A New Testament Student

Goodbye, blogger.

2009-06-15T12:23:00.002-05:00

I am making the move to Wordpress. My new blog can be found here.

John Anderson is a real Blogger now

2009-06-14T23:07:00.003-05:00

Though no longer on Blogger.com, John Anderson is now a real blogger. He is this month's featured biblioblogger. Congrats!

Esteban's Covenantal Blessings Book Giveaway

2009-06-11T14:18:00.003-05:00

In honor of his moving to Wordpress (something I'm contemplating myself...and would most undoubtedly do if I won this book give away...), Esteban is giving away a copy of Peter Flint's, "The Bible at Qumran: Text, Shape, and Interpretation". In order to be eligible for this, you have to follow his simple rules:

1. First, that you announce my change of address and this giveway on your own blog, and provide a link to your announcement in the comments to this post. (Note that WordPress blogs generate automatic pingbacks, and therefore you don’t need to provide if a link if you blog on WordPress.)

2. Second, that in your comment you provide your most creative theory regarding the identity of the Qumran community (if there was one, according to your theoretical construct). Obvious things like the Essenes and the Golbian Hasmonean fortress are out of the question. I, for instance, hold that Qumran housed the easternmost (and most learned) first-century outpost of the KISS Army.

I have already announced Esteban's move to Wordpress earlier, but I will remind you that his new link is in my blogroll and can also be found here: http://www.voxstefani.wordpress.com

As to the second requirement: contrary to the nonsense being propagated by so-called "Experts" on Qumran (with their fancy book-larnin') like Robert Cargill, I know very well that Qumran was originally Superman's summer Fortress of Solitude. Everyone knows Superman was wildly religious. In fact, I think Superman is probably the key to unlocking Daniel 7.

A Question about Ph.D Programs

2009-06-10T22:14:00.001-05:00

Is it okay to apply to a Ph.D program at a school that isn't exactly well-known for your field to study with a professor who is very well known in your field? When one goes to apply for jobs, will it be, "He studied under...." or, "He went to X school"?

Another Blog goes to Wordpress

2009-06-09T20:30:00.002-05:00

Indeed, Nick Norelli over at Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth announces that Esteban Vázquez has moved over to Wordpress. I'm really beginning to wonder if I should convert.

Here are Esteban's new digs: http://www.voxstefani.wordpress.com

Reading: Daniel Kirk's "Unlocking Romans"

2009-06-08T11:37:00.003-05:00

I was surprised our library actually has his book, but lo and behold, ECU is redeemed. I'm really looking forward to reading through this over the next week.

"Saul who is also called Paul" - Michael Compton and the Patristic interpretation of "Paul"

2009-06-07T21:50:00.004-05:00

I'm currently reading through different essays in "In Dominico Eloquio: In Lordly Eloquence: Essays on Patristic Exegesis in Honor of Robert Louis Wilken." Recently I read through Michael Compton's essay on the Patristic interpretation of the names of the Apostle Paul. He writes:

What is the relationship between these two names? To many Christians (and non-Christians as well), the answer to the question has been and continues to be quite obvious. For them there is, in fact, no problem at all: Saul the persecuting Pharisee received the name Paul when he converted to Christianity. I confess that this is the answer I was first taught, and I have met many who were taught likewise.

Indeed, this was something I had always assumed as well. Saul isn't used anywhere in the Epistles and when one reads Acts, Luke phases out using Saul in favor of using Paul. Thus, it was natural to assume some kind of a name change had occurred. Compton's article focuses on a few ancient interpreters who shared this view - Jerome, Augustine, etc. Though Origen had already stated that no name change had taken place. Compton focuses especially on Chrysostom, whom Compton believes is responding to the "triumphalist" view of Jerome. Essentially, Jerome's view was that because Sergius Paulus was Paul's first convert (Acts 13:7), Saul took Paul's name.(cf. De Viris Illustribus 5 (PL 23:615) quoted on pg 58). Kind of an odd interpretation, but there you have it.

The article also mentions G.A. Harrer who espoused the theory that Paul was "the Apostle's cognomen while 'Saul' was his signum."(pg 53) I wonder if anyone has anything to say about that, because it seems like a convincing theory to me.

New Blogs added to the Blogroll

2009-06-07T13:32:00.004-05:00

Neither blog is "new", but new to my blogroll. One is John Anderson's "Hesed we 'emet" (which I believe is: steadfast love/loyalty and faithfulness). John is a Ph.D student at Baylor working in Biblical studies, focusing on Hebrew Bible. His "blog" (though he has just switched to Wordpress*) is very interesting.

The other blog is by my friend, Danny Garland. Danny is a recent graduate from Franciscan University of Steubenville with an MA in Theology (2008). He teaches theology at a Catholic high school up North. Danny and I lived together when I was up north. He's an exceptionally nice guy and was actually my sponsor when I came into the Church (being a convert himself). His blog is "Irish Catholic and Dangerous" - he is both.

*I've seen several people lately make the switch to Wordpress. Should I? Is there something amazing about Wordpress that I'm missing out on?

A bit of trivia

2009-06-06T23:51:00.002-05:00

Who wrote in their journal, "quippe dormire nefas videbatur" after studying a very important manuscript through the night?

Brandon Wason returns to blogging

2009-06-05T13:11:00.001-05:00

After closing down his blog Novum Testamentum, he has finally returned to blogging. Go see his new site here.

Friday is for funny words - οἰνοβαρείων

2009-06-05T07:22:00.004-05:00

This week's funny word comes to us from Homer. Every other week I attend an "Ancient Greek Reading Group" and we're working our way through Book IX of Homer's Odyssey (one of my favorite parts). Our word this week is: οἰνοβαρείων - to be "wine heavy" or drunk. This word is used to describe the Cyclops after Odysseus has gotten the Cyclops drunk off of the wine on his ship. Immediately thereafter, Odysseus and crew shove a red-hot log into the Cyclops' eye.

At any rate, because I'm taking Latin all summer, I'm giving you a double-whammy. Not only is οἰνοβαρείων interesting/funny in its own right, but the Latin equivalent is: crapulatus.

My Latin textbook makes no sense

2009-06-03T19:01:00.002-05:00

I realize that writing a new grammar for a language that has been taught for thousands of years requires a bit of confidence. It says, "The other ways in which this language is taught are not good enough, but my ideas are the bee's knees."

However, the grammar I'm using (Latin for Reading) makes no sense when it comes to listing the cases of nouns and adjectives. Instead of the standard Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Ablative, and perhaps the Vocative, this text lists them as: Nominative, Accusative, Ablative, Dative, Genitive.

So, if I memorize the paradigm for a noun using this order, I'm imagining that I'll run into problems if I continue studying Latin elsewhere and they use a different grammar. It won't be that much of an inconvenience, but it seems like such an arbitrary change that has no benefits.

A quick note on criticism

2009-05-17T23:07:00.004-05:00

In my Archaeology of the New Testament World class we had a final paper due at the end of the semester. My paper, titled, "Even the coins will cry out: Numismatic Explanations for the Jewish War" received a good grade (an A), but it also received some constructive criticism....lots of it.

I wasn't sure how to handle it. It was almost as if the grade didn't matter because I felt like my paper must be bad if it had so many notes. After about 30 minutes of feeling really puzzled I realized that I absolutely must get used to this if I'm going to go on and do graduate work. The fact that the paper received high marks should make me realize I have a good argument that after being refined could be a great argument. In fact, I'm considering rewriting it over the summer with the notes and sources that the professor provided.

Friday is for funny words

2009-05-15T21:37:00.005-05:00

I've seen quite a few "Friday is for..." series and I wanted to start my own. I don't have any friends, so Scot McKnight's idea wouldn't work. However, I do like odd Greek words that I run across in my readings. Thus...Friday is for funny words.

This week's word is "εγγαστρίμῦθος": Belly-Myther.

Liddel-Scott has it listed as "ventriloquist" and someone who "prophecies from the belly." The most famous "belly-myther" is the Belly-Myther of Endor 1 Samuel 28 (1 Kingdoms 28 in the LXX). As Margaret Mitchell has pointed out, she's neither a witch in Hebrew or Greek. In fact, Mitchell has written an excellent book along with Rowan Greer on interpretations of 1 Kingdoms 28 in antiquity. A few of the passages from Patristic authors who discuss the "belly-myther" are bellow:

Justin Martyr Dialogue with Trypho105

καὶ ὅτι μένουσιν αἱ ψυχαὶ ἀπεδειξα ὑμῖν ἐχ τοῦ καὶ τὴν Σαμουὴλ ψυχὴν χληθῆναι ὑπὸ τῆς ἐγγαστριμύθου, ὡς ἠξίωσεν ό Σαούλ.

And I have proved to you that souls survive on the basis of the fact that even Samuel's soul was summoned by the belly-myther, as Saul requested.

The Martyrdom of Pionius

ἔστι δὲ γεγραμμένον ὅτι ὁ Σαοὺλ ἐπηρώτησεν τὴν ἐγγαστρίμυθον καὶ εἶπεν τῇ γυναιχὶ τῇ οὕτω μαντευομένῃ, "ἀνάγαγέ μοι τὸν Σαμουὴλ."

It is written that Saul asked the belly-myther and that he said to the woman who was divining through this means, 'Bring up for me Samuel the prophet'.

And, of course, you should read Origen's homily on 1 Kingdoms 28. I suggest picking up Mitchell and Greer's book where you can read it.

Luther on Origen

2009-05-11T16:20:00.003-05:00

An interesting quote by Luther on Origen (as quoted in the essay by Judith Kovacs in the book mentioned below):

In toto Origene non est verbum unum de Christo.
"In all of Origen there is not one word of Christ."

Reading this semester

2009-05-10T16:54:00.003-05:00

I've been very busy lately with exams, finishing papers, etc. It has been a great semester. I have about a week off and then I'm jumping into a summer-long Latin class. This Fall I'll be applying to graduate programs and I realize that with the economy the way it is programs that are already very competitive will become even more so. So, I've been reading books suggested to me by professors at various schools as well as working my way through U of Chicago's "History of Christianity" reading list.

Some great books and articles I've read (both on and off these lists) lately are:

Elizabeth A. Clark, "The Origenist Controversy: The Cultural Construction of an Early Christian Debate." - This book is fantastic. Though I originally was disinterested in some of the methods she uses from other fields, I found myself really enjoying the explanations they afforded. Dr. Clark's book put into perspective the social dimension of a debate between early Christians and it really helped to see why particular people held out in particular camps.

