The Roundup – 5.7.22

The Roundup – 5.7.22

• Biblical Studies Carnival #194 was posted by Brent Niedergall and fans of the Star Wars franchise will love it. Sure, it has your standard list of posts related to biblical studies released in the month of April. But it also has a bunch of clever memes that are Star Wars themed. It’s brilliant!
  
• In the spirit of April Fool’s Day, Ian Mills and Laura Robinson published an episode of The New Testament Review that covered an agraphon of Jesus that was purportedly discovered by the late classical scholar Paul Coleman-Norton while he was serving in World War Two. (Coleman-Norton was one of Bruce Metzger’s professors.) Without giving too much away, the story of this discovery is complicated.
  
• About a year ago, @SpartanTheology and @J_DePue did a stream discussing Mary Healy’s contribution to the book The Bible and Epistemology wherein she talks about Pauline epistemology. I know Healy from her commentary on the Gospel of Mark and was unaware of her other contributions to the field of biblical studies. The stream discussing this essay was fascinating even if I couldn’t get on board with all of it. 
  
• Mark Edward posted a short piece on the new covenant in Jeremiah, showing that it isn’t “new” but renewed. He begins by looking at the letter to the Hebrews and its appropriation of Jeremiah’s language and then moves on to a comparison of the language of Deuteronomy to that of Jeremiah. In short, Edward shows that Hebrews messiah-focused use of Jeremiah misses the point. Jeremiah wasn’t calling for the establishment of a brand-new covenant, making the “old” one obsolete, but was instead speaking of a covenant renewal. 
  
• One of my favorite historians, Helen Bond, appeared on Tripp Fuller’s Homebrewed Christianity podcast to talk about the historical Jesus, his female followers, and more. She has a new book out with Joan Taylor that I have yet to get my hands on. I may need to change that!
  
• Back in March, Spencer McDaniel wrote a post on proselytism in the ancient Mediterranean before Christianity. He looks at charges of Jewish proselytism in Roman sources as well as its more coerced kind during the reign of John Hyrcanus (per Josephus). McDaniel’s is a brief but interesting article. 
  
• YouTuber @AlchemistNon recently interviewed philosopher Erik Wielenberg. The pair talked about a range of topics, mainly orbiting Wielenberg’s fascinating book God and the Reach of Reason: C.S. Lewis, David Hume, and Bertrand Russell (Cambridge University Press, 2008). The discussion is nearly an hour and a half, but it is well worth the investment. And buy Wielenberg’s book, too. 
  
• Looking for a massive and thorough bibliography on the LXX? William Ross has you covered! It is seriously impressive. 
  
• Καταπέτασμα wrote a post on the function of Christian apocalyptic rhetoric in its ancient context. Fundamentally, apocalyptic is about reversal, especially of the egg on God’s face for allowing the world he created to go to hell. For Christians, resurrection fit into this because it is God taking shamed and humiliated bodies and restoring them to a more glorified and honored state. This was a thought-provoking piece. 
  
• Ben Stanhope recently published an infographic comparing Yahweh with other ancient gods in the region including Ra, Baal, and Marduk. Very useful stuff!