What am I reading? Well, when I have time to sit and read these days it is usually something to do with canon issues:

• Paul D. Wegner, The Journey from Texts to Translations: The Origin and Development of the Bible (amazon.com). pp 75-162.
• Arthur G. Patzia, The Making of the New Testament: Origin, Collection, Text & Canon (amazon.com), pp. 102-111.
• Michael W. Holmes, “The Biblical Canon” in the Oxford Handbook to Early Christian Studies (amazon.com), pp. 406-426
• Wilhelm Schneemelcher (tr. R. McL. Wilson), “General Introduction” in New Testament Apocrypha, Volume One: Gospels and Related Writings (amazon.com). Revised Edition. pp. 9-50. Particularly §2, “On the history of the New Testament canon”, pp. 15-34.
• Bruce M. Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development and Significance (amazon.com).
• F.F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (amazon.com).

My primary interest is in early Christian conception of “canon”; and this is of course problematic. Most interesting to me have been Holmes and also Schneemelcher, who deal with the Septuagint. It really throws a wrench into thoughts of canonicity in early Christendom. I love that the introduction to a volume on NT Apocrypha has such a great essay on the topic of canonicity. Can’t agree with everything, but this essay in particular is really great stuff. And Holmes is top-notch too. Both are highly recommended.

OK, my real primary interest is because the topic of canon in early Christianity will be a decent chunk of the class I’m teaching in spring 2011 on “How We Got the New Testament”. I want to make sure I’ve got my bases covered. Wegner is the text I’ll be using, so the NT portions of his section on canonicity will be primary, though I hope to supplement with at least portions from Holmes and Schneemelcher.

Thanks to Hendrickson Academic for sending along this review copy of Clayton N. Jefford’s Reading the Apostolic Fathers: An Introduction (amazon.com).

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ll be teaching a six-week course next spring on “How We Got the New Testament”. I’m also evaluating the possibility of teaching a six-week course on the Apostolic Fathers. It would be an introduction to the people, their writings, major issues covered, relationship with the OT, NT and other writings of that era.

The problem, of course, is a textbook. It’s a short class, so the textbook itself can’t be big because we’d also likely be reading the writings themselves. Jefford’s Reading the Apostolic Fathers: An Introduction (amazon.com) seems a good fit, and I can supplement it with other more specialized articles if I feel the need to do so. Note Hendrickson has links to the TOC, Intro and Chapter 1 on their web site.

I haven’t read it yet (still working on Wegner’s Journey from Texts to Translations (amazon.com)) but hope to get into it soon to evaluate the possibilities. But it looks good and I’m highly predisposed to use it after my initial evaluation.

That, and I’d hope we could rustle up at least a few who would be willing to take such a course through the MEMRA Institute for Ancient and Biblical Studies.

I am not going to blog through issues I have with Campbell’s massive tome The Deliverance of God (amazon.com). The critical review of Campbell’s work is in very good hands (for starters, see Douglas Moo’s review article in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 2010, issue 1).

I just wanted to note something I ran across in the early pages of Campbell’s work. (Yes, pages 157-158 are early pages in Campbell). This has to do with Antioch and the reference to it in Acts 11.26; particularly the portion I’ve placed in italics:

And when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it happened to them also that they met together for a whole year with the church and taught a large number of people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. (Ac 11.26, LEB)

Campbell discusses this in a section having to do with conversion, what it is, and how “conversion” as described by “Justification theorists” doesn’t look anything like the conversion of Paul. (In other news: green and orange are not similar shades).

The problem is that Campbell takes a passing comment by Luke and builds a whole theory of conversion out of it, and in doing so loads the page down with weasel words: “seem to have felt”, “obvious reason”, “would almost certainly have sufficed”, “obvious explanation” … and those are just in the first paragraph of the section (p. 157).

The further problem is that all of Campbell’s supposed explanation is that: supposed. But he takes the supposed explanation and hails it as yet another silver bullet shot into the heart of “Justification theory”: “In sum, this evidence points to a considerable difficulty for Justification theory” (p. 158). It’s not evidence, it is Campbell’s conclusion based on his extrapolation and supposition of what might have precipitated the comment in Ac 11.26.

[At this point, I now vent my special frustration at the typesetter(s) and publisher, who for whatever reason chose to use endnotes instead of footnotes. I believe Dante has a special place for them. They have doomed the notes to only be examined in frustration and agony. Use footnotes. If the notes aren’t important enough to be looked at, then just remove them and save us the pain. You’re wasting the 250+pp of endnotes in the book, they’ll never see the light of day.]

Campbell basically proposes the novel (and probably fairly normal) idea that if the Christians were separated from the Jews even by name in Antioch (where they had typically been an sect/offshoot/branch of Judaism elsewhere) then something massive must’ve gone down in Antioch. And that massive thing must’ve been doctrinal/theological in nature (likely path for a theologian, eh?):

The obvious explanation for this phenomenon was that these ‘Jews’ had stopped practicing the law at some crucial point or points — or never started — and so become unrecognizable to outsiders as Jews. A relaxation of the need to be circumcised seems likely, but some relaxation of dietary and Sabbath regulations also sees possible. (p. 157).

Hmmmmm … oh yes, the “obvious explanation”. That wins all the time, doesn’t it?

Enter: Thomas Robinson’s Ignatius of Antioch and the Parting of the Ways: Early Jewish-Christian Relations (amazon.com). If you want an idea of how Antioch was that is well researched and has footnotes (even when they take up more than half the page!), then read Robinson. He necessarily scours the literature from Antioch’s formation in around 300 BCE up to and through the time of Ignatius.

One further possibility on the background of the comment in Ac 11.26 is that something else non-doctrinal/theological (or perhaps combined with doctrinal/theological influences) caused the distinction to be made; that Christians are a separate group and not a Jewish sect.

Mercenary Jews, among others, were involved in the founding of Antioch and had special privileges and benefits (taxation/etc.) as a result. Rising influence of Christians could have jeopardized the social and financial privileges the ‘native’ Jews of Antioch had. Instead of only theological/doctrinal issues, the Jews in Antioch could’ve had all sorts of reasons to dissociate themselves with the sect of Christ-followers, and the primary impetus may not have been solely theological or doctrinal.

I’m not doing Robinson justice, and these are things he just discusses in detail while setting up the larger case that there was tension on all sorts of fronts between Jews and Christians in Antioch up through the time of Ignatius. Read Robinson.

My larger point is that Campbell’s section on Ac 11.26 isn’t as neat, tidy and airtight as he makes it (and as he uses with rhetorical gusto). It makes me wonder about the rest of the places where he uses infirm language like “seemingly”, “perhaps”, “obviously” and the like to establish what he then uses as a firm plank in the floor of his argument.

Thanks to Hendrickson Academic for sending along:

Moyer V. Hubbard, Christianity in the Greco Roman World: A Narrative Introduction (amazon.com). Hendrickson Publishers: Peabody, MA. 320p. 2010.

Here’s the publisher blurb:

A creative introduction to the world of the New Testament

Background becomes foreground in Moyer Hubbard’s creative introduction to the social and historical setting for the letters of the Apostle Paul to churches in Asia Minor and Europe.

Hubbard begins each major section with a brief narrative featuring a fictional character in one of the great cities of that era. Then he elaborates on various aspects of the cultural setting related to each particular vignette, discussing the implications of those venues for understanding Paul’s letters and applying their message to our lives today. Addressing a wide array of cultural and traditional issues, Hubbard discusses:

• Religion and superstition
• Education, philosophy, and oratory
• Urban society
• Households and family life in the Greco-Roman world

This work is based on the premise that the better one understands the historical and social context in which the New Testament (and Paul’s letters) was written, the better one will understand the writings of the New Testament themselves. Passages become clearer, metaphors deciphered, and images sharpened. Teachers, students, and laypeople alike will appreciate Hubbard’s unique, illuminating, and well-researched approach to the world of the early church.

Go to the book’s page at Hendrickson.com for the TOC, Introduction and a sample chapter. I hope to read this sometime over the next few weeks; when I do I’ll report back.

While at SBL in New Orleans this year, my friend Bobby Koduvalil at Hendrickson handed me a new book by Michael Bird (who blogs at Euangelion) called Crossing Over Sea and Land: Jewish Missionary Activity in the Second Temple Period (amazon.com). Bobby said he thought it would be right up my alley.

Bobby was right. I’ve not read the whole book yet, but when I wasn’t snoozing on the plane(s) on the way home, I was engrossed in Bird’s work. There were times where it seemed like I’d only read three pages, but when I looked at the page number, I’d really read about eight pages. This happened more than once, and it’s the sign of a well-written book.

The book is just over 200 pages, with index, but don’t let that fool you. It’s worth reading if you’re at all interested in the subject, or in tangential subjects such as (as I am). Bird works over the available sources (primary and secondary) with economy and precision. No long, drawn-out, yawn-inducing diatribes.

Hope to blog about it at least once more when I make it through the main text of the book. But even now, I’d say it’s worth your time to read.

Advent is swiftly coming upon us. Earlier this fall, I spent some time to write a short daily devotional for use during the advent season.

It is organized by the readings of the Revised Common Lectionary (Year C). Each week’s readings are broken into daily portions, and each day has a short series of questions along with short answers.

My purpose for doing this was to have something for my family to start to read through as a family devotional during the advent season. The questions and answers are hopefully appropriate for such a setting. In reality, the questions (and moreso the answers) are just guidelines — training wheels, if you’d like to think of them that way — the hope is just to stimulate some sort of advent-centered discussion around the day/week readings.

My church (Grace Church Bellingham) is actually publishing copies of this via Lulu.com for families who would like to use it during the advent season. So if you attend you’ll be able to get a copy soon (hopefully before advent starts!)

Otherwise, for everyone else — or if you just wanted a preview — I wanted to post it on the blog. I’d love to have any feedback, good or bad. Just remember it isn’t written as a theological tome, but rather to provoke reflection during the season of advent, where we anticipate the return of our Savior!

Here it is: Advent Devotional

Internally, as Logos Bible Software 4 neared time to ship, a group of us in the Design & Editorial department were commissioned to make some videos for Logos 4. These aren’t meant to be completely instructional how-to videos, just walk-thru and demonstration of some features. You know, to get you comfy with the feature.

Now you can hear the smooth, dulcet tone of my voice, coaxing you gently through the peculiarities of each feature. [yeah right]. Anyway, here are the ones I did:

• Sympathetic Highlighting
• Stereoscopic Images
• Bible Word Study Guide
• Command Bar
• Bible Explorer
• Cited By
• Timelines
• New Tab
• Ratings

The links are to YouTube; they were functional as of the time of writing this post.

You may think “Huh?! Finally?!! I just heard about Logos4!” but Logos4 has been my life for at least the past 18 months. But now I can talk about it to whomever I please. Logos4 is public. Released. Not a beta. You can buy it now. You can cross-grade, upgrade, or flat-out buy it today. Download the whole thing if you want. That’s pretty awesome.

If you haven’t heard, please check out the Logos4 web site. Oh, and don’t forget about the iPhone app, either. Yes, there is a Logos iPhone app. I’m not making this up.

Logos4 is a complete change. It is new from the bottom up. It does things differently. I’ve fallen in love with the windowing system, rule-driven collections mean my collections can finally keep up with my library, floating windows are a dream on multi-monitor setups, and there are a ton of new resources too.

Instead of all that stuff (which others will cover, I’m sure), I just wanted to point to a few things dear to my heart in Logos4.

• The Apostolic Fathers Reverse Interlinear
• Cascadia Syntax Graphs of the New Testament
• Templates for Syntax Searching
• Grammatical Relationships in Bible Word Study
• Facilitate Serendipitous Discovery

1: The Apostolic Fathers Reverse Interlinear. Logos4 has a great selection of reverse interlinears (OT and NT for ESV, NRSV, NKJV, KJV, NASB95; an alignment of the LXX and BHS; and the in-progress Lexham English Bible (LEB) is also reverse-interlinearized for the available content [Rom-Rev]). But reverse interlinears aren’t just for Bible text anymore, they can be implemented on non-Bible text as well. Really all that is needed is a text and its underlying source. So a few years back I pitched the idea of having a reverse interlinear of the Apostolic Fathers text (English with underlying Greek; sorry, no Latin). Our first editor was unable to take on the project due to personal circumstances. I wanted this one so much I ended up doing the reverse interlinear alignment myself as a side project! It was fun, and now you can use a reverse interlinear with Greek text outside of the NT.

This brings up another feature that works with all texts that share a common alignment text (or are the alignment text): Something called “Sympathetic Highlighting”. For you Logos old-timers, this is “Navigate to Associated Word” on steroids. Basically, you highlight something in one text, and the other text highlights it too. You can see this above; I’ve highlighted text in the English, the underlying Greek gets highlighted too. This works in the OT and NT. Highlight something in the ESV and see how the NASB95 treats it. Even better: Highlight something in the LXX and see it highlight in the BHS (!)

2: Cascadia Syntax Graphs of the New Testament. If you’ve followed Logos at all over the past five years, you know that we’ve been very innovative in applying syntactic analyses (analysis above the word level) to the Hebrew Bible and Greek New Testament. Logos4 continues this innovation with the Cascadia Syntax Graphs of the New Testament. These are based on work done by the Asia Bible Society in their Greek Syntactic Treebank Project. They use simple, approachable terms (like “Subject”, “Indirect Object”, “Clause”, “nominal phrase”, “prepositional phrase”, etc.) for their structures.

The Syntax Search dialog has been completely revamped as well. For example, below is a query for the Cascadia Syntax Graphs that locates where a prepositional phrase has φοβος as its object:

In comparison with LDLS3 (and OpenText.org), Cascadia needs fewer properties, uses more approachable terminology, and is conceptually easier in structure.

3: Templates for Syntax Searching. As much as I love syntax searching, I’m enough of a realist to know that it is a great feature with a very limited audience. Most folks just want to know when something is the subject, or the object, or where it occurs as the main verb. Or even perhaps what sorts of adjectives modify the word. Templates provide this. From the syntax search, hit the query drop-down. Templates are on the left. Select one, and go. Let’s say I want to find where the verb φοβεω is negated (so, “do not fear” instead of “fear”):

Click “Go” when the word is there (select from the list or hit enter), and you’re doing a syntax search.

Alternately, you could open the desired template for the desired database from the syntax search editor. This would open the actual structure to search. From here, just fill in as necessary.

4: Grammatical Relationships in Bible Word Study. The primary difference between v3 and v4 in Grammatical Relationships is speed. In Logos4, it’s faster. Much faster. Like, real fast. But there’s this new section that shows up (where applicable) called Preposition Use. This is where the study word is the object of the preposition. There’s this cool graphic used to help show how the preposition is used. Here is an example with φοβος (fear) as the study word:

Fret not, there’s a Preposition Use chart for Hebrew too.

5: Facilitate Serendipitous Discovery. Go to the command bar. Start to type in “Facilitate”. You should see:

What does it do? Try it. Let me know what you find. Need some background? Try this three-and-a-half year old blog post.

What am I not mentioning?

There’s all sorts of stuff I’m not mentioning, including:

• Scads of new resources available in the new “LE” collections.
• Maps. Awesome maps. Zoomable maps. Linked to dictionaries maps. Linked to the text maps. Linked to Google maps maps.
• Infographics. Images of all sorts. Images in Dictionaries are integrated. Stereoscopic images.
• Customizable Guides. Ever wanted to create your own Passage Guide from a template of options? Now you can. Same for Exegetical Guide and Bible Word Study Guide.
• Passage Analysis. This is cool. OK, I’ll give you a picture of this one:

There is so much other stuff, I’ve just gotta stop now. There is not enough time to mention it all in a blog post. Check it out for yourself.

I’d been meaning to talk with my friend at Hendrickson about Bernard Taylor’s Analytical Lexicon of the Septuagint (amazon.com) (ALS), but as fate would have it a different friend passed a copy along to me on Friday. So I figured I’d take a peek at it and blog a bit about it as well.

First, a disclaimer: I’m the one that put together the Lexham Analytical Lexicon to the Greek New Testament, so I’ve mucked about the waters of analytical lexicons. Conceptually, analytical lexica like these are easy. Just dump the database and sort it, right? Realistically, they are much more difficult because they involve a tremendous amount of checking, sorting, reviewing, laying out, and other things. I understand completely how much work Bernard Taylor has done here, and he should be commended for the work.

Second, a story: When one of the editors of a text that Logos puts out (who will remain anonymous) came to the office to walk us through his work, we heaped adoration upon him for the years of work that was represented in what he’d done. He took this as an opportunity to tell us that all long-term database driven work really needs is “sitzfleisch” (dunno if I spelled that correctly), meaning someone’s gotta sit down and do it. For the LXX, Taylor sat down and did it. The world needs more Bernard Taylors.

Now, with all of that said, there’s really not that much to an analytical lexicon, presentation-wise. You should be able to look up your word (any word in the text) and get to a decent definition or gloss. Parsing is extra, and Taylor gives that too.

Taylor’s definitions are actually the translation equivalents from Lust, Eynikel and Hauspie’s Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (LEH), so they are recently published and have some history behind them.

The problem? The definitions are too brief. But more than that, there are no example citations listed at all. A lexicon of a corpus that has no references whatever to that corpus. No sample citations for senses. This is a problem.

