Category: Biblical Studies

  • Barber on Sirach's status within Judaism

    Michael Barber has an interesting post up, which also links to another interesting post on the status of the Book of Sirach within Ancient Judaism.  Possibly this is inspired by the fact that the first readings in our lectionary are currently being taken from the Book of Sirach. The post that Michael links to is…

  • Commercial for God – Doctrine of Retribution Abused (VFTTB)

    I just finished teaching through the Book of Proverbs in my Wisdom Literature class and thought I’d share this video.  It is exactly what the title of the post says a “commercial for God.”  Basically, these two girls read Proverbs 3:9-10 verbatim.  Just be careful because it might give you a sickening feel in your…

  • John Hobbins just threw out an interesting set of posts

    I mean he was throwing them out one after another, and I’m not sure if he’s stopped yet.  They are posts that he’s giving the heading: An outline of a 90 minute module in a course entitled “The Bible and Current Events.” Follow the links and you pretty much have it. I’m not sure of…

  • Pope Pius XII on the Importance of Textual Criticism

    I’ve posted on textual criticism for the past two days.  This will probably be the last post on the topic for a while.  Yesterday, I posted on video I used in attempting to show my students the importance of textual criticism.  I also used this quote from Pope Pius XII in Divino Afflante Spiritu to…

  • Interesting text criticial issues in Wisdom Literature

    A while back I posted asking if anyone knew of interesting text critical issues in the Wisdom Literature that I could use in my class.  I got no response other than Tim being surprised at how text critically inept we must be. At any rate, here are some of the texts that I ended up…

  • A great new book on Inspiration

    Yesterday I went to the library at Notre Dame Seminary after class and saw Denis Farkasfalvy’s book Inspiration and Interpretation: A Theological Introduction on Sacred Scripture on the cart of new arrivals.  I checked it out and pretty well couldn’t put it down. Farkasfalvy covers some of the same ground that Peter Enns does in…

  • It really takes Isaac a long time to die …

    In Genesis 27.31, Esau seems to think his father will die soon so he can kill Jacob.  Then, Jacob is gone for a long time (20 years – Genesis 31.38) before Isaac dies (35.28-29).  I’ve never really noticed that before.  Has anyone seen any explanations for this (of course, I’m sure some of you may…

  • Prediction

    Great things will be happening among the biblioblogs in coming months. Hate that I had to leave the biblioblogging session early and arrived late at that. But, fantastic presentations by Barber and McGrath. Reenergized me for blogging quite a bit now that I’m trying to wrap up the dissertation. What a great atmosphere among the…

  • Tv interview

    So I went in this morning for a television interview for Catholic Life Television in Baton Rouge. It was my first time to be filmed for a tv segment and was a really fun experience. It was a pleasure to meet Dina Martinez who did the interviewing and Chad Babin (I think I remember that…

  • Looks like I'll be teaching in the fall…

    On the eve of my vacation I got some great news. Looks I will be teaching two courses related to the Old Testament come this fall. Still have to get some transcripts in and forms filled out, but I would be teaching a course through Loyola University in New Orleans and one through the Diocese…