A link a day

Today's new link continues the Simon Gathercole theme. On the Gospel and Acts: Books and Articles page:

UP: Simon Gathercole, 'The Justification of Wisdom (Mt. 11.19b/Lk 7.35)', New Testament Studies, 49 (2003): 476-488.

DOWN: Michael Lattke, “The Call to Discipleship and Proselytizing”, Harvard Theological Review 92 (1999): 359-62

DOWN: Jerome Murphy O'Connor, “Triumph Over Temptation”, Bible Review August 1999

CORRECTED: Dodd and Heard

James Tabor on Sunday

James Tabor appeared on Radio 4's Sunday programme this morning, interviewed by Roger Bolton about his new book The Jesus Dynasty:

Sunday

The interview begins about 12 minutes in to the programme and lasts about 6 minutes.

A link a day

This should have gone up last night, but for some reason I couldn't communicate with the NTGateway server over in the London docklands; perhaps they were busy watching the fantastic new series of Doctor Who on BBC1, or were celebrating with Chelsea's crowning as Premiership champions. Anyway, it's back on-line again now and here's yesterday's new link. It continues the Aberdeen theme, and is also on the Paul: Books and Articles page:

Simon Gathercole, “After the New Perspective: Works, Justification and Boasting in Early Judaism and Romans 1-5”, Tyndale Bulletin 52.2 (2001): 303-306

A link a day

Today's new link is on the Paul: Books and Articles page:

Francis Watson, “The Authority of the Voice: A Theological Reading of 1 Cor. 11.2-16”, New Testament Studies 46 (2000): 520-36

Where's my index page gone?

For some reason, blogger has published a blank index page for the site, so I am republishing and testing with this post.

Update (15.33): good; we are back on track.

A link a day

Once again I have to rely on a technicality -- although it's Friday, it's before I've gone to bed on Thursday, so this counts as Thursday's new link. Today it is on the Luke-Acts: Books and Articles page:

UP: Brian Capper, “Reciprocity and the Ethics of Acts” in I.Howard Marshall and David Peterson (eds.), Witness to the Gospel. The Theology of Acts, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdmans, 1998): 499-518; reproduced on Brian Capper's web site

CORRECTED: István Czachesz, Apostolic Commission Narratives in the Canonical and Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles

A link a day

Today's new link is on the Gospel of Mark: Articles page and is taken from John S. Kloppenborg's homepage:

UP: John S. Kloppenborg, “Self-Help or Deus ex Machina in Mark 12.9”, New Testament Studies 50 (2004): 495-518

CORRECTED: Craig A. Evans, “Mark's Incipit and the Priene Calendar Inscription: From Jewish Gospel to Greco-Roman Gospel”, Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism 1 (2000): 67-81

The latter, which was on the Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism website is now available on Craig Evans's website.

Steve Moyise's web materials

I've updated the URL to Steve Moyise's web page on Scholars: M, but there is no sign anywhere of all of the full text articles he had available. I've written to Steve to find out if they are hidden somewhere, or if there might be plans to bring them back soon.

A link a day

Today's new link is on the Canon page:

UP: H. J. de Jonge, “The Canons of the New Testament”, in J.-M. Auwers & H.J. de Jonge (eds.), The Biblical Canons (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 163; Leuven: University Press & Peeters, 2003): xxii-xxxii.

AND: Robert M. Grant, “What the New Testament Consists Of -- The Canon”, Chapter 1 in A Historical Introduction to the New Testament (New York: Harper & Row, 1963)

CORRECTED: Richard Heard, “How the Books of the New Testament Were Selected”, Chapter 2 in An Introduction to the New Testament (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1950).

I am grateful to Holger Szesnat for the Henk de Jonge link, one of several available here:

The Digital Repository of Leiden University

We will be visiting that again.

More Americanization of Emily

I have another post over on The Americanization of Emily -- this is becoming something of a habit. It's a supplementary post in my series on managing without British TV and radio in the USA:

How to cope without British TV and Radio: Football Supplement

A link a day

This is not quite in time to be Monday's "link a day", since it's 1.50 a.m. on Tuesday, but I hope that we can put that down as a technicality and allow this one in for Monday. To make up for the delay, I've added an extra link too:

Page updated: Historical Jesus: Books, Articles and Reviews

UP: Craig A. Evans, “Messianic Hopes and Messianic Figures in Late Antiquity”, Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism 3 (2006): 9-40

AND: Craig A. Evans, “Jewish Burial Traditions and the Resurrection of Jesus”, Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 3 (2005): 233-48

The first is not, of course, strictly "Historical Jesus", but I am sure that its relevance to the topic will be obvious.