Further, I have problems imagining anyone in this day and age of analyzed texts available electronically through numerous Bible software providers would actually use this lexicon in the way it seems intended to be used, by physically looking up the word in print. I could be wrong (or myopic, my gainful employment is in making these things available and accessible electronically) but I just don’t see it happening with any frequency. About the only reason to buy this book is to make sure you have an LXX lexicon on your shelf that you can look at when you can’t find the information anywhere else. And it is well-priced for that market (and could possibly steal the graduate student sales from LEH).

The problem is that I see another better presentation of the data. Instead of an analytical lexicon, this sort of data needs to be presented Sakae-Kubo style as a Reader’s Lexicon. Order it by the text, filter out words based on NT frequencies (since NT readers would be most likely to use such a work) and perhaps overall frequencies. Have volumes for Pentateuch, Prophets, etc. since they’re likely to be bigger than the present 600pp.

Of course, one further problem is that software providers are doing things similar to that. Logos has an “Exegetical Guide” which does pretty much that same thing.

So while overall I’m impressed with the amount of work and detail of the work that has gone into this volume, I have a hard time seeing how it could be used by anyone, outside of the use-case of simply needing an LXX lexicon on the shelf for reference. For that, the price is good — although one might be better off saving that money for an electronic version of an LXX Lexicon (LEH is available from several, including Logos).

This is perhaps one of the most glowing review/blurbs one could hope for.

Tyler Cowen, blogger extraordinaire at MarginalRevolution.com, reads scads of books every year and isn’t afraid to tell you if they’re junk or if they’re awesome. And he’s usually right. What he says is worth paying attention to.

Here’s what he says about Chris Wickham’s The Inheritance of Rome (amazon.com):

What can I say?  I have to count this tome as one of the best history books I have read, ever.  The author is Chris Wickham and the subtitle is A History of Europe from 400 to 1000.  The author states that this is a book written "without hindsight" so the focus is not on how early medieval times were a precursor of this, that, or the other.

Cowen lists eight more bullet points regarding strong points “in addition to its all-around stunningness”. Clearly, The Inheritance of Rome (amazon.com) is a book that we all should read. I’ve already added it to my Amazon Wishlist (I have a birthday coming up in October … hint, hint).

Here’s the Amazon.com blurb:

An ambitious and enlightening look at why the so-called Dark Ages were anything but that

Prizewinning historian Chris Wickham defies the conventional view of the Dark Ages in European history with a work of remarkable scope and rigorous yet accessible scholarship. Drawing on a wealth of new material and featuring a thoughtful synthesis of historical and archaeological approaches, Wickham argues that these centuries were critical in the formulation of European identity. Far from being a middle period between more significant epochs, this age has much to tell us in its own right about the progress of culture and the development of political thought.

Sweeping in its breadth, Wickham’s incisive history focuses on a world still profoundly shaped by Rome, which encompassed the remarkable Byzantine, Carolingian, and Ottonian empires, and peoples ranging from Goths, Franks, and Vandals to Arabs, Anglo- Saxons, and Vikings. Digging deep into each culture, Wickham constructs a vivid portrait of a vast and varied world stretching from Ireland to Constantinople, the Baltic to the Mediterranean. The Inheritance of Rome (amazon.com) brilliantly presents a fresh understanding of the crucible in which Europe would ultimately be created.

Since “Five Books” meme seem to be all the rage amongst the kiddies these days, I’ll try my hand at starting another.

The Five Biblical Studies Books I’m Stupider for Having Read

Here are the rules:

1. These are Biblical Studies books. Note that anything written by Tim LaHaye is not a Biblical Studies book.
2. Feel free to list multiple books by the same author, but you need to have at least three authors out of the five books.
3. You’re free to include books that were so stupid you couldn’t finish them.
4. Explain, in as few or as many words as you can muster, why the book in question was so mind-numbingly stupid.

Here are my Five Biblical Studies Books I’m Stupider for Having Read. The order is not significant, they all killed brain cells.

1. James D. Miller, The Pastoral Letters as Composite Documents (SNTS monograph series, #93). I are more dumber for having read this book. According to Miller, it seems as if there aren’t two single words within the Pastorals that cohere.

2. Bart Ehrman, The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot. I feel pain for any other unfortunate soul who read this book. I had to read it as I received a review copy from Oxford. These are brain cells I will never, ever get back.

3. Bart Ehrman, Lost Christianities. I couldn’t finish this book. Standard Ehrmanian fare, proto-orthodox, down with alternate orthodoxies, blah, blah, blah. I still wish I hadn’t spent the $20 on the two volume edition (even though it was paired with Ehrman’s Lost Scriptures, which is actually a cheap way to get decent modern English translations of several writings).

4. Kenneth J. Neumann, The Authenticity of the Pauline Epistles in the Light of Stylostatistical Analysis. The lit review/overview is actually pretty good, but it boggs down after that. Too much math for my brain. It made my head hurt and I still couldn’t quite get what was going on. I’m sure it’s brilliant, but it doesn’t communicate well.

5. Gail Riplinger, New Age Bible Versions. I almost hesistate to include this as a "Biblical studies" book, but I am dumber for having read it.

Who to tag? Jim West (post here), Steve Runge, John Hobbins, Kevin P. Edgecomb, and Mike Aubrey, of course (though I’ll understand completely if any of you would like to defer).

Update (2009-07-08): There’s been a bit of backlash (here and the update here, thanks to Nick for pointing these out otherwise I’d not have been aware of them) on the whole idea of books that “made me stupider”. Some context, people:

1. The meme is based on an offhand thought I had while responding to yet another “five book” meme (the “Five Influential Primary Sources” meme, see the second sentence). Too many serious memes were floating around, some levity was required.
2. I figured it was time for a sampling of not-so-great books. You know, equal time and all that.
3. In my mind, “books that make me stupider” are equivalent to those books you read and end up with the only response of “huh?”. Alternately, it could be, “no, he/she can’t seriously be arguing that!”
4. These responses occurred with virtually every page in my #1 and #5 listed books, and with some frequency in Ehrman’s book. I’ve blogged a lot about Ehrman’s stuff (good and bad), search the blog to find my comments. Also note I think his translations are great. But when he’s the center instead of the text, then I think his work suffers tremendously.
5. My #4 book by Neumann actually didn’t make me stupider, but I felt stupider because I didn’t quite track the math and selection (and omission) criteria even though I felt I should be able to. I’ll say again: his lit review is fairly good.
6. I fully expect that if I ever publish a book, there will be some proportion of readers who will claim that my book made them stupider.

If this post has made you stupider, please accept my apologies (and do be sure to include this post in your list).

(h/t Brandon Wason, Sitz im Leben)

Michael W. Holmes (ed.), The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations. 3rd edition (amazon.com).   Grand Rapids:  Baker Academic, 2007.  Pp. xxv, 806.  ISBN 9780801034688.  $42.99. BMCR review

Timothy B. Sailors provides a 4200+ word review of Michael Holmes’ edition of the Apostolic Fathers. Sailors is top-notch and well-respected, and his review carries some weight.

Before I dig in, I’ll note that I have several Greek and English editions of the Apostolic Fathers in print (Holmes’ 2nd edition, Kirsopp Lake’s Loeb edition, Bart Ehrman’s Loeb edition, C.C. Richardson’s edition, Lightfoot’s one-volume and his five volume Clement/Ignatius/Polycarp editions). My go-to volume at this point is Holmes’ third edition (the edition reviewed by BMCR). It is well-produced, well-researched, and I’m even mentioned in the introduction — so you know it’s gotta be good.

And while Sailors’ review is informative and generally positive, I can’t help but feel that he’s strung together a bunch of nitpicky quibbles that top-notch scholars of the early church (and specifically the writings of the Apostolic Fathers) would have, but real people using the book wouldn’t notice or care about.

Here’s an example that typifies the nitpicky quibbly-ness, in my eyes:

Though this remains a "Select Bibliography", it greatly expands those in the previous editions and far surpasses the "Select Bibliography" in the Loeb edition. There are nevertheless some works one would expect to see which are surprisingly absent. And, though an English edition was given in the list of abbreviations in earlier versions of this book, Holmes has removed the potentially helpful reference to W. Bauer's Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der frühchristlichen Literatur, despite the publication of an English translation of the most recent edition.

Where to begin? Yes, it is a select bibliography. And there are no lexica cited anywhere that I see, either in the abbreviation list or the bibliography. And if Sailors is bemoaning the lack of reference to BDAG, why in the world does he go about citing it as “an English translation of the most recent edition” of the German edition of BAAR? (note: That description actually may not be quite accurate. If I recall my John A.L. Lee correctly, BDAG is essentially a 3rd edition of the English stream of this text, and while the German may be consulted for articles, Danker’s work is definitely not a translation of BAAR).

Would anyone amongst the primary audience for Holmes’ work refer to BDAG that way and implicitly understand what is being referred to?

Another example: Approximately 800 of the 4200 words of the review (do the math, it’s just under 20%) are devoted to Fragments of Papias, and most of those on the Arabic, Syriac and Armenian fragments Holmes includes. Yes, this is a distinctive of Holmes’ edition, but is it worth spending 20% of your words on when the review is already lengthy?

Anyway, while Sailors’ review is helpful and informative, and while he does end up giving a positive review, I can’t help but wish he’d reviewed the book for the target audience instead of for a select group of scholars who already likely know the sorts of quibbles he brings up.

Was reading Jerome Murphy O’Connor’s St. Paul’s Ephesus: Text and Archaeology (amazon.com), and came across the following paragraph in the context of asylum offered in ancient pagan Greek temples:

It is easy to think of ways in which the safeguard of assessment of individual cases could be nullified. That this in fact happened at the temple of Artemis is clear from Apollonius of Tyana: “But I do condemn the people who by night and by day share the home of the goddess. Otherwise I should not see issuing thence thieves and robbers and kidnappers and every sort of wretch or sacrilegious rascal. For your temple is just a den of robbers.” (Letter 65). The final phrase evokes Jeremiah 7:11, which was used by Jesus apropos of the Temple in Jerusalem (Mark 11:17 and parallels). (Murphy-O’Connor 25)

This is speaking about those who abuse the offer of asylum, those who take up asylum to escape the prosecution they are worthy of. It would be interesting to see a larger examination of this (one that, of course, safeguards against parallelomania). Did a quick search of my Logos library for (bible = "Mk 11:17" and Apollonius) and didn’t find much.

With thanks to the What’s New in Papyrology blog (here and here) for the notices.

First, from the “Oxford Handbooks in Classics and Ancient History” series, come Roger Bagnall’s (editor) The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology (amazon.com). Here’s the blurb from Amazon.com:

Thousands of texts, written over a period of three thousand years on papyri and potsherds, in Egyptian, Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Hebrew, Persian, and other languages, have transformed our knowledge of many aspects of life in the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds. The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology provides an introduction to the world of these ancient documents and literary texts, ranging from the raw materials of writing to the languages used, from the history of papyrology to its future, and from practical help in reading papyri to frank opinions about the nature of the work of papyrologists. This volume, the first major reference work on papyrology written in English, takes account of the important changes experienced by the discipline within especially the last thirty years.

Including new work by twenty-seven international experts and more than one hundred illustrations, The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology will serve as an invaluable guide to the subject.

Unfortunately, even at Amazon.com it’s $120 at the cheapest (as of this posting), so unless there is a swingin’ deal at SBL I won’t be getting this title (unless some kind soul would like to provide a review copy … but I don’t have my hopes high for that)

Next up is a title to be published in August by Princeton University Press, Early Christian Books in Egypt (amazon.com). This title is much more approachable at $29.95, but still … if anyone wants to zap a review copy my way … well, it’s always worth a shot. Here’s the blurb from Amazon.com:

For the past hundred years, much has been written about the early editions of Christian texts discovered in the region that was once Roman Egypt. Scholars have cited these papyrus manuscripts—containing the Bible and other Christian works—as evidence of Christianity's presence in that historic area during the first three centuries AD. In Early Christian Books in Egypt (amazon.com), distinguished papyrologist Roger Bagnall shows that a great deal of this discussion and scholarship has been misdirected, biased, and at odds with the realities of the ancient world. Providing a detailed picture of the social, economic, and intellectual climate in which these manuscripts were written and circulated, he reveals that the number of Christian books from this period is likely fewer than previously believed.

Bagnall explains why papyrus manuscripts have routinely been dated too early, how the role of Christians in the history of the codex has been misrepresented, and how the place of books in ancient society has been misunderstood. The author offers a realistic reappraisal of the number of Christians in Egypt during early Christianity, and provides a thorough picture of the economics of book production during the period in order to determine the number of Christian papyri likely to have existed. Supporting a more conservative approach to dating surviving papyri, Bagnall examines the dramatic consequences of these findings for the historical understanding of the Christian church in Egypt.

Sounds like fun. Hopefully I’ll remember to look for a copy at SBL.

On the National Review Online web site, Ryan Sayre Patrico reviews what sounds to be an excellent book, Rémi Brague’s The Legend of the Middle Ages: Philosophical Explorations of Medieval Christianity, Judaism and Islam (amazon.com).

Why do I think it sounds good? Here’s a quote from the review:

Brague is humble about his ability to dispel these myths, and while he admits that “any fast-talking media star can do a thousand times more in one minute to perpetuate falsity than we library rats can do in ten lifetimes to unmask it,” he nonetheless does his “utmost to destroy” these legends — or, as he puts it, these “teeming vermin.” Brague’s weapon of choice in destroying these legends is his close examination of medieval philosophical discourse: He expertly illustrates that, contrary to popular belief, “medieval thought does not escape the phenomena typical of thought in general.” Brague’s main task, then, is to show that “people never stopped thinking, that in fact medieval people did a lot of thinking, and that many highly refined concepts were shaped during those years.”

Here’s the description from Amazon.com (amazon.com):

Modern interpreters have variously cast the Middle Ages as a benighted past from which the West had to evolve and, more recently, as the model for a potential future of intercultural dialogue and tolerance. The Legend of the Middle Ages cuts through such oversimplifications to reconstruct a complicated and philosophically rich period that remains deeply relevant to the contemporary world.

Featuring a penetrating interview and sixteen essays—only three of which have previously appeared in English—this volume explores key intersections of medieval religion and philosophy. With characteristic erudition and insight, Rémi Brague focuses less on individual Christian, Jewish, and Muslim thinkers than on their relationships with one another. Their disparate philosophical worlds, Brague shows, were grounded in different models of revelation that engendered divergent interpretations of the ancient Greek sources they held in common. So, despite striking similarities in their solutions for the philosophical problems they all faced, intellectuals in each theological tradition often viewed the others’ ideas with skepticism, if not disdain.

Such divisions, Brague contends, debunk notions that the medieval Mediterranean world was a European or Islamic cultural center in which different groups of people harmoniously mingled. His clear-eyed and revelatory portrayal of this misunderstood age brings to life not only its philosophical and theological nuances, but also its true lessons for our own time.

Sounds like it might be a fun read.

Outside of having started a jaunt through the New Testament in Greek (beginning with the Paulines), here’s what I’ve been reading:

Steve Mason, Josephus, Judea and Christian Origins: Methods and Categories (amazon.com). Right now I’m in chapter five, which is probably one of the more important essays in the book. It’s on understanding Ιουδιαοι as “Judeans” instead of “Jews”, at least for that particular era. He’s almost convinced me, and I’m rather conservative when it comes to these sorts of things.

Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, St. Paul’s Ephesus: Texts and Archaeology (amazon.com). Several ancient texts concerning Ephesus in one way or another conveniently pulled together in one volume in English translation, as well as some commentary/discussion and writing on archaeology. I figured I needed to get a bit more well versed on the history of Ephesus. Not so long ago I pored over Paul Trebilco’s The Early Christians in Ephesus from Paul to Ignatius (amazon.com), which I highly recommend, followed by Peter Lampe’s From Paul to Valentinus: Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries (amazon.com) which I also recommend if you want some understanding of Christianity in Rome. Books like these reinforce how weak I am in my understanding of the setting in which Paul’s epistles were written and lived. Hopefully I’m improving.

Steve Runge, Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament: A Practical Introduction to Discourse Features for Teaching and Exegesis. Steve is a good friend and co-worker, so I’ve been lucky enough to read through pre-release drafts of his stuff. His work has helped me understand conjunctions sooooooooo much better it isn’t even funny. If you have Logos Bible Software, you should probably consider this book. If you have Steve’s previous work, The Lexham Discourse Greek New Testament, then his discourse grammar is a no-brainer.

I’m also reading some articles from Filologia Neotestamentaria, but won’t list them here.

From his recent book Josephus, Judea, and Christian Origins: Methods and Categories (amazon.com) (and thanks to Hendrickson Academic for the review copy!). In his article “Josephus as Authority for First Century Judea”, Mason works over the practice of attempting to discern/locate underlying sources used by Josephus:

Since Josephus’s literary art demonstrably involves changes of narrative voice, complexity of character development, calculated repetition of charged language, variation of diction, and diversionary excursus, it seems impossible to devise criteria based on such phenomena for extracting sources. Attempting such recovery would require a sort of literary Heimlich maneuver, performed on someone who has long since digested the item being sought. The result is likely to be neither appealing nor useful. (Mason 38)

Now that’s a great word picture! I just started reading the book, and the first essay (which the above quote comes from) is excellent. Looking forward to the balance of them.

I read an article on ABCNews.com this morning titled “Parenting Blogs May Be Held Liable for Product Reviews”. The article is a brief examination of “Mommy Blogs” that involve a blogger receiving free products and then blogging about personal experience with said products. For companies, the idea is that personal recommendations and word-of-mouth carries more weight with potential customers than traditional advertising.

