Biblical Studies Carnival – February 2015

Welcome to the February Carnival! This was an eventful month for biblical studies geeks, with the announcement that the Gospel of the Lots of Mary had been deciphered (exclusively covered by Jim West), that a new NT papyrus had been discovered, and that the entirety of Codex Vaticanus is now available online. February also contains our favorite holiday of the year, for which Abram KJ and William Ross both linked to previous posts on the LXX in honor of International Septuagint Day. William’s post also contains an interview with renowned NT scholar and septuagintalist Karen Jobes. Martin Shields celebrated the special day with a post looking at differences between the LXX and MT on Job’s wife.

Before we get to the real fun, I’d like to thank Phil Long for inviting me to host a Carnival and to urge you to contact him (Twitter @Plong42, email plong42 [at] gmail [dot] com) if you’re interested in hosting. Hosting a biblical studies carnival is a fun way to highlight the best of biblioblogging and connect with the community. Next month’s Carnival will be hosted by Jacob Prahlow (@prahlowjacob), April will be Jeff Carter, and May will be Claude Mariottini.

Hebrew Bible/OT Pseudepigrapha

Over at Remnants of Giants, Deane Galbraith notes that David Clines has made available a paper entitled “The Significance of the ‘Sons of God’ Episode (Genesis 6:1-4) in the Context of the ‘Primeval History’ (Genesis 1–11)”.

Simon Holloway (not to be confused with Paul Holloway!) posted about a paper he presented at Australian Association for Jewish Studies Conference entitled “Charmed, I’m Sure: Wizardry, Women and War in the book of Numbers.”

James Pate is continuing to blog his way through II Chronicles (Chapter 19; 20; 21; 22).

On Valentines Day Karen Keen asked, “Is Song of Songs about Sex?”

Jim Davila reveals that a new manuscript of the OT Pseudepigraphon Jannes and Jambres has been discovered in Ethiopia. Peter Head commented on this as well over at Evangelical Textual Criticism.

New Testament/Early Christianity

James Crossley offers three posts at The Jesus Blog on the possibility of Aramaic sources behind the Gospel tradition (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).

At The Bible and Interpretation Michael Kok offered a piece on his specialty, the Gospel of Mark, looking at “the reasons why some later Christian intellectuals were hesitant to embrace Mark, especially highlighting their concerns that Mark could be read as amenable to the theological views of their opponents.”

BW3 mentioned (here and here) a new series on CNN beginning today entitled “Finding Jesus: Fact, Faith, or Forgery.”

Richard Goode posted a summary and Powerpoint slides of Steve Moyise’s lecture entitled “Was the Birth of Jesus According to Scripture?

Reading Acts has been living up to its name, as Phil Long is continuing to blog his way through Acts:

• Acts 5:29 – Obeying God Rather Than Man
• Acts 5:34 – Gamaliel Defends the Disciples
• The Chronology of Acts 6
• Acts 6 – Who were the Hellenstic Jews?
• Acts 6 – Were Diaspora Jews “More Liberal?”
• Acts 6:11-15 – The Charges Against Stephen
• Acts 6:9-14 – Responses to Stephen’s Preaching
• Acts 7:51 – A “Stiff-necked Generation”
• Acts 8:1b-4 – Persecution Scatters the Disciples
• Acts 8 – Philip, Simon, and Magic
• Acts 9 – Introducing Rabbi Saul
• Acts 9 – Conversion or Call?
• Acts 9 – Paul’s Blindness
• Acts 9:19 – Boldly Preaching in Damascus
• Acts 9 – Paul in Arabia
• Acts 9:23-12:24 – Peter’s Ministry Outside Jerusalem
• Acts 9:32-35 – Healing Aeneas
• Acts 9:36-38 – Raising Tabitha
• Acts 9:43 – Simon and Cornelius
• Acts 10 – What is a “God-fearing” Gentile?
• Acts 10 – Roman Soldiers and Religion
• Acts 10 – Almsgiving as a Gentile Sacrifice?
• Acts 10 – Peter and Salvation of the Gentiles
• Acts 11 – Cornelius and Judaism’s Boundary Markers
• Acts 12 and Luke’s Literary Style
• Acts 12 – Herod Agrippa I
• Acts 12:7 – Where Does Peter Go?
• Acts 13 – Christians in Antioch

Whew! I know it sounds treasonous, but perhaps Phil is dethroning King James as most prodigious blogger! You know who to go after to avenge me if I end up dead.

I mentioned the Battle of the Dougs (Moo vs. Campbell) on Pauline justification that took place at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. It might seem like something’s not quite wright….thankfully, N. T. Wright was not left out this month. Richard Goode posted a handout and audio to Steve Moyise’s lecture assessing Wright’s understanding of Paul’s use of Scripture in PFG.

