- Where can you find Biblical Studies Carnival #207? Why at Jim West’s site, of course!
- New Arrivals on my shelves in the last month or so
- The Death of Judas: The Characterization of Judas Iscariot in Three Early Christian Accounts of his Death by Jesse E. Robertson (Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2012).
- Ethics: A Very Short Introduction by Simon Blackburn (OUP, 2021).
- Jewish Christianity: The Making of the Christianity-Judaism Divide by Matt Jackson-McCabe (Yale University Press, 2020).
- Language & Literacy in Roman Judea: A Study of the Bar Kokhba Documents by Michael Owen Wise (Yale University Press, 2015).
- The Temple in Early Christianity: Experiencing the Sacred by Eyal Regev (Yale University Press, 2019).
- Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (Dial Press, 2009 [originally published in 1969]).
- The Mirror or the Mask: Liberating the Gospels from Literary Devices by Lydia McGrew (DeWard Publishing, 2019).
- The Eye of the Beholder: The Gospel of John as Historical Reportage (DeWard Publishing, 2021).
- Shaping the Past to Define the Present: Luke-Acts and Apologetic Historiography by Gregory E. Sterling (Eerdmans, 2023)
- An Introduction to the Study of Luke-Acts (second edition) by V. George Shillington (Bloomsbury, 2015).
- Matthew within Sectarian Judaism by John Kamen (Yale University Press, 2019).
- Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict by James Crossley and Robert J. Myles.
- Over at thetorah.com, Shawna Dolansky – an associate professor at Carleton University and coauthor of The Bible Now with Richard Elliot Friedman – takes up the issue of abortion and what the Bible has to say about it and when life begins. The piece’s title (“The Bible is Silent on Abortion, but Vocal about When Life Begins”) gives up some of the article’s contents. In short, the Bible neither condemns nor promotes abortion. It does, however, suggest that a woman’s life is more valuable than that of a fetus and that life begins not at conception but at first breath.
- Drs. Laura Robinson and Ian Mills put outanother episode of their podcast New Testament Review, this time covering Günther Bornkamm’s “The Stilling of the Storm in Matthew.” If you’re interested in issues related to redaction criticism, check out this brief episode!
- Over at the MythVision podcast, Matthew Hartke responds to the idea that Jesus’s prophecy concerning the end times (e.g., Mark 13:30) was conditionaland that it didn’t happen in that generation because the conditions were not met. Hence, the delay in the parousia. Hartke isn’t convinced by this line of reasoning.
- Mark Edward posted a review of Bart Ehrman’s latest book Apocalypse: What the Bible Really Says about the End not long after it came out. He registers both his appreciation for Ehrman’s work generally as well as problems he has with this particular volume. (Edward has also made some cosmetic changes to his website. It looks great!)
- In March over at Ancient Jew Review, Sidnie White Crawford talked about her “journey” with the Dead Sea Scrolls, beginning in the 80s (when I was but a toddler!) and continuing to the present. She’s worked with some important figures including Emmanuel Tov, Frank Moore Cross, and more. Pieces like this are inspiring and I’m eager to read reflective pieces by scholars who say things like, “I worked with Sidnie White Crawford.”
- Speaking of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Kipp Davis recently published the third installment in his series “The Dead Sea Scrolls, Unapologetically.” There’s a lot of history that he goes over as well as a comparison of the quality of work done on so-called non-biblical texts when compared to biblical ones. Did they consider non-biblical texts to be scripture? There’s a lot to think about in this video!
- Spencer McDaniel takes Jordan Peterson to the woodshed with regards to biblical languages. Peterson has opined on the meaning of “sin” in both Hebrew and Greek, not only mispronouncing the Hebrew word ḥēṭʾ but also getting various details about import and etymology just plain wrong. He did this with the Greek word for “meek” (praüs) as well, showing he shouldn’t quit his day job. McDaniel, in her typical erudite style, takes down Peterson and shows why he just can’t be trusted to handle topics within biblical studies.
- Somehow I missed that Laura Robinson (who recently acquired her PhD) has a blog with a good number of posts, including one on the how of Bible reading – we come to the text with a certain hermeneutic in hand, whether we intend to or not. Robinson is always insightful and fun to read so go check out her other posts too!
- A conversation with my son:
Son: “How many of the Anchor Bible Dictionary do you have?”
Me: “All six. And they were expensive!”
Son: “So you’re rich.”
Me: “I own all six volumes, so no I’m not.”
Son: [Gesturing at all my books] “Then how did you get all these books?”
Me: “They’re why I’m not rich.”
The Amateur Exegete 
I wonder where Friedman gets that psychopathic nonsense.
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