Women Biblical Scholars Blog – Check It Out!

March 19, 2015September 17, 2015 ~ Jessica Parks ~ 1 Comment

So I stumbled across this blog, Women Biblical Scholars, the other day and it looks AMAZING! It is a blog solely dedicated to women in biblical scholarship.

Throughout history women have loved, studied, and taught the scriptures. Unfortunately, many of us have never heard of these biblical scholars and theologians. Often they are left out of history books and classrooms. The goal of this blog is to draw attention to the works of these women and discover what they contribute to our understanding of the biblical text. With greater awareness, this scholarship can shape course curriculum, homilies, public discourse, and academia itself. (from the blog’s About page)

This is like my meager, short-lived (but not necessarily retired!) Frauen Friday series on steroids and I’m super excited about it. I’m probably a little late to the party but if you haven’t seen it yet you should definitely check it out. It is relatively new but there are already tons of interviews and videos and it looks like it is updated pretty frequently so mosey on over and dive on in.

Also, you can follow @Women_Scholars on Twitter for updates. Kudos to this new blog and I look forward to being a regular reader!

PonderForth: Halloween and Soteriology

October 23, 2014September 17, 2015 ~ Mike Skinner ~ Leave a comment

Go ahead an bookmark the new blog PonderForth.
You can thank me later.

Michael Forth, the author, is a good friend of mine and a bright doctoral student at Aberdeen University. This week he posted two blogs worth reading:

A Word About Halloween:
“The bottom line is that we are witnesses to Christ and His Kingdom. All symbols that do not point to Jesus are not wrong; they have been twisted from their proper purpose of revealing Him to His world. We are to untwist them; we are to bend them back into shape so they can reveal Christ and His Kingdom. In the case of Halloween, is there anyone better to explain the true meaning of death and how it has been overcome? How can we not embrace this opportunity to reclaim a symbol that has been illegitimately appropriated by an unbelieving culture, especially when it was done by means of such a silly subculture as the neopagans.

It would be improper, however, to use this line of thinking as an opportunity to browbeat our neighbors in the name of Jesus. We are witnesses and ambassadors, not Gospel thugs. When we use Halloween as an excuse for aggressive evangelism, we show that evangelism per se mean more to us than our neighbor. Our neighbors feel as though we are using a children’s holiday to sell them a spiritual pyramid scheme. Opportunistic evangelism never works.”

The Price We Pay for Soteriology:
“The more and more that I experience of the Evangelical world, both in the U.S. and in our new circumstances in Scotland, the more I am convinced of the dangers of soteriolatry (soteriology + idolatry). Soteriolatry is a name that I have given to the Evangelical tendency to prize soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) above all else, functionally turning it into an idol with disastrous effects. While I may have coined the neologism “soteriolatry” in a moment of self-congratulatory pseudo-insight several years ago, others with similar concerns may have coined the same term or something similar….

This overemphasis on soteriology in the Evangelical tradition may well be labeled as Neo-Lutheran, since it stems largely from one of the primary motivations of Luther (though without his nuance and balance). Some may disagree with this label, but I will use ‘NL’ as shorthand for this perspective in what follows. What am I offering in contrast to the focus? What can I say? I’m a kingdom guy. I believe that when the New Testament refers to the gospel it is referring to the good news of the arrival of the Kingdom of God. It is only within such a context that our salvation in Jesus Christ has its proper place. Without such a context, it too often seems as though we are saved for the sake of being saved.”

Biblical Studies Blog Carnival | September 2014

October 1, 2014September 17, 2015 ~ Mike Skinner ~ 5 Comments

Welcome to the September 2014 Biblical Studies Blog Carnival!

September means one thing in Texas: football season is back! And of course, I’m speaking of American football – both college and NFL teams are now on the field once again. I know that many of our biblical studies bloggers are more inclined towards the internationally recognized form of “football” (what we down here in Texas call “soccer”), so please accept my apologies for picking such a culturally-biased theme. You might enjoy the video below of a confused “football” coach attempting to coach a “soccer” team.