"In Eloquio Dominico: In Lordly Eloquence: Essays on Patristic Exegesis in Honor of Robert Louis Wilken." - This book has essays by people like John Cavadini, Brian Daley, Judith Kovacs, etc. Wilken is one of my favorite scholars of patristic exegesis. His "The Christians as the Romans Saw Them" was the first book I read by him and I was hooked immediately. This book is a gold mine of essays that highlight the many valuable things Patristics can teach modern Biblical scholars. I particularly enjoyed Gary Anderson's article on Adam and Eve; John Cavadini's essay on the aqedah in Philo, Origen, and Ambrose; Michael Compton's insightful essay on the significance of the names Saul and Paul; and Judith Kovacs' essay on Origen's homilies on 1 Corinthians.

Brant Pitre, "Jesus, the Tribulation, and the End of Exile: Restoration Eschatology and the Origin of the Atonement." I had promised a chapter-by-chapter review of the book, but I can't find it in myself to sit down and write a short review of each chapter. The whole book is too good. I've said it earlier, but I feel like this book could cause some major paradigm shifts in historical Jesus research.

A book that doesn't deal with the early Church, but was written by a professor here at ECU is "The War Against Catholicism: Liberalism and the Anti-Catholic Imagination in Nineteenth -Century Germany". Michael B. Gross is one of our history professors here and this is an edited version of his dissertation done at Brown. Though the anti-Semitic movement in Europe is well-documented, Dr. Gross describes the anti-Catholic sentiment that played out in various facets of German political and social life.

Ben Witherington III, "New Testament Rhetoric: An Introductory Guide to the Art of Persuasion in and of the New Testament" - I really like most of what Dr. Witherington writes and this book is no exception. He was only a few feet away from me when I bought this at SBL but I was too nervous to ask him to sign it...you snooze, you lose. At any rate, I found this a great introductory book and would probably suggest this to someone before having them read George A. Kennedy's, "Comparative Rhetoric."

A.J. Levine, "The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus." I don't necessarily always agree with Levine, but when she's right, she's very right. Her assessment of modern academics not drinking deeply enough from the well of ancient texts is spot on.

One of my really odd interests is in the Ladder Day Saints (or Mormons). Ever since I was about 17 I've really enjoyed reading LDS literature. One particular issue that I find interesting is their idea of baptism for the dead (by proxy). I recently read an article by R.E. DeMaris entitled "Corinthian Religion and Baptism for the Dead (1 Corinthians 15:29): Insights from Archaeology and Anthropology." JBL 114 (1995) 661-682.

Preserving idioms in translation...

2009-04-27T09:47:00.005-05:00

..is difficult. I had to translate some lines in Sophocles' Antigone and write a short commentary. Kreon, the newly-crowned tyrannical king, states that:

οὐδὲν γὰρ ἀνθρώποισιν οἷον ἄργυρος κακὸν νόμισμ' ἔβλαστε.

The play on words here is difficult to keep in translation. Kreon is making a pun on νόμισμα and I'm not quite sure how to maintain it.

How would you translate it?

Saint Fidelis and Calvinists

2009-04-24T15:05:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Taylor Marshall of Canterbury Tales for pointing out this interesting story.

Roger Pearse on Attis and Jesus

2009-04-21T09:48:00.002-05:00

An interesting survey of the sources from antiquity concerning Attis and the lack of parallels with Jesus (despite the often made claims).

Mark on Mark

2009-04-16T21:53:00.004-05:00

Mark Goodacre has brought up a good discussion on Mark 15:39 and the soldier's statement:

37. ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἀφεὶς φωνὴν μεγάλην ἐξέπνευσεν. 38. Καὶ τὸ καταπέτασμα τοῦ ναοῦ ἐσχίσθη εἰς δύο ἀπ' ἄνωθεν ἕως κάτω. 39 Ἰδὼν δὲ ὁ κεντυρίων ὁ παρεστηκὼς ἐξ ἐναντίας αὐτοῦ ὅτι οὕτως ἐξέπνευσεν εἶπεν, Ἀληθῶς οὗτος ὁ ἄνθρωπος υἱὸς θεοῦ ἦν.

Dr. Goodacre has asked the question: is this really a confession or is it a sarcastic remark on the soldier's part? His commenters have already noted several instances of ironic and sarcastic remarks throughout the passion narrative (as have I here). The question posed by some has been whether it's either sarcastic or confessional and I want to say that it's both.

If Mark is written as "Gospel" and these gospels were inherently liturgical from the get-go, then I think it has a double meaning. Irony only works in favor of the reader/hearer, not against them. It brings the reader closer to the author's/text's viewpoint, even if it's against the person who spoke the words. The readers/hearers have the 'inside scoop'. So, even if the soldier's remark is sarcastic, when the text was read aloud in the liturgy and heard by the people, they knew that "surely this man was (is) the son of God".

Working as an Assistant

2009-04-15T00:02:00.003-05:00

This semester I've had the pleasure of working as an assistant for our Intro to New Testament class. This experience has taught me a lot. While I'm preparing for my study session tomorrow night (the class has their final next week), I'm having to answer for myself the question: What do you do when you disagree with the professor teaching the class? Of course, in a class that's very broad and basic, I agree on most things. But, for instance, Markan priority has been assumed with Matthean priority not really addressed. I think Ehrman (the author of our textbook) is fundamentally mistaken on what "Apocalypticism" was in the 1st Century and a lot of the questions asked of the students have Ehrman's stance as their underlying premise.

I have a list of potential essay questions for the exam and there are a few that I think could be more nuanced. With some of them I disagree with the premise of the question entirely. So, what to do? Naturally, I want these kids to make good grades, but is it appropriate to note where I disagree and give them my reasons why?

Tertullian and Eschatology

2009-04-06T00:41:00.003-05:00

Considering a lot of modern Christians' view on eschatology, I found this quote by Tertullian interesting.

"We pray, too, for the emperors, for their ministers and for all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for the prevalence of peace, for the delay of the final consummation." (Apology 39)

Tertullian is being accused of treason by the Romans and he replies as such. What's interesting to me is praying for the "delay of the final consummation." I'm not going to try and explain Tertullian's eschatological viewpoint here, but I do find it interesting how often modern Christians are at odds with the ancients. For instance, a lot of American Christians seem to think the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem would fulfill God's promises, but the ancients thought that its destruction was a fulfillment of God's promises (which is why Julian tried to rebuild it). I have a lot of modern Evangelical friends who pray that Christ will return and bring about a "final consummation", and Tertullian discusses here asking God to delay it.

Just finished: Perspectives on the Ending of Mark: Four Views

2009-04-01T02:19:00.005-05:00

While at Southeastern I was fortunate enough to get to attend a conference on the last twelve verses in Mark. Speakers included Daniel Wallace, David Alan Black, Maurice Robinson, J.K. Elliott, and Darrell Bock as the "moderator". Fortunately, B&H Academic has published their papers in a short book titled Perspectives on the Ending of Mark: Four Views.

I won't go into great detail about the papers, but I will say that I find a great deal of Elliott's argument very persuasive as well as Dr. Black's and Dr. Robinson's. That is to say, I suppose, the only argument I didn't find persuasive is Dr. Wallace's. Dr Wallace argues that the ending at 16:8 with the postpositive γαρ is original. Elliot notes that if this were some kind of clever device on Mark's part, a cliff-hanger, then it was entirely too clever for Mark's immediate audience. Already by Justin Martyr's time the longer ending seems to be known. Robinson also cites Larry Hurtado who shares the belief that if Mark ended with a γαρ it was so clever that nobody got it until modern scholarship came along.

I think a conglomeration of the three views I find persuasive could work. One thing I'm thinking about is Elliott's proposal that a leaf was lost (a leaf perhaps containg Mk 1:1-3 as well, though Elliott admits the leaves could have been lost at different times). Lets say that Mark published a Gospel that did not end at 16:8 and then due to either scribal error (which Elliott finds unlikely) or due to a leaf being lost, the LE found its way into the manuscript witness. It would have to have happened extremely early, I think, in order for both Justin Martyr and Origen to know of the LE. The manuscript(s) containing the LE would have had to have found their way, or served as exemplars for manuscripts which found their way, into both Judea (where Justin was) and Alexandria (where Origen was) within a very short amount of time.

Another issue I thought about is the Patristic witness of the LE. Unless one of the Fathers wrote a commentary or worked their way through a lectionary, how would you know that a Church Father only knew up to 16:8?

So, I've sold out

2009-03-28T22:46:00.004-05:00

Since about 2007 my particular interests have shifted away from doing work strictly in New Testament and have moved more towards New Testament and Early Christianity (both its history and theology). I've even considered changing the name of the blog or starting an entirely different blog all together, though I don't think that's necessary. I'm still deeply interested in New Testament scholarship and I think that interest is pertinent to my interests in the early Church. However, I think that studying Early Christian History (or Patristics or whatever title is given to it) allows me to have my cake and eat it too. It allows me to explore my interests in philosophy, history, textual criticism, New Testament, etc. It's a field in which I think I could do well and one in which I would feel entirely comfortable.

This fall I will be applying to graduate programs that reflect my more current interests. I'm most interested in Duke's Early Christian History program for a variety of reasons. I'd love to study Coptic with Zlatko Plese at UNC, do textual criticism with Ehrman, learn Syriac with Lukas Van Rompay, learn about Origen with Liz Clark, learn about Gregory of Nyssa with Smith, and - certainly not a minor reason - I would love to study with Duke's outstanding NT faculty. An interest I have never been able to shake is the Synoptic problem and though I realize Mark Goodacre is a multi-faceted scholar, to study that with him would be amazing.

Other places I'm looking at are, of course, Notre Dame (Brian Daley's work is very interesting and they have amazing funding), Yale (but, for some reason, I think I have no chance there...ever), UVA (Though Wilken is retiring, the work that Kovacs and Gamble are doing is very interesting), and a few others.

I'm going to be applying to both Ph.D programs and Masters programs. If you read this blog, you know there's no reason I should go straight into a Ph.D program, but perhaps I can hoodwink an admissions committee into thinking I'm smart enough. So, for the next few months, on top of little ideas I have, I'm going to be blogging about preparation for applications and such. If any of you have wisdom to bestow, let me have it.

Traduttore Traditore

2009-03-21T13:59:00.002-05:00

Quite the funny quote:

Translators have long been an undervalued race: one of them remarked bitterly
that with the exception of the wages of sin the wages of translation are the worst in the whole market.

E. R. Dodds, Missing Persons: An Autobiography (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1977), 174.

Margaret M. Mitchell on St. John Chrysostom

2009-03-02T15:56:00.004-05:00

Mitchell's book The Heavenly Trumpet: John Chrysostom and the Art of Pauline Interpretation is an absolutely fascinating read. On a personal note, I find the ancient way of reading texts more refreshing and far more interesting. I've yet to have to wade through 100 pages of an ancient redaction theory before any kind of commentary is provided. Academically, I enjoy reading these texts because of the light it sheds on ancient epistolary theory and hermeneutics in general. Consider Chrysostom's comment on the "inexperienced" reader reading a text:

και επιστολην ο μεν απειρος λαβων, χαρτην ηγησεται και μελαν ειναι. ο δε εμπειδος και φωνης αχοθσεται, και διαλεξεται τω αποντι.

