British New Testament Conference starts today

The British New Testament Conference starts today and is hosted this year by Liverpool Hope University. I will be going along and will take my blogging machine with me. I doubt that there will be any wireless or other internet access -- I've not known it thus far with any of the BNTC locations -- but you never know. But at some point, expect some reports. And I look forward to seeing some of you there.

New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

I had the pleasure of meeting Bill Warren and several of his students in Biblical Textual Criticism from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary at the Birmingham Colloquium in April. I have been wondering about them over the last few days given the devastation wrought by Hurrican Katrina. The seminary does have a Hurricane Katrina Update, which gives some idea of the extent of the devastation, as they attempt to set up temporary offices elsewhere, looking to locate members of the faculty. I hope all is well with them; they too are in our thoughts and prayers.

Update (1.11): more here: BREAKING NEWS: NOBTS president says 'damage unknown'; moves offices to Ga.

Update (Monday, 5 September, 13.58): Jim West has more on Biblical Theology. I also heard via my colleague David Parker that Bill Warren and his colleagues are all safe and well, though naturally their lives are in unpheaval.

D is for Danove

Thanks also to Ted Blakley for this one:

Paul Danove
Villanova University, Villanova, PA, U.S.A.

I've added it to Scholars: D but haven't had time to refresh that page overall.

T is for Thompson

Thanks to Ted Blakley for this one, now on Scholars: T

Marianne Meye Thompson
Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

There are extensive course materials available on a variety of subjects, especially the Gospels.

M is for McKnight

I've now refreshed the Scholars: M page on the NT Gateway, adding Scot McKnight's page, changing URLs to several others (usual complaint: none of them had set up automatic forwards), and deleting Bruce Malina's page, which has gone password-protected, and deleting David Mealand (gone) and David Mealand (gone).

Update (Thursday, 00.57): And thanks to Scot McKnight for his kind mention in his blog Jesus Creed.

Earlychurch.org.uk

For a while, I've had a link to Rob Bradshaw's Earlychurch.org.uk blog in my blogroll, alongside his BiblicalStudies.org.uk blog, both of which I enjoy following. I've now added a link also to the Earlychurch.org.uk site on my short Early Church and Patristics page, with thanks to Rob for the suggestion.

More scholars, C, especially Chesnutt

Some further NT Gateway Scholars updates. Scholars: C has been refreshed; I've deleted Larry Chouinard -- can't find him. I've added Severino Croatto, with thanks to Luis Durruty for the link. For those who read Spanish (I don't), there's lots there.

I've updated several URLs, and this always gives me a chance to see how the quiet open-source revolution on scholars' homepages is continuing. It's something I've often mentioned here, but it is exciting to see the extent to which scholarship is being made available to a wide audience through reproductions on scholars' homepages. The latest excellent contribution to this revolution is Randall Chesnutt who has the following of his articles available as PDFs on the site for all to view:

"Perceptions of Oil in Early Judaism and the Meal Formula in Joseph and Aseneth," Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, 14 (2005) 113-32.

"George Nickelsburg's Jewish Literature Between the Bible and the Mishnah: Retrospect and Prospect," in G. W. E. Nickelsburg in Perspective: An Ongoing Dialogue of Learning, Jacob Neusner and Alan J. Avery-Peck, eds., 2 vols., Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 80. Leiden: Brill, 2003. Vol. 2, pp. 343-56

"Covenant and Cosmos in Wisdom of Solomon 10-19," in The Concept of the Covenant in the Second Temple Period, eds. Stanley E. Porter and Jacqueline C. R. de Roo. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 71. Leiden: Brill, 2003. Pp. 223-49.

"From Text to Context: The Social Matrix of Joseph and Aseneth," in Society of Biblical Literature 1996 Seminar Papers, ed. K. H. Richards. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996. Pp. 285-302

"Jewish Women in the Greco-Roman Era," in Essays on Women in Earliest Christianity, vol. 1, ed. Carroll Osburn. Joplin, MO: College Press, 1993. Pp. 93-130

"Revelatory Experiences Attributed to Biblical Women in Early Jewish Literature," in 'Women Like This': New Perspectives on Jewish Women in the Greco-Roman World, ed. A.-J. Levine, Early Judaism and Its Literature 1. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1991. Pp. 107-25.

