The Weekly Roundup – 2.14.20

Happy Valentine’s Day! To both of my readers, I love you!

• Over at Is That in the Bible? readers can find a lengthy post on the story of Joseph entitled “From Robes to Riches: The Fairytale of Joseph.” In this piece, Paul Davidson discusses issues related to genre, sources, redaction, and more. This is not a post to read in one sitting (at least for me it wasn’t). At the end you can find a PDF featuring a color coded copy of the text of Genesis 37:1-50:26 (skipping those portions not directly relevant to the Joseph narrative) showing the various strands and sources of the narrative.
• New Testament scholar Michael Kok (PhD, University of Sheffield) has begun a series on his website on Paul and the epistles to the Corinthians. He started it back in January and has been slowly posting links to important articles, commentaries, and monographs. For those unfamiliar with Kok, his two books on the reception of the Gospel of Mark and the authorship of the Gospel of John are must reads.
• If you haven’t seen the back-and-forth between Randal Rauser and Michael Brown, you’re missing out. First, Rauser responded to a rather odious tweet from Brown wherein Brown cast aspersions on presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg’s ability to lead because he is a homosexual. Rauser pointed out that the current president is grossly immoral and Brown just doesn’t seem to mind. Next, Brown responded to Rauser in a larger piece entitled “I Will Say What the Political Leaders Cannot Say About Pete Buttigieg.” Brown, unsurprisingly, glosses over Trump’s behavior because the president isn’t “flaunting” his immorality. Next, Rauser responds to the piece by Brown, pointing out all that Brown ignores in his support of Trump. Rauser does a fine job of exposing the hypocrite that Brown truly is.
• Dean Galbraith has posted links to two videos featuring lectures from Robert Alter on Bible translation and biblical narrative. Who doesn’t love Alter? I wish he was my grandpa!
• Are people who have left one ideology for another automatically authoritative on the position they abandoned? No, says @AlchemistNon, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider what they have to say.