2 Corinthians: Reformation Commentary on Scripture

When the Reformers of the sixteenth century turned to this biblical text, originally written by Paul to the first-century church in Corinth, they found truths that apply to Christians regardless of their historical context. For example, Reformed theologian Wolfgang Musculus wrote, “To be a Christian is to be in Christ. If anyone is outside of Christ, he is not a Christian. It is easy to partake of the sacraments and to be of the name and profession of Christ, but that is not what it means to be in Christ… The largest part of Christians is still an old creature for they have not yet been regenerated and renewed by the spirit of Christ. To know a Christian, therefore, we should not so much examine his external profession, but his life.”

In this volume of the Reformation Commentary on Scripture, Reformation scholar Scott Manetsch guides readers through a wealth of early modern commentary on the book of 2 Corinthians. Readers will hear from familiar voices and discover lesser-known figures from a diversity of theological traditions, including Lutherans, Reformed, Radicals, Anglicans and Roman Catholics. Drawing upon a variety of resources—including commentaries, sermons, treatises, and confessions—much of which appears here for the first time in English, this volume provides resources for contemporary preachers, enables scholars to better understand the depth and breadth of Reformation commentary, and seeks to encourage all those who would be newly created in Christ.

Colossians and Philemon: An Introduction and Commentary

Coming in July-

In the letter to the Colossians, Paul points us to the sufficiency of Christ, urging readers to continue to trust in him. Because Christ is supreme over all, our hope is secure in him. Colossians also shows how the new life that believers have in Jesus is to reflect his character in everyday relationships.

Then in the letter to Philemon, we see the difference the gospel makes in the delicate context of Onesimus’s departure from Philemon.

In this Tyndale Commentary, Alan Thompson shows how both Colossians and Philemon unpack and apply the beauty of the gospel of God’s grace and Christ’s supremacy.

Luke: An Introduction and Commentary

Coming in July-

In this insightful and accessible commentary, Nicholas Perrin explores the many unique pictures of Jesus found in the Gospel of Luke—from being a child in his Father’s house to associating with the poor and disreputable, in communion with the Holy Spirit, and, above all, setting out resolutely for Jerusalem to fulfill God’s plan for the world.

With particular attention to the redemptive-historical storyline and its scriptural roots, Perrin examines how Luke’s Gospel is embedded in human history. He also show how it follows a cyclical narrative structure, with each recapitulation expanding the horizons of what has gone before.

Part of the Tyndale New Testament commentary series, Luke: An Introduction and Commentary examines the text section-by-section—exploring the context in which it was written, providing astute commentary on Luke’s Gospel, and then unpacking the theology. It offers a thorough understanding of the content and structure of Luke, as well as its continued relevance for Christians today.

Recovering Women’s Leadership in the Early Church

An Online Workshop: New discoveries in Late Biblical Hebrew Syntax and Beyond, June 13-15, 2022

@nili_samet — Happy to invite you to an online workshop: New discoveries in Late Biblical Hebrew Syntax and Beyond, June 13-15, 2022.

The full program is available in PDF here.

Carol Meyers- Lecture Three

You can watch all three lectures here.

The Commentary

Stop watching the news and read something that will uplift your spirits.  The Commentary.

The ‘Person in the Pew’ commentary series is the only series of Commentaries written by a single person on the entire Bible and aimed at layfolk in modern history.

The books are all available in PDF format from yours truly for a paltry $75 by clicking my PayPal Link.  It’s a good commentary.

[I] wanted to thank you for your commentary set I recently acquired. My daughter Chloe (age 11) and I are using the one on Mark as we read through and discuss the gospel every second evening. It helps shed light on the text without being academically burdensome for us to work through. .. [Y]our comments are pitched wonderfully for anyone wanting to begin serious engagement with the text. It also complements the more ‘scholarly’ works.

Blessings, David Booth

New Aramaic Papyri from Elephantine in Berlin

It’s Open Access so if you want a pdf copy you can get one free.

The famous German excavations between 1906 and 1908 of Elephantine Island in Egypt produced some of the most important Aramaic sources for understanding the history of Judeans and Arameans living in 5th century BCE Egypt under Persian occupation. Unknown to the world, many papyri fragments from those excavations remained uncatalogued in the Berlin Museum. In New Aramaic Papyri from Elephantine in Berlin James D. Moore edits the remaining legible Aramaic fragments, which belong to letters, contracts, and administrative texts.

Qumran

Die Schriftfragmente und Ruinen, die 1947 – 1956 am Toten Meer entdeckt wurden, geben bis heute Rätsel auf. War die Gemeinschaft, die hier lebte, eine Art Kloster, eine absonderliche Sekte oder eine Schreibwerkstatt? Kam Johannes der Täufer oder Jesus hierher? Der renommierte Bibelwissenschaftler  Reinhard Kratz verabschiedet in seinem bahnbrechenden Buch viele der gängigen Hypothesen und zeigt, dass wir in Qumran Zeugnisse des entstehenden «biblischen Judentums» vor uns haben, das sich von anderen Jahwe-Verehrern abgrenzte und bis heute in Judentum und Christentum lebendig ist.