And that’s true, word-of-mouth normally does have a better effect; and I can see that blogs can be a good method for advertising. The concern, apparently, is that folks who receive free products for review are perceived as more likely to give glowing false testimonials in the hopes of keeping the gravy train alive than they are to give incisive, critical reviews pointing out the bad things in the product. Picking up in the middle of the article:

"But the concern is about those instances when [testimonials] are delivered and it is not made obvious that it's an advertisement for a company."

Whether these revisions, should they happen, will affect particular bloggers will depend on their relationship to the company whose product they're promoting, Cleland said. If a blogger reviews items in return for payment or free products, they may be held liable because the bloggers, unbeknown to their audiences, could be seen as shills for the companies.

"It would only affect bloggers who are paid to write reviews but the sticky issue that is raised is what happens if a product is given for free," Cleland said. "That's something we're going to have to address."

The bold part is the sticky wicket. I say this as one who has received several books from different publishers (Hendrickson, Eerdmans, Oxford, Baylor and perhaps others) at no charge for the purpose of reading them and then blogging my thoughts.

I have no idea what all of this means (will they want to tax books received for review as income?) but I do see that it is time to clearly state my own policy/ideas when it comes to reviewing books on this blog. Here they are in no specific order:

• I am under no obligation to give a positive review. I’ll tell you what I think about the book, positive or negative. Indeed, I’ve done that already (I was very negative on Ehrman’s gospel of Judas book, which Oxford asked me to review). But I’m mostly positive because … well … many times I’m able to request books or at least refuse books if I’m not interested in them. For example, I don’t plan on ever reading any more of Ehrman’s popular literature because it is ill-conceived and poorly argued (though well written) drivel. I have no time for it.
• I will disclaim in each post that reviews a book if the book was provided free of charge. That way you know the situation and don’t have to wonder. There are some books that I buy personally and also review; if that’s the case I’ll let you know that too.
• If I have an review or mention of a product from Logos Bible Software, I will disclaim that I am an employee, and that any comments/opinions are my own and not that of my employer. Indeed, I already have a blanket disclaimer for the site that says as much, and that is linked to every post ever made on this blog.

I think that’s it. I don’t want a lot of rules for this sort of thing, but I do want you to know that I’ll let you know what I think about what I read, be it good or bad, whatever the source of the book.

I’d like to know what you think about this stuff. Use the comments to have a discussion, or if you’re a blogger please interact with me via your own blog, and link back here. Send me an email (text geek at gmail dot com) with your link and I’ll provide whatever links I can at the bottom of this post to keep the thread going.

If there is some sort of concise code of conduct for book reviews that we “bibliobloggers” (or “biblicabloggers”) can devise and agree to, I’m all for it. I think that will help us and also help any publishers we may individually work with so we’re all on the same page when it comes to book reviews.

Thanks!

It’s that time: the most recent Mohr-Siebeck catalog arrived in the post* the other day.  So time for some old-school, true-to-the-name “biblio-blogging”!

If I had unlimited income, and unlimited reading time, I could be very interested in the following:

Nicholas de Lange, Julia G. Krivoruchko, and Cameron Boyd-Taylor, eds., Jewish Reception of Greek Bible Versions: Studies in Their Use in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. (Series: Texts and Studies in Medieval and early Modern Judaism, 23)

Jonathan Marshall, Jesus, Patrons and Benefactors: Roman Palestine and the Gospel of Luke.

Susan E. Docherty, The Use of the Old Testament in Hebrews: A Case Study in Early Jewish Bible Interpretation.

Volker Rabens, The Holy Spirit and Ethics in Paul: Transformation and Empowering for Religious-Ethical Life.

In other Mohr-Siebeck news: Apparently they’ve got a lot of stuff on Google Books, and you can search Mohr books via Google book search on Mohr’s (newly redesigned!) home page. Right column, look for ubiquitous Google icon.

* Whenever stuff from Europe comes by mail, I feel like I need to say “post” instead of “mail”.

We’ve been working on Books.Logos.com for a long time, and a beta form of the site has finally been made live. Here’s the text from the site:

We have more than 8,000 classic works from seminary libraries, and we're still scanning more. During the beta period you can search and view all of the books for free.

Use the search box in the upper left to search the entire library. When you've selected a book, you can use the search box on the right side to search within just that book.

Use author:Wilkinson to find all the books by Wilkinson, or title:canon to find books with "canon" in the title. You can even search for Bible references!

Books are still being uploaded to the server; there’s a whole lot of data and it takes awhile. One of the best features of the site is the ability to search by Bible reference (try that, Google). Just type your ref in the search box and hit enter. No special code, it’ll figure out if it is a Bible reference.

The default display is black and white images (they’re smaller and faster), but you may need to view color images for some books or scripts. There’s a little icon by the page indicator to switch to color.

One particular favorite that I’ve run across is Edward William Grinfield’s Scholia Hellenistica in Novum Testamentum: Philone ed Josepho Patribus Apostolicis allisq. Ecclesiae Antiquae Scriptoribus Necnon Libris Apocryphis Maxime Depromta. Huh? It indexes cross references between the NT and several non-NT books (Philo, Josephus, Fathers). Pretty cool.

Check it out, remember it is still in development, and make sure to leave some feedback at the specified email address (books@logos.com).

J. Harold Greenlee, The Text of the New Testament (amazon.com). Hendrickson 2008. 130pp. ISBN 1598562401.

Thanks to Hendrickson Academic for sending along the review copy (amazon.com).

This is a slim volume (130 pp.) that gives a very basic, very general background to the practice of textual criticism as applied to the Greek New Testament.

First off, it is probably best to say what this book is not: It is not, from all I can tell, intended to compete with the similarly-named volumes from Metzger (now Ehrman/Holmes) or Aland & Aland (tr. Erroll Rhodes). Those are both more academic and comprehensive introductions to textual criticism. Greenlee is geared toward a completely different audience. In this, I think Greenlee’s book is unfortunately named because it will, I believe, be misjudged by textual critics. Actually, it already has been. It was reviewed by the Review of Biblical Literature by none other than Keith Elliott, and was not reviewed positively. After this, it was discussed on the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog (here for a comment by Greenlee on Elliott’s review, also here and here for Elliott’s response to Greenlee; check the comments of all posts too).

Despite all of that, to understand Greenlee’s book, one must understand the audience he intends to hit. He is not aiming at an academic audience. This much is obvious in the second paragraph of the book blurb (from Amazon.com, emphasis is mine):

Geared to the lay person who is uninformed or confused about textual criticism, Greenlee begins this volume by explaining the production of ancient manuscripts. He then traces the history of the development of the New Testament text. Readers are next introduced to the basic principles of textual criticism, the concept of variant readings, and how to determine which variant has the greatest likelihood of being the original reading. To illustrate the basic principles, several sample New Testament texts are examined. The book concludes by putting textual criticism in perspective as involving only a minute portion of the entire New Testament text, the bulk of which is indisputably attested by the manuscripts.

This is important to understanding what Greenlee is up to in this book. I’d highly recommend that any pastor/teacher keep Greenlee’s Text of the New Testament (amazon.com) on his short list (near the top, if not at the top) of books to recommend to parishioners who ask questions like: “Why is the KJV New Testament different in spots, and does it matter?” or “Why are there all of these footnotes about ‘other manuscripts’, and what do they mean?” Greenlee’s book is short, to the point, and is pretty much the anti-Ehrman. It will build up, not destroy, the faith of the one asking the questions. (For the record, I’d also put Comfort’s New Testament Text and Translation Commentary (amazon.com) on that pastor/teacher’s short list of books to recommend).

If Greenlee intended to write a book to make textual critics happy, to compete with standards like Metzger and Aland & Aland, then he surely failed, and Elliott’s review is spot-on. But Greenlee didn’t do that. He wrote a book for the average person, sitting in the pew, with some basic questions about the text. Greenlee paints in broad strokes and gives general answers to the questions, which is what his desired audience needs.

Academics and textual critics can continue to nitpick Greenlee’s book, but don’t pay attention to them. If you need something on textual criticism for a basic layperson audience, Greenlee is your go-to book.

A side note: Greenlee is no slouch; check out the range of topics he has authored on over the years.

In the “what have I been doing lately” column:

First, I’ve been doing a lot of blogging at PastoralEpistles.com. I’ve done a lot of work translating and evaluating 2Ti 1.1-2.7 (at present) and will continue to work on it until I’ve worked through the whole letter. You may want to check out the posts.

Second, I’ve been doing a lot of reading in Peter Lampe’s From Paul to Valentinus: Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries (amazon.com). This is an awesome book, I can’t recommend it highly enough. I’ve learned more about the cultural milieu of early Christians, and more about Christians in early Rome, than I knew was possible. Just the few pages on Priscilla and Aquila are worth it.

Third, my friend Bobby Koduvalil at Hendrickson Academic set me up with a few books. First is J. Harold Greenlee’s The Text of the New Testament: From Manuscript to Modern Edition. This is a thin volume and from what I can tell is geared toward the guy who realizes that his NASB New Testament is inexplicably different from his KJV New Testament and wants to figure out why. It is most certainly not an academic introduction to textual criticism, it is an introduction geared toward the laity. As such, it will make most text-critics cringe. But that’s good. From what I’ve read so far, Greenlee hits his audience, and most of what he says is defensible in that context. Introduction, TOC and Sample Chapter are all online at Hendrickson’s web site, hit the book page and scroll to the bottom for links to those bad boys. Second is Steve Mason’s Josephus, Judea, and Christian Origins: Methods and Categories, which is a compilation of several other articles Mason has written over the years, organized and somewhat edited into a new volume. Mason is a top-notch scholar and a nice guy to boot, and I’m really looking forward to reading this one — though it’ll be after Lampe (amazon.com) & Greenlee. I’ll blog about both of these books as I read more.

Fourth, in the past month I’ve installed the following Logos Bible Software and have already received benefit from most of it:

• Lexham Greek-English Interlinear Septuagint
• Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament
• Theological Lexicon of the New Testament
• Lexham Analytical Lexicon of the New Testament
• Socio-Rhetorical Commentary Series (7 vols from Witherington, one from deSilva)
• Old Testament Greek Pseudepigrapha with Morphology
• Ellicot’s commentaries on:
• Pastoral Epistles
• Galatians
• Ephesians
• 1&2 Thessalonians
• 1 Corinthians

Fifth, since it has been lighter later, I’ve been able to take a few walks with our nearly-two-year-old daughter Ella after getting home from work. It’s still cold, but we brave it for a little while. She like to pick up a rock right when we start, and hold onto it the whole way. She also likes to keep me informed of when she sees birds, dogs, cats, dirt, trucks, cars, and busses. All in all, a hoot of a time.

Nijay points to a forthcoming book called Paul's Parallels: An Echoes Synopsis, to be published by Continuum (T&T Clark). Amazon lists it under a slightly different title (Pauline and Pseudo-Pauline Parallels, Echoes, and Musings (amazon.com)), the Continuum site says April 2009. It sounds awesome:

Paul's Parallels is the first and only New Testament resource text in tables format presenting Paul's verses in column one, next to a row of parallels, echoes, or like-minded quotes from Old and New Testament resources as well as other extant biblical materials. The passages are cited in full.

This master of the epistolary writings, gives a verse by verse demonstration of Paul's thoughts, his ethic, and his actions that were picked-up by later Christian writers, copied by pseudo-Pauline admirers. It delineates some as distinctively Christian while others remained only in Paul's writing.

In addition, Luke's history about Paul in Acts is presented using the same format so the reader can easily cross-reference each epistle to its chronological setting. Documenting the history of Paul’s ministry in the same text allows the reader to instantly turn to the time and place in which Paul wrote that particular message. While investigating serious textual, literary, genre, and other theological characteristics, the reader has the opportunity of simultaneously locating Acts in its historical context.

But there's a catch: It is priced at $225.00! (No, the '2' on my keyboard didn't stick, that $225.00 is correct; Amazon provides some savings with a price-as-of-this-post of $163.87). I can safely say that I will never get this book, unless someone with unlimited income and kindness sends it my way, or I happen upon a really cheap used copy somewhere. I realize these are basically books targeted to libraries with budgets (though that customer base is surely shrinking) and not single-person users, for the most part. I also realize these things can be spendy to produce, but also have limited audiences. But cryin' in the night, that's spendy! Of course, if someone at Continuum/T&T Clark would like to send a review copy my way, I'd be interested. (Hey, had to try!)

Update (2009-03-01): I saw a comment from Michael Bird on Nijay's post referring to a similar book by Walter Wilson to be released soon. A search on Amazon informs me the title is Pauline Parallels: A Comprehensive Guide (amazon.com), published by Westminster/John Knox. This sounds relatively similar to the above book, but is priced at $32.97! And Amazon has a release of Jan 27, 2009, so that means it is available for purchase. I'd love to see a smackdown between the two titles, particularly to see if the one book is really $200 better than the other. Again, I'd consider doing the smack-down if the publishers can get copies of the books my way.

Also, please don't confuse either of these books with the similarly-named Pauline Parallels (amazon.com) by Fred O. Francis and J. Paul Sampley. That book is published by Fortress Press and puts the Pauline epistles (sans the Pastorals, sadly) in topical synopsis. It's a handy book, and it is also affordable: the new book price is $21.78; used copies from about $13 (as of this posting, anyway)! I've found Francis & Sampley's work useful. It's a great place to turn when examining one Pauline passage to see if there may be other similar Pauline passages worthy of examination.

New books are always a joyous thing; new books given to you by friends are even more joyous.

There are two books I've recently received that qualify as "even more joyous".

The first is a gift from a ricoblog and PastoralEpistles.com reader whom I won't name. Out of the kindness of his heart he sent along a copy of Perry L. Stepp and W. Hullitt Gloer's Reading Paul's Letters to Individuals: A Literary and Theological Commentary on Paul's Letters to Philemon, Titus and Timothy (amazon.com). This is awesome because I'm lucky enough to count Perry as a friend (though I've only met him in passing once, he does blog occasionally at PastoralEpistles.com) and Perry was kind enough to send along a few extended portions of the commentary while he was writing it for feedback. It's nice to see it in print. Perry has done an excellent job with the book, and I can highly recommend it as a readable yet substantive and stimulating commentary on the Pastorals. To the gentleman who sent this my way: Thank you, I really appreciate it!

The second was a gift from Michael Aubrey, who was cleaning off his bookshelf and ran across a volume that he knew I'd be interested in: George Weiland's The Significance of Salvation: A Study of Salvation Language in the Pastoral Epistles (amazon.com), part of Paternoster's Biblical Monographs series. Mike thinks he got the book just over two years ago when James Spinti (Eisenbrauns) had a book giveaway via RSS feed. I received a copy of John Eifion Morgan-Wynne's superb book Holy Spirit and Religious Experience in Christian Literature ca. AD 90-200 (amazon.com) during the same promo/giveaway. I can highly recommend Morgan-Wynne's book as excellent, and I have similar hope for Wieland's tome.

Received a catalog from Loyola Press today. Here are some books that aren't necessarily new, but for whatever reason seemed attractive to me when I flipped through the catalog:

Sean Charles Martin. Pauli Testamentum: 2 Timothy and the Last Words of Moses (amazon.com). (LoyolaPress.com) Tesi Gregoriana, Serie Teologia 18, 308pp. 1997.
This study contends that the legends about the last words of Moses constitute the best way to evaluate the portrait of Paul in 2 Timothy, and that Paul is presented in 2 Timothy as a "prophet like Moses" as part of the polemic against the "Teachers of the law" in the Pastoral Epistles.

David Holly, O.S.B. Comparative Studies in Recent Greek New Testament Texts: Nestle-Aland's 25th and 26th Editions (amazon.com). (LoyolaPress.com)Subsidia Biblica, vol. 7. 149pp.
Nestle-Aland is the standard edition of the Greek text of the New Testament used by most scholars. A new edition of this text is a major event in the world of biblical scholarship. The author makes a detailed comparison between the 25th edition and the 26th.

Agostino Merk. Novum Testamentum Graece et Latine, Apparatu Critico Instructum (amazon.com). (LoyolaPress.com) 11th Edition. 1732pp. 1992.

This weekend, during whatever free time I may have, I plan to concentrate my reading efforts on Peter Lampe's From Paul to Valentinus: Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries (amazon.com). This was one of the books I recently purchased (thanks again, Mom & Dad!)

Here are reviews and a blurb from Amazon. I forget where I picked up a reference to this book, but I'm always interested in stuff like this. Any other volumes to recommend? (outside of Trebilco's Early Christians in Ephesus (amazon.com) volume, which I have and is on my need-to-reread list)

Review
"Lampe shows that there are both archaeological and literary grounds for saying that the early Roman Christian community was at first indistinguishable from the Jewish one, from which it emerged as perhaps a less affluent underclass of God-fearer. Lampe's book will impress all who read it as a well-informed attempt to synthesize a vast amount of data in a serious, informed, and scholarly way." —Alan F. Segal, Journal of Biblical Literature

"This impressive work puts our study of early Roman Christianity on a new and more certain empirical basis and must now serve as the point of departure for all subsequent research. . . . Lampe has expanded our database and has provided the most extensive social profile of Roman Christianity currently available." —John H. Elliott, Catholic Biblical Quarterly

"This study is so masterful in its grasp of a vast array of evidence, so solid and innovative in its methodology, and so audacious in conception that it is bound to become a classic. It is the most important historical and sociological study ever written on roman Christianity." —Robert Jewett, Interpretation

Product Description
In this pathbreaking study of the rise and shape of the earliest churches in Rome, Lampe integrates history, archaeology, theology, and social analysis. He also takes a close look at the inscriptional evidence to complement the reading of the great literary texts: from Paul's Letter to the Romans to the writings of Clement of Rome, Justin Martyr, Montanus, and Valentinus. Thoroughly reworked and updated by the author for this English-language edition, this study is a groundbreaking work, broad in scope and closely detailed. In six parts, comprised of 51 chapters and four appendices. Lampe greatly advances our knowledge of the shape of leadership and the Christians' relation to the Judeans living in Rome.

