Jeremy Thompson

Category: Biblical Studies

  • It's only when you become blind, that you can see …

    Yesterday I blogged my review of of How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading between the Lines by Thomas Foster.  There’s a chapter in the book entitled “He’s Blind for a Reason, You Know.” And, today I was listening to Amy Jill Levine’s lecture on Judges in her…

  • Humor – A few examples from the Old Testament

    Yesterday when I posted about the difficulty that I sometimes have in seeing humor in Biblical passages Tim Bulkeley left a comment with a link to several posts that he has done on his 5 minute Bible site.  I listened to the post on Esther and Jonah and realized that this is just the kind…

  • Noah's Ark on Youtube

    One place I’ve been finding that biblical scholarship is seriously behind is in using video. I’m know I’m not the first to notice this, but even though someone probably has, it deserves mention again. Let’s take the issue of Noah’s Ark for example since this latest debacle has brought it up.  If someone searches “Noah’s…

  • Hard to see humor in the Bible sometimes

    This morning I was listening to a lecture by Amy Jill Levine in her Old Testament course for the Teaching Company.  She was talking about some of the more humorous passages in the Book of Judges.  There is the whole deal about Eglon being fat and Jael figuratively emasculating Sisera. I’m aware that there is…

  • Dating systems in the ANE

    Here’s a helpful categorization I found in reading Ancient Near East: Historical sources in translation by Chavalas, et al this morning (what follows is a quotation): In the ancient Near East three different methods were used (at different times and in different places) to distinguish years: 1. Years were named after an important event (year…

  • Many are the "misfortunes" – Psalm 34:20

    I’m a little late posting this.  It’s actually from yesterday’s responsive reading.  But, I wonder if there is a better way to translate the beginning of Psalm 34 to capture the literary features there.  This video deals with that.  However, I don’t know if the word “misfortunes” has too much baggage with it.  Anyway, let…

  • Hyperbole in ANE Conquest Accounts (QOD)

    Here’s my quote of the day from Ancient Near East: Historical Sources in Translation edited by Chavalas. Tiglath-pilesar’s characterization of utter annihilation of the towns must be understood in light of royal propaganda.  The use of hyperbole was a significant feature in ancient Near Eastern conquest accounts.  Therefore, extensive archaeological excavations are required in making…

  • "Shepherd" Rulers in the Ancient Near East

    I suppose I should take a brief pause from handing out BiblioBlogger theme songs and write something related to Biblical Studies (Just kidding … as if theme songs for BiblioBloggers is unrelated to Biblical Studies).  Anyway … I’ve been reading a bit from Ancient Near East: Historical Sources in Translation edited by Chavalas.  I know…

  • For those who do not take numbers in the Old Testament symbolically …

    at least part of the time, I wonder what they do with this: The Sumerian king list: translation Should one take the numbers in all Ancient Near Eastern texts literally? …  I doubt they’d agree to that.

  • Tim Bulkeley on Exodus 32

    A couple of weeks back I posted a video pointing out that there are a couple of differing opinions in the text about who exactly led the people out of the land of Egypt.  That video sparked an audio post by Tim Bulkeley on his 5MinuteBible.com.  Check out my video and his audio explanation.