Thursday, December 30, 2010

Brick-a-brack 30/12/10

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Hezekiah: New Manuscript Discovered


Well I am pleased to be able to bring, what I think may be the first review in the biblioblog top 50 of the recently discovered manuscript of the Book of Hezekiah.  You know, the one you always look for somewhere in the minor prophets but cannot find.  As much as I hate to contradict the sagely and saintly Claude Mariottini on the origins and content of this important document it is clear that his project to reconstruct this document from oral fragments has failed to result in anything resembling an actual book.  By contrast Ian Kammann, a much neglected and misunderstood scholar of the first order, has produced what can only be described as the most convincing reconstruction of the Hezekiah tradition this century, or ever, and it is an actual book.  Not only so but it contains a limited reconstruction of the pseudopopapocryphal document, the Book of Hesitations, fitted within a radical new interpretational structure and alongside a helpful excursus on the relationship between the two traditions. 

Contrary to the misguided thoughts of some what really sets this edition of Hezekiah apart from any other edition someone might hypothetically produce is the foot notes and helpful introductory sections, concordance and other essential textual aparatus.  This book essentially combines the novelty and excitment of cutting edge textual reconstruction with the accessibility of a Thomas Nelson "your-own-peculiar-niche-of-beligerant-Christianity" Study Bible.  So don't miss it, available at Amazon or Kammann's own website.  This could be the late Christmas present for the pastor or scholar you love that you have been looking for.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Christmas Links

This will be my last post till after Christmas, and I have to say the blogosphere is very seasonal this year, enjoy these and don't forget to turn the computer off and have some quality time with Jesus and some other real people, perhaps your family.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Christmas and Q

Doug Chaplin shows us why nothing is more Christmassy than than the gospel according to Q. ;-)

Thesis Now Online

Discovering Paul’s Theological Ethic in 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

My MTh thesis is now available as a PDF online. Read and enjoy! If you are new to the blog why not add me to your feed reader, you never know, you might like it and you can always delete me if you don't. 

My thesis conclusion is here and my examiners' comments are here if you want to do some research before diving right in. 

PS. If you do read it and find any mistakes or bones of contention !

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Dr Platypus on Becoming An Angel When You Die

Darrell has done a fascinating study bringing biblical, intertestamental, rabbinical and pop-cutural research togther in a very interesting post.  Don't miss it.

No Such Thing as Evangelicalism?

Yet as soon as evangelicalism becomes a subject, it splinters and splits. Indeed, taken together, recent studies by more-or-less outsiders show there is no such thing as evangelicalism. The term represents a broad range of significantly different theologies, practices, and religious movements within Christianity, and there are often tensions among and within them. Which is no revelation at all to most more-or-less insiders, who call themselves evangelicals, however qualified, and who argue as much with others who do the same as with those of us who don't.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Popes and Bankers

OK, I have been sweating about how to review this book,



But now I don't have to, Paul Burkhart has written the review that frankly I wasn't man enough to do, and he does it so much more intelligently and gracefully than I would have.  So please read his review, because this endorsement of his review is the most I can bring myself to do towards reviewing this book.  I'm sorry to say.  Also don't miss his analysis of the author in question, he has cleared up a lot of questions for me.  It remains however that this was a brilliant idea for a book, and I'd love to see this done well.

Is Evangelicalism a Mental Disease?

At a biblical studies conference last week I was having fun asking the politically incorrect question of the people I met as to whether or not they were a Christian.  To me, one's religious committments are bound to have a big affect on your scholarship (no matter what you say about "objectivity") and so I'm always keen to know, and at least I do it in person rather than public.  Well one very civilised chap I spoke to answered my question with a scowl and the statement "well, i'm not an evangelical" which was interesting, because I do self identify as such, but the way he said it I wasn't sure we would use the word in the same way.

But then reading about street preachers on Stuart's blog it occurred to me that for many evangelical is code for intolerance, bigotry, irrationality, right wing politics, emotional instability and public outbursts of hatred.  And this is the problem, I know lots and lots of evanglicals and they are by and large open minded, compassionate, polite, intelligent and a little shy.  How is it that such a huge majority has its reputation determined by a tiny excentric minority?

So really there are two meanings for this one word, and I wonder if like "fundamentalist" what was originally coined as a positive self descriptor will soon become an irreparably pejorative slur.  What do you think, is it a word you use of yourself?  To stand in the tradition of such conversionist and social activist examplars as Wesley and Wilberforce, for example, is no small thing, but then neither is being lumped in with every illiterate street preacher or free marketeering hawkish US politician.  Has the term reached the limit of it's usefulness?  Has it's broadness ceased to be useful for unity and become a liability to misunderstanding?