In a previous post, I threatened to do some comparisons between Comfort, Metzger, Omanson's rewrite of Metzger and (where applicable) Westcott & Hort's "Notes on Selected Passages". First, the list of books:

• Comfort: New Testament Text and Translation Commentary (amazon.com) (Tyndale, 2008)
• Omanson: A Textual Guide to the New Testament (amazon.com) (German Bible Society, 2006) This is a "geared towards translators" edition of Metzger's Textual Commentary.
• Metzger: A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Second Edition (amazon.com) (United Bible Societies, 1994)
• NET: NA27/NET Diglot (amazon.com) (Biblical Studies Press, 2004). I realize that the non-diglot NET has more notes and may have greater coverage, but the diglot is the only edition I have to hand at present.
• Westcott & Hort: The New Testament in the Original Greek: Introduction and Appendix (amazon.com) (Vol. 2). (MacMillan & Co., 1896)

In this post, I'll provide a list of readings covered in the book of First Timothy. I may expand upon some of the readings in subsquent posts. In this list, the following abbreviations are used: C = Comfort; O = Omanson; M = Metzger; NET = NET Bible TC notes; WH = Westcott & Hort

• 1Ti 1.1: C O M NET
• 1Ti 1.4a: C O M
• 1Ti 1.4b: C O M NET WH
• 1Ti 1.12: C
• 1Ti 1.15: O M
• 1Ti 1.17a: C O M
• 1Ti 1.17b: C M NET
• 1Ti 2.1: C O M
• 1Ti 2.7a: C O M NET
• 1Ti 2.7b: C
• 1Ti 3.1 segmentation: O
• 1Ti 3.1: C M WH
• 1Ti 3.3: C M
• 1Ti 3.16 segmentation: O
• 1Ti 3.16: C O M NET WH
• 1Ti 4.3: WH
• 1Ti 4.10: C O M NET
• 1Ti 4.12: C M
• 1Ti 5.4: C
• 1Ti 5.5: C
• 1Ti 5.16: C O M NET
• 1Ti 5.18: C O M
• 1Ti 5.19: M WH
• 1Ti 5.21: C
• 1Ti 6.3: C M
• 1Ti 6.5: C O M NET
• 1Ti 6.7: C O M NET WH
• 1Ti 6.9: C O M
• 1Ti 6.13: C O M NET
• 1Ti 6.17: C O M
• 1Ti 6.19: C O M
• 1Ti 6.21a: C O M NET
• 1Ti 6.21b: C O M
• 1Ti subscription: C M

Interesting standouts: First, Comfort's coverage is most thorough in number of variations handled. Outside of the "segmentation" issues only noted by Omanson, Comfort misses 1Ti 1.15; 4.3; 5.19. These are areas that are of some text-critical interest, but not necessarily where differences arise in translation. Items that Comfort alone handles include 1Ti 1.12; 2.7b; 5.4, 5, 21.

Westcott and Hort don't intend to be comprehensive (they only have 140 pages for the whole NT), but it is interesting that in 2 of the 5 places they show up, Comfort is silent: 1Ti 4.3; 5.19. The discussion in 1Ti 5.19 is about how a phrase in the Greek text is not found in some extant Latin witnesses. In the case of 1Ti 4.3, it is simply difficult extant text. While these are issues, it is pretty obvious that these sorts of things don't really fit the target that Comfort (and Omanson) are trying to hit. W&H give text-critical information to text critics; Comfort and Omanson translate the text-critical information for a larger audience. Metzger sort of sits in the middle of both.

I may dig further into some of these, particularly those that have examples in every listed source (perhaps 1Ti 1.4b or 1Ti 6.7? 1Ti 3.16 is so well-known as to be over-analyzed), just to compare the level of discussion and style of notes each edition has. Let me know if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Unbeknownst to many, Westcott and Hort published an Introduction (amazon.com) as a second volume to their epochal edition of the Greek New Testament. The Introduction (amazon.com) has a massively detailed description of their text-critical method (330 pages!). It is, essentially, them showing their work. (Oh that other editions ... you know which one(s) I'm talking about ... would follow their lead!)

Another component of the Introduction (amazon.com) is the first Appendix, "Notes on Select Readings", 142 pages of text-critical notes and discussion on problematic readings. Think of it as the precursor to Metzger's Textual Commentary (amazon.com).

I've never read the two (Metzger and WH) against each other. So imagine my surprise when I read the note for 1Ti 5.19 in both, I added the bold:

Westcott-Hort

v 19 ἐκτὸς ... μαρτύρων ] < Latin MSS known to Hier; also apparently Cyp Ambst, who quote no further than παραδέχου; not D2 r nor (<ἐπὶ) G3.

Metzger

5.19     ἐκτὸς εἰ μὴ ἐπὶ δύο ἢ τριῶν μαρτύρων
These words, found in all extant manuscripts of the passage, were absent from some Latin manuscripts known to Jerome, and perhaps also from the copies used by Cyprian and Ambrosiaster, who quote no farther than παραδέχου.

I'm not accusing anyone of plagiarism; I would be surprised if Metzger hadn't consulted WH in writing his volume. This just surprised me.

Got some new books in the mail today (with some Christmas fundage from Mom & Dad B; thanks!). I'll likely be blogging about them as I read them. One of them is Philip Comfort's new (and, upon initial review, very excellent) title New Testament Text Translation and Commentary (amazon.com). This is like Metzger's Textual Commentary (amazon.com) only with English New Testament readers in mind as primary readers, though detailed text-critical and Greek variation data is included.

Here's a paragraph from the introduction; this is in the "makes you go hmmmmm ..." department:

Nonetheless, the reader will see that he NU and WH editions often agree on matters of major textual significance. Where the WH and NU diverge, however, NU far more frequently concurs with TR than does WH. Furthermore, where WH and NU differ, I am inclined quite frequently to agree with WH on the basis of documentary evidence. (Comfort, xxvi, bold emphasis added)

Did you catch that? According to Comfort, when WH and Nestle/UBS ("NU" in Comfort's abbreviation) disagree, NU agrees with the TR far more frequently than WH does. I find that very interesting, particularly for the derision and scorn the Alands seem to have for the TR text (second only to their dislike of WH, which for whatever you want to say, seems to me to be the basis of their text).

Appendix D has further information about this, particularly a critique of the "local-geneaological" method which NA/UBS follows. This is interesting as I just read another critique of the local-geneaological method last night in Fee & Epp's NT Texts volume.

Also, I may do some comparisons between Metzger, Roger Omanson's rewrite of Metzger, and Comfort (and, perhaps, W&H's introduction for passages that include material) just to see how they all compare to and complement each other. If that sounds interesting, let me know.

Longtime ricoblog readers may remember two years ago when I posted some on what is known as "Thorough-going Eclecticism", which is the method described, applied and advocated by J.K. Elliott. (Yet another unfinished series ... oh well)

I have to admit some admiration for thorough-going eclecticism, if only as a corrective to the "cult of the best manuscript" phenomenon. It reminds that there are all sorts of reasons for variants, and each one must be studied carefully in light of all sorts of information. For that, I like it. For it's dismissal of all external evidence, I'm not so happy.

I've been reading some in Epp & Fee's* Studies in the Theory and Method of New Testament Textual Criticism (amazon.com). Chapter 7 in this volume is "Rigorous or Reasoned Eclecticism—Why"? In it, Gordon Fee responds strongly but charitably to the primary proponents of "Rigorous Eclecticism" (Kilpatrick and Elliott, one of his students). It is well worth the read. Here is Fee's final paragraph, with which I concur:

Rational eclecticism is indeed the currently reigning method, and it appears to be a valid one, for it takes seriously both internal questions and the manuscript evidence. Rather than search for a new method as some propose, or jettison historical study as rigorous eclecticism tends to, the present methodological task would seem to be the implementation and refinement of rational eclecticism. It is here that the labors of Professor Kilpatrick and Dr. Elliott should prove to be most useful. Their contributions as to various stylistic features of the NT authors as well as their isolation of the variants where Atticism might be a possible factor have not only increased our knowledge but also widened our perspective when asking the internal questions. For this we express unqualified appreciation.
Epp, E. J., & Fee, G. D. (1993). Studies in the theory and method of New Testament textual criticism (amazon.com) (140). Grand Rapids, MI.: Eerdmans.

* How often can you find a volume edited by two people, each with three-letter last names, one of which is vowel-consonant-consonant and the other which is consonant-vowel-vowel?

Just received an email from Review of Biblical Literature (RBL), among other things it mentions the joyous news:

RBL now has its own blog, where the reviews published each month will be listed for easy reference: http://rblnewsletter.blogspot.com/. Following the pattern of Bryn Mawr Classical Review (http://www.bmcreview.org/), each book reviewed will be listed in a separate blog entry. Note also that the comments function is currently enabled. We invite authors, reviewers, and RBL readers to comment on reviews, understanding that we will adhere strictly to the following guidelines: (a) all comments will be moderated by the RBL managing editor; (b) anonymous comments will not be allowed; anyone submitting a comment must provide his or her full name; (c) only comments that advance discussion of a book or review will be posted; (d) comments that contain personal or ad hominem attacks of any kind, that disparage any individual or group, or that do not relate directly to the book or its review will be declined. We trust that the RBL blog will enable readers to engage in positive interaction concerning the books we review or the reviews we publish. However, the comments function may be disabled at any time, should experience teach us that it is not achieving its purpose.

Very cool; and the comment feature sounds great. Make sure to subscribe and get reviews piped down your feed reader!

From Epp and Fee's Studies in the Theory and Method of New Testament Textual Criticism (amazon.com), chapter 5, "The Twentieth Century Interlude in New Testament Textual Criticism", (emphasis mine):

One response to the fact that our popular critical texts are still so close to that of WH might be that the kind of text arrived at by them and supported so widely by subsequent criticism is in fact and without question the best attainable NT text; yet every textual critic knows that this similarity of text indicates, rather, that we have made little progress in textual theory since Westcott-Hort; that we simply do not know how to make a definitive determination as to what the best text is; that we do not have a clear picture of the transmission and alteration of the text in the first few centuries; and, accordingly, that the Westcott-Hort kind of text has maintained its dominant position largely by default. Günther Zuntz enforces the point in a slightly different way when he says that “the agreement between our modern editions does not mean that we have recovered the original text. It is due to the simple fact that their editors … follow one narrow section of the evidence, namely, the non-Western Old Uncials”.
Epp, E. J., & Fee, G. D. (1993). Studies in the theory and method of New Testament textual criticism (amazon.com) (87). Grand Rapids, MI.: Eerdmans.

The quote from Zuntz is from a book that's been on my Amazon.com wishlist for awhile, but I haven't yet obtained: The Text of the Epistles: A Disquisition Upon the Corpus Paulinum: The Schweich Lectures of the British Academy 1946 (amazon.com). Yet another reason to think about buying it, I guess (I've seen it in footnotes a couple times in the past weeks).

I just installed the New Testament Textual Criticism Collection (6 Volumes) available from my employer, Logos Bible Software.

I'm stoked about this collection. There are six books, two of which (the first two listed) I'm particularly looking forward to:

• Eldon J. Epp and Gordon D. Fee, Studies in the Theory and Method of New Testament Textual Criticism (amazon.com). Eerdmans, 1993.
• Bart D. Ehrman and Michael W. Holmes, The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research (amazon.com). Eerdmans, 1995.
• Mark Goodacre, The Synoptic Problem: A Way through the Maze (amazon.com). T&T Clark, 2001
• David Alan Black, New Testament Textual Criticism: A Concise Guide (amazon.com). Baker Academic, 1994.
• Keith Elliot and Ian Moir. Manuscripts and the Text of the New Testament (amazon.com). T&T Clark, 1995.
• Jack Finegan, Encountering the New Testament Manuscripts (amazon.com). Eerdmans, 1974.

I've had my eye on the Eerdmans titles for a long time, just never ponied up the dough for them. It'll be good to finally read some of the essays in those books, as well as consider the others (particularly Goodacre's).

Many thanks to Eric Sowell of Archaic Christianity for making available his in-progress work, A Reader's Version of the Protoevangelium of James.

You won't find a translation in Eric's work; should you need one to check yourself against, try CCEL's edition. Though you should really try to fight through it by yourself first.

On helps to get you reading Greek, I think so-called "Reader's Editions" are good things. I also think diglots are good, and I think that if you want to gain more reading facility you should read stuff that isn't the New Testament. On that note, I am also finding the present volumes immensely helpful:

• Michael Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations (amazon.com) (Third Edition). Baker Academic. This is a diglot and the translation is good without being too idiomatic. Very helpful in working through text you may not be familiar with. The Gentium font is used, so it is very readable.
• Andrew E. Bernhard, Other Early Christian Gospels: A Critical Edition of the Surviving Greek Manuscripts (amazon.com). Continuum. Included here are transcriptions ("Critical Editions" and "Student's Greek Texts"; the student texts have normalized spelling and no apparatus) and translations of existing Greek sources for non-Canonical gospels. As such, the vocabulary is usually familiar enough but different enough to make you work. The included translations also help with providing a source to check your reading against. And there are Greek word indexes for each included document, but they're in the back so they are there, but not too handy.

I'd recommend both of them. If you're looking to increase your skill with Greek in 2009, these are good places to start. You also might want to try Rodney Whitacre's A Patristic Greek Reader (amazon.com).

Another little item that might be helpful is my "Phrasal Interlinear" of the Didache. It is a (mostly) phrase-by-phrase interlinear, not the typical word-by-word interlinear.

Also, a hint that has helped me recently: Don't read these things with translation as your primary goal. Read the words of the Greek text as phrases/clauses; don't try to translate word-for-word as you go. If you go by word, you'll end up stuck in a code/decode approach that is more about substituting word glosses and less about understanding the Greek text. Read a phrase or clause, and accept that you don't understand something. Many times, the bit that is confusing will make sense as the whole phrase or clause is unveiled—it gives you the context you need to make an educated guess on that unknown word or parsing. Reading is for understanding, not for parsing and gloss-lookup-ing on a word-by-word basis to piece together an incoherent jumble of Englished Greek.

Update (2009-01-04): Thanks to Tommy Wasserman (Evangelical Textual Criticism) for reminding us about the online critical edition of the Protevangelium:

And there is also an online mini critical edition to the Protevangelium Jacobi, including introduction to the manuscripts, etc., released last year by two doctoral students in Birmingham: http://www.sd-editions.com/protevangel/

Another comment, this one from me: Is it "protoevangelium" (which Eric uses in his title) or "protevangelium" (which is more familiar to me, and which the online critical edition uses)? Or does it matter?

From Richard Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (amazon.com):

We, belated rootless readers, can learn only through marginalia and concordances—like novice guitarists learning blues riffs from sheet music—what Paul knew by heart: to quote the confession that God will render to each one according to his works is to trigger overtones in which God's omniscience and mercy play in counterpoint and blend. (Hays, 43)

From Jeffrey Gitomer's "Little Red Book of Selling" (no relation to Chairman Mao's "Little Red Book", apparently):

“Most people are caught up in other people’s drama. Did Bill Clinton lie? Did O.J. Simpson kill her? Did Kobe Bryant rape her? Will Ben marry J.Lo? Answer: Who cares? Better answer: How do any of these events affect your life? Best Answer: They don’t. Yet you will spend tens maybe hundreds of hours focused on this crap at the expense of your own career and your own success. Let’s get closer to home.” (Gitomer, 186)

As to why I read Gitomer's book, I'll just say that at the end of every calendar year, Logos has a "read for cash" program whereby employees can read approved marketing/sales/management titles for cash stipend. The idea is for education, to get us all thinking about these sorts of things and where we can adjust our practices and approaches as we strive to excel yet still more.

Bottom Line: By reading some management/sales books, I can get some extra spending money that I use to fill my "date night" fund; particularly the "Valentine's Day" subcategory of said fund.

In other words, I love my wife SOOOO MUCH that I read Jeffrey Gitomer's inane, headache-inducing book.

And I shared the very best quote with you. Well, the best quote apart from Gitomer's story of bumming a cab ride from Hal Linden [you know, Barney Miller] while they were both doing their thing at the urinal in the men's room at LaGuardia airport. But as this blog hopes to be acceptable for readers of all ages, I don't think I should go there.

For those keeping score at home, I've recently purchased the following:

Richard B. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (amazon.com). Yes, I should've read this one a long time ago. I've done a lot of work, reading and thinking in the area of use of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers; specifically in the use of the Pastoral Epistles in the Apostolic Fathers. As such, it only makes sense that I should read Hays' classic to see what it can add to the mix. I'm well aware of the criticisms of his work, but it still is one of those books you've got to deal with if you're digging around in this area. So now I've got it, I hope to dig into it soon. Here's the blurb:

Paul's letters, the earliest writings in the New Testament, are filled with allusions, images and quotations from the Old Testament. This book investigates Paul's appropriation of Scripture from a perspective based on recent literary-critical studies of intertextuality.