A link a day

Today's new link is on the Revelation page:

UP: Mitchell G. Reddish, “Revelation: Introduction”, Introduction to Revelation (Smyth and Helwys Bible Commentary: Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2001), reproduced on the Smyth & Helwys website. (PDF)

It's a nice introduction, with side bars and illustrations, an ideal place for the beginner in the study of Revelation.

CORRECTED: Felix Just, S. J.'s websites on Revelation, and Richard Heard's and Robert Grant's chapters on Revelation on the Religion-Online site.

New Technology and Old-Fashioned Communication

My latest guest blog on The Americanization of Emily is now up:

New Technology and Old-Fashioned Communication

NB: all you NT studies anoraks: this has nothing to do with the New Testament.

A link a day

Today's new link is also on the Historical Jesus: Books and Articles page:

UP: N. T. Wright, “Five Gospels but no Gospel: Jesus and the Seminar”, in Bruce Chilton and Craig A. Evans (eds.), Authenticating the Activities of Jesus (Leiden: Brill, 1999): 83–120, reproduced on the N. T. Wright page.

CORRECTED: URLs for articles by Scot McKnight, Robert Webb and N. T. Wright.

Update (30 April, 16.13): title above corrected, with thanks to Michael Pahl.

Historical Jesus Articles again

I've made some further updates to my page on Historical Jesus: Books and Articles, in particular updating links to Paula Fredriksen's articles, and adding two fresh ones. I have also taken down the link to Norman Perrin's Jesus and the Language of the Kingdom, which is no longer available on Religion-online.

A link a day

As many have realized, I have had far less time in the last six months to attend to the New Testament Gateway than I have had in the past. This is entirely to do with the pressures on time connected with a move to a new job, new home, new country. But the time is coming, and now is, to begin restoring the New Testament Gateway and to knock it back into shape. As part of this project, I am planning to add a link a day to keep the rot away. I am committing myself to adding at least one new link each day, and correcting one other link (either by adding the new URL or by deleting). Today the page is Historical Jesus: Books, Articles, Reviews:

DOWN: Dale Allison's "The Secularizing of the Historical Jesus". This fine article was on Allison's homepage for some years, and I have often referred students to it and spoken highly of it. Unfortunately, it disappeared from Allison's page round about the time that Resurrecting Jesus came out, in which the article is reprinted.

UP: Craig A. Evans, “Assessing Progress in the Third Quest of the Historical Jesus”, Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 4 (2006): 35-54

Disintegration of the Biblioblogging Community?

Jim West has a most interesting post, The Disintegration of the "Biblioblogging" Community, lamenting the way in which the biblioblogging community is disintegrating, as the one-time members of it separate "and go in individual, almost isolated ways":

Before the SBL, bibliobloggers frequently dialogued via their various and sundry blogs concerning issues of interest to the Biblical Studies Community. But over the months since, that sort of communal inter-relatedness has almost become non-existent. Several of the panelists themselves- then the "stars" of the biblioblogging community, seldom or infrequently post. Others have abandoned posting altogether. And still others have turned towards the biblioblogging equivalent of "splendid isolationism"- addressing themselves to a very small, even fringe audience of people who share their very narrow interests.

Jim continues:

If I may offer a personal perspective, I would say the cause of the disintegration is directly related to Paul Nikkel's complaint that the "biblioblogging community" was too closed, too elitist, too focused, and too exclusivistic. Paul, and a few others, complained that there were not sufficient "outsiders" "allowed" to enter the dialogue then ongoing amongst the bibliobloggers. This disposition had a chilling effect. In essence, what Paul's complaint accomplished wasn't the inclusion of supposed "outsiders" (because, quite frankly, no one was ever excluded from the discussions) but rather the implantation of hesitancy to participate in dialogue because bibliobloggers were afraid to seem or appear a "club of elites". So Ed and Jim D. and Torrey S. and other panelists retreated to their special preserves and Mark focused on his load at the new institution with which he was affiliated and Paul himself and his blog turned in other directions (primarily) and the other bibliobloggers have simply slowed to a crawl in terms of publishing their ideas.

Let me add that to a large extent I share Jim's sense of nostalgic lament. I enjoyed the days when there was a good deal of intra-biblioblog discussion, and the creation of something appropriating to an informal community who were regularly exchanging ideas. But I'd want to say too that I don't entirely share Jim's concerns. Allow me to make a few comments:

(1) The main problem for me is the one mentioned by Ed Cook in Ralph:

If, as Jim asserts, the other "classic" bibliobloggers are blogging and communicating less, this may be a function of the expansion of Biblioblogdom. When I started blogging in November 2004, there were approximately 4.5 million blogs (according to Technorati); now there are 35.8 million. This exponential growth has been felt among biblioblogs as well. The community that started out small has grown too large to keep up with even in a passive read-only way, to say nothing of engaging in daily back-and-forth debates.