Let me know what you think.

brick-a-brack 14/12/10

Nicole on Biblical Egalitariansim

Roger Nicole, reformed Baptist theologian has passed on.  One thing that serparated him from many of those now extolling his virtues was his outspoken egalitarianism.
Since biblical egalitarianism is still viewed by many as inconsistent with biblical inerrancy, it is desirable to state in a very brief manner my position on this subject.
The matter of the place of women in the home, in society, and in the church is not an issue that can be conclusively determined by a few apparently restrictive passages that are often advanced by those who think that subordination represents God’s will for women.
The starting point must be at the creation of humanity, as our Lord himself exemplified by quoting Genesis 1:27 and 2:24 in response to a question by the Pharisees (Matt. 19:4-5, Mark 10:6-7). The climactic point must be at the consummation of the redemptive plan in the wedding supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9, 21-22), as St. Paul notes in discussing marriage in Ephesians 5:22-33. These two moments are the only ones in which sin has not damaged the institution. Thus, the line that connects creation and the eschaton of redemption represents the relationship of males and females in its unadulterated form. What comes in between may include factors due to human “hardness of heart” (Matt. 19:8).
Rest of his article on this subject available here.

Friday, December 10, 2010

brick-a-brack 10/12/10

Don't expect much from me for the next week or so, but always glad to furnish you with some fascinating reading from around the biblioblogosphere!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

brick-a-brack 8/12/10

Monday, December 6, 2010

It's Snow Joke

I'm away today and tomorrow at ANZABS and the next couple of weeks are my last at Carey so I will probably be doing some real work rather than getting to blog as much as i'd like, but just so you don't feel totally neglected here is something for my friends in the northern hemisphere, keep an eye on your snowmen , the BBC have even provided the audio of the 999 call! (thanks Matti)

Friday, December 3, 2010

Justice is Served



Finally the OED weighs in on the long running fight, and there seems to be little uncertainty about this vital cultural matter.

The Oxford English Dictionary may have settled a long-running argument between Australia and New Zealand over who invented the pavlova.  The dessert - meringue with fruit and cream - was named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who visited both countries in the 1920s.  Australians and New Zealanders agree on that, but not on who invented it.

In its relaunched online edition, the OED says the first recorded pavlova recipe appeared in New Zealand in 1927.  This was in a book called Davis Dainty Dishes, published by the Davis Gelatine company, and it was a multi-coloured jelly dish.  But New Zealanders claim the meringue version also originated there, with recipes for it appearing in publications in 1928 and 1929.  Dr Helen Leach from New Zealand's University of Otago is something of a pavlova expert.  "I can find at least 21 pavlova recipes in New Zealand cookbooks by 1940, which was the year the first Australian ones appeared," the author of The Pavlova Story told the Daily Telegraph.

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Ali, Mark, Mike and Roland!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Three Vids of Distinction

How to talk Christianese, HT



Brian McClaren talks about the life span of a listener, HT



Mike Bird gives us some insight into the brand new SBL GNT! 



Enjoy!

Xenos hits new highs

Now at number 13, I think it might have been higher but all those peeps who went to SBL have been going crazy in a massive north american biblical studies blog love fest and generated a lot of traffic that i didn't tap into. 

November Carnival is Up

IT'S A WHOPPER!

OK, now I am embarrassed, Deane has gone the extra mile with his carnival, making mine look rather puny by comparison! But I'm surprised to hear he is now a woman. (update: others are also giving away personal information)

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Brick-A-Brack 01/12/10

  • Claude Mariottini gives a concise and very helpful argument that God did not command genocide in Joshua and Judges
  • Loren Rossen cites three historical Jesus scholars on why the non-canonical gospels are not admissible for historical Jesus research, "Two of them are secular liberals, so it's not as if plain sense flows only from Christian bias." 
  • TVNZ reports on "a former atheist who found God and like many Christians he's trying to make the world a better place."
  • Darrell on the modern and hypothetical ancient Greek word for blog.
And something to get you in the Christmas mood, 

Jesus treats the Syrophoenecian Woman as a Disciple

[This is an extract from my essay "Breaking Bread: The Power of Hospitality in the Gospel of Mark" which you can read in full and ...