College football divides each team into certain conferences – the SEC (Gig ‘Em Aggies!), Big 12, ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12, etc. Thus, I’ve divided this month’s excellent blogging into four conferences:

– The OTC (Old Testament Conference)
– The NTC (New Testament Conference)
– The CHTC (Church History, Theology, and Hermeneutics Conference)
– The BRC (Book Review Conference)

However, just because a post might not be in one of the above conferences it still might have merited a place in the Wild Card Race (Miscellaneous Posts).

There were a ton of great blog posts this month.
Thanks to all who contributed – happy reading!

The OTC (Old Testament Conference)

James Pate at James’ Ramblings asks the question from 1 Chronicles 27 that has been on everyone’s mind: Could priests (like Benaiah son of Jehoida – one of David’s mighty men) fight in war without violating purity laws?
Brian Collins at Exegesis and Theology investigates the importance of “land” in Genesis 10.
Craig Keener at Bible Background writes on Slaughtering the Benjamites:
– Benjamin’s Depravity (Judges 19:1-20:28)
– Merciless Anarchy (Judges 20:29-21:25)
Rusty Obsorne at Law, Prophets & Writings lists Five Important Texts for Thinking About the Old Testament Canon.
Paul Wallace makes an interesting link between Creationism and Gay Marriage.
Chaplain Mike at the Internet Monk creates a hypothetical “Whirlwind Creation Museum.”
Age of Rocks explores the question “Four Rivers, One Problem: Where in the World was the Garden of Eden?”

The NTC (New Testament Conference)

Phil Long at Reading Acts has been doing a good amount of blogging on the Gospels recently:
– First, he gives a series of posts on biblical criticism: Behind the Gospels: Source Criticism, Form Criticism, and Redaction Criticism
– He writes on the Cultural Context of the Gospels: The Temple
– He discusses the Words of Jesus and the Criteria of Authenticity
– He asks interesting questions such as “Did Disciples of Jesus Keep Notebooks?” and “What About the Actions of Jesus?”
– He comments on Jesus and the end of exile.
Andrew Perriman asks “Was Jesus Wrong about Abiathar the High Priest?”
Bill Heroman asks: “Did Jesus Bring the Twelve with him to Nazareth?
Njay Gupta at Crux Sola writes: “Beyond the Myth/History Binary Approach to the Gospels”
Larry Hurtado recommends an article by James Ware (concerning 1 Corinthians 15:3-5) in his post “Paul on Jesus’ Resurrection: A New Study” and also writes about the book of Acts: Part 1 | Part 2.
Peter Leithart at the Trinity House writes on “Paul and the Troublers of Galatia.”
Marg Mowczko at New Life explores:
– “The Prominence of Women in the Cultic Life of Ephesus”
– “Titus 2:5 – ‘Workers at home’ or ‘Keepers at home’?”
Wintery Knight discusses “the earliest historical source on the life of Jesus.”
Glenn at Thomistic Bent asks, “What About the Resurrection Body?”
Here at Cataclysmic, I ask, “Did Mark’s Jesus HAVE to die on the cross?”
Scot McKnight at Jesus Creed writes about “That Elect Lady” in 2 John.
Ron Frost at Cordeo explores the role of the Holy Spirit in Romans.
Jacob Cerone writes on “Jesus the Insurrectionist” in Luke 23.
James McGrath at Exploring Our Matrix blogs on:
– “The Case of the Severed Ear” from Mark 14 and parallels.
– “An Interpolation in 1 Thessalonians”
Brian Pounds at The Jesus Blog offers a reply to Dale Martin’s JSNT Essay on Jesus’ “Crucifiability”: Part 1 | Part 2
Robert Myles at The Jesus Blog on “The Homeless Jesus in Matthew.”
Wayne Coppins at German For Neutestamentler comments on “Bultmann, Kasemann, and The Righteousness of God in Paul.”
Matthew Malcom at Cryptotheology writes on 1 Corinthians:
– 1 Corinthians 11 and Subverted Hierarchy
– 1 Corinthians 12:33-34 and Silenced Women
Biran Leport at Bible Study and the Christian Life asks, “Was John the Baptist Elijah Redivivus?”