Mike Bird commented on Paula Fredriksen’s article “Paul’s Letter to the Romans, the Ten Commandments, and Pagan ‘Justification by faith'” from the latest JBL. Mke also mentioned an article by Matthew Bates entitled “A Christology of Incarnation and Enthronement: Romans 1:3-4 as unified, Nonadoptionist, and Nonconciliatory.”

Matthew Montonini continued his series “Fridays with Fee” in which he is working through the recently revised version of Gordon Fee’s classic commentary (NICNT) on 1 Corinthians (Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Larry Hurtado offers a few comments on Hebrews 1:6 and angelic worship of Christ in response to David Allen’s Essay in the Festchrift in the former’s honor. Hurtado also responds to Bauckham’s essay and Mary Ann Beavis’s essay from the same volume.

At Old School Script, Kris Lyle looks at whether James 3:6 is about the tongue or the fire.

Daniel Gullotta continues his “The Great Schweitzer Reread” series with Chapter 2, Part 1 on Reimarus. Daniel also wrote on how different Paul and John are as well as F. C. Bauer and the Two-Mission Thesis.

Language

At The Bible and Interpretation Holger Gzella wrote an article entitled “Aramaic, the English of the Levant in Antiquity.”

William Ross wrote a post explaining and justifying his work in LXX studies and lexicography.

Mike Aubrey pointed to a recently completed Ph.D. dissertation entitled “The loss of the genitive in the diachrony of Greek.”

Brian Davidson linked to a file that helps one learn the vocabulary of 1 John (words occurring 50 times or less in the NT).

I don’t know how this could be possible, but if any of you are not following Wayne Coppins’s blog German for Neutestamentler, you really need to. Go subscribe now and finish playing at the Carnival later. It’s an invaluable resource for resource for those working with German for NT studies. This month Coppins worked through a section of Jörg Frey’s Die johanneische Eschatologie in honor of his birthday.

Miscellaneous

Women Biblical Scholars linked to a series on biblical prophecy by Ellen F. Davis (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3).

James McGrath noted the free digital availability of two of his articles on monotheism.

Peter Head at Evangelical Textual Criticism announced that the Bodmer Papyrus XIV-XV (P75) now has a new name. Brice Jones comments on P.Monts.Roca 4.59, part of a fragment recently published for the first time.

Nijay Gupta pointed to a video of Marianne Meye Thompson on “Christ and Human Flourishing.”

Daniel Gullotta wrote a post on circumcision and one on epispasm. He also pointed us to a video lecture on the Mandaeans by James McGrath.

Jim Davila points to and comments on a series of posts on Gnosticism.

Marg Mowczko wrote on Eusebius and letter writing in the early church.

Interviews

Alan Brill interviewed chair in Talmud at Princeton University Moulie Vidas on Talmudic source criticism.

Ancient Jew Review interviewed Jodi Magness about her excavation of the Galilean Synagogue of Huqoq.

Women Biblical Scholars interviewed Karen Jobes, Kristine Garroway, Amy-Jill Levine, Ruthe Anne Reese, Mitzi J. Smith, and Lynn Cohick.

Old School Script started a new interview series called “Scholars in Press.” So far Mike Aubrey and Jacob Cerone have been interviewed. If you haven’t done so already, do give Jacob a hearty CONGRATULATIONS for successfully defending his thesis!

Daniel Gullotta linked to an interview of Claudia Setzer by Larry Hurtado, which includes some great advice at the end for aspiring Ph.D. students.

Reviews and More

Abram KJ reviewed Nahum Sarna’s JPS Torah Commentary on Exodus.

Lindsay Kennedy reviewed Jesus the Messiah: Tracing the Promises, Expectations, and coming of Israel’s King and also began a series on the Jewish Trinity, a Logos MobileEd course by Michael Heiser.

Mike Bird reviewed Mark Strauss’s commentary on Mark (ZECNT).

Steve Walton reviewed Jesus is Lord, Caesar is Not at Reviews of Biblical and Early Christian Studies.

I did a three-part overview of the Festschrift presented to Douglas Moo at last year’s ETS Annual Meeting (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).

Matthew Montonini noted that John Barcley’s Paul and the Gift is scheduled for release this October.

Nijay Gupta covered Galatians and Christian Theology, The Church According to Paul, Rodney Decker’s Reading Koine Greek, Mark Seifrid’s commentary on 2 Corinthians (Pillar NTC), and Daniel L. Smith’s Into the World of the New Testament: Greco-Roman and Jewish Texts and Contexts.

Nick Norelli reviewed Logos’s Socio-Rhetorical Commetary series.

BW3 interacted at length with Richard Hays’s Reading Backwards this month (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6; Interview Part 1, Part 2,Part 3, Part 4 ).

Aaaaaaaand that’s all folks! If you want more fun, check out King James’s avignonian carnival.

Posted by Jennifer Guo on March 1, 2015

https://jenniferguo.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/biblical-studies-carnival-february-2015/