"The inexperienced reader when taking up a letter will consider it to be papyrus and ink; but the experienced reader will both hear a voice, and converse with the one who is absent."[1]

According to Mitchell, it was common to see a letter as a conversation between the reader and the author.

Most interesting in Chrysostom's "author-centered hermeneutic"[2] is the idea of imitation. Essentially, Chrysostom is the best interpreter of Paul because of how much he loves Paul. Chrysostom states that one should look to Paul as a "αρχετυπος ειχων", an archetypal image. This is the "accurate portrait from which copies are to be made."[3] Paul served as the examplar into which Chrysostom tried to mold himself. Mitchell states that imitation is the ultimate goal, and that creating a portrait from the text is the task of hermeneutics.

___
[1] Margaret M. Mitchell, The Heavenly Trumpet: John Chrysostom and the Art of Pauline Interpretation (Louisville: WJK Press, 2002) 49 (quoted from hom. In 1 Cor. 7.2 [61.56])
[2] Ibid
[3] Ibid

Humor in the New Testament

2009-02-22T01:15:00.002-05:00

I was recently asked in an email why the Bible isn't funny. "Why isn't there any humor in there?" I could think of two instances that I actually find really funny:

1) Luke 11:5-7 : I find this scene funny, whether it's intended to be or not. A friend arriving at midnight, asking for three loaves of bread, is silly. But the excuse the man indoors gives is even funnier. He yells back from inside and tells his neighbor that he can't get up because he and his family are in bed. In other words, the man is yelling from the bed outside, telling his friend to go away lest he wake his family.

2) Acts 12:14-16 : Peter is miraculously released from prison and arrives at John Mark's mother's house. Inside, a group is praying for his release. He knocks on the door and a slave girl (Rhoda) recognizes his voice. Instead of letting him in, she runs back to the others and they debate whether it could actually be Peter. After Peter kept knocking, they finally let him in. This is hilarious to me. One can imagine Peter hearing Rhoda's voice, and then hearing her run away back into the house. The scene inside is a bunch of people debating over whether it could actually be Peter outside or not - the easiest way to resolve the debate, of course, is to just go outside and check.

A new take on Deut 6:8 - my new tattoo

2009-02-13T00:44:00.003-05:00

On my right arm, inner bicep.

Battle for the Ark: Price vs. McManaway

2009-02-11T15:06:00.008-05:00

You may have heard of this Randall Price fellow from Liberty University going off to Turkey in search for the Ark. In light of all of his publicity, I have decided to disclose my plans for my own search right here on my blog. That's right: I'm going to find Deucalion's Ark!!!

Lucian of Samasota told me I could find it near Hierapolis. The story is recounted in De Dea Syria:

This race, the men of the present time, was not the first. As for the previous race, all in it perished. These current men are of the second race, which multiplied again from Deucalion. Concernnig those earlier men they say the following. They were extremely violent and committed to lawless deeds, for they neither kept oaths nor welcomed strangers nor spared suppliants. As punishment for these offenses the great disaster came upon them. Suddenly the earth poured forth a flood of water. Heavy rains fell, rivers rushed down in torrents, and the sea rose on high, until everything became water, and all the people perished. Decalion alone among men was left for the second race beacause of his prudence and piety...He embarked his wives into a great ark which he possessed and he himself went in.

Can you say jackpot? So...all I need is 100,000 dollars and I'll be on my merry way. Any takers?

**Edit**

Jim West tells us of yet another archaeological find in the works. I'm not discouraged, though. I'm actually a very successful anagramatologist and I will be responding to this work in Peru very soon.

Pope Benedict XVI and Indulgences

2009-02-10T13:36:00.003-05:00

There is a bit of controversy around the blogosphere about a papal decree for the year of St. Paul and the plenary indulgences that Benedict XVI is offering.

I think there's some misunderstanding as to what this is. Pope Benedict isn't reinstating some Medieval relic...Indulgences never left. Pope Benedict XV gave a partial or plenary indulgence for Bible reading with his papal encyclial Spiritus Paraclitus in the 1920's. Trent reaffirms this dogma immediately after Luther's shenanigans, etc. This isn't something that Benedict XVI is digging back up, it has been part of the Church's teaching and life for quite some time.

Secondly, Indulgences do not forgive sins. Indulgences are for the remission of temporal punishment due to sin and are only given after the penitent has received the sacrament of reconciliation. You may not buy an Indulgence, either.

Preparing for graduate work: The GRE

2009-02-10T01:36:00.002-05:00

First - I apologize for the lack of New Testament related material here. My academic interests have ventured into the lands of Patristics/Early Christian History and I just can't pull myself away. Paul is exciting, but Paul through the eyes of Chrysostom is even more exciting for me. However, this week I will receive news if I won a grant to do some research - if I receive the grant, you can bet I'll be running some of this research by you out there in bloggerland.

Also, in exciting news - for any of you classicists out there, you may know of Peter Green, an Emeritus Professor at University of Texas Austin and now adjunct at U of Iowa. Every once in awhile he comes to ECU to teach a class or two (this semester is a class on Catullus). After hearing about our Ancient Greek Reading Group that meets every other wednesday, he asked if he could join in. We were going to read the Martyrdom of Polycarp, but since Dr. Green is joining us, we're going to be reading Homer. Half of me is excited about having him there to help us out, the other (sane) half of me is terrified of butchering the Greek language in front of him.

So, on to less good news: On top of stressing about the fact that I feel I don't read enough, I'm worried about the GRE. I will be taking it sometime this summer/early fall. I'm not overly worried about the verbal side of things, but math scares me. Considering most of you Biblioblogger types probably left math classes behind in your freshman or sophomore year of college, how did you prepare for the GRE? I have Barron's book, but are there any others that are great for math?

A Confession Stele and Montanism

2009-02-08T12:15:00.004-05:00

In Central and Western Anatolia people were noted for their strict morality. Something that was more developed in their religion was the notion of human deeds offending the gods and incurring divine punishment from the gods. An inscription that is particular to this area is something known as a "confession stele" which recounts what a deity has done because of sin. For instance, one inscription reads: "To Zeus Sabazios and Mother Hipta; Diokles son of Trophimos: because I made an attempt on the gods' doves (doves in the sacred temple), I was punished in my eyes and inscribed an account of the gods' power."(1)

Aside from having something in common with the Judeo-Christian notion of sin, this is particularly interesting because this is the area in which Montanism originated and thrived in the 2nd Century CE. One wonders whether this strict morality was a factor in the development of Montanism.

(1)As quoted in Rives, James B. Religion in the Roman Empire, pg. 62.

Worried about your business here on earth after the Rapture?

2009-01-27T11:20:00.003-05:00

Well, you can now be raptured up with full assurance that your business will not go unattended to. "How's that?" you ask...well, You've Been Left Behind.com, of course!

That's right, the kind people at You've Been Left Behind.com will store for you 50 emails to be sent out in case of your being raptured (by the way, you sure do have a lot of reprobate friends who aren't being raptured...). They also have data storage services. All of this for the low, low cost of $40/year! Store up those digital treasures!

My question is: What if you wrote 50 really mean, nasty emails and as you're being raptured, they're sent out....does God unrapture you? These are the theological questions of our time.

Julian the Apostate and the Jerusalem Temple

2009-01-24T00:50:00.003-05:00

Julian the Apostate is a curious figure in Christian history. Raised as a Christian, he was a self-proclaimed Apostate later in life. He took a bath in bull's blood (the taurobolium) in order to wipe out his Christian baptism as a child. Julian is intriguing because of how much he knew about Christian beliefs (vs. the earlier pagan writers). Warren Carroll, in his second volume of his History of Christendom series (titled: Building of Christendom), discusses Julian's plans to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

"He, Julian the Apostate, unchallenged autocrat of the Western world, would rebuild the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, overriding and cancelling out Christ's prophecy of its destruction which had been so memorably fulfilled." (Pg 52)

He then cites a Roman historian who was a contemporary of Julian (he served on the Persian frontier with Julian in 363 - ibid), Ammianus Marcellinus:

"Though Alypius (JM: The man in charge of the operation under Julian) pushed the work forward energetically and though he was assisted by the governor of the province, frightful balls of fire kept bursting forth near the foundations of the temple and made it impossible for the workmen to approach the place, and some were even burned to death. And since the elements persistently drove them back, Julian gave up the attempt"

Oddities in Antiquity - Birth Stories

2009-01-24T00:36:00.003-05:00

Long before Thomas Beatie walked the earth, Zeus himself was giving birth to children. Indeed, there are two "odd" birth stories from Zeus - that of Dionysius and that of Athena.

Zeus had taken for himself a lover by the name of Semele, the daughter of Cadmus (the House of Cadmus is popular in Greek literature). Zeus and Semele conceived a child. Hera, being her usual self, was jealous of Zeus' affection for Semele and told her, basically, "Zeus doesn't really love you; if he did, he would show you his full glory." Semele begins to think Hera's right and so when she sees Zeus the next time, she asks him for a favor. "Of course you're carrying my son - whatever you'd like." She asks to see him in his full glory - Zeus responds that that isn't a very wise idea. She insists. Zeus then shows her his full radiance, lightening bolts and all. Semele, being a mere mortal, cannot handle it and dies. Zeus takes the fetus from her womb, cuts his leg, inserts the fetus, and sows it up. A few months later, Dionysius...

The second odd birth story is that of Athena's. Zeus hears a prophecy that he will be usurped by the offspring of Metis (the goddess of wisdom). So, up on Mt. Olympus one day, Zeus challenges Metis - he basically bets her that because she is so great (oh, you flatterer you...) that she could not turn herself into something as insignifcant as a fly. Metis, up to the challenge, does exactly that and is swallowed by Zeus. However, 9 months later Zeus realizes he has a rocking headache and out of his head bursts Athena in full battle gear.

Brant Pitre's Jesus, the Tribulation, and the End of Exile - Chapter 1

2009-01-24T00:08:00.007-05:00

Big thanks to myself for buying me a copy of Brant Pitre's Jesus, the Tribulation, and the End of Exile: Restoration Eschatology and the Origin of the Atonement (Baker Academic, 2005). As mentioned previously, this is Pitre's Notre Dame dissertation edited for publication.

Pitre opens his book by stating that he is attempting "to trace the development and shape of the concept of eschatological tribulation in late Second Temple Judaism (Pg 2, emphasis his). Secondly, Pitre desires "to determine whether the historical Jesus ever spoke of or acted ont he basis of his own expectation of a period of eschatological tribulation."(Pg 3, emphasis his). Pitre discusses various historical criteria that he employs and adds another: the criterion of "historical congruence" or "contextual plausability" (pg 28). He defines this criterion thusly:

The basic principle of this criterion is as follows: to the extent that features of a saying or deed of Jesus "fit" or are congruent with what is known of his historical setting, especially the context of late Second Temple Judaism, the plausability that they originated with Jesus is increased.