The CHTHC (Church History, Theology, and Hermeneutics Conference)

Eerdword reflects on the legacy of Pannenberg: Remembering Wolfhart Pannenberg
Doug Chaplin at Catholicity writes on “The First Century Church and Its Varied Meeting Places.”
Larry Hurtado clarifies and corrects a few issues concerning “The Codex and Early Christians.”
Shane Fenwick at Living Agape explores “The Gospel of the Church Fathers.”
Ian Paul at Psephizo writes on “The Spirit and Critical Study”: Part 1 | Part 2
Here at Cataclysmic, Chad Chambers reminds us that “The Spirit Energizes.”
Medieval Manuscripts writes on “Visions of the Apocalypse: A Heavenly Choir or a Lake of Fire?”
Roger Olsen blogs about:
– Calvinism and God-Ordained Suffering
– What is Marcionism? (My Response to a Ludicrous Accusation)
– Follow Up Thoughts on God and Genocide
Rob Grasyon at the Internet Monk talks about the oh-so-common phrase “The Bible Clearly Says.”
Jonathan Bernier at Critical Realism and the New Testament writes:
– On innerancy: “The First Word”
– Concerning Medieval Exegesis: “The Medieval Criteria”
Wyatt Houtz at PostBarthian examines “Herman Bavinck’s Organic Inspiration of the Scriptures.”
Ben Myers at Faith and Theology on the question: “Does Theology Reflect Self-Interest?”
Jeff Carter suggest that “Faithful Children Doubt the Bible.”
Ben Corey at Formely Fundie lists “5 Things to Consider Before Taking the Left-Behind Movie Seriously.”
Speaking of Left Behind, here at Catalysmic Michelle Mikeska re-blogged her popular post: “Why Left Behind series should be Left Behind.”
Fred Clark at Slacktivist narrates that “The White Evangelical Tribe is Itself Post-Evangelical”: Part 1 | Part 2.
Paul Penley at Jesus Creed argues that “Bible Reading Destroys the Church”:
Part 1 | Part 2
Here at Cataclysmic, I explore how Jesus interpreted divine violence in the OT.
Don’t miss out on the continuing “Does the Bible Ever Get it Wrong? Facing Scripture’s Difficult Passages” blog series at Michael Kruger’s Canon Fodder:
– #2: Craig Blomberg
– #3: Darrell Bock
– #4: Andreas Kostenberger
– #5: John Currid
While you’re reading the above, don’t forget to check out Peter Enns’ 17th installment of his “Aha” Moments: Biblical Scholars Tell Their Stories series: Michael Halcomb.

BRC (Book Review Conference)

