Invigilation Blues

It's examinations time in the U.K. and no doubt some readers will be wondering how they are going to cope with the three-hour stint of invigilation. I had missed this earlier this week, but I caught a mention of this news item on Have I Got News for You? on BBC1 and so looked it up. Here it is in BBC News On-line:

Teachers reveal exam hall games
Teachers have revealed some of the tricks they use to avoid boredom during exams - including pencil-sharpener races and spotting the ugliest pupil in the hall.

I am lucky this year and haven't had to do any invigilation. (The usual arrangement here is that most members of academic staff will do at least one stint of invigilation each summer). I usually cope with it by making sure I have an idea to work on during the three hours, something that actually requires some sustained, uninterrupted thinking. I remember once planning a book while invigilating; another time I chewed over an element in the Synoptic Problem until I'd cracked it to my satisfaction. It serves as a useful reminder to me that sometimes too much reading and writing can obscure some free thinking.

Tom Wright does Face to Faith

In today's (now yesterday's) Guardian, Tom Wright does a Face to Faith for Pentecost:

The spirit of the age
Tom Wright

Historical Jesus: Courses

I've updated my Historical Jesus: Courses page -- deleted Terry Paige's "Life of Christ" course because it is no longer available and changed the URL for Santiago Guijarro's El Jesús Histórico. The page is looking a bit sparce these days. Perhaps everyone is using e-learning environments like WebCT within their university and college settings these days.

Craig Evans

Craig Evans has added a couple of items of interest to his homepage:

Da Vinci and the Code Breakers

Brown’s curious theories of Gospel sources and what he thinks is the true story of the historical Jesus find no support in sober scholarship—whether Protestant, Catholic, liberal, or conservative. Instead, what Brown gives us is a fascinating amalgam of legend, unsupported theories, and egregious inaccuracies when it comes to his most important documents. He would have us believe that the true story of Jesus is preserved in Gnostic Gospels and the symbols and metaphors of the Priory of Sion, the Masons, the Knights Templar, and other groups of Medieval origin.

Dateline special report: The last days of Jesus
Scholars explore history behind famous story
By Stone Phillips

This report features interviews with Craig Evans, Paula Fredriksen, Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan and Tom Wright. The piece concludes with some reflections on these interviews by Stone Phillips and some of Craig Evans's reflections about the process.

Church Times article on The Passion

This week's Church Times also reports on the Emma award for The Passion of the Christ:

Gibson’s Passion is a box-office winner
by Bill Bowder

The article explains that the film has not been such a hit in the U.K. and was out-grossed by Scooby-Doo 2.

And for some summary of some Muslim reactions to The Passion of the Christ, see this article in Christianity Today:

Fascinated with The Passion
Gibson film draws big Muslim crowds.
By Deann Alford

David Aune homepage

On my Index of Scholars: A page, I've added the following new homepage:

David E. Aune

It has a full list of publications, some course outlines and some pages on Near Eastern Archaeological Sites, pictures and descriptions of archaeological sites Gamla, Chorazin, Sinai and Qasrin. It looks like there is more to come.

Simple Parallel Bible

On Bible Software Review Weblog, Rubén Gómez points to this excellent site:

Simple Parallel Bible

This is one that I can't adequately explain all the advantages of -- just go and play with it. This is how the site advertises itself:

The Simple Parallel Bible is a search and lookup tool that can be freely added to any PHP/MySQL website. It lets you link to multiple passages, in parallel (for side-by-side comparison) or in a list, all with a single link and without leaving your own site.