"The Social Setting and Purpose of Joseph and Aseneth," Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2 (1988) 21-48

Lots of material of interest there, and lots for me to add to my Aseneth Bibliography, which is in desperate need of a decent overhaul.

New homepage

My move away from Birmingham necessitates a move of my homepage, which has been located at http://theology.bham.ac.uk/goodacre in Birmingham for several years. I have moved all the content over to a new template I've adjusted from the NT Gateway templates, so you'll recognise the look. Please let me have any criticisms or suggestions (and no, I can't do anything about my grinning face, I am afraid):

Mark Goodacre's Homepage

While I have moved the content over, I have also done a bit of an update to the information contained. And its URL is, following the standard means of organising things here, http://NTGateway.com/goodacre.

ITSEE

ITSEE is the name of a new institute at the University of Birmingham, the Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing, created in May this year, the directors of which are my long time colleague David Parker and my new colleague Peter Robinson. It has a smart new website, including a news section, and it's well worth a visit:

Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing

Neville Birdsall

I have commented previously on the Times Obituary of Neville Birdsall written by my colleague David Parker. Thanks to Richard Birdsall for pointing out to me that there was also an obituary in The Independent:

Professor J. Neville Birdsall
Formidably erudite New Testament scholar

Unfortunately, the bulk of the article is subscription only.

See also this special page at the University of Birmingham's new ITSEE:

Professor J. Neville Birdsall

It features the eulogy delivered by David Parker at Neville Birdsall's funeral. And see too a brief Leeds University Obituary.

Jesus Creed Adjustment

I've belatedly got round to adjusting my blogroll -- Scot McKnight's Jesus Creed recently moved and I've made the adjustment to the new feed on my blogroll.

E is for Evans

On Primal Subversion, Sean du Toit draws attention to Craig Evans's powerpoint presentations and documents, which are well worth a visit (though Introduction to the Four Gospels is not working). He has an interesting one on Historical Jesus Quests, which, as it happens, illustrates one of Dale Allison's complaints in Secularizing Jesus (see previous post), that there was ever such a thing as a period of "no quest". Anyway, I checked my links and noticed that I had an outdated link to Craig Evans's homepage on my Scholars: E page, which I have no refreshed all through (though I failed to locate Claudio Ettl, so I've deleted that link).

Dale Allison's Resurrecting Jesus

I'll join with Loren Rosson on The Busybody in looking forward to Dale Allison's latest, Resurrecting Jesus:

I'm excited about this book, which is definitely the best study of the resurrection. (I know from proof-reading a part of it.) It steers between the poles of Wright and Ludemann, using the best of both worlds while eschewing dogmatism from either side. Dale makes a good case for historicity of the empty tomb, though differently than Wright, and with sanity by recognizing the variety of possibilities which could account for an empty tomb -- an actual resurrection being but one of them. Then too he dabbles into grief-induced visions, though again, better than Ludemann does, and with less dogmatic surety. Dale well understands that Jesus expected to suffer and die (probably expected some of his followers to die too) as a necessary prelude to the apocalypse. That apocalypse, about which our Galilean friend was obviously mistaken.

Continuum have a shed load of endorsements that echo Loren's opinion:

Resurrecting Jesus
The Earliest Christian Tradition and Its Interpreters

including comments from Jimmy Dunn, Scot McKnight, Gregory Sterling, Joel Marcus, Craig Evans, Daniel Harrington, Gregory Sterling, David Aune. From the look of the table of contents,

1. Secularizing Jesus
2. The Problem of Audience
3. The Problem of Gehenna
Excursus I: Percy Bysshe Shelley and the Historical Jesus
4. Apocalyptic, Polemic, Apologetics
5. Torah, Urzeit, Endzeit
6. Resurrecting Jesus
Excursus II: Joseph of Arimathea
Excursus III: The Disciples and Bereavement
Index of Scripture
Index of Modern Names

there are several pieces that have been floated prior to publication on the net, including chapters 2 and 3 on the Xtalk Allison Seminar in 2003 and chapter 1 on Allison's homepage, a brilliant piece entitled The Secularizing of the Historical Jesus (PDF).

Update (Wednesday, 19.10): On The Busybody Loren Rosson notes that the books is now available. I'm hoping that Continuum bring a batch with them to the BNTC tomorrow; it will be the first book I'm after. Meanwhile, on Jesus Creed, Scot McKnight speaks of getting Allison, Segal and Wright together (and in comments Rosson rightly adds Lüdeman) for a juicy debate on all of this. Great idea.