Kevin Brown had a busy month and produced the following book (and movie) reviews:
– New Testament Language and Exegesis: A Diachronic Approach by Chrys Caragounis
– The Vine and the Son of Man: Eschatological Interpretation of Psalm 80 in Early Judaism by Andrew Streett
– The Death of Jesus by Alexander J.M. Wedderburn
– The Spirit of God and the Christian Life: Reconstructing Karl Barth’s Pneumatology by JinHyok Kim
– UBS5 Greek NT
– God’s Not Dead (Movie Review)
Speaking of God’s Not Dead, J.W. Wartick also reviews it here.
Jim West reviews:
– Paul and Mark and Mark and Paul
– Deviant Calvinism by Oliver Crisp
Njay Gupta at Crux Sola endorses:
– Thinking Through Paul by Longenecker and Still
Jim Lee at The Domain for Truth reviews:
– The Doctrine of the Christian Life (A Theology of Lordship) by John Frame
– Can I Really Trust the Bible? by Barry Cooper
J.W. Wartick reviews:
– The New Atheist Novel by Arthur Bradley and Andrew Tate
Phil Long at Reading Acts reviews:
– Evangelical Faith and the Challenge of Historical Criticism edited by Hays and Ansberry
Nick Peters at Deeper Waters has also been busy reading and reviewing books (here’s a sample):
– Where the Conflict Really Lies by Alvin Plantiga
– The Myth of Persecution by Candida Moss
– Crucifixion by Martin Hengel
– The Civil War as a Theological Crisis by Mark Noll
James Pate at James’ Ramblings presents a write-up on:
– Why John Wrote a Gospel by Tom Thatcher
Here at Cataclysmic, I review:
– The Bible Tells Me So… by Peter Enns
John Byron at The Biblical World also reviews:
– The Bible Tells Me So… by Peter Enns
Joshua Paul Smith reviews:
– Before Nature: A Christian Spirituality by H. Paul Santmire
Michael Bird reviews:
– Born of a Virgin by Andrew Lincoln
– Kingdom Conspiracy by Scot McKnight

The Wild Card Race (Miscellaneous Posts)

Kris Lyle at Old School Script starts a series on Discourse Grammar:
– Discourse Matters: Backgrounding background information (3 Macc 1:7)
– Discourse Matters: Why front a topic? (James 2:10)
– Discourse Matters: Focus elements that aren’t fronted (James 2:10)
Bill Heroman produces a great seven-post series on Memory & Narrative:
– Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
Daniel B. Wallace comments on the larger problem behind Joel Osteen and Christian Narcissism.
Rod at Political Jesus writes on “Quitting the Progressive Christian Internet: Weeds Along the Moral High Ground”: Part 1 | Part 2.
Eric Chabot offers the following posts:
– “A Look at Six Christological Titles For Jesus”
– “Three Things the Gospel Writers Would Have Never Invented”
– “Jewish Objections: Jewish People Don’t Believe in a Suffering/Atoning Messiah”
Tony Burke at Apocryphicity continues his series on Christian Apocrypha:
– 8: The Qasr El-Wizz Codex
– 9: The Legend of the Thirty Silver Pieces
– 10: The Life and Martyrdom of John the Baptist
– 11: Acts of Titus
Marg Mowczko at New Life explains “Why Masculine Pronouns Can Be Misleading in English Bibles and In The Church.”
Anthony LeDonne at The Jesus Blog asks, “Is Memory Selectivity Bad?”
Christopher Skinner (what a great last name, by the way) at Crux Sola continues his interesting series on Jesus in Contemporary Culture:
– Part 1 – Jesus in Contemporary Culture
– Part 2 – What Else Do You Expect From Those College Religion Professors?
– Part 3 – The Passion of the Christ
– Part 4 – Restraint and Masculinity
– Part 5 – A Headache Jesus Can’t Shake
Jim Lee at The Domain for Truth writes on “Missions: Distinguishing Between Relief and Transformational Development”
Peter Leithart blogs about everyone’s favorite topic: Eschatological Ontology.
Chris Skinner (still stunned by such an aesthetically-pleasing last name) also offers his thoughts on “Negative Reviews and Unintentional Slights: Some further tips on not being jerk in Academia”
Scot McKnight at Jesus Creed offers a series on “Corporal Punishment”:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Larry Hurtado writes on “PhD Studies in the UK (and Edinburgh in particular).”
Sarah Beth at Broken and Contrite Hearts reminds us that “Jesus is Not the Definition of Self-Righteous.”
Seumas Macdonald at Compliant Subversity gives three examples to illustrate the truth that when one begins to study “advanced Greek grammar” – Nothing Is As It Seems” while also finishing his six part series of interviews with Communicative Greek teachers.
Josh Graves writes on “Reading the Bible and the Bible Reading You” at Jesus Creed.
Claude Mariottini writes on the very serious topic of pastors who commit suicide: “When Pastors Kill Themselves.”
Fred Butler at Hip and Thigh reviews Adam Tucker’s Presuppositional Apologetic Critique: Part 1 and Part 2.
John Walton at BioLogos writes “On Being Right or Wrong.”
Nijay Gupta at Crux Sola asks, “Is Blogging Bad For Your Academic Career?”
Michael Bird comments on “When Conservatism Becomes an Idol.”
Brian Renshaw on “The Liturgy of the iPhone” – especially convicting coming on the heels of the iPhone 6 release.

