“[L]et everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger”
– James 1:19, NRSVue
- Back in December, Marc Zvi Brettler announced his retirement, which will happen officially later this year. I’ve benefited from Brettler’s work time and again, from his contributions to volumes like The New Oxford Annotated Bible and, more importantly, The Jewish Annotated New Testament to his How to Read the Bible (Jewish Publication Society, 2005) to various pieces that have appeared over at thetorah.com. I wish him all the best!
- Steve Wiggins offers a rundown of some of what he read in 2025. On a personal note, my goal for the last few years has been to read a book or so a week and I exceeded that last year. Like Wiggins, a lot of what I read was fiction. I think I’m making up for lost time on that end because for so many years I viewed fiction as a waste of time. Now it is absolutely indispensable for my daily routine. I still watch too much TV but I’m getting better!
- John Nelson celebrates 2 years of his blog. Congrats, John!
- The Lukan nativity story is fascinating, especially in light of Luke’s overall project as it is made manifest in the entirety of Luke-Acts. And to guide us through that story, Paul Davidson has put out another excellent video that covers it.
- If you’re looking for some reading material, Michael Kok has a new article on the Gospel of John and Cerinthus that you can read for free!
- Robyn Walsh asks and answers the question of whether the letters of Paul were, in their entirety, forgeries from the second century. She thinks that it is unlikely and offers a brief argument in their defense.
- Kipp Davis talks about why some of the Dead Sea Scrolls turned out to be fakes.
- Steve Mason was interviewed by C. J. Cornthwaite on the influence of Josephus on Luke-Acts. Mason is an expert on Josephus and his book Josephus and the New Testament (Hendrickson Publishers) is a must read on the subject.
The Amateur Exegete 
Fantastic roundup to start the New Year!
In addition, the Kedem channel on YouTube has been on a roll recently. Recent interviews include Ron Hendel on the Exodus narrative as cultural memory and the geopolitical connotations of the Patriarchal stories, as well as Eric Cline on the Amarna letters.
I usually listen to this sort of stuff while doing housework, and the place probably hasn’t been this clean since we bought it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent recommendations! Who knew YouTube videos could have such practical value 🙂
LikeLike
Cool, the Weekly Roundups are back (with even more from the lovely Dr. Walsh)!
Neat to see Cornthwaite on here as well. I came across a clip of him interviewing….um Dr. Walsh…. and was impressed with the cast of scholars he chose for his video channel. He has my respect for being willing to take a “deconstructionist” approach and honestly look at the Bible.
If it’s alright, I did have a suggestion for a future round-up feature (with a caveat because of the nature of the website) a Bible studies-related question, and a more lighthearted one:
1.) After the new year began. I came across a piece on the Free of Faith site in which the site’s owner Phil was cautioning skeptics to avoid mythicism when discussing the Gospels and work from the assumption that critical study can help “weed out” their unhistorical elements. To make a long story sort, I responded with a sort of comparison I had heard from a few scholars between Jesus and Alexander the Great regarding how the legends attributed to them developed over time. After further looking into the subject, Phil posted a follow-up piece on the Alexander Romance traditiondiscussing how a historical figure can have myths develop after their life and what this might mean for the studies on the historical Jessus. The caveat is that the website general takes a highly skeptical (though respectful) approach to religious belief, which might be off-putting for more religious readers of the round-ups.
2.) One Bible topic I have been thinking about somewhat has to do with the Book of Judges, particularly the Song of Deborah. Since scholars tend to think that it is among the oldest portions of the Hebrew Bible, what seems intriguing is that the rest of the Bible seems silent about Deborah. For example, I noticed that 1 Samuel (12 or 13?) has a speech in which Samuel warns the Israelites after they asked for a king and recounts some of their past episodes of idolatry. While Sisera and Jabin are apparently mentioned, Deborah is not mentioned. There’s also the Book of Hebrews which has Barak as a hero of faith without extolling Deborah. I had a few suspicions about why this might be, but would appreciate any light you could shed on it (as always):
3.) Since you are a fan of the horror genre, could I post a short list of obscure horror films for your thoughts? (There is one sci-fi channel I sometimes watch that shows B-movies as part of after-hours programming). If not, that’s cool but thought you might find it interesting.