He gives a brief overview of the work of various scholars, showing us a snapshot of contemporary academic work on this question. The most important assessment, in my mind, is that of N.T. Wright's work. Wright's work on Exile is absolutely critical and a breath of fresh air in New Testament scholarship. However, according to Pitre, Wright has accented the wrong exilic syllable, stating: "To put it bluntly: while Wright is absolutely right about the importance of the 'exile', he is fundamentally wrong in his understanding of it." (Pg 32). Pitre critiques Wright's notion that Jews (i.e. those from Judea) considered themselves still in exile, that the Babylonian exile had not ended, though they were back in the land, because there was a foreign force occupying the land (the Romans). However, Pitre notes that Wright does so by confusing the terms "Israelite" and "Jew" (whereas all Jews are Israelites, not all Israelites are of the Tribe of Judah) and thus forgets that "there was not only one exile in Israel's history, but two." (Pg 33). Wright also has to redefine what "exile" means in order for it to fit his theory. Pitre's work is here to correct this notion and build upon it.

As such, the Second Temple literature that Pitre surveys in Chapter 2 shows that though the Jews were in the land, their laments of still being in exile were for the fact that the Assyrian Exile of the 8th Century BCE had not yet ended. Israel was still in exile in the Second Temple period and this is the key to understanding much of what Jesus does and teaches.

Two new books

2009-01-22T00:33:00.006-05:00

A couple of new books arrived in the mail today:

Farmer's "The Synoptic Problem"- whereas I've read a lot of articles that cite Farmer and a lot of people who have given me Farmer's argument, I haven't read Farmer myself and I figured it was about time.

John Wenham, "A Fresh Assault on the Synoptic Problem: Redating Matthew, Mark, and Luke" - this should be interesting. Wenham describes himself as an "undogmatic Augustinian" in the Introduction and I didn't think there were too many of these guys left. He thanks people like Peter Head, Michael Goulder, and Bernard Orchard (who co-authored my favorite book on the Synoptic Problem, "The Order of the Synoptics: Why Three Synoptic Gospels?") for reading over his manuscript.

Also, I will be posting about Brant Pitre's "Jesus, the Tribulation, and the End of Exile" soon. Without being overly zealous, I honestly think Pitre's work could cause a major paradigm shift in so many aspects of NT scholarship. Dr. Pitre's ideas have implications for source criticism, Christology, Pauline theology, etc.

Should I buy this book?

2009-01-20T23:52:00.001-05:00

Should I buy Hujo Meijboom's, "A History and Critique of the Origin of the Marcan Hypothesis 1835-1866"? I'm very interested in the Synoptic problem, but I've never heard of this guy. Any advice?

Arrived Today: Brant Pitre's Jesus, the Tribulation, and the End of Exile

2009-01-16T16:23:00.003-05:00

I have heard nothing but good things about this book, so when I arrived to SBL I was all set to buy it. I held off on getting it until the end of my trip and much to my chagrin, the book had been sold out. After a few days of sobbing, I pulled myself together and vowed that I would buy it after I began this spring semester. This is Pitre's dissertation, edited for publication with Baker Academic. He originally published it with Mohr Siebeck. As I read through it, I'll try and post some interesting things from the book.

Also in the mail today I received my Greek version of Sophocles' Antigone, the text we're translating for my Greek class this semester. If you're the praying type, I need some prayers on this one - I barely understand Poetry in English, much less in Greek.

The Triumphal Entry: An observation

2009-01-15T13:16:00.003-05:00

This came up in my Greek and Roman Religions class. Most are familiar with the myth of the Phoenix, a being that dies and then rises from the ashes to live again. Interestingly, this comes up in Jesus' triumphal entry.

Greek NT:
τῇ ἐπαύριον ὁ ὄχλος πολὺς ὁ ἐλθὼν εἰς τὴν ἑορτήν, ἀκούσαντες ὅτι ἔρχεται ὁ ἰησοῦς εἰς ἱεροσόλυμα,ἔλαβον τὰ βαΐα τῶν φοινίκων καὶ ἐξῆλθον εἰς ὑπάντησιν αὐτῶ, καὶ ἐκραύγαζον, ὡσαννά· εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου, [καὶ] ὁ βασιλεὺς τοῦ ἰσραήλ.

New American Bible:
On the next day, when the great crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches and went out to meet him, and cried out: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, (even) the king of Israel."

The "palm tree" from which the "palm branches" come is called a φοινιξ, -ικος - a phoenix! Here in John 12, the people are waving symbols of Jesus at Jesus as He rides by.

The Return of "Early Christian Writings"

2009-01-12T01:03:00.001-05:00

Everything is once again right with the world. Peter Kirby's "Early Christian Writings" is back up.

The Guild of Biblical Minimalists may lock me up...

2009-01-09T23:44:00.004-05:00

Indeed, this semester I'm taking a class on Archaeology of the New Testament world. My professor is Dr. Laura Mazow whose doktorvater was none other than....you guessed it....William Dever. Soon, I too will be asking questions like, "Did God have a Cousin Whom He Refused to Talk to at Parties?" I hope the guild won't think less of me.

I'm actually very much looking forward to the class as I'm painfully unaware of archaeology and its relation to NT studies.

I'm also taking a class with Dr. Jonathan Reid who did his doctoral work under Heiko Oberman. Oberman's book, "Luther: Man Between God and the Devil" is very informative.

New books!

2009-01-06T20:14:00.004-05:00

As promised, here's a picture and list of new books that I have received/bought since SBL. Needless to say, I'm going to be busy for awhile.

Paula Fredriksen, "Augustine and The Jews: A Christian Defense of Jews and Judaism"

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, "Theological Interpretation of the New Testament: A Book-by-Book Study"

Mary Healy, "Gospel of Mark (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)" (Although I dislike the name of the series, I really have enjoyed what I've read thus far)

George T. Montague, S.M., "First And Second Timothy, Titus (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)" (A real gem!)

Ben Witherington III, "New Testament Rhetoric: An Introduction Guide to the Art of Persuasion in and of the New Testament" ( I haven't even cracked this one yet. I have pretty much liked everything I've read by Witherington other than his "What have they done with Jesus?")

Hahn, Parry, Bartholomew, Seitz, Wolters, Eds., "Canon and Biblical Interpretation (Scripture and Hermeneutics Series, Vol. 7)" (Hahn's article is absolutely amazing! It has really helped me clarify my thoughts on Scripture, liturgy, and exegesis.)

Scott Hahn, Ed., "Letter and Spirit, Vol 4: Temple and Contemplation: God's presence in the Cosmos, Church, and Human Heart (A Journal of Catholic Biblical Theology)" (This series is absolutely phenomenal. Contributors include Brant Pitre, Scott Hahn, John Cavadini.)

Frederick B. Artz, "The Mind of the Middle Ages: An historical survey"

Michael Bird and James Crossley, "How did Christianity Begin?: A Believer and Non-Believer Examine the Evidence" (I'm really looking forward to this one - Dr. Crossley is a really smart and very kind guy...that Michael Bird on the other hand...)

Margaret M. Mitchell, "The Belly-Myther of Endor: Interpretations of 1 Kingdoms 28 in the Early Church" (This is the part of the LXX that gives me my favorite Greek word εγγαστριμυθος - "belly-myther"! Mitchell has a lecture online for free on this very topic.)

David Alan Black, Ed., "Perspectives on the Ending of Mark: Four Views" (This book arose out of the conference held at SEBTS a few years ago on the last 12 verses in Mark - contributors include Black, J.K. Elliot [whose position seemed, to me, at the time, the strongest], Daniel Wallace, Maurice Robinson, and Darrell Bock)

Peter Kreeft, "Best Things in Life" (I received this book on Monday and finished it in one sitting - NT scholarship would do itself a giant favor if it required people to read the great Philosophers)

G.K. Chesteron, "Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox" (Who doesn't like Chesterton? This is a great intro to Thomistic thought. Far less complex and boring than Etienne Gilson's, "The Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas".)

Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), "Jesus of Nazareth" (I read this when it first came out and didn't understand the negative reaction, so I'm reading it again. Personally, I think a philosophically informed exegete scares modern NT scholarship.)

Scott Hahn, "A Father Who Keeps His Promises: God's Covenant Love in Scripture" (Hahn did his Marquette dissertation on covenant and kinship. I'm about half way through the book and it has not disappointed.)

Christoph Von Cardinal Schonborn, "From Death to Life: The Christian Journey" (A towering genius for sure.)

J.B. Bury, "The Ancient Greek Historians" (I'm taking a class this semester on Greek and Roman religions, so I figured this would help. I'm trying to broaden my understanding of the world of the New Testament.)

Cary and Haarhoof, "Life and Thought in the Greek and Roman World"

W.K.C. Guthrie, "The Greeks and Their Gods"

A.J. Levine, "The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus"

Michael Holmes, Ed.,"The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations" (Another gem - I'm so happy to have gotten this at SBL.)

"The UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader's Edition" (I bought this because of the great reviews I had seen, particularly on Nijay Gupta's website - I believe his words were "life changing". It really has been nice to sit and read without flipping back to a dictionary, though I worry this could make me lazy.)

Craig Evans, Ed., "Ancient Texts for New Testament Studies: A Guide to the Background Literature" (YES!)

Not Pictured:

Karl Adam, "Roots of the Reformation" (Probably one of the best, though shortest, books I've ever read on the Reformation. A bit more informed on the underlying philosophies of Luther and Calvin's thought than Belloc's "How the Reformation Happened")

Henry G. Graham, "Where we got the Bible: Our Debt to the Catholic Church"

Jarislov Pelikan, "Jesus Through the Centuries"

New Years Resolutions

2009-01-06T00:31:00.003-05:00

I've had a wonderful Christmas break and I hope everyone whose life is dictated by semesters has as well. As many people do, I've given myself a few New Year's resolutions for 2009 -

1)Read atleast 3 books a week - I basically do this, but sporadically. I need to be more consistent. I tend to build up momentum in my reading, then drop off for a bit. I also need to be more focused in my reading.

2)Read a chapter of the Greek New Testament every day - This was one of the two pieces of advice that Joachim Jeremias would give to graduating students.

3)Quit getting on the computer as much - Blogging is fine; I learn a lot from blogs. But, I can waste ridiculous amounts of time reading websites that have no value. If I want to meet my reading goals, I need to spend less time online and watching TV.

4) Quit eating so much fast food - This is difficult for a college kid, but I figure as James Crossley gets older, someone has to be the best looking one in Biblical studies.

5) Write better blog posts - As I learn more, my posts should reflect this. "Better" is going to be hard to quantify, so I'd really appreciate it if you can write "boo" or something discouraging on bad posts. Positive reinforcement is for hippies who care about self-esteem.