Andrew E. Bernhard, Other Early Christian Gospels: A Critical Edition of the Surviving Greek Manuscripts (amazon.com). I've been wanting this for awhile and finally took the plunge. I can only say that it is very awesome; giving both transcriptions and reading editions of each early non-canonical gospel as well as translations. Incidentally, this book also ends up being a pretty good "reader"; it has text with familiar vocabulary but unfamiliar content, in Greek and English. The indexes look great too. I can recommend this one highly. Here's the Amazon.com blurb:

Other Early Christian Gospels (amazon.com) collects all the recently-recovered Greek manuscripts containing parts of long-lost early Christian gospels into a single volume. It includes new critical editions, English translations, and exhaustive indexes of the Greek fragments of the "Gospel of Thomas", the "Gospel of Peter", the "Egerton Gospel", and six other unidentified gospels. In addition, "Other Early Christian Gospels" features "student's Greek texts" that present the restored Greek texts without any potentially confusing apparatus, editorial signs, or unidentifiable word fragments. This special student's version makes the fragmentary ancient texts dramatically more accessible to those still in the process of learning Greek.

Finally, I installed the Flavius Josephus Collection (5 Volumes) on my home computer. This package from Logos Bible Software is the perfect complement to the recently-released Josephus in Greek: Niese Critical Edition with Apparatus. The Flavius Josephus Collection includes:

• Steve Mason, Flavius Josephus: Life of Josephus
• Steve Mason, Flavius Josephus on the Pharisees: A Composition-Critical Study
• Louis H. Feldman, Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary, Volume 3: Judean Antiquities Books 1-4
• Christopher T. Begg, Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary, Volume 4: Judean Antiquities Books 5-7
• Christopher T. Begg and Paul Spilsbury, Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary, Volume 5: Judean Antiquities Books 8-10

These are from William Zinsser's On Writing Well (amazon.com). Lots of good advice throughout, though overall Zinsser is a bit too Strunk-and-White-ish (is that a word?) for me.

That said, everyone (particularly if you are writing or considering a dissertation—masters, doctorate, whatever) should consider the below.

What you think is definitive today will turn undefinitive by tonight, and writers who doggedly pursue every last fact will find themselves pursuing the rainbow and never settling down to write. (p. 52)

...

Therefore think small. Decide what corner of your subject you're going to bite off, and be content to cover it well and stop. This is also a matter of energy and morale. An unwieldy writing task is a drain on your enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the force that keeps you going and keeps the reader in your grip. When your zest begins to ebb, the reader is the first person to know it.

As for what point you want to make, every successful piece of nonfiction should leave the reader with one provocative thought that he or she didn't have before. Not two thoughts, or five—just one. So decide what single point you want to leave in the reader's mind. It will not only give you a better idea of what route you should follow and what destination you hope to reach; it will affect your decision about tone and attitude. (p. 52)

Jim West has posted this month's Biblical Studies Carnival (number 36, for those counting).

Jim's first item has to do with N.T. Wrong's Biblioblog Top 50 November 2008. Somehow, yours truly made the list this time, breaking through at #24. I suppose that's cool. Interesting to me was the degree of change of several web sites. Makes the whole endeavor seem a little suspect to me.

Also, I bought some books last night, using up some birthday money that needed some spendin'. Finally got Hays' book on Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (amazon.com). That's been on the to-read list for too long, so I finally got a copy. I also finally got a copy of Andrew Berhard's Other Early Christian Gospels: A Critical Edition of the Surviving Greek Manuscripts (amazon.com). Critical editions of things like this are an important part of building any library. This one has been on the wishlist awhile too, so it was time to get it.

Baylor Press recently provided a review copy of Hans-Josef Klauck's new book, The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles: An Introduction (amazon.com). For blurbs and the TOC, see my previous post. I hope to blog some thoughts as I have time to read through the book.

But, my first impressions: As an introduction, this book is marvelous. Note that the actual text (translated or otherwise) is not contained in this book. But if you have never read or worked with this material before, I'd recommend using Klauck's book along with an edition of the text (I'd recommend Schneemelcher's second volume (amazon.com)) in order to familiarize yourself with what's going on.

If you're teaching this material, this is a great introduction and you'll probably want to use it. Make sure to stop by the Baylor Press booth at SBL and check out a copy of the book.

In this post, I'll briefly review Klauck's section on the Acts of John. Here is a detailed TOC of the whole section:

The Acts of John (pp. 15-45)
     Bibliographical material: Editions, Translations, Secondary literature (p. 15)
     A. Context (pp. 16-18)
     B. Contents (pp. 19-40)
          1. The First Period in Ephesus (ActJoh 18–55) (p. 19-24)
               Cleopatra and Lycomedes (p. 20)
               The Apostle and his Portrait (pp. 20-21)
               The Old Women (pp. 21-22)
               The Destruction of Artemis (pp. 22-23)
               Fornication with Dramatic Consequences (pp. 23-24, includes bibliography)
          2. Intermezzos (ActJoh 56-61) (pp. 24-26)
               A Partridge or the Sons of Antipatros? (pp. 24-25)
               The Obedient Bugs (pp. 25-26, includes bibliography)
          3. The Second Period in Ephesus (ActJoh 62-86) (pp. 26-30)
               The Death of Drusiana (p. 27)
               In the Tomb (pp. 27-28)
               The Raising Up of Callimachus and Drusiana (pp. 28-29)
               The "Unsuccessful" Raising of Fortunatus (pp. 29-30)
          4. The "Polymorphous" Earthly Lord (ActJoh 87-93, 103-5) (pp. 30-33, includes bibliography)
          5. The True "Passion" of the Lord (ActJoh 94-102) (pp. 33-36)
               The Dance Hymn (pp. 33-35, includes bibliography)
               The "Passion" Narrative (pp. 35-36, includes bibliography)
          6. The Death of the Apostle (ActJoh 106-115) (pp. 36-38, includes bibliography)
          7. Fragments that Cannot Be Localized (pp. 39-40)
     C. Evaluation (pp. 40-42, includes bibliography)
     D. Later Narratives (pp. 42-45)
          1. The Syriac History of John (pp. 42-43, includes bibliography)
          2. The Acts of John by Pseudo-Prochorus (pp. 43-44, includes bibliography)
          3. Virtues Johannes, Passio Johannes (p. 44, includes bibliography)
          4. The Acts of John in Rome (p. 45, includes bibliography)

One of the many strengths, as you can see, is the inclusion of bibliographic material at various levels. If there are articles or whatnot that pertain specifically to a given section, they are listed with that section. Also, the organization (at least of this portion) outlines the text itself under discussion. The text itself serves not only as introduction, but also as a short commentary and discussion of the text. All of this, particularly when combined with a reputable edition of the text (amazon.com), gives the reader good apprehension of what is going on in this somewhat neglected and sometimes weird literature.

I don't normally do link posts, but today there are some good things to point out, so here is the link dump, with brief commentary.

First, check out NTDiscourse.org. My friend and colleague, Steve Runge, (editor of the popular and helpful Lexham Discourse Greek New Testament and the upcoming Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament: A Practical Introduction to Discourse Features for Teaching and Exegesis) has started blogging. His focus is on Discourse Grammar and in demystifying an approach to discourse. The blog will variously examine different discourse structures and also work through passages from a discourse level. Steve's heart is in making this stuff approachable for pastors and teachers, so that sermons, lessons and Bible studies can benefit. Get this one on your feed reader.

Second, head to Roger Pearse's eponymous blog and see if you can help him with his bleg concerning "A difficult piece of Greek in Eusebius".

Third, RBL released its latest round of book reviews. One looks particularly interesting, to me anyway: Watching a Biblical Narrative: Point of View in Biblical Exegesis. (No, I haven't read it yet) I'm wondering how the information in this book jives with what Bauckham did in Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (amazon.com) (which is now in paperback), or how it treats the "we" passages in Acts. The book is a T&T Clark title and retails at $130, though. Hopefully it'll be in paperback soon; until then check your library.

That's it for now.

Baylor Press has kindly sent along a review copy of Hans-Josef Klauck's The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles: An Introduction (amazon.com). I reviewed and (mostly) enjoyed Klauck's Ancient Letters and the New Testament (amazon.com) (see more on that title) so I'm happy to have another opportunity to read more of his stuff.

I'll begin reading the book soon, until then I'll supply the publisher blurb and a few back-cover blurbs as well as the table of contents.

First, the publisher blurb:

A great deal has happened in recent decades in the study of the Apocryphal Acts, and the field of apocryphal literature is incredibly broad. A reader looking for a current, general, and concise introduction to the subject will welcome this book. Klauck not only offers an excellent introduction to the topic of the Apocryphal Acts, but also a useful resource for understanding the complex relations between these works themselves and to the canonical books. The book discusses both the main apocryphal Acts, such as the Acts of John, Paul, and Peter, and the more recent works, including the Acts of Philip, Bartholomew, and Matthew. For each chapter Klauck offers a explanation of the background and the structure for each of the works presented, and a detailed analysis of the content, and a bibliography all while incorporating the results of the most current international research.

Next, back-cover blurbs from folks who are most definitely not slouches. These folks know what they're talking about:

Finally, a current English introduction to the Apocryphal Acts. This is one of the best books on the subject since Lipsius' publication of the apocryphal Acts in the late 1800s. Klauck relies on his vast knowledge of the Christian apocrypha to make accessible a body of early Christian literature often overlooked - the literature devoted to the apostles and their missions. His coverage is thorough and up-to-date, emphasizing provenance, narrative content, and religious context.
— April DeConick, Isla Carroll and Percy E. Turner Professor of Biblical Studies, Rice University

Klauck has given us a reliable, up-to-date, and comprehensive guide to early Christian novelistic writings about the exploits of John, Paul, Peter, and other apostles. He places these imaginative works in their proper contexts, guides us through the ancient texts, and offers balanced judgments about their significance. This is exactly the book we need at a time when exaggerated and unfounded claims are often made about these works.
— Daniel J. Harrington, Boston College School of Theology and Ministry

Modern enthusiasts of the imaginary and fabulous should not bypass the literature of the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. This literature has been a storehouse for poets, artists, and more recently even moviemakers. Klauck provides an indispensable companion, based on his thorough knowledge of the texts and the current state of research. Designed for educated readers, whether lay or expert, his work opens up to them a colorful world, without letting them forget that there are differences between fact and fiction.
— Hans Dieter Betz, Shailer Mathews Professor Emeritus of New Testament, University of Chicago

And here's the Table of Contents

Translator's Note
Preface
List of Abbreviations
Bibliography
Introduction
1 The Acts of John
2 The Acts of Paul
3 The Acts of Peter
4 The Acts of Andrew
5 The Acts of Thomas
6 The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles
7 The Psuedo-Clementines
8 Later Acts of Apostles
A Look Back and a Look Ahead
Appendix: Back Matter from German Edition
Index of Selected Text
Index of Subjects and Names
Index of Authors

[Disclaimer: I work for Logos Bible Software and love every minute of it. The links to Logos below are just that, links. I get no commission or brownie points from click-thrus or any sales.]

Logos will be at the national meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (in Providence, RI, Nov 19-21, 2008) and also at the national meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature (in Boston, MA, Nov 21-25, 2008).

The specials mentioned below are only available at these conferences. And I'm not even listing all of them, just the ones that I find interesting and which I think you (my humble reader) may be interested in. There are 12 specials designed for the conferences, I'm only listing three of them below. If you'll be at the conferences, please stop by the booth for more info on all of the conference collections, or to purchase them.

These are awesome collections of top-notch texts useful for Biblical Studies. Listed first is perhaps the best deal you'll ever find on the combination of ICC NT vols and several (33!) very useful JSNTS monographs.

New Testament Studies Bundle (64 Vols.)

• International Critical Commentary (ICC): New Testament (30 vols.)
• Library of NT Studies: JSNTS on the Gospels and Acts (16 vols.)
• Library of NT Studies: JSNTS on Paul (17 vols.)
• Linguistics and NT Interpretation – Black, Barnwell, Levinsohn

Show Only Price  $1,199.95
Show Savings (off Retail): $4,541.45

Advanced Greek Supplement (6 Vols.)

• BDAG
• Grammar of the Greek NT in Light of Historical Research – A. T. Robertson
• Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics – Daniel B. Wallace
• Idioms of the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed. – Stanley Porter
• Intermediate NT Greek: A Linguistic and Exegetical Approach – R. A. Young
• Learning the Basics of NT Greek with Workbook – Hadjiantoniou

Show Only Price $299.95
Show Savings (off Retail) $111.91

ANE Studies Bundle (30 Vols.)

• Ancient Near Eastern Texts (ANET) – James Pritchard
• Dictionary of Deities & Demons in the Bible
• Ugaritic Library, 12 vols.
• Writings From the Ancient World, 16 vols. 

Show Only Price $639.95
Show Savings (off Retail): $806.94

As I said, that is only three of the twelve bundles. If you're at the show, be sure to ask about the "Scholar's Reference Bundle" which includes all of ICC, all of WBC, and a few other commentary sets. These are specials on the big stuff that you won't want to miss.

Just stumbled across this at Amazon.com (amazon.com). It has a release date of Nov 1 2008, so you can probably pick it up at ETS or SBL if you're going to be there.

Maurice Robinson, David Alan Black, Keith Elliott, Daniel Wallace and Darrell Bock, Perspectives on the Ending of Mark: Four Views (amazon.com). B&H Academic: Nashville. 2008.

It looks like a good one to check out on the perennial problem of the ending of the book of Mark. Here's the description from Amazon.com:

Because it is conspicuously absent from more than one early Greek manuscript, the final section of the gospel of Mark (16:9-20) that details Christ’s resurrection remains a constant source of debate among serious students of the New Testament.

Perspectives on the Ending of Mark (amazon.com) presents in counterpoint form the split opinions about this difficult passage with a goal of determining which is more likely. Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary professors Maurice Robinson and David Alan Black argue for the verses’ authenticity. Keith Elliott (University of Leeds) and Daniel Wallace (Dallas Theological Seminary) contend that they are not original to Mark’s gospel. Darrell Bock (Dallas Theological Seminary) responds to each view and summarizes the state of current research on the entire issue.

Just read an excellent essay:

Thomas G. Weinandy, O.F.M. Cap., "The Apostolic Christology of Ignatius of Antioch: The Road to Chalcedon", pp. 71-85 in Andrew Gregory and Christopher Tuckett, eds., The New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers: Trajectories through the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers (amazon.com), Oxford University Press: London, 2005.

In reading through Ignatius recently, I'd noticed many of the items that Weinandy brings to light, but the way he strings them together makes a convincing case that Ignatius' Christology, in those very early years (early 2nd century), can be seen as seeds of what ends up in the statement of the Council of Chalcedon (Greek and English available here).

Weinandy has three major sections of the article, the first centering on Ignatius' representation of the divinity of Christ; the second focusing on Ignatius' representation of the humanity of Christ. The third section, on the oneness of Christ, puts it all together and paints a pretty decent picture of Ignatius essentially hewing to the both fully God and fully man description of Christ's nature.

He also brings to light Ign. Eph. 1.1, which has a very interesting turn of phrase:

1.1 Ἀποδεξάμενος ἐν θεῷ τὸ πολυαγάπητόν σου ὄνομα, ὃ κέκτησθε φύσει δικαίᾳ κατὰ πίστιν καὶ ἀγάπην ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ σωτῆρι ἡμῶν· μιμηταὶ ὄντες θεοῦ, ἀναζωπυρήσαντες ἐν αἵματι θεοῦ τὸ συγγενικὸν ἔργον τελείως ἀπηρτίσατε·
Holmes, M. W. (1999). The Apostolic Fathers : Greek texts and English translations (Updated ed.) (136). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.

1. I welcome in God your well-beloved name which you possess by reason of your righteous nature, which is characterized by faith in and love of Christ Jesus our Savior. Being as you are imitators of God, once you took on new life through the blood of God you completed perfectly the task so natural to you.
Holmes, M. W. (1999). The Apostolic Fathers : Greek texts and English translations (Updated ed.) (137). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.

The phrase "through the blood of God" is striking and, to my knowledge (off the top of my head; no searches done), unparalleled in literature previous to this point. Of it, Weinandy writes:

This phrase ... is an arresting alignment of seemingly clashing words with their seemly (sic?) irreconcilable meanings ('blood' and 'God') that accentuates the reality of the Incarnation; that is, only if the divine Son of God did actually become man and so exist as an, does such an alignment make theological sense and possess any literal meaning. (Weinandy 81)

All this to say, I've been very pleased with my recent purchase of the 2-volume NTAF set (amazon.com) (thanks to some birthday money and Amazon.com commissions, thanks to all who click through links and buy!) and can highly recommend it.

Just installed the following Logos Bible Software packages to my home computer:

Sheffield/T&T Clark Bible Guides Collection (44 Vols.). This much sought-after and highly esteemed Bible study guide series is concise, comprehensive, manageable and affordable. The Sheffield/T & T Clark Bible Guides Collection (44 volumes) serves as an invaluable resource for students, preachers and Bible study leaders. Each of these books delivers to the reader a thorough and insightful introduction to a particular book of the Bible or the Apocrypha. All the books in the series were written by leading biblical scholars and the authors have drawn on their scholarly expertise as well as their experience as teachers of university and college students.

