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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…
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Interesting text critical issues in Wisdom Literature?
In my Wisdom Literature class, we are talking about the transmission of the text of the Wisdom books. We’ll work through some examples of text critical issues in class. I have some examples already in mind, but I wanted to ask here: are there any interesting text critical issues that you have come across in…
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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…
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Theological Interpretation of the Old Testament – Review
This review is of the Kindle edition of Theological Interpretation of the Old Testament edited by Vanhoozer (print edition here). In terms of the layout of the text, everything in the Kindle version is pretty user friendly. The Table of Contents is all linked up nicely, which makes the text easier to navigate in many…
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My opening presentation for old testament as literature
Here’s a link to my opening presentation for the Old Testament as Literature course I’m teaching this semester. It was entitled “The Old Testament All Around you.” It was supposed to be a fun presentation, just to get across the point that studying the Old Testament in an academic setting at the very least makes…
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Cornerstone Biblical Commentary Volume 6 (Review)
I recently received the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary 9 (=CBC), Volume 6 on Job, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs in the mail from Adam Sabados (you can follow him and Tyndale house on Twitter). I will give a brief mention of the authors and talk a bit more about the contents mixed in with a…
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The irony of the explanation for Noah's name
I never really thought about it before this morning (though I’m sure someone else has), but there is a lot of irony in the reasoning given for Noah’s name in Genesis 5:29. The verse reads: he named him Noah, saying, “Out of the ground the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from…
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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…
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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…
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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…