A quick note: I've added Fr. James Swetnam, S.J.'s website to the blogroll. Fr. Swetnam is probably the leading Catholic authority on Hebrews (and has some fantastic arguments in favor of Pauline authorship). Fr. Swetnam was one of my professors at Franciscan University of Steubenville - he has retired as the Vice Rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.

Tomorrow will be a post about all the new books I've bought/received since SBL with pictures!

Tyndale Bulletin for Free

2008-12-17T20:19:00.003-05:00

I've just spent the last 1.5 hours downloading free articles out of the archives of Tyndale Bulletin.

Go here to join in on the early Christmas present.

(HT: Michael Barber)

What a loss

2008-12-13T01:29:00.004-05:00

I just heard that Cardinal Avery Dulles went home to the Lord yesterday. What a great loss to the Church.

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Amen.

What does this say about form criticism?

2008-12-12T18:46:00.004-05:00

I was reading through Stephen Carlson's post about the Secret Mark session and I noticed this little section. Carlson was summarizing Helmut Koester's defense of Secret Mark (and Morton Smith):

First, it was most like the material unique to Mark (in Mark's disagreements against Matthew and Luke). Second, Secret Mark's account of the youth in the tomb is form-critically more primitive than John's Lazarus account, and Smith was no good at form criticism.

I wondered when I read this - if Secret Mark is ever put to rest as a hoax (and I think it is), what does this say about form criticism? If someone who is no good at form criticism can just happen to create something that, form critically, looks earlier than our canonical account in John, what does that say about form criticism's ability to date texts? If it could be shown definitively that S Mark is a hoax(and I think it has already), then I think the academy should re-evaluate how it uses form criticism to date texts.

The Secret Mark Session at SBL

2008-12-07T00:45:00.005-05:00

Tony Chartrand-Burke has written a blog post on the Secret Mark session at SBL. Though he claims to "remain an agnostic" on the matter, I think it's apparent from his comments that he considers the dissenting voices' arguments less than compelling. He states:

The two main writers against the authenticity of the text, Carlson and Jeffery, are not biblical scholars. Their arguments are not based on the methodology used by biblical scholars.

I've not read Jeffery's book, but as far as Carlson goes - this is poppycock. This seems to be ivory tower snobbery and not really dealing with the issue at hand. Arguments stand or fall based upon the evidence, not someone's supposed credentials. Secondly, Carlson didn't decide to go do doctoral work in New Testament on a lark - it wasn't as if he, one day in the courtroom (I know he wasn't a trial lawyer), thought, "You know what? I really fancy the New Testament. I'll see you folks later" and walked into Duke. As Mark Goodacre points out, Carlson had already published in New Testament Studies.

Third - both Carlson's NTS article and his book utilize "methodology used by biblical scholars." I've had the chance to talk with Carlson at length about things related to the Synoptic Problem and he was incredibly well-informed. I think pointing out that he's a lawyer in order to derail any of his arguments is a weak line to take - but I suppose we should just leave the logic up to the lawyers.

**Edit 12/7/08**
I read over Jeffery's response to Scott Brown's review of his book. Anyone who cites Schillebeeckx, Bouyer, Joel Marcus, and April DeConick is very very okay in my book.

April DeConick's SBL Paper on Judas

2008-12-01T00:00:00.002-05:00

April DeConick gives a summary of her paper delivered in the Judas section at SBL. This was one of my favorite papers (my favorite being Brant Pitre's paper in the Historical Jesus section on Monday). At any rate, as I mentioned earlier -her paper completely blew everyone out of the water...or atleast those paying attention.

To grad school, or not to grad school? That is the question.

2008-11-30T01:04:00.003-05:00

As I hear more and more about the economy going downhill and universities stopping their job searches, I wonder : is grad school a smart decision? Should I look to do a Ph.D? I see a lot of very well-trained scholars looking for jobs, not feeling terribly confident. I heard on NPR about a former professor who helped these guys win a nobel prize with his research who now works at a car lot driving cars (not even a salesman). This doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

My major concern is finding funding. Whereas the sciences are still able to be funded by grants and such, what with their research being a bit more "tangible" and therefore immediately "beneficial" to society, the humanities seem to be taking a hit.

Though, I figure I have quite awhile before I'm going to be looking for a job myself. I have about 3 semesters left here, 2 more in an M.A., and probably 5-7 in a Ph.D. I figure if these economic woes are cyclical and Obama really is the savior of the economy, things should be settled out by then - but if they aren't..

SBL: Monday

2008-11-24T15:55:00.005-05:00

Yesterday was a very busy day, so I wasn't able to blog. I got to see E.P. Sanders and his discussion on Paul's use of Hebrew Scripture in Gal 3. I believe his paper was titled, "Was Paul a Prooftexter?"

Later that evening we had the Bibliobloggers dinner. It was wonderful - I had a good chat with Ben Blackwell from Durham and he has inspired me to look a bit more into UK programs. I was able to meet Dr. DeConick and tell her that I thought her paper on Judas was amazing. Also, big thanks are due to Michael Halcomb for organizing the dinner.

After dinner I went over to the University of Durham's reception and met a few folks there. James Dunn and Francis Watson were there (among a myriad of other Durham "celebs"). I wanted to say hello, but after that I didn't really have anything else to say. "Uhhh...I like your books...you know....a lot. So thanks for those." I figure an impression was best left unmade.

From there I ran into some friends from the University of Chicago (the guy I met at U of C a few weeks ago, Matthijs and another Ph.D student named Jonathan). I went with them to the U of C reception and got to talk to some really interesting graduate students there. One guy made Chicago out to be...a less than desirable place to attend because of how difficult he was making it sound. However, after thinking about it for a bit - he hasn't jumped off of a building, so it can't be that bad.

Today I attended the Historical Jesus section and listened to a paper by Brant Pitre. WOW!!! Talk about blowing the doors down. I hope he publishes this somewhere. Another paper in this session was given by a presenter who seemed entirely unfamiliar with his own paper. It made me wonder if he had even proofread it.

I also got to hear Stephen Carlson's paper on Secret Mark this afternoon. Scott Brown, a former student of Smith's, gave a paper defending Secret Mark. His argument seemed to be particularly weak inasmuch as it amounted to, "Since these fragments can be interpreted and be found to be similar to Markan themes, it must be authentic." He also didn't provide any evidence for Clement's letter being authentic. In Geology, this is known as the Law of Cross-Cutting relationships - something cannot be older than that which it cuts across. So, before you even begin on the fragments, you have to prove that the letter is authentic. Also, it seems that a lot of people who rush to Smith's defense do so with backhanded compliments. Things such as, "No, he was nowhere near competent enough to have done this!" With friends like these....

Lessons Learned:

Receptions are a ton of fun and a great place to drink...err, meet people

Secret Mark is still a hoax. And according to Birger A. Pearson, a big, "F*&% you to the academy" (his words, not mine)

Apparently there is a market for a LOLCat Study Bible

SBL: Saturday

2008-11-22T16:26:00.002-05:00

Taking Mark Goodacre's advice, I'm sitting here writing on my blog instead of going to yet another session today. I've already been to two, both of which I stayed for atleast the majority of the time. There was a session this evening on Patristic Exegesis, and as exciting as that is - I don't want to kill myself today so that by Monday I'm tired of papers.

This morning I heard Bart Ehrman, Marvin Meyer, and April DeConick speak on Judas. Overall, I got what I expected from Ehrman and Meyer. But, I know Dr. DeConick was going to be the curveball in this session - and she definitely was. I felt like her position was significantly stronger than both Ehrman's and Meyer's. I hope she publishes the research that was in her paper (things not included in her 13th Apostle book). I saw Hans-Josef Klauck there and was able to chat with him for a second.

There's a chapel right next to the convention center, so I went to Mass at noon. After that I attended a session on Theological exegesis. I was particularly interested in Dr. Steinmetz's paper where he revisited his ideas in his paper from the 70's, "The Superiority of Pre-Critical Exegesis." He made a lot of points about the shortcomings of historical-critical approach alone (as to be clear that Steinmetz and most people who encourage a pre-critical exegesis do not want to do away with the last 200 years of Biblical scholarship) with which I totally agree. After him, Robert Louis Wilken spoke. If you've never read him, you should. His books The Christians as the Romans Saw Them and The Spirit of Early Christian Thought are both amazing books on early Christianity.

Lessons Learned:

Nobody looks at your face initially - it's nametags, then face.

Don't have a ridiculous grin on your face while you work through the book exhibitors because in 5 paces you've walked past Hershel Shanks, Joel Marcus, J.K. Elliot, and Ben Witherington - I can't help it. I'm surrounded by books and the people who wrote them - that's pretty much how I view heaven.

Sessions are great, but you meet more people walking around and chatting

I will never be able to afford a Brill book

In Boston at SBL

2008-11-21T18:11:00.003-05:00

So I arrived in Boston around noon today. I was fortunate to meet two Ph.D students from Duke at RDU and had a seat next to one of them on the way to Boston. I was happy I got to chat with someone about SBL, New Testament, etc etc on the way up there. When we arrived at the airport, we didn't take the route I wrote out earlier - but I eventually made it to my hotel.

Lessons Learned thus far:

Room 2003 is on the 20th floor, not the 2nd (if you saw someone walking around the 2nd floor of the Hilton muttering explicatives under his breath...mea culpa. I've never been in a hotel this big).

The Book exhibit is like Christmas on steroids. I didn't really have anything to do this afternoon except for Mass at 4:15, so I basically spent the whole time wandering around while the exhibitors put up their books. I think they were getting suspicious...

Leave yourself plenty of time to get anywhere - buildings/roads/people in the North don't make sense.

To resist the urge to buy every book I've seen, I'm writing out a list of books that I think would be useful to my studies. I always justify books as being "tools", but there's no sense in buying a blowtorch if you're a carpenter (or maybe there is - I'm not a carpenter...and if that analogy fails, I think it means I can buy whatever books I want).

Also, last I heard from Michael Halcomb - he's stuck in an airport (I think Philly). The poor guy's plane has been delayed all day. Pray for him that he'll get here in time for the IBR reception.

Heading to SBL

2008-11-20T22:01:00.003-05:00

Like most around the Biblioblogosphere, I'm packing up and heading out to SBL tomorrow morning. My flight leaves RDU at 9:50, arriving around 11:50 or so. Anyone else going to be at the airport at the same time?

I've also not seen anything happening on Friday. Is there an event I'm missing?

I'm going to try and blog throughout the meeting, but I'm not sure how much I will be able to.

Marcus Borg's Lecture Last Night - Christians in an Age of Empire

2008-11-19T13:54:00.005-05:00

Dr. Borg's lecture on ECU's campus last night was titled, "Christians in an Age of Empire: Then and Now."