Writings from the Ancient World (16 vols.) The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) publishes books intended to convey the finest biblical scholarship to students in college, university, and seminary courses, leaders in church and synagogue settings, and members of the general public interested in biblical study. The SBL offers these 16 volumes of Writings from the Ancient World to provide teachers, literary critics, historians, general readers, and students direct access to key ancient Near Eastern writings that date from the beginning of the Sumerian civilization to the age of Alexander the Great. The volumes typically offer historical and literary background to the writings, the original text and English translation, explanatory or textual notes, and a bibliography. These ancient writings—letters, laws, government documents, poems, prayers and rituals—provide a glimpse into the social, economic and religious context of other civilizations before and during early biblical times.

[crossposted from PastoralEpistles.com]

The good folks at Baker Academic have sent along a hot-off-the-presses copy of First and Second Timothy, Titus (amazon.com), from the newly-commenced commentary series Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture. The text of the NAB (New American Bible) is provided in the commentary.

If you're unfamiliar with the series, a video overview is available on the series web site.

There are excerpts from the book on Baker Academic's web site (here, here and here); there is a 16-page discussion guide designed for "Personal Reflection or Small Group Study". This is cool stuff; Baker should be commended for putting together the whole package on the book's web page.

Most of the blurbs in the front matter and back cover are about the series, not the book. Here's the book blurb from BakerAcademic.com:

George Montague offers a Catholic pastoral commentary on the letters to Timothy and Titus in the second volume in the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (CCSS). He presents sound exegesis followed by reflection on the pastoral, theological, and practical applications of the text.

Here's the blurb from Amazon.com (amazon.com):

In the second volume of the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (CCSS), George Montague offers a Catholic pastoral commentary on the letters to Timothy and Titus, presenting sound exegesis followed by reflection on the pastoral, theological, and practical applications of the text. The CCSS offers readable, informative commentaries from the best of contemporary Catholic scholarship to help readers rediscover the Word of God as a living word in which God himself is present. Each commentary relates Scripture to life, is faithfully Catholic, and is supplemented by features designed to help readers understand the Bible more deeply and use it more effectively in teaching, preaching, evangelization, and other forms of ministry. This series is perfect for professional and lay leaders engaged in parish ministry, lay Catholics interested in serious Bible study, and Catholic students.

Yeah, pretty much the same thing though the Amazon.com blurb works in the series description as well.

Here's the table of contents:

Illustrations
Editor's Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction to the Pastoral Letters

The First Letter to Timothy
Timothy's First Charge (1 Timothy 1)
Liturgy and Conduct (1 Timothy 2)
Qualifications of Ministers (1 Timothy 3)
False Teaching and Advice to Timothy (1 Timothy 4)
Rules for Different Groups (1 Timothy 5)
Final Directives: Slaves, Truth, Riches (1 Timothy 6)

The Second Letter to Timothy
Timothy's Gifts and Paul's Lot (2 Timothy 1)
Counsels to Timothy (2 Timothy 2)
Meeting the Challenges of the Last Days (2 Timothy 3)
Final Charge to Timothy and Paul's Faith amid His Loneliness (2 Timothy 4)

The Letter to Titus
Organizing the Church in Crete (Titus 1)
Virtues for Different States of Life (Titus 2)
How We Should Live—and Why (Titus 3)

Suggested Resources
Glossary
Index of Pastoral Topics
Index of Sidebars
Map

I have not had a chance to read the book yet. I will say it was designed well. And it is one of the few commentaries that I have seen that actually has pictures (black & white photos) of different areas or artifacts relevant to the discussion. That's pretty cool.

I couldn't contain myself, however, and peeked to see how 1Ti 1.20 is handled. You know:

18 This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,  19 holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith,  20 among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. (1Ti 1.18-20, ESV)

I've never checked an explicitly Catholic commentary on this verse and wanted to see how the verse was related to excommunication. Well, it is directly and equivalently related: "These two Paul handed over to Satan, a technical term for excommunication." (Montague 47, emphasis his). That doesn't surprise me, and it doesn't seem altogether wrong to me either. These guys were given the right boot of fellowship. It's just that 'protestant' commentaries rarely ever cross the line and call it excommunication. The goal isn't separation, the eventual goal is reconciliation, as Montague aptly concludes.

I'm looking forward to giving this one the once-over. Thanks, Baker Academic!

I don't know what it says about me, but I have found a typo in my printed copy of BDF. (It is also in my electronic copy.) Not that I don't doubt there are typos; I just never figured I'd find a typo—in a Greek grammar of all places.

Of course it is in the section of BDF that deals with αλλα. Where else would I find such a thing?

So get out your pencils and get ready to scribble in your own copy (I can't be the only one who does this—correct typos/known errors in printed copies—can I?)

The section in question is §448.4 (p. 233). If you use BDF, you know there is a larger-print section and a smaller-print section for most areas; this is in the smaller-print §448.4.

(4) A simpler form is found in Jn 7:49; 1Co 10:20. In multiple questions (with the answer in each case given or suppressed) Mk 11:8f. = Lk 7:24ff.

The typo is Mk 11:8f; it should be Mt 11:8f. Mt 11.8 has Lk 7.24 as parallel; Mk 11.8 is completely unrelated.

This all goes to show that one must always check all references carefully, particularly if you're doing work for a conference paper, journal or dictionary article, dissertation, or monograph of some sort.

Note: The reference index in BDF (p. 303) is actually correct here, it has Mt 11:8f. pointing to §448.4; there is no reference index entry for Mk 11:8f.

Further note: What is going on with αλλα in Mt 11.7-9 is really cool!

Even further note: Know of other such corrections for BDF? Use the comments to let me know.

Voces Biblicae: Septuagint Greek and its Significance for the New Testament (amazon.com) by J. Joosten and P.J. Tomson (Editors)

Here's the description:

During the Renaissance period, when the Greek texts of the Bible became accessible again to Western scholars, a large number of words were identified that seemed to be attested only in the Septuagint and New Testament: the famous voces biblicae, "biblical words". They were held by some to reflect a special kind of Jewish Greek, or perhaps even a peculiar Greek idiom created by the Holy Spirit in order to express the unspeakable mysteries of God's grace. Today, scholars usually prefer more down-to-earth explanations. Moreover, the list of voces biblicae has been much shortened because many words that were initially found only in the Bible later turned up in the papyri. Nevertheless, the "biblical words" continue to fascinate. The present volume contains seven essays illuminating different aspects of the vocabulary of the Greek Bible.

From Richard Young's Intermediate New Testament Greek: A Linguistic and Exegetical Approach (amazon.com), available in print (amazon.com) and also in Logos format.

Do not insist on classical distinctions—As noted above, Hellenistic Greek is not characterized by the strict usage of classical Greek. The preposition ἐν, for example, displays a wide variety of meanings beyond its root idea, much of which comes from Semitic influence. One of the major shortcomings of Lenski’s commentaries is his tendency to insist on the classical meaning of ἐν. Moule (1968:49) states, “It is a mistake to build exegetical conclusions on the notion that Classical accuracy in the use of prepositions was maintained in the κοινή period.” In connection with this, it might be misleading to say any preposition (especially ἐν) has a literal or proper meaning. Rather prepositions have a range of possible meanings with some more common than others.
Young, R. A. (1994). Intermediate New Testament Greek : A linguistic and exegetical approach (amazon.com) (86). Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman & Holman.

From Eugene E. Loos' Logical Relations in Discourse (amazon.com). This is from Ernst-August Gutt's essay on "Logical Relations, Relationships and Relevance":

Just dealing with these two uses, the tempting solution would be to say either that there are two homophonous suffixes -m, or that the suffix -m has two distinct senses, one marking a conjunctive relationship and the other something like an alternative relationship. However, Ivan Lowe pointed out in his introductory lectures that it is not the most helpful way to begin one's analysis: by assuming a complex solution from the start one may miss a possible simpler solution. (Loos 11).

Gutt is specifically referring to a connective in Silt'i, an Ethio-Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia. But the general principle is a good one for both lexical analysis and specifically the analysis of connectives ... like αλλα.

Don't worry, I'm not getting all gushy about relevance theory on y'all. But the principle seems like a good thing to keep in mind.

A friend who happened upon Neil Elliott's new book The Arrogance of Nations: Reading Romans in the Shadow of Empire (amazon.com) passed it along to me. There are some intriguing parts, it appears, but there is also a lot of current events/politics that has creeped into the book, from what I can tell. On the intriguing parts, check this excerpt from the introduction:

Unfortunately, rhetorical-critical interpretations of Romans have often done little more than glean from the classical Greek and Roman rhetorical handbooks a novel technical nomenclature for an outline of the letter that has already been established, without the benefit of rhetorical categories, in dogmatic readings. ... Similarly, some interpreters tend to describe the letter in terms resembling the genre of the philosophical treatise or letter essay, though it bears none of the hallmarks of the ancient letter essay. Others seek to identify the rhetorical genre of the letter according to the categories of the ancient rhetorical handbooks, but falter on prior assumptions regarding the letter's purpose.

In contrast, I expect the ancient handbooks to be of only limited usefulness in determining the genre of Romans. The handbooks were designed, after all, for the fairly formal expectations of public oratory in the Greco-Roman world. (Elliott pp. 17-18)

All that said, I figured I'd mention it since I normally mention new books I receive or purchase. I've not read this book (outside of the introduction) and it isn't on my to-read list, but if/when I next hit Romans, I'll probably check it out.

Here's the blurb from Amazon.com:

Product Description
Elliott offers a fresh and surprising reinterpretation of Paul's letter to the Romans in the context of Roman imperial ideology, bringing to the text the latest insights from classical studies, rhetorical criticism, postcolonial criticism, and people's history.

By setting the letter alongside Roman texts (Cicero, Virgil, the Res Gestae of Augustus, Seneca, poets from the age of Nero, as well as later historians and satirists), Elliott provides a dramatic new reading of the letter as Paul's confrontation with the arrogance of empire - and with an emerging Christianity already tempted by the seductive ideology of imperial power.

The Arrogance of Nations (amazon.com) explores such topics as: Empire and the 'obedience of faith'; Justice and the arrogance of nations; Mercy and the prerogatives of power; Piety and the scandal of an irreligious race; Virtue and the fortunes of peoples; and Paul and the horizon of the possible.

About the Author
Neil Elliott, an Episcopal priest, teaches biblical studies at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities and Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis. He is the author of Liberating Paul and The Rhetoric of Romans.

If Romans is your interest, you should probably check it out (amazon.com).

I've been slowly but surely working my way through Reinhard Feldmeier's The First Letter of Peter: A Commentary on the Greek Text (amazon.com), published by Baylor University Press. Sean Winter (of the blog Primal Subversion), who blogs a lot about all things First Peter, mentioned Feldmeier in a post awhile back:

My semi-embarrassing moment [at the International SBL meeting] came when I began to chat to a guy about Reinhard Feldmeier’s newly translated commentary on 1 Peter (which I’m hoping to review soon). This guy was quite persistent that this was one of the best commentaries on 1 Peter. I was a bit hesitant, and I’m quite happy that Achtemeier and Green are the best commentaries on 1 Peter, with Elliott a close second. The banter when back and forth for a while and then we parted ways. Later on, I was told that the person I was talking to was Carey C. Newman, who is down to write a commentary on 1 Peter for the Smyth & Helwys series! Next time I’ll be more careful before I just start blabbing… PS: I still think I’m right about Achtemeier and Green. Feldmeier is helpful, but nowhere near as helpful or insightful as the former two.

Feldmeier's commentary (amazon.com) has a lot going for it, in my opinion. I actually enjoyed reading the introduction and particularly appreciated the focus on recipients/addressees. Feldmeier beat it into my head that the author (we'll call him Peter since that's what the text claims) considers himself and those he's writing to as foreigners. Here's an excerpt:

... one must carefully observe that in 1 Peter, the alienation from the world around them does not in the first place take its character from a negation of the world but is interpreted as the flip side of the belonging to God that is stressed in the whole letter, in 1.1f.; 2.4, 9f., by means of the concept of election as integration into the people of God, in 1.3f., 23; 2.2f., by means of the idea of rebirth as an eschatological renewal of existence. This shows that even though the address as "foreigners" is determined by the societal conflict situation, the foreignness of the Christians is not in its essence derived from protests against society, but from correspondence to God and belonging to his new society. (Feldmeier 14, emphasis his)

In other words, the foreignness of Christians in this world is because Christians belong to God; it isn't some counter-cultural difference. I knew this, but Feldmeier (better, Peter Davids' translation of Feldmeier) put words to this idea in ways I hadn't before read, and that I've profited from.

What about the commentary itself? While there is an extensive bibliography in the back, each commentary section has a section-specific bibliography as well. Layout-wise, the book has real, bona-fide footnotes (yay!) instead of chapter endnotes or that insipid abomination, notes at the end of the book. All in all, a good reading experience.

However, I have at least one thing I'm not pleased with: Latin phrases. Sure I can figure out most of them, but c'mon -- genitivus auctoris? (p. 58); scientia eminens practica? praxis pietatis? (both on p. 43); paralelismus mebrorum? (p. 65). This sort of thing is just unnecessary and useless. Here's an in-context example of useless use of Latin: "The having or not having of such hope thus forms virtually the differentia specifica between Christians and non- Christians..." (p. 68).

I'm still working through the commentary itself; perhaps I'll post more in the future as I continue to work through it.

While Mohr-Siebeck books are as expensive as all get-out, that doesn't mean they aren't great books. Whenever the catalog arrives (it gets sent to me at Logos since that's my typical shipping address) Mike Heiser and I refer to it as a "productivity hit". You can't help but stop and carefully look at the new books in the catalog while using a tissue to clean up the drool-puddle that inches ever closer to your keyboard. The recent catalog is no exception. If I had a whole lot of money to throw at books, I'd seriously think about these new ones in the Mohr catalog:

• Richard Bauckham, The Jewish World around the New Testament: Collected Essays Volume I (€130)
• Bengt Holmberg and Mikael Winninge, Identity Formation in the New Testament (€ 80)
• Bengt Holmberg, Exploring Early Christian Identity (€ 65)
• Petrus Gräbe, The Power of God in Paul's Letters (€ 49)
• Stephen E. Witmer, Divine Instruction in Early Christianity (€ 50)

But, alas, I do not have "a whole lot of money to throw at books", or to throw anywhere else for that matter, so I'll have to content myself by making sure the drool puddle doesn't overtake the keyboard.

BTW, Of the above, Gräbe (especially) and Witmer look most interesting to me, in case anyone is thinking they'd like to get me something nice for my birthday in October ...

Thanks to the folks at Baylor University Press, today I received a copy of Reinhard Feldmeier's The First Letter of Peter: A Commentary on the Greek Text. This is a translation of Feldmeier's 1 Peter commentary by Peter H. Davids.

Here's the blurb from Baylor Press' web site:

The New Testament book known as "The First Letter of Peter" describes how Christians should relate to the world. Specifically, it suggests how Christians should define themselves against a powerful and sometimes hostile culture. Written to first-century Christians in Asia Minor who were suffering from religious persecution, this letter brings Biblical and extra-Biblical traditions together to forge an original and unique pastoral strategy. At the same time, in its depiction of "practical piety," the letter is an impressive display of early Christian theology. Here, one of the world's authorities on Peter provides a verse by verse interpretation of First Peter that is both highly readable and deeply informed.

Here are a few back cover blurbs:

Reinhard Feldmeier has produced an exceptional commentary that is not only brilliant academically, but one that is also edifying. Feldmeier is at once erudite and accessible. Here is an exegetical commentary that unfailingly leads the reader to the meaning and significance of the text. I recommend it with the greatest enthusiasm. Donald A. Hagner

This volume is among the most important theological commentaries of 1 Peter written during the modern era. The thematic of the church's "foreignness" within a pervasively pagan culture, a continuing interest of Feldmeier's by which he orients his interpretation of 1 Peter, yields extraordinarily evocative insights for today's post-Christian church. Fully fluent with the social and literary worlds that shaped the letter's composition and the complex history of its reception into the 21st century, Feldmeier is able to produce an informed and richly detailed exegesis of 1 Peter. His steady interest in the church's "practice of piety" as a practical expression of Christian existence will surely lend this commentary for use by preachers and teachers as well. Robert Wall

The book is in two primary parts, the first "Introduction" (47pp) and the second "Exegesis" (210pp, including 11 excurses). There is a very large bibliography (34pp) and a reference index (22pp) as well, though no subject/topic index.

I'm looking forward to reading through it and reporting about the book as I do. Thanks again, Baylor Press!

Many thanks to Hendrickson for sending David Scholer's Social Distinctives of Christians in the First Century: Pivotal Essays by E.A. Judge (amazon.com) along for review; apologies it took me so long to get to it. Why did it take so long? There are a number of reasons, but there are probably two primary reasons. The first is that I've had available time to read as of late (and this for a number of factors, the primary being doing research/background for my paper on αλλα); the second is that the book didn't suck me in.

Let me be a little more clear. I've really wanted to be sucked into this book; the title sounds like something I should really be interested in. But, apart from the first essay, it didn't. I'm grateful to have the book, and am sure the essays will prove helpful in the long run, but for now it isn't drawing me in.

Here is the blurb from Hendrickson:

This is a collection of pivotal essays by E. A. Judge, who initiated many important discussions in the establishment of social scientific criticism of the Bible.

What is it that made the work of Judge in 1960 and in subsequent years so important? Judge was the first in scholarship after the mid-twentieth century to clarify early Christian ideals about society by defining what the social institutions of the broader cultural context were and how they influenced the social institutions of the early Christian communities. Judge points out that earlier scholars had entered into this field of inquiry, but that, in general, they failed due to the lack of careful definitions of the Greco-Roman social institutions at the time based on a thorough use of the primary sources.

