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Poor Old Nabonidus
It is a little sad when you read about someone in history who was such a poor ruler that people welcomed his demise. Like this section from Bright’s History of Israel: Nabonidus who fled was subsequently taken prisoner. A few weeks later Cyrus himself entered the city in triumph. According to his own inscription, he…
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Lenten Reflections 2010
Last night I started a series of Lenten Reflections in my church parish. These are intended for lay people in my parish, so hopefully they are free from academic jargon. If you are in a tradition that celebrates Lent, or even if you are not, you might want to give them a listen. There will…
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Douglas Mangum's Roundup on the Qeiyafa Ostracon Buzz
I had thought about doing this myself since there were so many posts about it, but Doug did a great service in producing this roundup. And, I don’t feel the need to double up. So, if you want to read what everyone has been saying about potentially the oldest Hebrew inscription found to date, read…
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Kill Them All – Man, Woman & Child … But, Not Really
Okay, I’m being a little facetious with the title to this post. But, it’s so hard to write good title lines without doing that from time to time. At any rate, Matt over at MandM has recently written on the “commands to commit genocide” in the Book of Joshua. One matter he brings up is…
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Why Did Jonah Flee to Tarshish? (Learner-Centered)
A while back I wrote a post answering the question of why Jonah fled to Tarshish (if you’re a more advanced reader you probably would not have learned anything). Yesterday, however, I started to think about what it would mean to take a more learner-centered approach to my blogging. And, I thought a re-write of…
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1 Samuel 1 – Some Background
In the rare occurrence that the reading I do throughout the day has some bearing the lectionary reading, I like to share that. Today’s lectionary reading was verses 24-28 of 1 Samuel 1 (the responsive reading was from chapter 2). In the reading, Hannah has dedicated her son, Samuel, to the Lord and she hands…
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"Judges" or "Chieftans"?
This morning as I was reading in the Book of Judges in the New Jewish Publication Society (=NJPS) version of the Tanakh, I came across the word traditionally translated as “judges.” The NJPS renders the word as “chieftans.” I have also seen it rendered as “leaders/rulers.” I think the NJPS and those that render it…
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Jim West's Endorsement of Lawrence Schiffman
It’s nice to see Jim West endorsing Lawrence Schiffman, his exact words being “He’s awesome.” I have used two of Schiffman’s audio courses before from the Modern Scholar Series, The Hebrew Bible and The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Truth Behind the Mystique. However, I had heard about issues concerning Schiffman (a charge of plagiarism, or…
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Excellent Introduction to the History of Israel for the Lay Person
I started reading Mark S. Smith’s Memoirs of God this past week. Smith states in the introduction to the book that his audience is those outside of “fellow scholars” and “graduate students,” i.e. “the general public.” For the whole of the book, I’m not so sure he hits that target. I work with a more…
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Old Testament Timeline – Ralph Klein
For those looking for a decent Old Testament timeline, you might check out Ralph Klein’s offering, which places the chronology alongside other events of importance in the wider Ancient Near East. Some Features of the Timeline As stated above, it correlates with the timelines of other areas in the Ancient Near East, which can be…