* * * New Blog Alert * * *
Michael Forth, a doctoral student at Aberdeen, has started a new blog: PonderForth. Check out his first blog post, “Is Christian Fundamentalism a Manifestation of Liberal Theology?”

[1] Did I miss a great post from the month of September? Post a comment with the link so that we can all enjoy it!

[2] Next month’s Biblical Studies Blog Carnival (October 2014) will be hosted by Brian Renshaw on November 1. Be sure to stay tuned for another month of blogging greatness.

[3] Phil Long at Reading Acts is still looking for volunteers to host future Carnivals. This is my “emotional plea” for a few decent folks to step up and help continue this biblioblog tradition! If you’re interested and/or willing to be coerced, please contact Phil through his blog.

The Carnival is Coming to Town!

September 1, 2014September 17, 2015 ~ Mike Skinner ~ 1 Comment

It’s been a while since Cataclysmic last hosted the Biblical Studies Carnival, but the wait is now over: we are in the on-deck circle and will soon be offering the
September 2014 Biblical Studies Carnival.

Help me make this month’s edition a Carnival to remember! Please send me submissions for consideration throughout the month as you read a good blog post. Place your submission in a comment, email me at mike@fc3.org, or use the following contact form:

* PS # 1: Be sure you check out Rob Bradshaw’s Biblical Studies Carnival for August 2014.

*PS # 2: Phil Long is still looking for volunteers to host future carnivals. Let him know if/when you’re willing to step up!

Biblical Studies Carnival XCIV: December 2013

January 1, 2014September 17, 2015 ~ Jessica Parks ~ 16 Comments

‘Twas the night before the new year when all through the house,
not a creature was stirring… except me and my laptop’s mouse.
Smart phones and iPads were set by the nightstand with care,
with hopes that the Biblical Studies Carnival would soon be there.

The bibliobloggers were nestled all snug in their beds,
while visions of end-of-the-year top ten lists danced in their heads.
And professors, students, bloggers, and more,
had just settled their brains for a two-week to month-long snore…
except for grad students because everyone knows we never sleep.

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2014, the year we all finally keep our new year’s resolutions… here’s hoping! Before we take a look back at December and all the bloggy goodness it contained, I wanted to remind you of the most exciting thing happening in 2014:

Houston Baptist University is hosting a conference on “Paul and Judaism” on March 19-20, 2014. Our keynote speakers include N.T. Wright (St Andrews University), Beverly Gaventa (Baylor University), and Ross Wagner (Duke Divinity School).

In addition to the keynote speakers, we are inviting papers in the area of Paul and Judaism, representing a variety of approaches from scholars and graduate students. Participants will have 30 minutes to present papers (inclusive of Q&A). Please submit a 200-300 word abstract to Dr. Ben C. Blackwell at bblackwell[at]hbu.edu by January 15, 2014, and you should receive notification regarding acceptance by January 31. Registration by February 15 is required for those who will present at the conference.

For more info: www.hbu.edu/theologyconference

This conference is going to be AWESOME so be sure to get your paper submissions in by January 15th and/or register for the conference! Hope to see y’all there.

Now, on to the feast of December blog posts!

Advent, Christmas, and the Incarnation
Since this month’s carnival covers December it seems natural to start off with a sampling of Christmas-themed posts.