Overall, I wasn't really impressed by the lecture. Dr. Borg talked a lot about the Anti-Empire themes in the Bible in really general ways, but gave very few examples of any Anti-Empire rhetoric. He even stated, "God's passion in the Bible is anti-empire." Really? It's not salvation history? It's not God reaching out to men who are distanced from Him? God's passion is anti-empire?

Borg defined Empires with 4 criteria:

1)Ruled by the few

2) Elites used the system to exploit

3)Violence towards the lower classes

4)Legitimated by religion

I agree that number 1 is generally a criteria of empire simply because anarchies make very poor empires. Number 2 is not necessarily part of an empire, though it can be. Same with number 3. Number 4 is puzzling - did Stalin use religion to legitimate his empire? I'm not saying it never happens, I'm saying that it's odd to use as a set criteria.

Borg discussed the OT Prophets and how they were critical of particular regimes, but never gave any evidence of an overall anti-Empire ideology. When discussing the NT, he talked about Augustus Caesar and some of his titles - "Son of God", "Lord", and "Savior of the World" (though he admitted this last one wasn't religious). Borg claimed that the Gospel writers were well aware of these titles and what political message they were sending by calling Jesus this, however, he didn't once mention that they have OT parallels. He didn't talk about typology at all. He left the dots unconnected and allowed the crowd to think, "Oh, well, that's where they got those names." I felt like I was watching Zeitgeist.

Borg also said that the birth stories in Matthew and Luke were anti-Empire. Establishing Davidic lineage was not showing that God's promises of an everlasting Kingdom were being fulfilled. Instead, this was a critique of the Roman empire. Everyone makes mistakes (I make more than my fair share), but Borg mistakenly put the Shepherds of Luke into Matthew's story and then discussed how this ties in with Matthew's overall theme in the birth story.

He focused on the new paradigm of the Kingdom of God. This was not a Kingdom of authority (!), but something that looks a lot like communes. He focused on the dailiness of the bread in Matthew 6, disregrading the "supersubstantiality" of it.

Overall, I felt like Borg's main point was completely unsupported. I don't see the anti-Empire, anti-authoritarian message that Borg does. I had a question for him, but someone jumped in front of me when I sat down next to the mic (to allow the little old ladies behind me to see Dr. Borg - aren't I a sweetheart?) and it was the last one. The question I wanted to ask was, "If one of the primary messages of the Bible, and specifically the NT, is anti-Empire, why do the Gospels show Jesus focused on the religious authorities rather than the Romans?"

A German Muslim Theologian on Muhammad's existence

2008-11-18T15:40:00.002-05:00

Although my interests are in Christianity, I find Islam fascinating because of its intersection with Christianity in history and in thought. A professor at the Munster University who himself is a convert to Islam, Muhammad Sven Kalisch has gone into historical Muhammad research (I wonder if this trend is going to pick up? Historical Alexander the Great Research, Historical Atilla the Hun research, etc). He is Germany's first professor of Islamic Theology and he is causing quite the stir with his assertion that it is unlikely that Muhammad existed. Read the article here.

Oddities in antiquity

2008-11-18T14:37:00.004-05:00

While our Greek class was translating Philostratus' Life of Apollonius, we came across a passage talking about Philolaus of Citium and Apollonius chatting near the grove of Aricia (περι το νεμος το εν τη Αρικια). This grove was the home of a priest of the goddess Diana. There's nothing particularly interesting (to me) about Diana, but what is interesting is how the priest was selected.

In this particular grove, the priest was succeeded by his assassin. You read that right - if you wanted to take over the priesthood in the grove of Aricia, you killed the priest there and took over.

Unfortunately, for such a controversial practice, very little is written about it. There are definitely some questions that are raised, though - for one, who in their right mind would ever want to take over this job? Your celebration of victory over the priest is cut short immediately by the paranoia that sets in knowing that you are now the target.

A gift - Warren H. Carroll's The Building of Christendom

2008-11-15T01:44:00.002-05:00

When I took a trip up to U of Chicago a few weeks ago, I wasn't alone - my girlfriend and I both went up there both looking at the school. She's interested in developmental biology. Because flights were too expensive, we drove - if you don't genuinely like being around someone, 15 hours in a car will not be a fun experience. Proving there is a God, she didn't get rid of me immediately after the trip.

And for some strange reason, today she gave me a gift that is sure to keep me around - Warren H. Carroll's 2nd volume in his History of Christendom series titled The Building of Christendom.

The series is 6 volumes and I believe Dr. Carroll has been working on them since the 70's. Each volume is weighty, chock full of sources. However, Carroll brings out the narative in history. Unlike some other history books I've been reading lately (such as Von Grunebaum's Classical Islam, which is nothing more than date, fact, date, fact, date, fact), Carroll brings history to life. If you've never read him, I suggest picking a volume up - he may very well be my favorite Church historian.

Chris Tilling is coming to teach at my school!

2008-11-14T19:24:00.002-05:00

Yes, I didn't believe it either when I first heard, but Chris Tilling is coming to teach at East Carolina University. They have already prepared his office for him, though I'm a bit confused as to why they put him in the Geology Department....

Travelling from Logan Int'l to the Hynes Convention Center

2008-11-13T13:00:00.003-05:00

If you're staying at a hotel near the convention center and need a way to get from the airport to your hotel, I suggest taking the subway. There is a complimentary shuttle at the airport that will take you to the MTBA Airport Station. At the station, you want to take the Blue Line (Inbound) until you get to Government Center Station - To Bowdoin. Get off here and catch the Government Center Station Green Line W and get off at the Hynes Station. Hynes station is a short walk away from the convention center and surrounding hotels.

I've called some cab companies and the usual fee is about 20 dollars from the airport to this part of town. The train is 2 dollars.

Two blogs that I think deserve praise

2008-11-12T23:52:00.003-05:00

There are, of course, more than two blogs that deserve praise, but these are two that I just can't get enough of. They are:

ἐν ἐφέσῳ - I feel smarter just reading Mike's blog. If I had a tenth of a percent of Mike's knowledge of Greek, I think I'd be doing just fine. I'm trying to read through his posts to get a better feel on the whole "aspect/tense" issue with Greek. If you don't already read this blog, get over there!

Pisteuomen - For one, the guy has a cool name - T. Michael W. Halcomb. Most Biblical scholars have only got a puny two initials to shorten (D.A., F.F., etc) - not this guy. He's got a whole slew of names to chose from. Secondly, his website is decked out. Third - he creates some really cool software modules for Greek, German, Hebrew, and Aramaic. And Fourth - he has blogged about the Gospel of Mark more than anyone, I think.

Marcus Borg speaking at my school Nov 18th

2008-11-06T18:51:00.002-05:00

As I've mentioned before, Marcus Borg will be speaking at East Carolina University on Nov 18th at 7pm in Wright Auditorium. I'm excited about seeing him, but a little confused as to why he's coming here.

What I mean is: a lot of our religion professors are billing him as "one of the top New Testament scholars today" and I just think - "Really?" Perhaps I'm just very out of the loop, but Borg doesn't seem like one of the big movers and shakers in today's NT studies world. I've read his books and there wasn't anything in there that I thought was amazingly revolutionary or terribly insightful. And that's fine - I don't expect that every person who teaches the NT and writes books is going to rock the world of NT, nor do I think that would be very desirable. I guess what I'm most surprised about is that we have UNC and Duke right down the road, but we've gone out of our way to get Dr. Borg from halfway across the country. Why not Richard Hays, or Mark Goodacre, Joel Marcus, or Bart Ehrman? They're right down the road from us and I'd consider any of them to be bigger players in the NT world than Dr. Borg.

Last Spring we had William Dever speak and again I was left wondering why they went through all the trouble of getting him to speak here. Granted, he was one of our professor's doktorvater, but during his whole talk he kept showing artifacts from archaeological digs and saying, "Not exactly what the Bible tells us, eh?" and giving a little look to the crowd. It was...odd.

Did Muhammad attend a Church?

2008-11-06T14:12:00.002-05:00

As I'm taking a class on Classical Islam this semester, I'm thinking more and more about the dialogue between religions that went on in the Patristic era. Muhammad certainly had interactions with Christians, but on what level?

Islamic tradition says that Muhammad knew an Assyrian Monk named Bahira. He is later identified by Christian authors (St. John Damascus, for instance) as an Arian. As far as Muhammad's Christology goes, this isn't unthinkable.

But beyond just knowing the monk - is there any indication that Muhammad had delved further into Christianity? I think the answer is yes. Muhammad is noted as being "unlettered" in the Qu'ran and in Muslim tradition. Whether this means that he was illiterate or just knew basic writing isn't my concern. My concern is where Muhammad got the stories from Surahs 3:49 and 5:110. I've noted in a previous post that both stories occur in "Gnostic" (for lack of a better word) texts - the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ.

How would Muhammad, an "unlettered" man have come across these texts? I'm proposing that Muhammad would've heard them - in the liturgy. Granted, one can imagine Bahira discussing these texts with Muhammad, but why would Muhammad include the stories if there weren't some attachment to them?

This is really speculative, but I think it's at least a theory that could be explored.

BW3 and the James Ossuary

2008-11-02T23:15:00.002-05:00

Dr. Witherington discusses the recent trial and his hopeful release of the Ossuary.

Hebrew Questions

2008-11-02T23:05:00.002-05:00

I'm full of questions lately. I wanted to see what Bibliobloggers thought was the best Intro to Hebrew grammar that one could use outside of a classroom. There aren't any Hebrew classes here and my Hebrew absolutely stinks. Are there any books/programs out there that one could use to get them through 1st year Hebrew?

I hate group projects

2008-10-30T20:10:00.002-05:00

Do group projects do anything other than reward slackers and impose more work on students who are actually willing to do their work? There is an inverse relationship between how "group" a project is and how much of a "project" it ends up being for the ones doing it.

Biblioblogger Get Together at SBL?

2008-10-30T14:10:00.003-05:00

I know there's quite a few Bibliobloggers, so it's impossible to get everyone together...nor do I imagine that everyone would want to be in the same room. But, is there any kind of annual get-together at SBL amongst bloggers?

I'm just not spiritual enough...

2008-10-27T23:03:00.003-05:00

Or, atleast, that's what I was told tonight after class by a fellow student. Even though I took "World Religions" at Southeastern, ECU wanted me to take it again after I told them that the previous class had been informative, but was primarily about how to evangelize people of these various faiths. So, yes, I could tell you the difference between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, but the focus of the class was how to win them over.

Tonight we were learning about Judaism. The professor hit some of the highlights in the Hebrew Bible, talked about various beliefs, etc. Afterwards, I spoke to a student who just last week had tried to witness to me after learning that I'm Catholic. I asked him what he thought of the lecture - I had looked over and seen him rolling his eyes, shaking his head, or sleeping during most of the lecture. He said, "Well, he got a lot of things wrong."

