This month I thought for the fun of it I’d do a half carnival. I.e., offers readers the more interesting posts from across the globe as posted in the biblioblog universe for just the first half of the month. Enjoy!
Hebrew Bible
Claims concerning a little ‘artifact’ inscribed with the name of Darius burst on the scene at the beginning of March with even the IAA itself declaring the little snippet of text ‘authentic’. Some were rightly sceptical, as the fun little trinket was found on the surface and not in a controlled dig. Others wanted to see for themselves before accepting the IAA’s verdict. But at the end, it turns out that the thing was a modern piece of classroom instructional material completely invented by a Prof who put it on the ground and forgot to pick it up again. Boy does the IAA have egg on its face now. Perhaps going forward they will be a little more careful about vaunting unprovenanced materials. Though to be fair with all the fakes discovered in recent years you’d think they’d know better by now. Alas…
Much more edifying and scholarly is Sidnie Crawford White’s brilliant essay titled ‘My Journey With the Dead Sea Scrolls’. Give it a read. Turns out the Scrolls are cheap when it comes to paying for travel and lodging and food. Sidnie had to pay for everything! If she were Gen-Z she would set up a go fund me but she’s not so she’s a decent human being.
Anthony Ferguson also shared some thoughts on the Scrolls: i.e., the evolution of Tov’s understanding of them. It’s pretty interesting.
Mark Leuchter did a really interesting (34 part) twitter thread on the now constantly recurring debate about David’s rape of Bathsheba. If you missed it, read it now.
Judges 19 is the focus for this post on ordination exams for Presbyterians by Jan Edmiston. Honestly, any post that begins [This post will make some readers unhappy.] has to find a spot in any Carnival.
Who did Cain marry? Eva Mroczek offers some thoughts drawn from Jewish tradition. Enjoy!
Who are the Rephaim? A riddle. Jonathan Yogev gives solving said riddle a go. He’s most likely correct.
Curious about Jonah? Want to read Jim Gordon’s thoughts on the book? Now’s your chance! There’s nothing fishy. (Thank you, thank you, I’m here all week. Be sure to tip the wait staff).
Want to excavate in Israel at a very important archaeological site in the North? Then Jezreel is the place to be. All the details about volunteering are available here. Or do you prefer to excavate where the Philistine’s roamed? Well you’re in luck because you can do that too. Find the info here.
New Testament
James Crossley talked about Jesus as product of class struggle in a piece about his new book on the subject (written with one Robert Myles.
If numismatics is your bag, you will be interested in this post regarding the portrayal of kneeling conquered folk depicted on Roman coins. Really great info. Eye opening, as it were.
A-J Levine discusses the story of the woman caught in adultery in John’s Gospel. As she rightly notes, contra the usual reading of the text, In terms of the woman herself, what people fail to ask usually is what happens to her at the end? Jesus never says, “I forgive you.” It’s not about forgiveness, but she’s simply left saying you’re not condemned.
It’s nice to see a couple of publications by my old friend George Raymond Beasley-Murray pop up in March on Rob Bradshaw’s resources page. Go download them now. Everything George wrote was absolute gold.
Dan McClellan offers a tick tock mini lecture on the meaning of the word ‘Magdalene’. My own forays into tick tocking focus more on my incredible dance moves and mashups of kids running over their dads on skateboards. I guess Dan is putting the platform to better use.
Books
March was Women’s History Month and DeGruyter celebrated by offering a raft of materials for free (till April 10)- so you still have time to get in on the free-ness-ness of it.
The ‘Gospel Coalition’ hawked a garbage book based on trash eisegesis by a chap named Josh Butler who, to be completely fair, knows less about biblical exposition than Joel Osteen. The article in TGC and the book itself were obliterated by actual scholars. One of the better obliterations appeared from the pen (keyboard I suppose is more accurate) of Amy Peeler. Enjoy. And always remember, TGC is theological garbage.
Scribes and Scripture by Peter Gurry and John Meade was reviewed by Peter Montoro. Montoro remarks … a truly excellent book that will surely become a staple in churches and seminaries all over the English-speaking world. High praise indeed for a book I haven’t read. How important could it be, then, hmmm?
Lindsay Kennedy (an Aussie… so I apologize in advance for including his post) reviewed a book titled AN INTERTEXTUAL COMMENTARY TO THE PSALTER: JUXTAPOSITION AND ALLUSION IN BOOK I. Intertexuality is something like reception history but it’s the reception of biblical texts within biblical texts. Neat, huh. It’s like Paul quoting Psalms or Psalms quoting Genesis, etc. It’s all the rage among the Gen-Z kids. (When they aren’t playing Fortnite that is).
‘Becoming Elijah‘ was nicely reviewed by Alan Brill (no relation to the German publishing consortium). I think if I were to become any of the Prophets, it would be Elisha. He’s the best. Well, after Jeremiah.
Michael Bird talks about some books in his latest Books, Books, Books episode on the YouTube. The only interesting one is the one by Nijay Gupta. The rest look really uninspiring. Church Fathers, toxic masculinity, universalism? Ick.
Niels Peter Lemche’s excellent book ‘Back to Reason’ was nicely reviewed in RBL. It genuinely is a super book and you ought to read it if you haven’t yet.
Nijay Gupta’s excellent little book was released on March 14. A few hours previously he tweeted
@NijayKGupta — Excited to see folks are ordering #TellHerStory @ivpacademic, official release is in about 8 hours (March 14, 2023). God blessed so many women to lead, teach, and do dangerous and difficult ministry, we need to listen to, learn from, and imitate them!
If you missed it I reviewed it here.
Miscellaneous Stuff
The SBL tweeted– Registration for the 2023 Global Virtual Meeting is open! The meeting will be online 27-31 March 2023. Access the preliminary program book here.
The Catholic University of America is offering Summer courses in Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, or Syriac. And they are all online! All the details are available here. This is an amazing opportunity!
Bible and Archaeology (an initiative of the University of Iowa) tweets
@biblearch- Sign up for free today at Bible & Archaeology: https://bam.sites.uiowa.edu . We know it can be hard to stay up with the week’s news, so we’ve created a newsletter that recaps content from the Bible & Archaeology website and YouTube channel.
This will doubtless be of interest to many.
The most exciting bit of news to come out in March was the announcement that the famous and the infamous NT Wrong will come out of retirement to host a biblioblog Carnival on April 1, after seven years of silence! It will appear here.
And finally, if you’d like to keep up with the tweetings of most of the biblical scholars who tweet, you can follow this list. If you know of others please drop me a note and I will add them. Email drjewest@gmail.com.
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Finis
I hope you’ve enjoyed this half carnival. The official carnival will appear on April 1, again, hosted by NT Wrong! I’m very excited. Maybe he/she/they will finally unveil the mystery of their identity!
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