Thanks,
J Source
LikeLike
Thanks for the recommendations. (I’m always looking for interesting stuff to include here.)
Regarding Barak and Deborah, I’d need to look into all that. I wish I spent more time contemplating the Hebrew Bible than I do. My suspicion is that there is some measure of misogyny coupled with either older tradition that has been shaped into a more acceptable polemic or something that just reflects how the story was filtered from the get-go. I’m just spit-balling.
As to horror films, post away!!! I love a good horror film, even if it’s cringey. (Sometimes the cringier the better.) If it has Nicholas Cage in it, even better. He’s been in some really interesting horror films as of late.
LikeLike
Some of the horror/horror-related flicks I came across (with some initial thoughts) were the following (wasn’t sure on the exact titles for a few):
–The Scarecrows (Definitely bizarre; found it a little too absurd to be genuinely horrifying or suspenseful)
–The Killer Sofa (Some Independent Film; Comical if fairly egregious; Too Obscure for Rotten Tomatoes)
-One Beyond the Door film (3rd maybe?) (Has college students slowly being killed off on a train and weird “antichrist” figure) (Watchable if
–The Season of the Witch (Tried to Include a Nicholas Cage Film) (More of a fantasy film; enjoyable though it takes some historical license with the Crusades being fought a century late)
–Bloodpunch (Very much a cult indie film with mostly Kiwi actors) (Found it by accident while flipping the channels; surprisingly good considering its absurdly low budget, limited release, and uneven dialogue)
-(One Film I didn’t know the name of involving a group of researchers on an island conducting a zombie-experiment with the military)
(Even though I’m more of a sci-fi fan, I still enjoy good films or television shows that intersect with horror/suspense. For instance, some of the my favorite episodes from the newer Outer Limits series were those with darker/”otherworldly” elements.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
*Correction on Beyond the Door film: (Watchable if a bit of a weird hodgepodge of Dracula/Amityville-type/satanic tropes)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t know if I’m familiar with any of these (except for ‘Outer Limits’)! ‘The Season of the Witch’ sounds familiar, but that may because I’m associating it with some other horror or horror-adjacent media. I don’t know. Maybe some of these are on Shudder.
LikeLike
Of the bunch, I’d probably most recommend the Season of the Witch and Blood Punch.
I think I saw both on the same channel and liked them for different reasons. Season of the Witch because of the decent cast and medieval fantasy theme.
Blood Punch is definitely way off the “beaten path,” but if you can get past a few random scenes where the writer might have been taking a nap and repeated on-screen vomiting, it has a nice indie vide, for lack of a better term. Without giving away too much, it’s almost a mix of Breaking Bad with the supernatural. (I looked it up later and was surprised that in spite of winning awards at independent film festivals is was never given a nationwide theater release of any sort.)
Regarding The Outer Limits, I started watching reruns of episodes from the 90s-2000s reboot series and was generally impressed. (Have heard the original series was a classic but haven’t gotten around to watching it yet.) The writers had some really neat ideas and a few pieces were apparently inspired by stories of authors like Stephen King and George R.R. Martin). Some of the better episodes (without remembering their names offhand) were probably the one with the future president on the plane, the prison simulation, the man skipping through different decades, and the Casablanca-type episode. (Maybe if I can think of some of the guest stars.)
It’s funny that the first ones I came across were probably among the most bizarre: there was one with a person “regressing” back to being an early hominid and the one where a group of adults develop extraordinary intelligence after being hit by alien capsules.
Anyway, it’s probably on a list with Star Trek: Next Gen, Firefly, Babylon 5, and maybe Farscape for my favorite sci-fi series. (I’m still trying to decide on Stargate having seen just a couple of episodes. V was a bit too uneven in my mind to go with the others.)
LikeLiked by 1 person