Biblical Studies Carnival 45 – Bible Themed Park
Note: This is a repost and was originally posted on “The Golden Rule” blog on September 1, 2009. Unfortunately, many (most?) of the links may no longer be active. For the rest of the biblical studies carnivals, check out The Biblioblog Reference Library.
Move aside Disney Land. There is a new Bible Theme Park in town, the Biblical Studies Carnival XLV. Those who do not have any desire to go to the Holy Land Experience in Florida can now experience all the exciting family-fun and biblically-based attractions just at the click of the mouse. So drum roll please…
In honor of his 125th birthday, Rudolf Bultmann lead the annual Parade of Biblical Scholars. For the Bultmanniacs out there, Jim West has the ultimate anniversary celebration, with tributes from Maurice Casey, Roland Boer, Stephanie Fisher and James Crossley. Chris Tilling celebrates Bultmann’s breathtaking vision, James McGrath highlights Bultmann’s hypothesis on the relationship of John to Mandaeism and Mark Goodacre has an article on Bultmann’s skepticism that we can write a Jesus biography. Bultmann was not the only super star of August. John Anderson interviews his favorite scholar Walter Brueggemann. Matt began a great series of scholar interviews including John Kloppenborg, Larry Hurtado and Andreas Köstenberger. Mike Bird interviews Kavin Rowe on his work on Luke-Acts. Rob Kashow had 10 questions for Daniel Wallace. Chris Tilling found a goldmine of conservative scholarship. Stephen Smuts links to a video with Chris Forbes on the references to Jesus in Josephus’ Antiquities, but the site also has a good interview with the late Martin Hengel. Nick Norelli links to a number of articles by Scott Hahn. Some scholars took a bit of a beating in August. Kevin Edgecomb argues that Wellhausen and other giants of German Liberal Protestant scholarship built on a rotten foundation of anti-Semitism. Shocking as it may sound, not everyone is fond of the good Bishop Wright. Paul Helm and Gerald Bray expressed their critiques, but the latter provoked some critical responses.
What better to follow up a parade than fireworks!!! An article that draws sharp distinctions between Religious Studies and Theology and denies the latter advances knowledge lighted up the blogosphere (though a late July post, Chris Heard deserves credit for getting the ball rolling on this one). This conversation continued with thought-provoking posts by Tyler Williams, Jim Linville, Flávio Souza, Douglas Mangum, David Miller, Art Boulet, Missive from Marx, Deane Galbraith and Roland Boer. Closely related is Joel Willitts’ reflection on what it means to be a Christian academic. So what is the relationship of Religious Studies and Theology and is there room for Theology, one time the ”Queen of the Sciences,” in the academy? I will leave that for the reader to decide. But the theologically inclined should check out Joseph Kelly and Doug Chaplin debate divine impassibility, Michael Halcomb’s theology of prayer or Rod, Aaron, Nick and Michael discuss the Trinity.
Step into The Time Machine, a state-of-the-art virtual reality ride that lets you travel back to the ancient world. Go as far back as the last century of the 3rd millennium BCE to the ancient Sumerian Third Dynasty of Ur with Charles Halton. Or live among the Israelites: Julia M. O’Brien writes on how to eat like an Israelite and Claude Mariotinni on how to dress like one. Fundamentalists who think Deut 22:5 is about who wear the pants may be in for a surprise. Witness the rise of Judea and Jerusalem under Assyrian hegemony and then let Neil Godfrey know whether Finkelstein or Thompson got it right. Fastforward through Jewish history spanning from the return from captivity in 538 BCE to the Jewish War in 66-73 CE with Ken Schenck as a guide. Josh Mann lets you see the Roman Empire through the eyes of a slave. Phil Harland has podcasts on the gods in the Roman Empire, the historical Jesus or issues in the Pauline churches. Doug Chaplin focuses in on the Corinthian congregation. You might never guess Paul had a sense of humour. Get acquanted with the Beloved Disciple, whom James Tabor identifies as Jesus’ brother James. Bill Heroman defends the historicity of John while April DeConick explores the soteriological paradigm of the Johannine community. Don’t stop there but continue with her on the road to Nicea. If you visit Alexandria or Antioch, try to spot the hermeneutical differences with Joel Watts. Learn about the historical processes that led to canonization and the creeds on Quadrilateral Thoughts. If the proto-orthodox church isn’t your cup of tea, hang out with the Rabbis and catch Simeon ben Gamaliel’s amazing juggling act on C. Orthodoxy. There are a number of biblical adventures to choose, for Daniel McClellan reminds us the Bible is not univocal.
The full-scale model of Noah’s Ark has live animals such as lions and tigers and bears (oh my), but don’t let the children feed the bears. David Ker proposed a creative meme and asks how to preach on Elisha and the Bears (2 Kgs 2:23-24) (don’t make fun of bald people??) and several bloggers joined in on the fun including JohnHobbins, Doug Chaplin, Douglas Mangum, Peter Kirk, Henry Neufeld, James McGrath, Matt Page, Tim Bulkely, Bob Macdonald and Sam Norton.
