Enjoy!
- Over on his blog, Bart Ehrman has a short post on the Lukan story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). Ehrman thinks that while the historical Jesus certain railed against the rich, calling them to repent before the impending reign of God upon the world, he doubts the parable of the rich man and Lazarus was one told by Jesus (see Luke 16:31). It is an interesting piece and gave me a lot to think about.
- Twitter user and blogger @Elishabenabuya recently posted on “God’s Arm” in the book of Isaiah. He notes that the use of this imagery in the three different sections of Isaiah (i.e. Isaiah, Deutero-Isaiah, and Trito-Isaiah) have three different meanings or applications. It isn’t a long post but should be enough to wet your appetite.
- Author and blogger EJ Pond recently posted a few rankings of the New Testament books according to difficulty to read in Greek. Each of the lists rank Johannine literature as among the easiest and Mark falls somewhere near the top as well. When I took Greek in college the epistles of John were used in 100 (beginner) level classes and Mark in the 200 (intermediate) level classes. And as I translate Mark day-to-day I find it to be pretty easy Greek, though it does have its moments.
- I recently finished reading Michael Coogan’s 2014 textbook on the Hebrew Bible and began Norman Gottwald’s abridged The Hebrew Bible: A Brief Socio-Literary Introduction (Fortress Press). Fortress Press’ website has a number of charts, summaries, guides, and maps to accompany the textbook but which may also be useful even for those not reading Gottwald’s work.
- Jan Joosten of Oxford University wrote a chapter in the 2008 book Die Setpuaginta – Texte, Kontexte, Lebenswelten on theophany in the Septuagint entitled “To See God: Conflicting Exegetical Tendencies in the Septuagint.” Joosten notes that in some places the LXX tends to obscure theophanies that are clear in the Masoretic Text while in others it makes theophanies far more pronounced. He proposes a variety of factors to explain these seemingly divergent phenomena, including influences from Egyptian religion. It is a great read.
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons.
The Amateur Exegete 