David Capes on Xmas: Is it Taking “Christ” out of “Christmas”? and considers Mary’s role in the incarnation here.
Krista Dalton Jesus and the Promise of Redemption: An Advent Story
Anthony LeDonne on An Alternative Christmas Nativity with a nod to the infancy narrative of the Proto-Gospel of James.
Mike Skinner discusses theology (or lack thereof) in Christmas sermons here.
Rick Brannen recommends you Read the Protoevangelium of James this Christmas. Don’t worry, there’s still time – Christmas isn’t over until January 5th… I think.
Roger Olson asks Is the Son of God Still a Human Being? Olson writes,

“One item of folk religion is the belief among Christians that the incarnation was temporary—a mere interim and perhaps even a charade in the life of the Son of God, God’s Word, the Logos. For many evangelicals (and others, I suspect), the incarnation was simply the Son of God ‘putting on human skin’ for thirty-some years in order to teach us how to please God and then to die for our sins. Either at the moment of his death or at his resurrection or at his ascension he shed that human skin and returned to his glorious pre-incarnation existence as God’s purely spiritual Son in heaven who also, somehow, dwells in every Christian’s heart.

This is, of course, an informal form of the ancient heresy of Gnosticism. It is a docetic Christology. Most of the time I find that people who believe the incarnation was temporary don’t really believe in the incarnation at all! That is, they tend to think of Jesus’ humanity as an act, an outward performance, not a real human nature and existence like ours. To many Christians ‘Jesus’ was Clark Kent to the Son of God’s super-human glory.”

Ben Witherington has a seven part series on Worship at Christmas: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Michael Bird on the slap-happy St. Nick in Keep the Spirit of St. Nicholas This Christmas, Slap Down a Heretic.
Amanda MacInnis responds with “That’s Jesus!” to Megan Hill’s Why Jesus Doesn’t Belong in Christmas Decor.
Brian Zahnd writes Plato’s Cave: A Christmas Story.
Phil Long asks Why Did the Gospel Include the Birth of Jesus?

ANE, Hebrew Bible, OT Theology, and More

Christian Brady links to the new BenSira.org which is now live. Ancient and medieval manuscripts, y’all! Go here to view them.
Jonathan Watson discusses “Deuteronomy, aprons, Sabbath, Chris Wright, and more…” with Daniel Block over at the Logos Academic blog.
Brian Davidson’s Dashing Babies or Regimes? on interpreting Psalm 137:9
James Bradford Pate has several posts on the Psalms: Psalm 137, Psalm 138, Psalm 139, and Psalm 140.
Some questions and comments from Njiay Gupta on Lamoureux’s chapter, “Evolutionary Creation and No Historical Adam,” in Four Views on the Historical Adam.
Peter Enns also wrote on the historical Adam here.

LXX, DSS, Apocrypha and More

Abram K-J informs us that Greek Isaiah in a Year is happening again, lead by Brian Davidson here.
Mark Goodacre wonders Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife?
C.D. Elledge with Olivia Yeo on Rethinking the “Qumran Community”: Recent Approaches.
Tony Burke discusses History Channel’s new documentary Bible Secrets Revealed and its affect on biblical scholarship.
Christian Brady reflects on suffering with an excerpt from The Rabbinic Targum of Lamentations: Vindicating God on Lamentations 5:20. On a similar note, Brady also writes Why I am Disappointed in Doctor Who.

New Testament, NT Theology, and More

Tim Gombis on N.T. Wright’s thoughts on Ephesians.
Matthew Ryan Hauge and Craig Evan Anderson have an ongoing podcast series on the Gospel of Mark. Check out the podcast on The Baptism of Jesus.
Michael Bird points us to a segment from his interview with N.T. Wright on the place of justification by faith in Paul and the Faithfulness of God.
Michael Kok asks Can Jesus Traditions Be Extracted from Their Gospel Contexts?
Judy Redman on the “blow up in Baltimore” at SBL: Memory and the Historical Jesus (SBL session recording) Part 1 and Part 2.
Brian LePort links to several posts on the SBL “blow up” here.
Johnny Walker interviews Jesus Scholar Chris Keith.
Krista Dalton discusses Jesus and the Judean Subversion of Masculinity.