This is a versatile and very useful tool and, like many of the best on-line tools, its beauty is its simplicity. There is no question about what catches my interest -- its ability to create user-defined Synopses of the Gospels. The site itself illustrates this function, though it does not use the word "Synopsis", with this example:

Rich Young Ruler

Rubén Gómez illustrates it with this example:

Parable of the Salt

The point here is not just that there is a nice simple Gospel Synopsis in English available here. For that, you can do no better than John Marshall's Five Gospels Parallels. Rather,it is that the user can define what passages s/he wishes to view. Let us say that I want to look at the Temptations together, I type matt 4.1-11|mark 1.12-13|luke 4.1-13 into their search box and get this:

Temptations of Jesus

Or without even going to their search box, I can just write in URLs in this format: http://jesus.com.au/demo/bible/index.php?q=matt+4.1-11|mark+1.12-13|luke+4.1-13, substituting, of course, the passages I wanted to see together. Now the Temptation narrative is a pretty usual parallel to view and you can view it this way in all the Synopses. So let us say that I wanted to do something more unusual and to view Matt. 12.46-50 // Mark 3.31-35 // Luke 8.19-21 (Jesus' Mother and Brothers) alongside Luke 11.27-28 (Women in Crowd), I simply type in matt 12.46-50|mark 3.31-35|luke 8.19-21|luke 11.27-28, or I write http://jesus.com.au/demo/bible/index.php?q=matt+12.46-50|mark+3.31-35|luke+8.19-21|luke+11.27-28 and I get my parallel thus:

Matt. 12.46-50 // Mark 3.31-35 // Luke 8.19-21 and Luke 11.27-28

Now all that needs doing is to introduce the same techniques with the Greek NT and we will have something even more useful.

What a useful resource; this is just a taster. More on this anon.

Youngquist, Matthew and Q

The following Claremont doctoral dissertation is available at UMI (with thanks to Jacob Knee for drawing my attention to this):

Linden Eric Youngquist (PhD, Claremont Graduate University, 2003; 352 pages; adviser: James M. Robinson):

Matthew and Q

Gospels scholars have suggested in various ways that the author responsible for Q was also responsible for Matthew. This insight is interesting because, while it is fundamental to the two-source hypothesis that Mark and Q are combined in Matthew because the author had some affinity to both documents, it is assumed that the Gospel is an expansion of Mark. Such an approach is helpful in explaining the final shape of Matthew, which, from chapter 12 on, at least, follows Mark's storyline. On the other hand, this perspective struggles with the anomaly that Matthew rearranges Mark freely in Matt 3-11. The possibility that Matthew's is an expansion of Q suggests that, from a literary perspective, Mark may have been adapted to Q's concerns, which may explain better Matthew's use of Mark. The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of the relationship between Matthew and Q. The first chapter reviews how the Matthew/Q connection has been understood. The thesis adopted is that Matthew is better understood as a literary expansion of Q, rather than as a second edition of Mark. Chapter two considers Matt 3–11 as an adaptation of the opening sections of Q, whose purpose is to reiterate Q's original missionary practices, which Matthew still considered valid. Chapter three analyzes Matt 12-28 and shows that Matthew adopted Mark's story to depict narratively the conflict between Jesus and Israel's leaders implied in many of Q's sayings. By incorporating Q into Mark's narrative about Jesus' death and resurrection, Matthew moved beyond Q's view that Jesus' mission was limited to Israel, and offered the prospect of a world-wide mission led by Jesus' disciples instead of the Pharisees. The impetus for this change was the Jewish war and the emergence of the Pharisees as the leaders of Judaism in its aftermath. That is, Matthew rewrote Q using Mark in order to preserve Q's message and, at the same time, to direct the community to a mission that included the world.

E-Search the Scriptures

Ken Ristau has a useful article in Faith Today May / June 2004:

E-Search the Scriptures
Online resources and Bible software bring a scholar’s library into any home or office
Ken Ristau

The article mentions several on-line resources like iTanakh.org, the OTGateway and my NTGateway (thanks). It then goes on to review the various pieces of commercial Bible Software available and is particularly enthusiastic about Accordance.

Just recently I have started reading Ken Ristau's blog:

anduril.ca

I first came across this new blog in Bible Software Review. Note that the most recent entry is on the new Accordance web site.