Thus, Judge was the “new founder” ( a turning point in scholarship) of what came to be called social-scientific criticism of the New Testament. Social-scientific criticism is the term in scholarship that refers to the use of social realities (e.g. institutions, class, factors of community organization) in the critical study of literary sources available (this is an advance over “merely” literary and traditional historical questions).

And here is the TOC:

Introduction by David M. Scholer
Permissions

1. The Social Pattern of the Christian Groups in the First Century
2. Paul’s Boasting in Relation to Contemporary Professional Practice
3. St. Paul and Classical Society
4. St. Paul as a Radical Critic of Society
5. The Social Identity of the First Christians: A Question of Method in Religious History
6. Rank and Status in the World of the Caesars and St. Paul
7. Cultural Conformity and Innovation in Groups in the First Century Paul: Some Clues from Contemporary Documents
8. The Teacher as Moral Exemplar in Paul and the Inscriptions of Ephesus

• A Comprehensive Bibliography of the Society Publications of Edwin A. Judge
• First Index of Modern Authors
• Index of Subjects
• Index of Ancient Sources

Why? Because, if you take the time to read or at least peruse their 330 page Introduction to their NT (amazon.com) (published in a second volume with an appendix), you see that they fill in most if not all of the details of the how & why of their edition.

What sort of stuff? Well ... who'd've thunk that two pages on casing of κυριος, Χριστος and υψιστος would be appropriate? Sometimes on reading an upper-cased Κυριος or a lower-cased χριστος (In NA27, not WH) I've often wondered "why is that one upper-cased/lower-cased?"

WH show their work and tell you why, at least in their edition — and why, in four instances in Luke (Lu 1.32; Lu 1.35; Lu 1.75; Lu 6.35) they also upper-cased Υψιστος. They take two pages (pp. 316-318; §§414-416) to tell you. Here's §416, explaining their capitalization of Υψιστος:

416. An initial capital has likewise been used for Υψιστος in the four places, all in St Luke's Gospel, in which it stands in the singular without an article. In this shape it exactly represents the anarthrous Elion, a very ancient name not confined to the Jews, and is virtually itself a proper name. In the LXX the article is usually inserted: but in Ecclesiasticus, doubtless a better authority for Palestinian custom, Υψιστος occurs frequently, and has the article but once, except in combination with another title.

More than you ever wanted to know, but helpful nonetheless. If you're looking for a copy of WH's Intro/Appendix, then you want the 1896 edition which has corrections/updates.

Why do I like this so? Whether I agree or not, I can at least know what in the world they were thinking. You can't do that with any other print edition; none are nearly as transparent as WH were. We'd all do well to re-learn this lesson.

Wipf & Stock have done a recent photo-reprint, available in paperback (amazon.com).

Hendrickson did a reprint in the late 1980's, in hardcover (amazon.com). Some used copies of this are available via Amazon.

Which do I recommend? I don't know, I've not used any of the reprint editions. Years ago, I found a copy of the 1896 edition via abebooks from a seller in Australia and snapped it up quickly.

If you work with the Greek New Testament and do anything remotely pertaining to textual criticism (the appendix "Notes on Select Readings" is a mini-Metzger for WH's edition and their "Notes on Orthography" will tell you more than you wanted to know about spelling in their edition); or if you have interest in orthography, punctuation, and other particulars of producing and fully utilizing a printed edition of the Greek NT, then you need this book; whether the Hendrickson hardcover (amazon.com) or the Wipf & Stock softcover (amazon.com).

Update (2008-05-14): Thanks to Mark from the Bible and Tech blog for pointing out that WH's Intro/Appendix volume is available via Google Books. So grab it and absorb!

From the What's New in Papyrology blog comes mention of a splendid sounding title, Greetings in the Lord: Early Christians in the Oxyrhynchus Papyri (amazon.com). The author is AnneMarie Luijendijk, the publisher is Harvard Divinity School. And the price for the 235 page book is $25. (Brill, Mohr-Siebeck, et. al., please take note of the price-per-page ratio).

It is apparently slated for release in August of 2008. I can't wait to read it once I scrape up the $25.

Here's the blurb from the publisher (text taken from Amazon's page):

This is the first book-length study on Christians in the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, the site where some of the most important and oldest fragments of early Christian books were unearthed.

Bringing the people in dry papyrus letters and documents back to life, the book reveals how Christians lived in this city in different contexts and situations. In the first part, the image of the city's marketplace functions to address questions of Christian identity in the public sphere. The second part features a man called Sotas, bishop of Oxyrhynchus in the third century, as he is busy networking with other Christian communities, involved in teaching, book production, and fund-raising. The third part, focusing on evidence of the persecution of Christians, reveals the far-reaching power and pervasiveness of Roman bureaucracy. We learn that Christians negotiated their identity through small acts of resistance against the imperial decrees.

The papyrus letters and documents discussed in this book offer sometimes surprising insights into the everyday lives of Christians in the third and early fourth century and nuance our understanding of Christianity in this period. It is the mundane aspects of everyday life that make these papyrus documents so fascinating.

I'm looking at the instances of αλλα in the Apostolic Fathers. One very peculiar set of instances (seven instances in two verses) occurs in Hermas, Visions I.iii.1-2. (watch out, I may blog about it later to work though some thoughts)

Of course, I'm using the Logos version of Holmes (2nd edition). So, while in Vis. I.iii.1, I right-click and do a "Search for References to Herm., Vis I, iii, 1". One tiny little right-click.

Across my library, 148 instances of references to the verse (including ranges that include the verse) in 15 books. Books like:

• TDNT
• Nag Hammadi Library in English
• BDAG (very handy; this gives me links to all the articles that cite the verse, sort of like a reader's edition!)
• ICC vols
• NIGTC vols
• A Semeia volume
• Some Hermeneia volumes, including several in the volume on the Shepherd of Hermas.

How cool is that?

Muchas gracias por Hendrickson for sending along the following:

David M. Scholer, editor. Social Distinctives of the Christians in the First Century: Pivotal Essays by E.A. Judge (amazon.com).

This title sounds wonderful; I'm really looking forward to delving into it and blogging about it as I work through essays.

Jerry L. Sumney. Philippians: A Greek Student's Intermediate Reader (amazon.com).

I've blogged about some recently-released Greek readers in the past (here, here, here, here, here and here) so it only makes sense to give this one a look-see as well. I'll let you know what I find.

This one excerpt all at once shows my love-hate relationship with both the genitive and with Charles Ellicott's commentary on the Pastoral Epistles (amazon.com). Here he discusses επαγγελιαν .. ζωης in 1Ti 4.8:

'promise of life.' The genitival relation is not perfectly clear. If it be the gen. of identity or apposition (comp. Scheuerl. Synt. § 12.1, p. 82), ζωη, the import or rather object of the promise, would seem at first sight to involve two applications, quantitative ('long life,' Eph. 4.3, De W.) when in connexion with της νυν, qualitative ('holy, blessed life') when in connexion with της μελλουσης. If again it be the gen. of reference to (Huth., comp. Alf.), or the point of view (Scheuerl. Synt. § 18. 1, p. 129 sq.), ζωη retains its general meaning ('vital existence,' etc.), but επαγγελια becomes indefinite, and moreover is in a connexion with its dependent genitive not supported by any other passage in the NT. This last objection is so grave that it seems preferable to adopt the first form of gen., but in both members to give ζωη its higher and more definitely scriptural sense, and to regarded it as involving the idea, not of mere length, or of mere material blessings (contrast Mark 10.30, μετα διωγμων), but of spiritual happiness (ευδαιμονια, Coray) and holiness; in a word, as expressing 'the highest blessedness of the creature:' see Trench, Synon. § 27, whose philology however, in connecting ζωη with αω, is here doubtful; it is rather connected with Lat. 'vivere' (Sanscr. jîv); see esp. Pott, Etym. Forsch. Vol 1. p. 265, Donalds. Cratyl. § 112, Benfey, Wurzellex. vol. 1. p. 684. There is a good treatise on ζωη in Olsh. Opusc. p. 187 sq. (Ellicott, 61)

First, on genitives. Does anyone seriously treat genitives like this with regularity? Is anyone consumed with classifying genitives (let alone datives, accusatives and nominatives)? Does one really need to label it in order to think about what it does in the passage; to the point of letting the label determine what the genitive can and cannot do in the phrase in question? I don't. And I can't imagine myself attaining command of the nearly 100 types of genitives that Wallace alone isolates and identifies. Why doesn't one simply just look at what the genitive does in a case without feeling a need to put it in a box?

Second, on Ellicott. Can you see why I love him and hate him, all at the same time? The references are great, the discussion makes you think. But it's tough to read. His conclusion is that " ... it seems preferable to adopt the first form of gen." (what's the 'first form' again?) and then gives it his own little twist. That's the frustrating part—why go to the problem of classifying it if your classification is going to be unique? Why not just discuss the function the thing?? On the plus side, you see all sorts of references (to grammars and syntaxes, to commentators, and to other references); this one doesn't even begin to list classical references like many of his other comments do. But it's a pain to wade through.

I've been taking a bit of a holiday. Logos (my employer) has a program for long-term employees that allows one month of a 'sabbatical' for every 10 years worked; this is in addition to any normal vacation/holiday time. They allow us to split it into two two-week portions. I'm taking my second two-week portion.

So I've been spending some time reading and writing, among other things. One book I've been camping in is Drobner's The Fathers of the Church (amazon.com). I have to say that overall, it is awesome.

Why is it awesome? Here are the two biggies, from my perspective:

1. Information but no overload. Drobner surveys the fathers roughly chronologically (I'm in the mid-400's right now). He has enough information about the person, his history, and stance on important issues (homoousia or homoiousia? Nicene? Condemned as heretic?) without getting into too many details. Additionally, there are further sections for most fathers detailing particular writings (e.g., "Exegetical Writings") or particular works if certain works are noteworthy.

2. Bibliographies, Bibliographies, Bibliographies. I can't say enough about the bibliographies. In the "Editions" bibliographies, where appropriate, there are volume/page citations to Migne's Patrologia Graeca, which you can now get to online. In the "Translations" bibliographies, there are series/volume/page citations to Schaff's Early Church Fathers (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Nicene/Post-Nicene Fathers Series 1, Nicene/Post-Nicene Fathers Series 2) all of which are online as well.

What else have I been doing with my time? I've also been reading (in smaller chunks than Drobner) Dooley & Levinson's Analyzing Discourse (amazon.com). I've read through the book before, but much of it bounced off of my frontal lobe and dissipated into the air around me. This time through, parts are actually sticking. This is a short book, intended to be introductory but it still has some lingo problems (seems as if every linguist in the world, even when trying to write in an introductory style, still uses terms and lingo that are unfamiliar to non-linguists). There are interesting concepts in the book, many of which can be applied to reading and analyzing the text of the Bible. It's been good to re-read the material; I'm looking forward to the section on participant reference as that is an area I've been thinking about recently.

As I've mentioned a few times before, I'm (slowly) reading through Paul Trebilco's book, The Early Christians in Ephesus from Paul to Ignatius (amazon.com).

I'd recommend just about anyone read the book. But that doesn't mean that I agree completely with what's going on in the book. Trebilco frequently has to read between the lines in order to recreate what's going on in Ephesus. He uses three different sources — the Pastoral Epistles, the Johannine Epistles, and the letter to the Ephesians in Revelation. He uses each of these as lenses to recreate Ephesus.

In so doing, he has to rely upon his reconstructions of the origin of these books, and that's where my primary beef is. Trebilco puts the Pastorals in 80-100 CE; with a follower of Paul who "clearly saw himself as standing in the Pauline tradition" (202). But Trebilco does see Ephesus as the letter's destination despite, according to his view, none of the named entities (Paul and Timothy) have anything whatever to do with the letter.

In later chapters (specifically chapter 8 section 2, pp 354-384) Trebilco posits that vocabulary unique to the Pastorals can be explained by "acculturation":

It also seems clear that the author presupposes that the language and concepts that he uses are familiar to his readers. For example, the Pastor does not explain the epiphany Christology that we will shortly discuss; rather he assumes that his readers are familiar with it and with the conceptual background that it presupposes. Similarly, concepts like ευσεβεια and σωφρων, which we will discuss, are not explained but are simply utilised. It seems clear then that the author presupposes that his readers are familiar with this language. It is therefore good evidence for the significant level of acculturation of the readers. (354, emphasis added)

Trebilco's poster child for this view is the Greek word επιφανεια, where he argues that the use of επιφανεια in First and Second Timothy more closely matches that of επιφανεια in the context of Greco-Roman religion; and that there is no real Jewish usage of the term (cf. 355).

My problem with reading all of this is that while Trebilco is consistent with his assumptions on authorship and audience, there are other ways to explain this that are more internally consistent with the content of First and Second Timothy.

First, if Paul really was the author of First Timothy, and if Timothy really was the recipient, then there is no need to come up with an explanation of "acculturation" for new concepts or things seemingly unexplained (like επιφανεια). Timothy would of course be familiar with that language; he was Paul's co-worker, likely for a span of over 10 years.

Second, Timothy's mother was Jewish, but his father was Greek. Isn't it possible that Timothy would've known how επιφανεια was used among pagan religion; and isn't it possible that Paul, widely traveled among Gentilies, would be familiar with it too? And why couldn't they have used this language in their dealings with the Ephesian church? After all, Ephesus had all sorts of pagan religion going on; doesn't it make sense — and even fit the Pauline mold of being a Jew to Jews, and a Gentile to Gentiles?

Third, we have examples of Paul using relatively non-Jewish concepts as metaphors for aspects of Christianity. One that comes immediately to mind is that of manumission; of slaves buying their freedom from their masters, via the temple, and then being owned by the god of the temple (cf. Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, 324-334, specifically p. 326). This is at least alluded to in 1Co 6.20; 7.23; Gal 5.1, 13. Why couldn't Paul use επιφανεια for Christian purposes too?

If the letter is from Paul to Timothy, then we have no need to come up with an explanation of how the church at Ephesus could possibly understand these references which seem to require some degree of acculturation.

Now, with all of that said, even though I bristle when I read some portions of Trebilco's book (like the portion on authorship/date/background of the Pastorals, and also this portion on acculturation) there really is good stuff in the book. If you're studying Paul and his letters at all; and particularly if your study has to do with Ephesus, then you can't ignore Trebilco. So break down and get the Eerdman's printing (amazon.com); it is actually in the realm of affordability.

I'm stoked about this! Now, before you say anything, I know that Witherington has published volumes in his series with publishers other than Eerdmans (And yes, I know that deSilva did the Hebrews volume for the Eerdmans). But c'mon, how can you not be excited about it?

The Socio-Rhetorical Commentary Series offers the first sustained attempt to read and study the New Testament as both an ancient biography (as regards the Gospels) and as a from of ancient rhetoric. A socio-rhetorical interpretation considers the methods of rhetorical criticism and social-science criticism. The rhetorical method makes use of ancient or classical writings and strategies of persuasion and the communication of meaning. The social science method notes the issues surrounding the identification of the network of social relations (cultures and customs) in regards to the biblical text. The New Testament, in this series by William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, is interpreted within the context of the world in which it was written and read. The commentaries endeavor to give us a glimpse into the methods the gospel writers used in persuading their audience that Jesus was the Savior of the world, and it puts in context the purpose of the Pauline letters. Ben Witherington III contributes to the first six volumes, and David A. deSilva adds his commentary to the last volume in the series.

Don't know about this? Learn more about Ben Witherington III from his website and his blog.

Back in October, I mentioned a book on WWII in Sicily and Italy, Rick Atkinson's The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (amazon.com). I've been reading it off and on, mainly when I can have large chunks of time to focus on it — books like these aren't books you can spend 15 minutes on at a chunk.

If you have any historical interest in WWII, then you need to read this book. It is focused on the Sicilian and Italian campaigns, primarily from an Allied perspective but Atkinson routinely brings in data from German sources as well. I learned oh-so-much about the war on those fronts; a war that lurks in the shadows of the annals of history due to the prominence of the Normandy landings (which began two days after Rome fell) and the grind through France and Germany.

There were portions that weren't easy to read. It was a bloody, bloody war of attrition. But you don't read books like this because they make you feel chipper; you read books like this to understand the sorts of things that WWII was about, and how nasty it was (for both sides), and how necessary it was. And to hope that it never happens again.

Atkinson is an incredible researcher, and his synthesis of literally thousands of sources into an overarching, flowing, well-written historical narrative is amazing. He won the Pulitzer prize for the first volume in his Liberation Trilogy series, An Army at Dawn (amazon.com), which focused on the beginning of American involvement in the WWII European theater, and thus the war in Northern Africa. That book was amazing. Day of Battle (amazon.com) is better. Atkinson's projected third volume, if I understand it correctly, will focus on D-Day preparations and the liberation of France and war in Germany. How he'll pack that into one volume I have no idea — but I'll be queued up to buy it when it's published.

Bonus: Here's a picture of me with Ike, Monty and other WWII luminaries:

It seems I've been busy since early November, what with ETS & SBL conferences, Thanksgiving, Christmas parties, and New Years. So I haven't had the chance to dig into Paul Trebilco's Early Christians in Ephesus from Paul to Ignatius (amazon.com) as much as I would've liked to.