Apocryphal Jesus @ Rel Anc Med

I'll second Tyler Williams's endorsement of a series of excellent posts from Phil Harland on New Testament Apocrypha. So far:

1. The Cursing Infant Jesus
2. The Little Drummer Boy and Protevangelium of James
3. Jesus' Descent into Hell and Satan's Conversation with Hades
4. Peter (in the Pseudo-Clementines) on "false" passages in scripture
5. Acts of John: Be thou like the bed-bugs

Hurricane Katrina

Spare a thought or a prayer for biblioblogger Michael Homan who has not signed back in since Sunday and at that point sounded pretty concerned about Hurrican Katrina, The Die is Cast. Hope all's well, Michael.

Update (Tuesday, 01.21): as others have also commented, Michael Homan reports, "I survived Hurricane Katrina, but it transformed me. I am a different person . . . ."

Wright in Portuguese

You know you've made it when your work is translated into Portuguese; the latest addition to the N. T. Wright page offers a Portuguese translation of Paul in Different Perspectives (PDF).

Review of Biblical Literature latest

Latest from the SBL Review of Biblical Literature under the NT heading:

Koester, Craig R.
Symbolism in the Fourth Gospel: Meaning, Mystery, Community
Reviewed by Petrus Maritz

Koester, Helmut, ed.
Cities of Paul: Images and Interpretations from the Harvard New Testament and Archaeology Project
Reviewed by Warren Carter

Meyer, Marvin and Charles Hughes, eds.
Jesus Then and Now: Images of Jesus in History and Christology
Reviewed by Joel Williams

Riches, John and David C. Sim, eds.
The Gospel of Matthew in Its Roman Imperial Context
Reviewed by Donald Carson

Rossing, Barbara R.
The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation
Reviewed by David Mathewson

Eric Meyers on TV this week

If you are in North Carolina (wish I was), Eric Meyers will be on UNC public television this week:

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Jewish Heritage Foundation of NC in the spotlight on UNC-TV (www.jhfnc.org)

Don't miss seeing Dr. Eric Meyers in a fascinating conversation with William Friday on the North Carolina People program, airing on Friday, September 2, 2005 at 9:00 p.m. and Sunday, September 4, 2005 at 5:30 p.m. The origins of the Jewish Heritage Foundation of NC, the continuing influence of Rabbi Efraim Rosenzweig on our work, the Down Home project, and Dr. Meyers remarkable career as an archeologist and scholar are among the topics in this erudite and wide-ranging discussion.

The program will also air in all of the NC Channel slots during the week -- Monday, at 7:00 am, 8:30 am, and 12:30 p.m., Wednesday, at 8:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., 4:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. UNC-TV’s NC Channel is available to those with a digital tuner or digital cable with Time Warner.

If you miss the air times, the interview will also be available streaming on the Web for a month. Point your browser to:

http://www.unctv.org/ncpeople/watch_people.html
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Michael Thompson homepage

I've added Michael Thompson, Ridley Hall, Cambridge, UK, to the Scholars: T page. I've also refreshed all the links on that page, including James Tabor who is advertising a forthcoming new book called The Jesus Dynasty, due out next year.

Classes Start Today

My first class in my new job at Duke University, Dept of Religion starts today. It's Introduction to the New Testament and meets at 1.30 . . . . . except that I'm not there to teach it. I'm still in Birmingham awaiting the arrival of my visa. Everything else is pretty much in place. You might say that I am "virtually" there -- I have a faculty page and a working email address (goodacre@duke.edu), I've set up all my teaching on the Blackboard site which Duke uses. Incidentally, I've enjoyed using Blackboard for the first time. So far, pretty intuitive and straightforward.

So what's the plan? Dr Andrew Mbuvi is teaching my NT class until I arrive in person. We await more news from US immigration. I am still hopeful that we will be able to move within the next two to three weeks, but it is impossible to say more until we hear more. In the mean time, one bonus of still being here is that I will take a last visit to the British New Testament Conference at the end of this week. I look forward to seeing some of you there.

Update (Tuesday, 1.16): Not long after writing the above post, I heard from Duke International Office that that my H1-B visa has been approved; now I await an appointment at the US consulate in London.