"Oh?" I said, "Such as?"

"Well, like, he said that one of God's names was El. That's not true. It was Elohim - El is Aramaic."

I looked at him, a little confused and said, "No, El is Hebrew. It's Aleph Lamed. It's just short for Elohim and it's often used with other words like El Echad or whatever..."

"Man, you just don't understand, you don't have the Spirit."

I'm pretty sure this is the true meaning of John 20:22 - "And Jesus breathed onto them and said, 'Receive ye the Holy Spirit so that ye may be able to read Hebrew.'"

New Books!

2008-10-26T20:29:00.004-05:00

I was back home in Raleigh this weekend to go to the State Fair (which is always loads of fun). As I was driving back to Greenville today, I stopped by my favorite used book store on the way out of town - Ed Mckay's Used Books and More. I spent an hour there looking over different books, met a guy named Rhett who's going into the priesthood next year, and found some great books like always:

Alister McGrath Christian Theology: An Introduction (2nd ed) - $6

Das Neue Testament/Le Nouveau Testament/The New Testament - $8

The Basic Sixteen Documents of Vatican Council II: Constitutions, Decrees, Declarations (ed. Austin Flannery, O.P.) - $5

Where else can you find these steals?! It's fantastic. If you're in Raleigh, absolutely check out this bookstore.

I also bought a couple of books on Amazon recently and am looking forward to digging into them:

Scheeben, Matthias Joseph, The Mysteries of Christianity - only $40!!!

I had to call my friend Chris Cuddy to make sure this was a good deal because it seemed too good to be true and I was pretty sure I remembered the book being much more expensive.

Finally: Bouyer, Louis, The Spirit and Forms of Protestantism - $10

I've read Bouyer's book before and it is phenomenal. It explains the philosophical current that was in Europe during the time of the Reformation and how it influenced Luther et al.

Literary Criticism and the New Testament

2008-10-24T09:21:00.001-05:00

I need a book suggestion on literary criticism and the NT. Is there any book that is the book on this right now?

SBL and Heresy Hunting

2008-10-22T16:03:00.002-05:00

Because I love using the word heresy, and because I hate when people try to defeat an argument by misrepresenting it, I found this article very interesting.

**10/24**
Mike Bird has written a great response to the article.

Back from Chicago

2008-10-20T15:25:00.003-05:00

I'm back from Chicago and wow, what a trip! U of Chicago's campus is absolutely gorgeous. It looks like Hogwarts (one of the dining halls on campus is the backup dining hall in case something happens at their present location - Oxford, I think). The professors were incredibly nice. In Hans-Josef Klauck's "Farewell discouses in John" class we discussed the anointing at Bethany in John 12. I met later that day with Margaret M. Mitchell and I think scandalized her by saying I hold for a Pauline authorship of Hebrews and I also believe in Matthean priority (crazy, I know!). I figure, if anything, it will atleast make me memorable when I put in my application. She was incredibly nice.

In Dr. Klauck's class I met a Ph.D student named Matthijs Den Dulk. Matthijs, his wife, my girlfriend, and myself all went out for beers in Chicago later that night and it was fantastic. I don't really have anyone here at ECU that's doing any real work in New Testament/Early Christianity, so to have a chance to nerd it up with someone was great. He's an incredibly smart guy - I think the academy will definitely want to watch out for him.

Also, I want to wish Chris Tilling a belated 33rd birthday. He's a great guy and we all look forward to atleast a few more years of good work out of him (33 is exceptionally old, after all).

Bibliobloggers in Chicago?

2008-10-07T16:51:00.004-05:00

I'm heading to Chicago this weekend for my fall break to go to the University of Chicago and chat with some professors about grad school there. This trip has been in the works for about a month now and I don't think a day goes by that I'm not completely stoked about it. Monday morning I'm sitting in on Hans-Josef Klauck's "Farewell Discourses in John" class, then I'm meeting with David Martinez, who is the head of a Ph.D program "New Testament and Early Christian Literature" (yes, please!), and in the afternoon I'm meeting with Margaret Mitchell, who is one of my favorite scholars of the early Church.

If anyone knows of some must-see places around the University, I'm all ears (I've heard there's a good bookstore). I'm all stomach if you can recommend a good restaurant nearby.

Is a Christological interpretation of the OT an honest one?

2008-10-06T16:26:00.004-05:00

It seems that, among Hebrew Bible scholars, there is a bit of trepidation about letting New Testament scholars and theologians alike have a go at interpreting the Hebrew Bible. There seems to be a sense of injustice done to the text by the NT scholar, not letting the text "speak for itself." This happens quite a lot, but here's the post over on James Getz's blog that has sparked my question.

Certainly, Christological interpretations of the OT occur in the NT itself - but again, were the NT authors being fair in their hermeneutical practices? Were they allowing a text to speak for itself or were they ripping it out of context?

Can one have a Christological interpretation that also pays due respect to the particular OT text in its particular context, or is this having one's theological cake and eating it too?

EDIT: (10/7/08):
Douglas Mangum gives a bit more reasoning behind his answer on his blog.
Phil Sumpter responds to this overall issue on his blog (not my questions specifically, but still good answers).

The Celebration of the Baptism of Christ by the Basilideans and the Origin of Epiphany: Is the Seemingly Obvious Correct?

2008-10-06T15:54:00.002-05:00

A very interesting article in the Journal for Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism, Volume 5:
by Hans Foerster.

THE CELEBRATION OF THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST BY THE BASILIDEANS AND THE ORIGIN OF EPIPHANY: IS THE SEEMINGLY OBVIOUS CORRECT? (PDF)

(HT: Mark Goodacre)

Bonehead moves in translating Greek AND "Thank God there are no original manuscripts"

2008-10-01T21:48:00.003-05:00

Because neither of these thoughts were really long enough to mandate their own blog post, I figured I'd throw two completely unrelated things together...

First, every student of any language makes mistakes (atleast that's what I tell myself so that I feel better). One thing I've been doing over the last few months is confusing words that end in -νται as a participle instead of recognizing them as using the primary middle-passive suffixes. After having crammed as much as I could today into my head about Participles, I feel silly.

Ever done something while learning a language that you later realized what completely incorrect?

Secondly, a strange thought occured to me the other night. I think I'm actually glad that we don't have original copies of the New Testament documents. After seeing various posts around the net of the over-theologizing of grammar that goes on now, can you imagine the fervor with which pseudo-theologians and grammarians would pontificate upon the tense or mood or aspect or whatever of a particular word? It would be unchecked and without the caution that people have to exercise now due to lack of these originals. An odd thought, but there you have it - thank God we have no original manuscripts.

Michael Barber on various Criteria of Authenticity in Historical Jesus Research

2008-10-01T21:43:00.002-05:00

You've probably already read these great little posts; but if you haven't, I wanted to point you to them. They're all short, but insightful (and well-sourced!!).

The Criterion of Dissimilarity to Judaism

The Criterion of Dissimilarity to Christianity

The Criterion of Multiple Attestation

The Criterion of Coherence

Jargon: Between Economy and Snobbery

2008-09-26T13:31:00.004-05:00

Every particular academic discipline is its own sub-culture, operating with its own scholarly language. This language is a necessary thing, allowing scholars to speak to one another without having to go over the preliminaries time and time again. It's useful. However, my question is: when does the technical language of a particular field cease to be a matter of economy and start being an occassion for snobbery? When does the field stop conveying information and start clouding it?

Translating back into Greek

2008-09-22T22:52:00.005-05:00

Today in Greek class we had to prepare our translations for another section of Philostratus' Life of Apollonius. However, our professor had in mind a little something different. We had to give a simplified English translation of what was going on, then go back and re-translate it into Greek. This was honestly one of my favorite activities. I give a huge thanks to David Alan Black and his "Learn to Read New Testament Greek" along with my Greek professor at Southeastern - memorizing paradigms made this exercise significantly easier.

Without any accents or breathing marks (can someone point me to a tutorial on how to type those out?) here's what we wrote for one part:

εστι πηγη Διος εγγυς τη Τυανα, και καλουσι αυτο Ασβαμαιον. αυτη μεν εστι ψυχρα,
παφλαζει δε. ιαοται μεν ευορκους, βλαπτει δε επιορκους. υδωρ ποιει τους νοσμους
τοισισδε και ομολογουσι.

Free high five to anyone who can translate that without all the accents and such.

Making too much of a word

2008-09-15T13:39:00.003-05:00

As we were translating more of Philostratus' Life of Apollonius I came across this sentence:

παρ' ων υπαρχει μαθειν, ως υποθειζων την φιλοσοφιαν εγενετο.

Which is:

From which it is possible to learn how divinely inspired a philosopher he was.

I asked my Greek professor why Philostratus used εγενετο when he could've just used ην (I apologize for the lack of accents/breathing marks/etc - I haven't figured out how to do them yet), and if his choosing εγενετο was to indicate that Apollonius was born a divinely inspired philosopher, not just that he was one. My professor said that, unfortunately, εγενετο is simply one of those words that one has to make a judgment on nearly every time they come across it and that he wouldn't build too much of an argument for anything based on a single word. I said that's because he's not a New Testament scholar. Oh, kidding.

An Interesting Post on Christology and Development of Doctrine

2008-09-11T16:01:00.002-05:00

This post here on the blog "Army of Martyrs" titled Development of the Various Dogmas in Light of the Universal Acceptance of Nicaea. The post and comments that follow are interesting.

James Crossley, William Lane Craig, and Ghosts

2008-09-10T13:01:00.003-05:00

I suppose since I've taken this title for my blog, I should actually blog about the NT from time to time. I was watching James Crossley's debate with William Lane Craig over on Mike Bird's and Joel Willitts' blog and I heard Dr. Crossley say something interesting about the disciples seeing Jesus and thinking he was a ghost (Mk 6:49-50), not someone who was walking around bodily. This was by no means the crux of his argument - he mentioned it once or twice and moved on to other evidence for his position.

All the same, I had just read Jason Robert Combs' (of Yale Div) article in RBL titled, "A Ghost on the Water? An Absurdity in Mark 6:49-50."(1) Combs' argument is that Mark uses this story to show that Jesus is not, in fact, just a ghost by virtue of the fact that he's on the water. Combs goes through primary sources from antiquity showing that it was a common belief that ghosts could not walk upon water.

Mark's "ghost sighting" is characteristic of ancient ghosts stories in three ways:

1) It occurs at night (6:48 - τεταρτην φυλαχην της νυχτος) during the fourth watch, which allowed for there to be some early morning light - (2)which was thought to be necessary to see ghosts, as the ancients did not share our sentiment that spirits luminesce. And 3) it caused the disciples fear.