Early Christianity and Patristics

Joshua Smith on Five Things Contemporary Worshipers Could Learn From the Early Church.
Marg Mowczko on two of my favorite topics, Gender Equality in Second Clement.
Jacob Cerone has begun a a weekly series titled Translation Tuesday in which he will be working through Chrysostom’s homilies on Philippians. He describes it as a “community project” so head over to his blog and dive on in. You can read the first one here.

Hermeneutics

Jackson Wu has begun a new series on interpreting the Bible with only the Bible. His first post is How Do We Interpret a Bible? followed by his second post What Does the Text Mean? and Other Unhelpful Questions.
Two great posts from Joel Willits on Women and Church ministry and how his developing hermeneutic influences his view.
Brian LePort on A (Video) Parable for Exegesis/Hermeneutics.
Michael Bird on Words for “Inerrancy” and “Infallibility” in Languages Other than English.

Language, Linguistics, Textual Criticism, and Translation

Randall Buth on Word Order, Focus-CC (Contextualizing Constituent, Topic) Inversion, Enclitics in Greek.
Jacob Cerone on Learning Biblical Greek with some helpful advice.
Brian Renshaw lists 4 easy steps in his Daily Greek Reading Setup. I know this sounds crazy, but for #4 I highly recommend (for those lucky enough to live in Texas) HEB’s 100% Columbian coffee. I’m no coffee connoisseur but I do know what I like, and I like that coffee.
Marg Mowczko on Barbara Aland and the Nestle-Aland Greek NT.
Suzanne McCarthy on translating the tetragrammaton in her post Everlasting One.
Peter H. Davids contemplates the use of emotive labels in language in his post When Language is Emotive Rather Than Enlightening. David’s writes,

“I say to my students, ‘Check your sources.’ I tell them,
‘Look up the works in the footnotes and read them.’ I warn them to get beyond the slogans and labels of ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’ or ‘evangelical’ or whatever and to discover the substance of the argument. In this day of uncounted online ‘“news’ sources (not to mention on air news sources), many of which are propaganda for various positions and/or sensationalism, some of which being not just junk but worse than junk, this admonition is even more important than it has been in the past.

J.K. Gayle ask on Was David a Virgin When His Soul Was Pregnant? and He Kept Her a Virgin.
Jeremy Thompson on collocations and Biblical Hebrew.
Kris Lyle poses some questions on instincts and lexicography.
Gretchen McColloch’s post on the Benedict Cumberbatch name generator is lots of language fun.

Archaeology

Biblical Arcaeology’s Top Ten Discoveries of 2013 at by Gordon Govier at Christianity Today.

The “I wasn’t sure where to put it but you should definitely read it” Category

Rod Thomas on Musical Jesus: Race & DC Talk’s Colored People #PlanetCCM.
Rachel Held Evans gives us a list 101 Christian Women Speakers.
Chad Chambers on Adoption: Doctrine or Practice.
Victoria Gaile Laidler writes on Noting Abusive Theologians:

“One of the differences between ‘theology’ and ‘religious studies’ is that theology is carried out from within the perspective of the believer, while religious studies takes a strictly historical/sociological perspective. I am enrolled in a theological program: perhaps this is why my immediate response to learning of this theologian’s persistent sinful patterns of behavior was to question whether and how it reflected on the value of his theology. It seems a screamingly obvious question to me.”