Open Source Scholarship

On Sansblogue, Tim Bulkeley reflects on the question of Open Source Scholarship, prompted by an interesting post in Deinde, Why is Open Source Scholarship So Threatening?. This is not something I have done a lot of thinking about, but Tim's inclination is roughly where I am on this:

On the whole my own inclination is to agree with the suggestion that scholars ought naturally to be inclined towards an open source model. However, one must then work out how to ensure that the activity remains scholarly. David Clines several years ago addressed some of these issues in his article "Publishers: Who Needs Them?".

I think the question that is asked in Deinde (see above) is probably not the right one. Open source scholarship is not so much "threatening" or "frightening" as it is worrying. The concerns that are expressed are concerns about quality. They think that many might ultimately make do with second-rate scholarship and that this will result in a depression of standards. It may be, however, that the concern is ill-founded. What is genuinely interesting about the open-source model, which is in any case borrowed from computer programming, is that it may have the potential to produce quality scholarship but by a different route. The process of getting to that quality product is different from what we are used to in peer-reviewed books and articles. But perhaps some of these projects will succeed in that communities of intelligent and well-informed contributors can hone the products until something of real value to the academic community is produced.

I wonder whether the concerns about quality can be addressed straightforwardly in given projects by the publication of the names of recognised consultants. This is something I have suggested before, for example in relation to the Open Scrolls Project. A consultative committee can not only provide guidance as the given project progresses, but also acts as a signal to others that the project should be taken seriously, so that it markets the potential quality of the product.

One interesting model here is the OpenText.org. Those who have attended the CARG sessions at the SBL Annual Meeting will have heard reports on this. They used to have a pretty useful web site with lots of examples of their project, appeals for help and so on. But at the moment it just has a holding page of a couple of "under construction" paragraphs. I hope that that doesn't show that open source scholarship like this is a struggle because it is a very interesting project.

Medieval Institute Commentary Series

Further to my posts on The Church's Bible and the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Larry Swain draws my attention to a series of commentaries translated and published by Medieval Institute Publications:

Medieval Institute Publications Commentary Series

Guardian's UK University Tables

This may be of interest to some in the U.K.: The Guardian has today published its university guide for 2004:

2004 University Guides

The tables produced relate to teaching quality only and do not take research into account; they are explained as follows:

The tables, which assess quality of teaching, are meant as a guide for undergraduates choosing full-time degrees at universities and higher education colleges and do not include any research data. Our tables have been compiled by Campus*, a department of Brunel university.

The table for Theology and Religious Studies is available from the following URL:

Theology and Religious Studies

While Cambridge comes out top overall, Oxford pips them to the post for Theology and Religious Studies.

Passion wins Emma award

Thanks to Helenann Hartley for sending this over. It is from BBC News on-line:

Passion wins Emma media awards

Biblical epic The Passion of the Christ has been honoured at the at the 2004 Ethnic Multicultural Awards.

Mel Gibson's movie was named best film at the media awards - known as the Emmas - on Monday evening.

Romanian actress Maia Morgenstern won the award for best film actress for her portrayal of Mary, mother of Jesus.

SBL Review of Biblical Literature

The lastest from the SBL Review of Biblical Literature:

Black, Stephanie L.
Sentence Conjunctions in the Gospel of Matthew: καί, δέ, τότε, γάρ, ουν and Asyndeton in Narrative Discourse
Reviewed by Daniel Gurtner

Carson, D. A.
New Testament Commentary Survey, Fifth Edition
Reviewed by Steve Patton

Fee, Gordon D.
To What End Exegesis?: Essays Textual, Exegetical, and Theological
Reviewed by Mark D. Given

Goodacre, Mark
The Synoptic Problem: A Way through the Maze
Reviewed by Mark A. Matson

Jeremias, Joachim
Jesus and the Message of the New Testament
Reviewed by Scott Kulla

Kim, Seyoon
Paul and the New Perspective: Second Thoughts on the Origin of Paul's Gospel
Reviewed by Mark Reasoner