However, Mark departs drastically from the typical ghost story by having Jesus appear on the water. Combs gives the rhetorical reasoning:
"The disciples' lack of understanding has long been recognized as a Markan theme that appears throughout the Gospel. Here it forms a striking narrative portrayal of cognitive dissonance: the disciples clearly want Jesus to be something that he is not, to the point that they are willing to believe the absurd (JM: That Jesus is a ghost) when Jesus approaches them as something much grander than they had imagined. Gods and divine men walk on water; ghosts do not. But when the disciples see Jesus walking on water, they believe the impossible rather thant he obvious. Mark's insertion of this absurdity, "because they saw him walking on the sea they thought he was a ghost" (6:49), emphasizes in dramatic fashion the discpiles' misconstrual of Jesus' messiahship."

(1)Journal of Biblical Literature; Summer2008, Vol. 127 Issue 2, p345-358.

Oh for the love of academia!

2008-09-10T12:39:00.002-05:00

I have to ask you professor types out there - is it not the most frustrating thing in the world when students do not do even the most preliminary research before coming to class? Well, rest assured, it is equally frustrating for those of us who actually did it but have to waste time in class listening to you answer all the silly questions.

In my Classical Islam class we've had such stellar questions as:

So....wait......was the Qu'ran written before the New Testament? Yes, absolutely. Did you not see the bit in there about a time machine?

So do Muslims pray to Muhammad or Allah? And who is the sacrifice for their sins? - The most staunchly monotheistic religion on the face of the planet figured it needed some intermediaries, so please - go ahead and pray to Muhammad.

After the Professor spoke about the importance of the Ka'ba, not to mention its location in Mecca:
Isn't the Ka'ba near the wailing wall? - ............

Now, the second question up there has more to do with students not understanding that there isn't a 1:1 correspondence within religion. There is nobody like the Jesus of Christianity in Islam for the fact that the concept of sin is completely different (seen as more of an issue of ignorance). How frustrating it must be to have to go over such silly things (that could be found on a Wikipedia page - sorry, Jim).

April DeConick has written a blog post concerning "weighing in on Avalos and Koester." She hits on something that I think is relevant here - that some students aren't willing to think outside of their own religious paradigm or they're unaware of the fact that they aren't doing it. I've decided if I'm ever afforded the chance to live out my dream as a professor in a religion department, the first thing I will talk about is trying to see things through different "lenses."

Hilarious

2008-09-09T01:16:00.000-05:00

Just go see it here.

Umbrellas in Antiquity

2008-09-08T15:15:00.004-05:00

As I was translating over the weekend, I encountered this little bit about Anaxagoras (forgive me for not being able to do accents and iota-subscripts - I haven't figured out how yet):

καιτοι τισ ουκ οιδε τον Αναξαγοραν Ολυμπιασι μεν, οποτε ηκιστα υε, παρελθοντα υπο κωδιω (should be an iota-subscript there)ες το σταδιον επι προρρησει ομβρου.

Which is something along the lines of:

And further, who does not know that Anaxagoras at Olympia, when the least rains fell, came under a sheepskin into the stadium/race course...

For one, I know that I didn't translate the μεν because it corresponds with a τε later on, but I don't feel like translating everything here because it doesn't really have to do with my question.

My question is: Were sheepskins used as ancient umbrellas, or is Philostratus trying to make Anaxagoras look ridiculous here? Does anyone even know about umbrellas in antiquity? To be sure there has to be some unfortunate Ph.D student writing their dissertation on accessories in the ancient world.

The Pope's Cologne

2008-09-04T23:00:00.003-05:00

Although this has already been pointed out on other blogs, the comments on this blog are hilarious. Can Bibliobloggers come up with better captions?

"Frankensensantional" is easily my favorite thus far.

Who you gonna call?

2008-09-03T12:21:00.002-05:00

Archimedes and Ευρηκα

2008-09-03T03:56:00.003-05:00

In his Learn to Read New Testament Greek David Alan Black tells the story of the Greek philosopher Archimedes and his discovery of the law of buoyancy while taking a bath. Dr. Black says, "...he is reported to have scampered (without his clothes) through the streets of Athens shouting, ευρηκα, ευρηκα, 'I have found it, I have found it!' What Archimedes apparently meant by the use of ευρηκα (the perfect of ευρισκω) was that his discovery had become part of his intellectual awareness. If, on the other hand, he had found a drachma on the street and then lost it before he got home, he probably would've used the aorist ευρον, "I found it," which says nothing about the existing state of affairs."

Hurtado's Lord Jesus Christ

2008-09-03T03:43:00.005-05:00

Now that I'm back at school I have a bit more free time to get some reading done. One thing I had not yet read and knew I needed to is Larry Hurtado's Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity. I had read his The Earliest Christian Artifacts awhile ago and really enjoyed his style, so I knew I'd like this one.

I've just read through the first chapter and there are some interesting points. For one, his emphasis on liturgical practice as a lense through which we can see the theology/ies of the christian community is really convincing. I think (and this may be departing from Hurtado) that the NT documents are primarily focused on orthopraxy, particularly within the setting of liturgy, more than theological orthodoxy. Now, this is not imposing an either or - obviously the NT is concerned with both, but I think the NT has put the accent on the liturigcal syllable more than its concern with doing theology (particularly concerning Christology). Some things that have led me to this have been Scott Hahn's book, The Lamb's Supper which is a wonderful little gem, and taking the class on Hebrews with Fr. James Swetnam, SJ. At any rate, I think Hurtado's emphasis on looking at the historic practices will help us to discern their underlying theologies. Even if they aren't articulated with the precise theological language of later eras, the theology within the liturgy is of utmost importance in understanding the earliest christian communities.

This is probably totally obvious to everyone (or totally bogus) - either way, I felt like this was a cap on an "aha" moment.

SBL Boston - wicked awesome

2008-09-03T03:26:00.003-05:00

It is official - I've booked my flight, registered for the conference, and have even found lodging (I'll be staying with Douglas Mangum of Biblia Hebraica fame). I'm extremely excited as this will be my first SBL. I'm trying to figure out which papers I want to go see, what pubs I want to go drink at afterwards, etc. I'm definitely going to visit the Cathedral while there (it's only about a mile away from the hotel).

Oh Classical Greek, why do you hurt so good?

2008-09-01T00:22:00.003-05:00

At East Carolina I'm taking a class on Classical Greek and basically our whole class is translating Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana. If you're unfamiliar, Apollonius was a charismatic miracle-worker from the first century CE who lived in Cappadocia. Philostratus wrote his biography of Apollonius in the early/mid 3rd century. I believe this is the largest surviving biography from antiquity.

What am I learning? That Classical Greek writers anticipated students later translating their works and figured they'd use the most obscure forms of nouns that they could dig up. I'm sure of it. On top of that, they use the wildest verbs I've ever seen. I've been reassured by my professor that the first part of any text from antiquity is always the most difficult to read. Lets hope chapter 2 proves to be easier.

Studying Religion in a Public University

2008-08-21T13:06:00.004-05:00

Classes have begun this week and I'm having a wonderful time. A semester off was entirely too much. One thing I'm getting the feel for is studying Religion in a public university. I knew what to expect, basically - but the experience of not praying before class or not being sure where my professor stands theologically (which I like) is interesting (not bad, just interesting). I'm taking a class on Classical Islam and my professor asked some pretty good questions right off the bat: What is Religion? Do we separate the sacred from the profane? What is Islam? What is not Islam?

Then she asked, "Are the events that took place on September 11th to be attributed to Islam? Is that Islam?". Beause we had done introductions in the beginning of class, several students had identified themselves as Muslims and I think this may have made some people's reactions to this question less than honest. The standard MSNBC answers came out: "Islam is a religion of peace!" "Those were extremists who did that." But what does extremist mean? Does it mean someone who follows the ideology of the religion to its extreme? If a religion is based on love, shouldn't the extreme of that religion be to love people around you like crazy (and probably to an almost irritating point)?

So, I raised my hand and said that I thought we had an issue in defining what Islam is because of the diversity of opinions based on a lack of authority. What does orthodox Islam look like? Where is the governing body that states what is orthodoxy and what is not? Because of the lack of this governing body, I think we're simply going to side with a portion of Islam that suits our fancy and say in unison with MSNBC, "Islam is a religion of peace." But is it? I'm not saying that it's not, I'm simply saying that I'm uncomfortable with giving Islam this status a priori before looking at the history and the ideology within those historical contexts.

Also - is there ever going to be a discussion of 9/11 without bringing up the Crusades? They are so fundamentally different that it seems arbitrary to bring up the Crusades in those discussions except to perhaps offer some kind of in cognito apology on behalf of Christians.

SBL Advice

2008-08-07T14:09:00.002-05:00

I found this helpful blog post over at J.C. Baker's blog today. I'm considering going to SBL this year and this would be my first year going. My main concern is lodging - I was wondering if anyone had the "skinny" on places to stay in Boston that won't cost me an arm and a leg, travel advice, meeting advice in general, etc. Bestow it all on us you pro-SBLers.

Congrats to Chris Tilling

2008-08-07T14:06:00.002-05:00

Chris has recently been appointed the new NT Tutor at St. Mellitus College and St. Paul's Theological Centre. It's exciting to see someone so smart and hardworking have their work pay off. Swing by his blog and congratulate him.

I cannot wait to read this...

2008-08-03T00:28:00.003-05:00

Mike Aquilina, author of "The Way of the Fathers" blog and several books, has put out yet another book titled, Signs and Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols. I definitely cannot wait to read this.

A hilarious book: The DaVinci Cod

2008-07-28T23:52:00.002-05:00

Yes, I spelled the title correctly - The DaVinci Cod. Written by Don Brine (a.k.a. Adam Roberts, professor of Nineteenth-Century Lit at London University), this book is absolutely hilarious. It's a parody of the ridiculously popular Da Vinci Code, but it's so much better. I received it this afternoon, went over to the library and read it and laughed the entire time (much to the chagrin of people trying to study nearby). If you haven't read any fiction lately and need a short book to read through, I highly suggest it.

(HT: Tim Brookins of Scripta De Divinis)

A New Forum for Textual Criticism

2008-07-27T22:03:00.002-05:00

Find it here.

(HT: Stephen Carlson)

Who says Latin is a dead language?

2008-07-27T16:24:00.002-05:00

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, gave a speech in Latin!! He was apparently a Classics Major at Oxford. Read about it here.

This reminds me of a story I heard about a Jesuit priest who ran into Fr. Henri de Lubac in the Vatican's library. They both wanted to speak with one another, but the priest didn't know French and de Lubac didn't know English - and suddenly they both had an "Aha" moment - Latin! They sat there and had a conversation in Latin in the Vatican library.

I wish I had started off with a Classics major instead of doing religion, to be honest. I think it's a lot more versatile and the emphasis on languages is very attractive. C'est la vie, I suppose.

Patristic Resources

2008-07-25T00:51:00.002-05:00

Ben over at Dunelm Road gives us some links to Patristic Resources online.