Laidler also wrote on Pope Francis, Discipleship, Fandom, and Factionalism as well as a close read of the Vatican questionnaire on the family.
Mike Skinner with You Might Be a Prophet If…
Michelle Mikeska shares some thoughts on Clarence Jordan’s An Ancient Heresy Incarnate.
James F. McGrath asks Could the Problem of Evil Become a Thing of the Past?
Jerry Walls on the C.S. Lewis we never really new… but really we did in his post Sinful, Scandalous C.S. Lewis, Joy, and the Incarnation.
Holly Ordway gives A Report from the CS Lewis Memorial Service.
Steven L. Jones on Anfractuosity: The Case against Christianity as Wish Fulfillment.
Joel Watts links to N.T. Wright on The Church of England’s Plan for Women Ordination and offers Five Ways for Institutions to Embrace Student Blogging.
Cars, Planes, and Gospel Grenades: Women Evangelists Settle Down by Priscilla Pope-Levison.
Ben Myers tells us Forty Things He Likes about Christianity.
Peter Enns on Doing Church Without Singing (or, Getting Out of Our God Rut).
Scot McKnight with The Church’s Biggest Problem?
Phil Long’s lists his Top 10 Ways to Fail a Bible Paper.

Book Reviews
Good heavens, December was the month of book reviews!

Naomi Krueger reviews Sarah Bessey’s new book Jesus Feminist.
Bob MacDonald reviews N.T. Wright’s The Case for the Psalms: Why They Are Essential at his blog Dust.
Abram K-J reviews First Bible of the Church: A Plea for the Septuagint by Mogens Müller
Brian Renshaw reviews How We Got the New Testament: Text, Transmission, and Translation by Stanley E. Porter.
James Bradford Pate reviews S.G.F. Brandon’s Jesus and the Zealots and Warren Carter’s Matthew and Empire.
Brian LePort reviews Walter Wink’s John the Baptist in the Gospel Tradition.
Doug Chaplin reflects on the second part of volume 1 of N.T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God in his post Paul and the Mindset of N.T. Wright.
Chris Tilling critiques R. Michael Allen’s understanding of Campbell in his book Justification and the Gospel: Understanding the Contexts and Controversies.
Phil Long reviews Daniel B. Wallace’s A Reader’s Lexicon of the Apostolic Fathers, Allen P. Ross’ A Commentary on the Psalms, Vol. 2 (42-89), and James Dunn’s The Oral Gospel Tradition.
Nijay Gupta offers up a reflection, not a review, on the book Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy.
Marc Cortez reviews Michael Bird’s Evangelical Theology here and here.
Jim West reviews Alistair McGrath’s Emil Brunner: A Reappraisal.
Jacob Cerone offers an indepth review of Puzzling Portraits: Seeing the Old Testament’s Confusing Characters as Ethical Models by A.J. Culp.
Joel Willits summarizes the main arguments of Bonhoeffer the Assassin?: Challenging the Myth, Recovering His Call to Peacemaking.
Brave Reviews on The Baker Academic Jesus Studies collection on Logos.

The Biblical Studies Carnivals of 2013
Since it is the end of another year, I thought I’d include a link to all of the previous Biblical Studies Carnivals of 2013 compiled by The Biblioblog Top 50.

Peter Kirby has the Top 50 Biblioblogs Winter Report at his blog and Abram K-J has the Septuagint Studies Soirée #5.

And of course, Jim West is hosting his ‘Wright Free Zone’ carnivalat his blog… but is a carnival without Wright really a carnival at all? We here at Cataclysmic love us some N.T. Wright… well, most of us (wink, wink)… so to start off the new year with lots of joy, here’s Tom-foolery: 12 Epic Facts About N.T. Wright from Out of Ur.

The next Biblical Studies Carnival (Jan 14, Due Feb 1) will be hosted by Brian Renshaw at NT Exegesis. See y’all ’round the blogosphere!

Cruciform Theology

A Cross-Shaped Worldview

Biblioblogs

Women Biblical Scholars Blog – Check It Out!

PonderForth: Halloween and Soteriology

Biblical Studies Blog Carnival | September 2014

The Carnival is Coming to Town!

Biblical Studies Carnival XCIV: December 2013

Share with the world!

Share with the world!

Share with the world!

Share with the world!

Share with the world!