The Scriptorium has a fine collection of ancient manuscripts. A panel of experts oversees the exhibits to prevent dubious claims like the recent ones about the copper scroll that irritate Robert Cargill. In introducing the Hebrew Bible , it is important to note it was not written in a cultural vacuum. There are interesting points of comparison with the Akkadian prayers and prayer for healing to Shamash translated by Duane Smith. Alan Lenzi’s introduction to Ludlul and following interpretive summary has parallels with Job and shows that Theodicy is a really old problem. Tim Bulkeley has a series of OT Podcasts. Reception History was in this month and James Pate presented different interpretations of Adam becoming “like one of us“ (Gen 3:22) or Cain as a repentant sinner (Gen 4:13) while Slaveofone looks at different views on the fate of Enoch (Gen 5:24). John Anderson posts on the composition of the Pentateuch and debunks the Documentary Hypothesis. Daniel McClellan shows that sons of god and angels have been conflated in Deuteronomy 32:43 LXX. John Hobbins has a series of exegetical notes on Psalm 1 and Phil Sumpter has a number of posts on Psalm 24. Tyler Williams continues his series on Psalm 151 with a look at the evidence from Qumran, the Septuagint and retroverting the text. Alan Knox studies the 26 uses of kērussō (“preach”) in the Septuagint here, here and here. But if you struggle reading the LXX, both John Hobbins and Mike Aubrey review Muraoka’s Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint.
The NT and Christian literature is next. Matthew Burgesshas some thoughts on dating one of the earliest textual fragments papyrus 52 and Tommy Wasserman posts on new NT fragments. I am pleased to announce that one newly discovered manuscripts is the elusive Sayings Gospel Q… ok that part is a lie but the next best thing is Chris Zeichmann’s posts on academic reconstructions of Q. There was alot of exegesis of Paul: Esteban Vazquez weighs in on the pistis Christou debate, Con Cambell exegetes Gal 1:10, Alan Bandy reflects on different interpretations of Rom 1:17 and Michael Heisler looks at what Rom 5:12 might say about universalism. And if you think Paul’s use of ioudaismos (usually “Judaism”) and euangellion (usually “gospel”) is self-evident, take a look at Steve Mason’s recent article. Daniel and Tonya count the number of occurences of Temple (hieron or naos) in Paul and John. Over to the Gospels, Tony Siew looks at the chiastic structure of Mark 1:21-28. Stephen Carslon suffered from a case of exegetical whiplash from a commentary on Mark 9:1, but recovered to provide a translation of Philip the Side. Rod comments on the Logos in John 1. Finally, Jared Calaway blogs on eschatology and cosmology in Hebrews, Rick Brannan takes a closer look at passages in the Didache and Suzanne McCarthy has a three–part–series on Syriac traditions that represent the Spirit as feminine and as a Mother.
Beware the (biblically-themed of-course) Haunted House. Some posts may literally scare the Gehenna out of you! Watch out for the spirits of disembodied giants on Scotteriology or my follow up post on how the ancients understood demons. Steve Wiggins posts on storm gods, sea monsters and the devil. If you find cats a little creepy, do not check out Jim Linville’s Review of Biblical Literature. Mark Goodacre put up a video and a podcast discussing the mark of the Beast and it turns out it may not be 666. One video incites fear in gullible Americans that Barack Obama is the Antichrist, but J.K. Doyle, James McGrath, G. Brooke Lester, Mike Heiser, Bryan Bibb, Ken Schenck and Dan Wallace on Parchment and Pen reveal that what is even more scary is the awful exegesis (or rather eisegesis) and popular assumptions behind this film. And scariest of all, Matt Dabbs uncovers that the real antichrist is Big Bird. Doctors prescribe a healthy dose of Alan Bandy’s guide to apocalyptic symbols and imagery or an understanding of the historical context of Revelation to cure Mass Revelation Hysteria.
Before you leave don’t forget to browse our Blogger’s Gift Shop. We have tons of Bible translations, but the TNIV received the most attention this month as Suzanne’s roundup reveals. Many bloggers wrote book reviews for the month of August. See Josh Mann’s review of Jesus in An Age of Terror, James McGrath on Jesus and the God of Israel or my review of The Only True God. The Lost World of Genesis One had multiple reviews from Joel Watts, James McGrath, Scot McKnight and Jason. New Testament Text and Translation Commentary was reviewed by Matthew Burgess and Nick Norelli. Jim West has not yet finished his rolling review of The Historiographical Jesus. Trevin Wax reviews Are You the One to Come and gets a bonus interview. Pat McCullough,who is also indexing a book for Ra’anan Boustan, also pointed out Interpreting Biblical Literature. Kevin Scull recommended Ancient Letters and the New Testament while while Brante Pitre questions the inconsistency over the Gospel’s genre in Geza Vermes’ classic Jesus the Jew. Ben Witherington III gives readers a taste of his new book The Indelible Image. Check out J. Brian Tucker’s blog for his helpful reviews of authors ranging from Edward Adams, Mark Nanos, Denise Buell, Caroline Hodge, etc.
THANK YOU to so many people who responded by submitting posts. I tried to include everything I received unless it was a tad too homiletical rather than academic (you can try submitting it for the Christian Carnival). The next carnival will take place at Hebrew and Greek Reader, so make sure to continue lending a helping hand by submitting your posts to them for the month of September.
The Jesus Memoirs 