Biblical Studies Carnival #220 (September 2024)

Well, it’s October 1st! We are rapidly approaching the best holiday of the year (Halloween) and for those of us with school-aged children we are well into another year of homework, extracurricular sports, stomach bugs, and more. Here in Louisiana, it’s hot. Too hot. I hate it. But what better way to beat the heat than to head down to the (Biblical Studies) Carnival?

As I did the last time I hosted, this Carnival is divided quite simply into two broad categories: Hebrew Bible & Related and New Testament & Related (heavy on New Testament). It’s a simple layout for a simple man (i.e., me). If you don’t like this format or you think I missed some important stuff (which I surely did), then you should contact Phil Long, the Keeper of the Carnivals, and host a carnival yourself! You can email him (plong42@gmail.com) or message him on Twitter (https://x.com/Plong42).

Enjoy!

Hebrew Bible & Related

• Heather Anne Thiessen reflects on 1 Kings 8:22-53, offering devotional thoughts on the text in tandem with study notes she first published back in 2020. For those who do not otherwise follow Dr. Thiessen, she routinely posts notes and reflections on various biblical texts that are used in a Bible study group she leads.
  
• Bob MacDonald began September with a musical scoring of the Hebrew of Proverbs 8. Whenever I read a post like this from MacDonald, I’m amazed not only because of his proficiency with Hebrew and his musicality but the time it takes to put it all together in a blog post.
  
• Stephen Cook got his hands on the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Deuteronomy and it looks fantastic. Cook notes that he contributed an essay to it. Look for it in January!
  
• Bruce Wells examines how the language of hatred in many ancient Near Eastern and biblical texts is less an emotional term than a legal one, especially with regards to marriage.
  
• Kipp Davis, Joshua Bowen, and Mark Leuchter discuss the conquest narrative from the book of Joshua and respond to a pair of apologists who recently did their own examination. It’s over two hours but if you break it up into 30 minute chunks over a few days it’s like watching a TV series!
  
• Isaac Oliver goes over several misconceptions about ancient Judaism, including some pretty pernicious ones like the so-called Intertestamental Period was the “Dark Ages” for Judaism or that ancient Judaism was legalistic. A really helpful read!
  
• Was there a historical Adam? That’s the question taken up by Jennifer Bird, Kipp Davis, and Joshua Bowen as they respond to Andrew Loke.
  
• Jay over at the Biblical Scholarship blog continues his series looking at the prophetic book of Hosea.
  
• Airton da Silva talks about reading a section on cult reforms in ancient Judah (or the lack thereof) that appeared in the volume One God – One Cult – One Nation: Archaeological and Biblical Perspectives (De Gruyter, 2010). That chapter was written by Juha Pakkala and da Silva provides links to read his contribution for free (my favorite price)!
  
• Curious about Melchizedek? Paul Davidson has you covered at his website Is That in the Bible? He begins with his appearance in Genesis, continues through other references in the Hebrew Bible (i.e., Psalm 110), and finishes with his afterlife in other ancient Jewish and Christian literature.
  
• Aren Maier alerts readers to a volume on the controversial Mt. Ebal Inscription entitled (simply enough) The Mount Ebal Inscription (Megillat Safer, 2024). Maier is, in a word, unimpressed.
  
• Phil Long gives a review of Sexuality in the Bible and the Ancient World, a work that begins with the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East and moves to the Roman period. Looks like an interesting volume!

New Testament & Related

• If you’re wanting more blog posts from Michael Kok, I’ve got good news and bad news. The bad news is he’s cutting back. The good news is that he’s cutting back because he’s working on a new book about the authorship of the Gospels!
  
• Need a brief intro to Josephus? Marek Dospěl has you covered over at the Biblical Archaeology Society.
  
• Over on Shirley Paulson’s podcast The Bible and Beyond, John Dominic Crossan discussed Paul and the resurrection, exploring how the apostle would have understood it in his own ancient context.
  
• Helen Bond and Dave Roos talked about the Gospels in their post-70 CE context with Nathaniel Vette. Of interest to me was his take on the exorcising of Legion, specifically the connection of the pigs (naturally good swimmers) drowning in the sea connects to a prior pericope demonstrating Jesus’s mastery over the sea.
  
• If you haven’t been paying attention to John Nelson’s blog Behind the Gospels lately, he’s got a rundown of the summer’s posts. Oh, and he’s planning to create a Behind the Gospels podcast!
  
• I recently reviewed Nicholas Elder’s book Gospel Media: Reading, Writing, and Circulating Jesus Traditions. It’s a fantastic book and deserves a large audience.
  
• The ever-erudite blogger καταπέτασμα looks at how Jesus is depicted in the New Testament and compares it to the figures of Elijah, Elisha, and Jehu from the Old, dubbing them a kind of “typological substrate” from which early Christians drew in their depictions and understandings of Jesus of Nazareth.
  
• In light of her recently released commentary on the epistle to the Romans for the New Testament Library series, Beverly Gaventa was interviewed over at Nijay Gupta’s blog about her writing of the commentary, influential texts that she made use of in writing it, and more.
  
• James McGrath had some speaking engagements in September about his recent publications, but since it’s October 1st you’ve missed them. But he will be in Denver this month for Theology Beer Camp so find him there! And if you want to hear him talk about Christmaker, he was on The Stone Chapel Podcast.
  
• The dating of the Acts of the Apostles is a subject fraught with difficulty, though there seems to be a trend toward viewing it as a work from the late first or early second century (or even later). Over at his YouTube channel, David Litwa interviewed Daniel Glover about the subject in light of his forthcoming article on the topic.
  
• Out in September was Tucker Ferda’s book Jesus and His Promised Second Coming. Dale Allison wrote the forward and it has endorsements from scholars like Matthew Novenson and Joel Marcus. Looks like it might be good!
  
• Did Pauline Christianity exist? That’s the question taken up by Sarah Rollens as she looks at the ways scholars construct categories that help (and, at times, hinder) their efforts to understand the past.
  
• Where my Greek nerds at? Michael Aubrey has a post on the preposition περί (peri) and notes how it is used with respect to “trajectors” and “landmarks.” But, as it so often the case with prepositions, that’s not the only way it can be used!
  
• James Bishop looks at the contradiction between Matthew’s version of Judas Iscariot’s demise and the version found in Acts in light of claims by inerrantists. He is keen to note that the discrepancy between them does not mean they are not of some historical value.
  
• Andrew Perriman gave a talk about Philippians 2 for a conference held by the Unitarian Christian Alliance. And if you want more, he wrote a whole book about it!
  
• Over at the YouTube channel History Valley you can find an interview with Frank Hughes about interpolations in 1 Corinthians. Hughes wrote a book on the Corinthian correspondence with the late Robert Jewett.
  
• James Tabor talks about Gary Habermas’ arguments for the resurrection and how they contradict what our earliest sources have to say about it. Tabor, as usual, is as provocative as he is entertaining.