It did not used to take me too long to read all the blogs I wanted to read in the area. My blogroll had ten or fifteen feeds, and it was never difficult to get on top of those. Now with over fifty and counting, and that already a trimmed down number, I just don't get through them all. I read Jim, Jim, Stephen, Ralph, Torrey, Loren, the Evo TCs and the like as often as I can, but then find that days and even weeks can go by until I get a moment to catch the rest. In other words, we are a victim of our own success. I bet that there are lots of comments and links to Jim's post here. Bloglines tells me that there are at least six, but it will be a while until I have followed all of those up. I am pleased that we did have that session at the SBL while the community was, in a sense, still a manageable group of us with some kind of identity. It's funny, in retrospect, to look at those arguments about inclusiveness and the setting up of fences and identities, because none of them have proved accurate, as it turns out. People continue to start up new blogs with no concerns whatsoever about getting recognition from an alleged elite.

(2) Given the new situation, I have been delighted with the establishment of regular Biblical Studies Blog Carnivals (e.g. see number 3 in March). Far from representing the break-up of biblioblogdom, we have able and willing volunteers who have shown themselves to be expert in gathering together great posts in our area from all over the web. As I commented in early March (Biblical Studies Carnival -- and its value):

I'd like to add a word of huge appreciation to Tyler Williams for getting this whole show on the road. For me, these carnivals have come at just the right time. The massive, healthy and to-be-encouraged expansion of the blogosphere in our area, as in every other area, makes it impossible to engage with all the blogs one would like to engage with. I remember a time when reading the biblioblogosphere was a matter of looking at Paleojudaica, Hypotyposeis and a handful of others. On the whole, where you wanted to reference or engage with a given post, you had time to do so. Not so now. I struggle to read everything in my blogroll and I can only read a limited number of posts with any attention. Indeed, I suppose that my own blog has changed substantially over the last 12 months from one in which I tried to reference everything on-line in the area that interested me to something much more limited. And to be honest, I am pretty happy with that. Every day I think, "Oh, I must blog that", and subsequently discover that someone else has already done it. Well and good. More time for me to focus on other things here.

That is to say that there is a problem with the current blog scene in Biblical Studies. The growing number of great blogs and interesting posts makes it far more likely that one can miss some gems. The Carnival steps in to help us here, and month by month isolates a few key posts of interest. I, for one, am most grateful to those who are taking on the task of doing this.

I suspect that my own blogging will even out as the coming months ensue and I get more settled. At the moment I'm just pleased that I managed to keep the blog alive in the midst of big life changes.

Let's add too reference to Biblioblog.net and Biblioblogs.com, which help us to keep track of what's going on; and one might specially mention the monthly interviews on the latter, which give a special profile to a specific biblioblog.

(3) I don't think it's just the Carnivals, either. I think there is still an excellent exchange of ideas around; it's just that the exchange occurs across a larger number of blogs across a greater range of topics. In the long run, this is healthy too -- it means that we avoid becoming cosy, over-familiar and cliquey.

Update (13.05): thanks to Jim West for his follow-up post, and for the important correction that his original post was about dis-integration, not disintegration.

Guest blog on How to cope without British TV and radio III

I have the third in my series of guest posts on Viola's blog, The Americanization of Emily:

How to cope without British TV and Radio Part III

Find your way through the maze for under $10

While browsing the new Continuum website today, I noticed that they have one of my books on sale. The Synoptic Problem: A Way Through the Maze was seriously over-priced at $31.95 in the USA, but now it's available for a bargain $9.99 (I don't know for how long):

The Synoptic Problem: A Way Through the Maze

For some reason, their database is throwing up the wrong picture. And the sale price is not available in the UK, I'm afraid.

Perhaps iGod would like a copy?

iGod on the Synoptic Problem II

I thought it was time to return to iGod on the Synoptic Problem:
--
Me:
Hi again
God:
Once more? Hello. What is your name?
Me:
Mark
God:
Nice to meet you, Mark.
Me:
Nice to meet you too.
God:
I like to meet new people.
Me:
I checked in a week or so ago to ask you about the Synoptic Problem
God:
Why?: Mark said checked in a week or so ago to ask you about the Synoptic Problem.
Me:
I said I'd come back to see if you'd had any more time to think about the question of the existence of Q.
God:
What would make you come back to see if me would had any more time to think about the question of the existence of q?
Me:
Because you said to me "Try it"
God:
Good reason. Does it please you to believe I said that?
Me:
Not specially.
God:
Oh I get it.
Me:
Good.
God:
Next question?
Me:
Do you believe in Q
God:
Yes I believe in it, do you?
Me:
No!
God:
Do you consider yourself to be a moral person?
Me:
What's that got to do with it?
God:
Do you think I should know that?
Me:
Well, you asked me.
God:
Interesting. Is that your final answer?
Me:
No, I could do this all day.
--
At this point, iGod crashed.