Köstenberger, Andreas J.
Studies on John and Gender: A Decade of Scholarship
Reviewed by Judith Hartenstein

Kroeger, Catherine Clark and Mary J. Evans, eds.
The IVP Women's Bible Commentary
Reviewed by K. Jo Ann Badley

Rollston, Christopher A., ed.
The Gospels according to Michael Goulder: A North American Response
Reviewed by Peter Carrell

Scott, Bernard Brandon
Re-imagine the World: An Introduction to the Parables of Jesus
Reviewed by Dennis C. Stoutenburg

Walter, Matthias
Gemeinde als Leib Christi: Untersuchungen zum Corpus Paulinum und zu den "Apostolischen Vätern"
Reviewed by Tobias Nicklas

Whealey, Alice
Josephus on Jesus: The Testimonium Flavianum Controversy from Late Antiquity to Modern Times
Reviewed by Dennis C. Stoutenburg

King, Karen L.
What is Gnosticism?
Reviewed by Marvin Meyer

The Church's Bible

I referred on Friday to the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series published by IVP. Jeff Peterson draws my attention to a similar series underway at Eerdmans under the general editorship of Robert Wilkens. The title is The Church's Bible and there is one volume available so far, on Song of Songs by Richard A. Norris, Jr. The Eerdmans web site does not even begin to rival the IVP one on the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, but there is some information available here:

The Church's Bible

Taking another look at Paul

Thanks to Mark Nanos for sending over this interesting article from the Kansas City Star

Taking another look at Paul
Researchers are clearing apostle's name of anti-Semitism associations
By BILL TAMMEUS

The article features quotations from John Gager, Lloyd Gaston and Mark Nanos and is surprisingly helpful for a journalistic piece. Good for Tammeus and the Kansas City Star. Anyone who makes an effort to communicate the results of recent New Testament scholarship in a reasonable and balanced way gets the thumbs up here.

"The dismal picture of Judaism in Christian history is drawn largely from a misreading of Paul's own letters," Gager says. "This anti-Jewish Paul has played an enormous role in the history of Christian dogma and practice." . . . .

. . . . "Eventually," Nanos says, "I hope that engaging each of the flashpoints that have been taken to demonstrate Paul against (Jewish) identity and behavior (will) show quite the opposite."

It will be important, he says, for Christians to understand that Paul's "struggle with his fellow Jews was engaged in from within Judaism, not from outside (and) not against … Jewish people who did not agree with him, but on their behalf."

There's another piece on Paul the same day (last Saturday) referenced by Bible and Interpretation. It appears in Roanoke.com:

Scholars defend St. Paul
Two new books consider the case against the apostle, often faulted for his views on slavery and women.
By Richard N. Ostling

No interviews here, but a mention of Tom Wright and then a summary of some of the views of Ben Witherington III.

Deinde's Biblical Studies Search

On Sansblogue, Tim Bulkeley draws attention to a useful feature on the Deinde site:

Biblical Studies Search

The search engine works by searching an indexed database of selected sites. There are around 80 sites which are currently indexed by the crawler, all of these sites are related to biblical studies and are made up of an array of online papers, informational pages, news and blogs. Originally we set the crawler to follow all links on the sites up to a certain depth, however as can be imagined this quickly got out of control with many sites indexed that were not related to biblical studies. The crawler is now set to only crawl within the domain it begins in. While this does result in clean and controlled results it also means that pages which are linked to an outside domain do not show up.

This looks like a very useful resource. A similar useful resource to which I've drawn attention before is Teologiportalen but the advantage of Deinde's search is that it provides results specially honed for Biblical scholars and students.

Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture

I've just been surfing around the InterVarsity Press web site and came across a large section of it devoted to this series:

Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture

The project is described in the following way:

The Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture does what very few of today's students of the Bible could do for themselves. With the aid of computer technology, the vast array of writings from the church fathers--including much that is available only in the ancient languages--have been combed for their comment on Scripture. From these results, scholars with a deep knowledge of the fathers and a heart for the church have hand-selected material for each volume, shaping, annotating and introducing it to today's readers. Each portion of commentary has been chosen for its salient insight, its rhetorical power and its faithful representation of the consensual exegesis of the early church.

You can read more about the project on the site; it is now about three-quarters complete and most of the NT volumes are out. It is a very useful site and a good example to other publishers on how to catch an academic's interest. There are not only full details of each of the volumes but also lots of excerpts from them, for example these PDFs:

Christopher A. Hall and Thomas C. Oden, Introduction to Mark

Arthur Just, Introduction to Luke

For the full list of what is available, go to the Volumes and Editors page and then click on individual titles to read the excerpts, which always include the introductions and some sample commentary. Also on the site is a nice list of useful web sites:

Links to Related Web sites

Association Internationale Bible et Informatique, Leuven

Tim Bulkeley emails to mention that he is trying to get together a 60-90 minute slot with 15 minite presentations and panel discussion around the theme "e-gesis: the impact of computer mediated communication on biblical interpretation" for the forthcoming Association Internationale Bible et Informatique conference in Leuven, 23-24 July. The call for papers is available here:

Association Internationale Bible et Informatique
AIBI-7 CALL For PAPERS 2004, 23-24 juillet 2004, K.u.Leuven (Belgique)

Tim mentions this in Sansblogue here:

Studying the Bible in an Electronic World

In the Footsteps of Saint Paul, Edward Stourton

Two years ago I was lucky to be consultant on an excellent BBC Radio 4 series called In the Footsteps of Saint Paul, produced by Phil Pegum and presented by Edward Stourton. British readers will know Ed Stourton from BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Stourton has now produced his own book based on the series and it is reviewed in this week's Tablet by Karen Armstrong:

Sympathy for a maligned disciple
In the Footsteps of Saint Paul
Edward Stourton
Hodder & Stoughton, £16.99

I myself made this journey some 20 years ago, at the very beginning of my own career as a writer and religious historian. When I was invited to make this television series by Channel 4, I was still sceptical about faith and hostile to religion. This, I thought, was my chance to tell St Paul exactly what I thought of him: it was he who had transformed the loving message of the gospels into a hard, authoritarian dogma, and had in the process bequeathed to the Christian Churches some of their worst failings, such as anti-Semitism, misogyny, and a preoccupation with complex doctrine.

Instead, in the course of my journey, I found that I had to revise these prejudiced opinions and discovered, much to my surprise, that by the end of the trip I felt very close to Paul. Stourton seems to have had a similar experience. This is not a scholarly book. Stourton recoils in mock horror from the crowded bookshelves that are positively groaning under the weight of heavy tomes on New Testament scholarship. It is a pity that he did not take the time to read a few of them. Biblical criticism need not be a dry-as-dust discipline; it can lead to intellectual illumination and new spiritual insight. Stourton, however, has relied on the works of a couple of doughty Victorian clergymen, some travelogues and a few modern scholars. Nevertheless this is a genial, attractive and highly readable introduction to the life and times of Paul and will dispel some of the common misapprehensions about his contribution to Christian history.

It is good to see Armstrong not only endorsing Stourton's refusal to engage in Paul-bashing but also speaking well of the value of reading some New Testament scholarship. Armstrong herself reads widely and so is not to be faulted for herself not being bang up to date on that scholarship when she writes later in the review:

Paul did not see Jesus as a divine figure, and neither did the other New Testament writers, with the possible exception of St John. St Luke, who is the evangelist whose theology is closest to Paul’s, simply calls Jesus a prophet, even after the Resurrection. There is usually a clear distinction in the texts between Jesus, the Kyrios Christos, and God himself.

In the light of Bauckham, Wright and now most prominently Larry Hurtado, this may well need rethinking.