Die Fragmente von rund tausend hebräischen, aramäischen und griechischen Handschriften, die in Höhlen nahe der Siedlung Hirbet Qumran zutage gefördert wurden, sind eine der spektakulärsten Entdeckungen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Die Texte geben Einblick in die Lebens- und Vorstellungswelt einer bis dahin völlig unbekannten Gruppe des Judentums der hellenistisch-römischen Zeit. Reinhard Kratz erklärt die Geschichte der Funde und ihrer Erforschung, rekonstruiert die Organisation der Gemeinschaft und erläutert, wie und warum hier so viele Texte entstanden. In einem souveränen Durchgang durch die wichtigsten Schriften macht er deutlich, dass die Gemeinschaft Teil einer Bewegung war, die sich auf die biblischen Schriften, besonders Tora und Propheten, berief und vom traditionellen jüdischen Opferkult distanzierte. Klar und anschaulich entsteht so ein neues, plastisches Bild von der Vielfalt des antiken Judentums und der frommen Bewegung, aus der auch das Christentum hervorging.   

Die Propheten der Bibel

Die Entstehung der jüdischen Religion ist eng mit den Propheten verbunden. Der renommierte Bibelwissenschaftler Reinhard G. Kratz rekonstruiert die Geschichte der biblischen Prophetie von ihren Ursprüngen in der altorientalischen Mantik über die Entstehung prophetischer und apokalyptischer Schriften bis hin zu ihrer Rezeption in Judentum, Christentum und Islam. Sein konziser Überblick auf dem neuesten Forschungsstand bietet einen einzigartigen Schlüssel zum Verständnis der abrahamitischen Religionen.   

Peter Wick (Bochum) On ‘Judas’

It was a SUPER interesting paper- Judas als Prophet wider Willen in Mt 27,1-10.  And just to add to the fun, Markus Barth’s daughter was in the gang and there was a good bit of chatter about the Barth family and its extent before the paper was delivered.

If you missed it… well, what can I say, you missed a great time.

Wick has a book coming next year from Brill.  Watch for it.

Understanding Texts in Early Judaism: Studies on Biblical, Qumranic, Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature in Memory of Géza Xeravits

This volume remembers Géza Xeravits, a well known scholar of deuterocanonical and Qumran literature. The volume is divided into four sections according to his scholarly work and interest.

Contributions in the first part deal with Old Testament and related issues (Thomas Hiecke, Stefan Beyerle, and Mattew Goff).

The second section is about the Dead Sea Scrolls (John J, Collins, John Kampen, Peter Porzig, Eibert Tigchelaar, Balázs Tamási and Réka Esztári).

The third section deals with some cognate literature (József Zsengellér and Karin Schöpflin). The last section about the Ancient Synagogue has the paper of Anders Kloostergaard Petersen.

The largest part is the forth on deuterocanonica (Beate Ego, Lucas Brum Teixteira, Fancis Macatangay, Tobias Nicklas, Maria Brutti, Nuria, Chalduch-Benages, Panc Beentjes, Ben Wright, Otto Mulder, Angelo Passaro, Friedrich Reiterer, Severino Bussino, Jeremy Corley and JiSeong Kwong).

Some hot topics are discussed, for example the Two spirits in Qumran, the cathegorization of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the authorship and antropology of Ben Sira, and the angelology of Vitae Prophetarum.

One More Time: The Best Free Bible Software

The SOTS President’s Bible (held by John Barton)

Students might find this suite of bible study tools very helpful.  It’s from Tyndale house in Cambridge and is called ‘STEP’ – scripture tools for every person.  You can download the contents from http://dev.stepbible.org/downloads.jsp .

Apocalyptic: A Conference Starring John Collins, Paul Joyce, and Other Notables

Register here.

Steve Mason: Flavius Josephus and the Flavian Regime

Wed, 8 June 2022
13:30 – 14:30 EDT
Online, via Zoom

Although most specialists have come to jettison or seriously qualify it, the assumption that Josephus was a paid-up mouthpiece of the Flavian regime remains a fixed point in adjacent fields of ancient history as in the public imagination. The labels ’turncoat’, ’traitor’, and ‘propagandist’ seem almost part of his name at times. In this lecture I invite the audience to take a clear-eyed look at Josephus’ portraits of Vespasian and Titus in his master-work, The Judaean War, with attention to both Josephus’ context in Flavian Rome and what he actually says. It emerges that Josephus viewed himself as a proud Judaean statesman who set out to counter regime propaganda. In doing so, he quietly but confidently pulled the rug from under the Flavian portrait of their victory in Judaea.

Steve Mason is Emeritus Professor of Ancient Mediterranean Religions and Cultures in the University of Groningen (Netherlands). Formerly Professor of History and Canada Research Chair in Greco-Roman Cultural Interaction at Toronto’s York University, he specialises in the Eastern Mediterranean under Roman rule, Roman-Judaean relations, and the historical writings of Flavius Josephus. Editor of Brill’s Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary project, he has published books and articles on Josephus, Roman Judaea, the Judaean War (66–74), historical method, Christian origins, and Jewish-Christian relations.

Register here.

Carol Myers Lecture on Women’s Work in Ancient Israel

Carol Myers’ Lecture on Women’s Work in Ancient Israel

Was, as you’d expect, super.  I’ll post the video link when it’s up.

Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible: Revised and Expanded Fourth Edition

Tov’s TC is the standard in HB textual criticism.  It has never been surpassed, and I doubt it ever will be.  The publication of a 4th edition is good news indeed for students of the Hebrew Bible.

A Lecture in Zurich by Ron Hendel, And It’s Available For Zoom-ers

Bob Becking’s Lecture Today Was a Brilliant Description of Proper Historical Research

Beginning with failed methodology:

And moving on to how history should be done:

Moving beyond the Maximalist/ Minimalist debate:

Beginning with epigraphy and moving to climate, landscape, archaeology, and finally the Hebrew Bible, the impasse between minimalists and maximalists can be overcome.  Two examples of how that works practically were given.  The book Bob recently published explores the issue in depth.

I hope you had the chance to sit in on the lecture.  62 folk did. It was super.