Biblical Studies Carnival #181 (March 2021)

INTRO

For this month’s carnival, I decided to do something a little different. What you’ll find below are 30 links to various blog posts, videos, and podcasts related to the field of biblical studies. Why 30? Because April has 30 days! (Trust me. I verified this using the counting-knuckles method my dad taught me.) That means that by clicking on one link a day you can get through the entire carnival in a month, just in time to be ready for the Carnival #182! So, without further ado, here’s Biblical Studies Carnival #181 (March 2021).

Hebrew Bible/ANE

• Jim West alerts his readers to a collection of essays by the late Gary Knoppers entitled Prophets, Priests, and Promises: Essays on the Deuteronomistic History, Chronicles, and Ezra-Nehemiah (Brill, 2021). Knoppers, who died in 2018, was responsible for the two volumes covering 1 Chronicles for the Anchor Bible series. This collection of essays will be a fine contribution to Knoppers work. West has placed this post into the “Book Review Pending” category, so stay tuned!
• Over at the Patheos YouTube Channel, Andrew Mark Henry continues his series on archaeology and the Bible, this time focusing on those fearsome Sea Peoples, e.g., the Philistines! This is episode 4 of the series so be sure to go back and catch up!
• What do you get when you cross a son of God and a daughter of men? Why, the Nephilim of course! Or is it giants? Or is it both? Claude Mariottini tackles the subject of the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men” from Genesis 6 over at his blog.
• Blogger and YouTuber The Non-Alchemist interviewed Joshua Bowen on his forthcoming book The Atheist Handbook to the Old Testament. In 2020, Bowen wrote an excellent volume entitled Does the Old Testament Endorse Slavery? (You can read my review of that book here.)
• Bob MacDonald is discussing the musicality of the psalms, beginning with Psalm 1. Be sure to listen to the audio that some posts in this series feature. They’re beautiful, even if you don’t know Hebrew.
• The inaugural issue of Metatron, an open access journal that covers topics related to philology, the ancient Near East, and related issues, has become available! As the introductory article written by James Nati and Seth Sanders notes, this issue explores ancient Hebrew literature other than that which we find in the canonical Hebrew scriptures.
• Over on Bart Ehrman’s blog, Kristin Swenson, the author of A Most Peculiar Book: The Inherent Strangeness of the Bible (Oxford, 2020), has written a post on how to make sense of the Bible’s strangeness.
• Blogger @mirascriptura posts on the use of mirror reading in source criticism, highlighting in particular sources in the book of Amos.
• Speaking of source criticism, Pete Enns had Richard Elliot Friedman on his podcast to discuss the origin of the Pentateuch.

LXX/Apocrypha/Dead Sea Scrolls

• Brent Nongbri gives us a glimpse at some now seventy year old photographs of Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts that have long puzzled him. He’s doing some detective work and trying to figure out exactly where the photos were taken. *In Robert Stack’s voice.* Join him. Perhaps you may be able to help solve a mystery!
• William Ross was interviewed on the Biblingual podcast to discuss the LXX.
• Ross also gives the rundown on the recently discovered DSS fragment.
• Brandon Hawk discusses apocryphal texts in the biblical canon of Jews and Christians in Ethiopia.

New Testament

• James Tabor asks (and answers) the question, What did Jesus mean by “hell fire”? Spoiler alert: it isn’t eternal torment in a fiery prison. Tabor also recommends Ehrman’s latest book Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife (Simon & Schuster, 2020). I second this.
• What did Jesus learn from women? That’s the subject of James McGrath’s recently released book. Over at his website, McGrath published a Q&A so people can see what the book is about and why it matters.
• Speaking of McGrath’s book, Andy Cassler has taken to blogging through it, beginning with the book’s preface.
• Phil Long commenced an examination of some Matthean texts, beginning with Matthew 9:27-31 and the reference to Jesus as the “Son of David.”
• Nicola Denzey Lewis doubts that the apostle Peter was ever in Rome. As she aptly points out, the evidence for Peter either being in Rome generally or being executed there specifically isn’t all that great.
• When Jesus speaks of “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” in Matthew 10:6, to whom exactly is he referring? Phil Ledgerwood offers help answering this question.
• Ben Witherington III points his readers to a 2017 post from Roger Pearse concerning a crucifixion graffito that seems to be of a female victim. Interesting stuff!
• Isaac Soon interacts with a recent piece by Candida Moss on slavery and the writing of the New Testament.
• Blogger καταπέτασμα discusses Jesus’ view of gentiles, particularly their status in the coming kingdom.
• Thinking about getting Mark Keown’s Discovering the New Testament? Well, Phil Long has a review of the first two volumes of Keown’s work that might help you out!
• Over at their podcast New Testament Review, Ian Mills and Laura Robinson review NT Wright’s 1993 piece “On Becoming the Righteousness of God.”
• David Gowler continues his discussion of new material in his What Are They Saying about the Parables?

Misc.

• Tim O’Neill has (re)launched a YouTube channel that shares the name of his website: History for Atheists. I know that many of the readers of the Carnival are Christians of some stripe but O’Neill’s work is top-notch and, as an atheist myself, I’ve learned quite a bit from his website. His YouTube channel should prove to be just as enlightening!
• Over at Ancient Jew Review, Dong Hyeon Jeong reviews Jay Geller’s Bestiarium Judaicum: Unnatural Histories of the Jews (Fordham University Press, 2018).
• Adele Reinhartz wrote a helpful piece on the meaning of Jew/Judaism for Bible Odyssey.
• For those who aren’t aware, Isaac Soon (who recently passed his viva) has created a website wherein he interviews PhD students in fields related to biblical studies about their background and research. In March he interviewed Yehuda Mansell, Rachel Al Rubai, and Brandon Hurlbert (to name a few).
• Yours truly was interviewed by the dynamic duo of Jon DePue and Laura Robinson for their YouTube channel Apocalypse Here. The question of the day was, “What is the Bible?” It was a fun time!

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If you’d like to host a carnival on your website, reach out to Phil Long (plong42@gmail.com; Twitter, @plong42) and let him know! It’s a great way to showcase 1) what you’ve been reading in the field of biblical studies and 2) your own work on your website. Dr. Long is always looking for new hosts so shoot him a message. Now, here’s a list of future carnivals!

182 April 2021 (Due May 1) – Ruben Rus, Ayuda Ministerial/Resources for Ministry, @rubenderus 
183 May 2021 (Due June 1) – Bobby Howell, The Library Musings, @SirRobertHowell 
184 June 2021 (Due July 1) – Brent Niedergall, @BrentNiedergall 
185 July 2021 (Due August 1) – Kenson Gonzalez Viviendo para Su Gloria @KensonGonzalez