Jeremy Thompson

Category: Biblical Studies

  • Another Excellent Post on Ancient Hebrew by John Hobbins

    John Hobbins has written another excellent post on Ancient Hebrew entitled “Biblical Terms for the Language of the Land of Judah.”  Many people  refer to the language of the Hebrew Bible in a variety of ways; however, this post looks at how the language is referred to in the Biblical texts themselves.  He then takes…

  • Brueggemann on the Defining Category for Faith in the Old Testament

    I started reading Walter Brueggemann’s An Unsettling God: The Heart of the Hebrew Bible this afternoon. And, I thought this line from the Preface worthy of quotation: This suggests that the defining category for faith in the Old Testament is dialogue, whereby all parties-including God- are engaged in a dialogic exchange that is potentially transformative…

  • John Hobbins' Plea for a Broad Definition of Ancient Hebrew

    For those interested in learning about “Biblical” Hebrew, though not necessarily in learning the language, check out John Hobbins’ recent post concerning Ancient Hebrew.  Since the post is called a plea it goes without saying that not everyone would agree with all of the information found therein.  However, it is a helpful overview for the…

  • Scripture is a Toolbox

    The most memorable quote that I heard at SBL was at the blogger charity dinner.  Raymond van Leeuwen, who introduced Michael Fox at the dinner, said something to this effect when discussing the Book of Proverbs: Scripture is a toolbox for grappling with the issues of real life. I’m sure I didn’t get it just…

  • Daily Hebrew and Greek in BibleWorks 8

    Probably the feature that I was most excited about when I found out I would have the opportunity to review BibleWorks 8 was the Bagster’s Daily Light feature, which allows this resource to be viewed in the language of one’s choosing whether, English, Greek/Hebrew, or otherwise.  I run my website and blog related to the…

  • Grice's Maxims Applied to Biblical Interpretation

    I posted shortly ago about Grice’s “Maxims of Conversation,” but I wanted to take a brief moment to say that these maxims are not only useful ideas for conversation, but also can be applied to Biblical interpretation.  Take for example the “Maxim of Manner,” which has as a sub-point “be brief (avoid unnecessary wordiness).”  One…

  • Videos on the Portrayal of God in the Hebrew Bible

    Don’t know how I allowed myself to get scooped on this because I was very interested in this conference when I first heard about it and wished I could have attended.  At any rate, here is a link to a conference held at Notre Dame University entitled “My Ways are Not Your Ways.”  The conference…

  • Doug Chaplin on Theology

    I checked out a post by Doug Chaplin today on problems with the idea of canon formation.  That post has the potential for sparking an interesting discussion;  however, it also reminded me of something I have forgotten to do, though I have been meaning to do it for a while.  I wanted to point my…

  • Spotlight on Tim Bulkeley and 5minutebible.com

    I was going to write a post today simply about the site 5minutebible.com, but then I started looking at all of the Biblical Studies work that Tim Bulkeley has been doing online.  Most of the work I was aware of, but I had never seen all of the links in one place to really appreciate…

  • Collins on Systematizing the Material in the Pentateuch

    Have been re-reading through John Collins’ Introduction to the Hebrew Bible off and on lately.  Here is a passage I read last night I thought worthy of citation: The Biblical text that resulted from this process (the final editing together of diverse material) is not a consistent systematic treatise.  Rather, it is a collection of…