.

British New Testament Conference 2010

This year's British New Testament Conference began yesterday in Bangor. I have had to miss the BNTC for the last five years since I moved to the US and it always feels a bit odd not to be there. I was heavily involved with the organisation for several years, as the secretary and treasurer of the society, and I regret that I had only one chance (2005) to go along as a punter before moving away. Knowing that several bloggers are present, I am looking forward to hearing some reports. Jim Davila is a stalwart of the conference and will no doubt have reports for us; the new Sheffield Biblical Studies blog is already blogging on the ground, though without specific attribution (after the initial post from James Crossley); and Helen Bond mentions the conference on the new Centre for the Study of Christian Origins blog.

Microphone Problem Causing NT Pod Delay

If you are wondering what has happened to the NT Pod recently, I have been unable to record because my Snowball has gone on the blink. Recordings have a high-pitch noise. So I am moving over, for the time being at least, to recording in Duke's gret facilities. As it happens, these facilities are so good that I may continue to use these even after I have sorted out my microphone problem. So there should at least be a new episode next week, once I have worked out all the finer points of using the Duke facilities.

Sage Journals Free for Six Weeks

Brian LePort points out that Sage Journals are offering free online access to their journals for the next six weeks or so.  Details here:

Free Online Access to SAGE must-have content from 1999-current until October 15, 2010

Bear in mind that in our area that includes journals like the Journal for the Study of the New Testament and Expository Times.

NT Blog Seven Years Old Today!

Happy birthday to me, seven years old today. The first post on this blog was on 2 September 2003, Welcome to the NT Gateway Weblog where I wrote that

I've been inspired to set this up by Jim Davila's fine Palaeojudaica weblog at http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/, not least because of a comment he made in that recently that it would be helpful to have more people doing the same kind of thing. I've very much enjoyed reading his blog over the last few months and while I doubt I will be able to do as good a job as he, I am nevertheless encouraged to try something similar myself.

Well, Jim's still at it, I'm still at it, and now there are lots more people too, as well as many others who have come and gone.

For the first five and a half years of this blog, I was blogging under the NT Gateway banner, but now, as I hope you know, that has a blog of its own where I post along with Holger Szesnat, mainly on new internet items of interest that appear on the site.   So this is the first full year of the morphed NT Blog and I continue to work on my NT Pod too, a podcast that now has forty episodes and is just over a year old.

Thanks for the continued encouragement and support for these seven years.  Here's to the next seven!

Teaching the Bible e-pub latest

The Teaching the Bible epub from the SBL is back after its summer break:

Teaching the Bible, September 2010

It includes an article by Jeff Staley on The Crucifixion of Jesus in Films and in the Gospels which looks well worth a read. Thanks to Jim Dvorak for pointing out that article to me.

Biblical Studies Carnival, and Other Blog News

For the second month running, Jim West has done an excellent job of producing a Biblical Studies Carnival, rounding up all sorts of interesting posts on Biblical Studies and related areas from all over the blogosphere:

August 2010 Biblical Studies Carnival

I am proud to say that I actually remembered and got round to nominating several posts this time around.

Meanwhile, several have the good news that the University of Sheffield Biblical Studies Department has a new blog.

For those interested in who has the most popular Biblical Studies related blogs at the moment, Free Old Testament Audio Website Blog has the latest.

And while we are on the subject, I was disappointed to notice recently that the Biblioblogs.com website had gone down. It looks like the domain name was not renewed, and the content has all gone, at least for now, which is a shame.

A couple of other Greek Alphabet Songs

Speaking of Greek Alphabet songs, don't forget Danny Zacharias's catchy number:



There is an industry going on Greek alphabet songs over on Youtube, and this is one of the best:

Greek Alphabet Song

Beginning your Greek classes this week?  Here's a nice help in learning the Greek alphabet, "with apologies to Kanye".  Thanks to Andy Rowell for the link, over on Justin Taylor's blog, and by a student from Southeastern Seminary called Micahel (sp?) Graening:

Learning the Greek Alphabet can be heartless

Thirty-nine lashes still being given as a punishment

I have been thinking about a podcast on 2 Cor. 11.24, "Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes less one"; it is an interesting verse and Anthony Harvey has a good article on it. I am also planning to talk about this a bit in one of my classes on the Life and Letters of Paul starting next week. I did not expect to see in the Jerusalem Post (via Antonio Lombatti) that this week the same punishment would be doled out, "'Sinner' singer given thirty-nine lashes by rabbis".  According to the report, the punishment was for performing in front of a "mixed audience".

Why studying Theology and Religion matters

In the face of Worries for UK Theology and Religion departments, Helen Ingram has an excellent shout out, 101 Reasons to Study Theology and Religion: The Call for Comments. Helen herself is a University of Birmingham BA in Theology and PhD in New Testament studies and she speaks with authority as well as humour. I think she is right that university leadership often thinks of Theology and Religion as "soft touch" and I would add that this is often born out of ignorance. It's important for those of us working and studying in the sector to let the powers know what we do and why it's worthwhile.

Frank Kermode: The Independent Obituary

Tomorrow's Independent has its obituary of Frank Kermode:

Sir Frank Kermode: Academic and pre-eminent literary critic who reached out to a non-specialist audience
By Paul Levy

NT Pod 38: Who is the Beloved Disciple in John's Gospel?

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 38 asks "Who is the Beloved Disciple in John's Gospel?"

You can listen to the NT Pod online or subscribe in your preferred reader or subscribe via iTunes. Or, of course, you can follow the NT Pod on Twitter or on the NT Pod Facebook page.

Frank Kermode: New York Times Obituary, Washington Post Obituary

The New York Times has its obituary of Frank Kermode here:

Frank Kermode, 90, a Critic Who Wrote With Style, Is Dead
By Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

It adds a series of Excerpts from Frank Kermode's Writing.

HT: James Tabor on Facebook.

And the Washington Post has its obituary here:

British literary critic Frank Kermode dies at age 90
By T. Rees Shapiro