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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…
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Holding Steady at Number 4 – The BiblioBlog Top 50
The Biblioblog Top 50 is up for this month. I’m still holding steady at number 4, and I think I’m still number 1 among doctoral students. So, that’s something …
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Doug Chaplin on the KJV Superiority Challenge
I don’t want to give away the whole post, but you might like to check out Doug Chaplin’s comments on the KJV superiority challenge (this was new to me). Doug lays out the KJV and NRSV of 2 Corinthians 6.11-13 side-by-side before giving this conclusion: If your ear for the English language suggests the former…
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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…
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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…
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If English Lacked Vowel Letters in Writing, …
archaeologists hundreds of years from now might think we worshiped King David. They would find all kinds of things with DVD stamped all over them and perhaps not realize that this is an abbreviation. Oh … that was so lame.
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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…
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Additions to Daniel in Today's Liturgy
Today’s responsive reading involves part of the additions to Daniel considered canonical by Roman Catholics and some of the other more liturgically oriented traditions. That is very fine and well (at least in my opinion, but I’m Catholic). Yet here’s the footnote from the New American Bible: [24] 3,24-90: These verses are inspired additions to…
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John Collins on Daniel 7
Well, I had a wonderful time with Christo (my thesis supervisor) and Karyn (a peer at the University of Stellenbosch) after SBL. But, now back to the important business of blogging. Today’s Old Testament lectionary reading is from Daniel 7. Once I get past the narratives at the beginning of Daniel, I very much feel…
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SBL – Days 4 & 5
My fourth day at SBL was by the far the best I had all around. I attended three sessions, one on poetry and pedagogy, another on best practices in teaching Biblical languages (in which my colleague Karyn Traphagen was spot on), and finally one on linguistics and Biblical Hebrew. There were a number of excellent…