But today I did get some time (after getting the garage cleaned and reorganized) to read a bit. I finally finished "Part I", which has to do with evidence of Ephesus in Paul and his Letters (Trebilco sees both Ephesians and the Pastorals as non-Pauline, so he does not include them here) and the evidence of Ephesus in the book of Acts.

It was the two chapters on Acts that I was most impressed with. Having done some work on a portion of Acts 18 for my 2007 ETS paper, it was great to read what Trebilco has done, working through all of the Ephesian mentions in Acts. If you are into the Paulines or Acts or Ephesus, then you need to read these chapters.

One thing that stuck out to me, particularly in working through the footnotes as I read the text, was how much the work of Haenchen and Conzelmann are called into question. As I worked through commentaries on Acts 18 for my ETS paper, I was amazed and dumbfounded at some of the claims that Conzelmann (apparently following Haenchen) made concerning Lucan sources in Acts. Treblico carefully works through the passages and other relevant data and shows that many times the leaps made by Haenchen and Conzelmann are too large. Reading this after having read Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses really makes me think that the form-critical approach is dying (if not dead). It additionally makes me think that there needs to be a new Hermeneia volume on Acts (and the Pastoral Epistles, also by Conzelmann, for that matter).

That said, one thing that Trebilco does (that many others do) is frequently note "Lucan" or "Pauline" language, when what they really mean is that the content they attribute to a particular author uses the word in question, perhaps uniquely. I still think that any NT author sample, no matter what you think of authorship issues, is far too small to get a notion of what language quirks or vocabulary should be attributed to a particular author. But Trebilco doesn't do it much, and I realize that while this is a fairly blunt tool, it is a tool. So I'm not too offended by it. :)

All said, Trebilco's work is excellent and highly recommended. Do check it out (amazon.com). It's over 800 pages, and the Amazon price is really a steal (especially considering the Mohr-Siebeck edition, if you could actually find it, would probably cost you upwards of $300!)

I've had a copy of Zondervan's Reader's Greek New Testament (amazon.com) [the first edition with the italic font; there is a second edition (amazon.com) with a non-sloping font] for a few years (a gift from one of the editors) and have enjoyed it despite the italic font. I've actually become used to the font (it is slightly better than the horrible UBS4 italic font). I think the concept is great -- gloss words that occur 30x or less at the foot of the page to help those working on their vocabulary and reading skills.

And the book is well crafted -- made for folks who will actually use it. The cover is a soft leather, it is not heavy at all. One of the perennial complaints with the reader, apart from the italic font, is that it uses Zondervan's Greek text instead of the UBS4/NA27 text.

Recently, the German Bible Society has released their own reader's edition: The UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader's Edition (amazon.com). This glosses words that occur 30x or less at the foot of the page, and it uses the UBS4 (and it doesn't have an italic font!) as the Greek text. I've also got access to a copy of this (it was a gift to Logos from the GBS) so I thought I'd write a quick post comparing the two.

• Cost: The RGNT is less expensively priced, as you can see from the Amazon links above.
• Form Factor: Again, I think Zondervan wins. The RGNT is half the thickness of the UBSGNT:RE, same basic shape.
• Cover: RGNT wins hands-down on the cover. The Italian duo-tone leather is a joy to hold. The UBS cover is the standard red cover, though it is the size of a large print edition (also the size of Omanson's Textual Guide to the GNT (amazon.com)). UBS has a ribbon; Zondervan does not.
• Paper: UBS wins here, their paper is better -- not the thin onion-skin paper of the RGNT.
• Text: UBS wins here because they use the text everyone refers to. I realize there are scant differences between UBS and the Zondervan text, but the UBS is still better for it.
• Layout: UBS wins here as well. If you've used the RGNT, you know it is hard to find a gloss at the bottom of the page because the notes are in one paragraph. The UBS text, however, has two columns of notes at the foot of each page; this makes it relatively easy to find the gloss of the word you want.
• Notes: UBS wins here too because they don't just provide definitions, they also provide some parsing/declension info.
• XRefs: RGNT wins here because they actually note the source of OT quotes in the text. UBS does not provide such info.
• Appendix: UBS wins here because they have a dictionary in the back for words that occur more than 30x -- which means you can look up any word in the text if you don't know it and it occurs more than 30x. RGNT has no such dictionary.

I think that's it. And I think there are two ways to slice the data.

I think that if cost and form are important (is it reasonably priced, and does it feel good in the hand, and is it easy to carry around) then you should check out the Reader's Greek New Testament (amazon.com).

But if you're more concerned about the text (UBS/NA is a priority) and about ease of use -- it really is easier to find the notes in the UBS edition, and it's nice to have a full dictionary to access for other words -- then you probably want to spend a little more and get the UBS Greek NT: Reader's Edition (amazon.com).

Update (2007-12-17): In the comments, Mike Aubrey (who blogs at εν εφεσω) points us to Rick Mansfield's similar review. Check his post out because, unlike me, he took time to add images of the text of the two books, so you can see the differences yourself.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the books I picked up at ETS/SBL* is the Westcott-Hort Greek New Testament with Dictionary (amazon.com), published by Hendrickson. This is a reprinting (and re-setting) of WH's Greek NT. Hendrickson have added pericope heads, a running apparatus with diffs between NA27, WH marginal notes, and the 2005 edition of Robinson-Pierpont's Byzantine text (amazon.com). The dictionary is a revised and enlarged version of Souter's Pocket Dictionary.

But, I wondered, how different is Hendrickson's edition from the original Westcott & Hort edition? And are the differences significant?

As I mentioned above, there are some immediately apparent differences:

• Hendrickson's edition has section headings in English; the original WH has none
• Hendrickson's edition has a editional apparatus at the foot of the page with differences between NA27, Byz (RP 2005) and the WH marginal notes; the original WH only has the marginal notes

There are other differences, too; but these are less obvious.

First, Hendrickson's edition has the books of the NT arranged in what is now the standard canonical order: Gospels, Acts, Paulines, Catholic Epistles, Apocalypse. The original WH, however, did not follow that order; they followed (as I recall) the order of books in some of the earliest complete NT MSS: Gospels, Acts, Catholic Epistles, Paulines (including Hebrews between 2Thess and 1Tim), Apocalypse.

Second, Hendrickson's edition inserts paragraph breaks where WH's had subparagraph breaks. This removes a level of detail from the text, but all the same -- I don't think anyone really knew the subparagraph breaks (larger horizontal spans of white space) were there on purpose. But I do think it is significant, particularly when much scholarly attention these days focuses on discourse analysis (aka "textlinguistics"). This is a level of annotation that is above the sentence level but below the paragraph level, providing some help when one actually begins to structure the text and wants to read it through sensitive to discourse structure.

While at SBL, I was able to speak with the editor at Hendrickson who did much of the work on the book. The concern they had was that WH's paragraphs are, admittedly, large. They wanted smaller chunks for reading, and to make it easier to find verse references. This is discussed in the introduction, which notes:

In this edition, WH's original paragraph and spacing divisions have been preserved by inserting paragraph breaks for both types of division. The resulting paragraphs are more consistent in length with those of editions and translations of the NT available today. Section divisions have been preserved by inserting English section headings designed to make navigation of the text easier for English readers. Additional English headings have been added betweeen and occasionally within paragraphs where deemed helpful. (p. xxii)

Third, WH's introductory articles are not reproduced in Hendrickson's edition, instead some material by Eldon Epp is included. Also, some of the helpful WH appendices—List of Suspected Readings, List of Noteworthy Rejected Readings, Quotations from the Old Testament—are not included. On the plus side, the Hendrickson edition does have a few maps in the back.

Conclusion

While there are differences between the Hendrickson edition and the original WH, I don't think they're that significant. The editional apparatus included in Hendrickson's edition makes the Hendrickson edition more appropriate to use in today's context. I don't think it should supplant one's use of the primary critical text (NA27) but if one has a need to consult WH or even a desire to consult Byzantine variants from a particular edition (Robinson's), then Hendrickson's reprinting of Westcott & Hort's Greek New Testament (amazon.com) is probably the go-to edition.

* Full disclosure: Hendrickson gave the book to me.

Two things.

First, I received my copy of Michael Holmes' Apostolic Fathers, Greek Texts and English Translations, Third Edition (amazon.com). What a beautiful volume. The form factor is excellent, the type is crisp, the binding is sturdy and functional, and the scholarship is top-notch. This is a book that is a pleasure to own.

Second, I have made a decision. As many know and can easily see, I have an Amazon Associates account. If you click on links from this blog and buy stuff, I get a tiny portion of the sale (ranges from 4% to 6% per sale). Don't worry, I'm not getting rich off of it, I just save the accumulation and use it to buy a book every few months.

I've decided that I'm going to save up my commissions for the next while and splurge on a two-volume set of books I'd love but can't afford to purchase: The Apostolic Fathers and the New Testament Two-Volume Set (amazon.com). It consists of both of the recent volumes published by Oxford, The Reception of the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers (amazon.com) and Trajectories Through the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers (amazon.com). If you're wondering how much I make off of the commissions, well ... I'm about 1/4 of the way there and don't expect to make enough for probably 4-6 months.

So ... if you want to help a brother out and are buying stuff from Amazon anyway ... click to Amazon from a link on this blog. Or, if you really want to make Rico smile this Christmas, cruise to my wish list and purchase a copy for me (only half-joking!). Of if you work for Oxford and need someone to review the set ... well, I just might be interested!

While out at ETS and SBL, the good folks at Kregel sent along a copy of Dr. Rodney Decker's Koine Greek Reader (amazon.com). Be sure to check out Dr. Decker's page for his book. Why did I get a copy? I was one of a select number quick enough to respond to Dr. Decker's offer of a free copy of the book on his blog — which just goes to show you, reading blogs can pay.

I haven't had time to look at the book much, but my friend and colleague Johnny borrowed it over the weekend and was suitably impressed. He said, "I wish my second-year reading class used it as a text!". He found the presentation of chunks (not just one verse) of text followed by grammar and syntax notes on the text helpful.

In the future, I hope to compare the Koine Greek Reader (amazon.com) with Whitacre's Patristic Greek Reader (amazon.com) to show strengths and weaknesses of each. But I have a lot of stuff I want to blog in the next while; so I may not get to it immediately. But the initial word is that Decker's Koine Greek Reader (amazon.com) looks useful and should be a great help, whether you are in a classroom setting or if you're simply wanting a refresher course from that year of Greek you had in school too many years ago.

I didn't go as hog-wild on books this year as I had in the past, but I did come home with a few new ones:

• G.K. Beale & D.A. Carson, eds., Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (amazon.com). This is one that I have been watching for some time, and I'm thrilled to actually have it in print.
• Westcott-Hort Greek New Testament with Dictionary (amazon.com). This is a reprinting (and re-setting) of WH's Greek NT. Hendrickson have added pericope heads, a running apparatus with diffs between NA27, WHMarg, and Robinson-Pierpont. The dictionary is a revised and enlarged version of Souter's Pocket Dictionary. I hope to blog about this one later, comparing my 1904 pocket WH with this edition for First Timothy.
• The UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader's Edition (amazon.com). The Amazon page here doesn't make any sense to me, the book is released (at least you could get it in a number of places at the SBL book expo). I hope to do some blogging on this one, comparing it to Zondervan's Reader's Greek New Testament (amazon.com) for the text of First Timothy. One thing the UBS edition has, though, is parsing help. Very cool.
• James Aageson, Paul, the Pastorals, and the Early Church. This as well is published by Hendrickson, though I find no listing for it on Amazon.
• Benjamin Fiore, S.J., Pastoral Epistles: First Timothy, Second Timothy and Titus (amazon.com), in the Sacra Pagina series. I purchased this more for completeness' sake; I don't have many Catholic approaches to the PE in my commentary stash, so I figured I'd get one.
• William Varner, The Way of the Didache: The First Christian Handbook (amazon.com). I've done some study on the Didache on my own; Varner's work will be nice to read.

That's it; you'll surely hear more about them in the coming weeks.

It's true, Holmes' Third Edition Apostolic Fathers Diglot (amazon.com) is finally ready! I read about it on the B-Greek list on Friday. A message to B-Greek (from moderator Jonathan Robie, forwarded from James Ernest, Academic Editor at Baker Academic) notes (and do notice the part I made bold):

The first copies of the new edition of the Michael Holmes's Apostolic Fathers (amazon.com) (the Lightfoot-Harmer-Holmes Greek-English diglot) just arrived at Baker Academic's warehouse yesterday. That should mean that copies have also arrived at San Diego for the book exhibits at the ETS and AAR-SBL meetings. Listmembers attending those meetings may want to visit our booth to check it out.

It's a thoroughly re-edited and redesigned opus. Michael (a member of this list) put a tremendous amount of labor into this revision, as did a number of us at the press; and we had significant advice and help on particular points from a number of outside scholars. I'm very happy to find that the 1000ppi paper and Smyth-sewn binding enable the book to lie flat even when opened near near the front or the back. The stamped kivar cover is over more substantial boards than used for the Bible-society texts that this volume otherwise resembles, so it should stand up well to use; but the feel is still quite compact.

It will be purchaseable (at a great discount!) at ETS and AAR/SBL, so be sure to check it out at the Baker booth. Here's some further descriptive text from the Baker Academic web site:

Description: Following the recent publication of his thoroughly revised translations in The Apostolic Fathers in English, 3rd ed., Michael Holmes, a leading expert on these texts, offers a thoroughly revised and redesigned bilingual edition, featuring Greek (or Latin) and English on facing pages. Introductions and bibliographies are generous and up to date. In the textual apparatus, existing notes have been revised and expanded, and well over two hundred new notes have been added. This handsome and handy one-volume, thin-paper edition, with a ribbon marker and reader-friendly page layout, will be an essential resource for New Testament students and scholars.

In the interests of full disclosure, note that in my work at Logos (getting editions of the Apostolic Fathers ready for our electronic editions) I ran across a some typos in the second edition of Holmes' Greek text. As a result of those submissions, Dr. Holmes and James Ernest decided to send along a complimentary copy of the third edition diglot. So it's a happy day for Rico! When I have the edition and am able to examine it further, I will surely blog about it.

Apparently there's an SBL session on this question (S19-49, Monday afternoon). I'm a bit suspect because the session is sponsored by "HarperOne" (?) and its participants are all published by HarperCollins.

(side note: when will marketroids stop CamelCasing things? That's soooo 1990's)

Anyway, here's the panel:

• John Dominic Crossan, DePaul University, Panelist
• Jonathan Reed, University of La Verne, Panelist
• Amy-Jill Levine, The Divinity School, Vanderbilt University, Panelist
• Marvin Meyer, Chapman University, Panelist
• Pamela Eisenbaum, Iliff School of Theology, Panelist

I'll admit — I'm not too interested in what any of them would say. But I am curious about the question, and curious what folks in the biblioblogosphere might think. The question is a difficult one; I have several questions that arise from just the question alone (let alone thinking about answering it). Like:

• How does one define "non-Biblical" text? Any text that isn't in the Protestant Bible? Is the question specifically dealing with, say NT Apocrypha? Or could I say that perhaps Chrysostom's sermons on John would give tremendous insight? Or could I say (apologies, Jim West) N.T. Wright's Jesus and the Son of God? (No, I don't think that -- I'm just trying to figure out how to define "non-Biblical" in the context of this question).
• Does the text have to be about Jesus, or contain excerpts of Jesus' life? If I think NT apocryphal texts and gnostic texts (e.g. Thomas) paint a decidely improper picture of Jesus, then of course I can't suggest them. They would contribute to misunderstanding Jesus, not understanding him. But what else could I suggest?
• Does the text have to exist in full? Let's say based on what I know of Papias that I'd want to answer the question with his work. But the work doesn't exist anymore, at least that we know of. Further, what about things like Gospel of the Egyptians, Gospel of the Hebrews, or Gospel of the Nazoreans? Egerton Papyrus? Fragments of unknown Gospels found at Oxyrhynchus? We only have limited citations or scraps of these; not full extant editions. Would they count?
• Does the text have to exist at all? What about theoretical texts? For instance, if I was one to think that Q actually existed (nb: I don't, though I'm not opposed to such a thing) then obviously I'd have to say that one. It is non-Biblical, I guess, though if the theory is true then large swaths of it, at minimum, made it in. So does that count?

I could go on. But that wouldn't help answer the question.

I'm thinking about it (and have a short list of candidates). I'll update this post with my answer at the end of the week. But what do you think? Leave comments; if you blog an answer on your own blog let me know and I'll link to your post from this one.

Update (2007-11-09): There have been some comments; two of them focus on the Testimonium Flavianum, the other wondering about Rabbinic criticisms of Jesus as shedding light into the claims made by Jesus and his followers. These are good thoughts.

I'm still griping about the question, however. There seem to be three places in the question that provide lots of wiggle-room: "non-Biblical Text", "Understanding" and "Jesus". I discussed "non-Biblical text" above a bit. The word "understanding" also is problematic. What does it mean? What does it imply? Is it about understanding more of Jesus' biography? Understanding more of how people understood him (that leaves the door open for all sorts of crazy stuff)?

The other term to define is "Jesus". Which Jesus is this? Is it only about Jesus' experience as a human, or is material that provides understanding of Jesus Christ (i.e., the aspect of Messiah)?

This all makes the question hard, particularly since I'm guessing the intent is to discuss early non-Biblical stuff; probably gnostic/Nag Hammadi, that provides alternate and likely fabricated accounts of Jesus' earthly sojourn. But I have problems answering the question that way because I don't think it tells us anything about understanding Jesus, but all sorts of stuff about how gnostics/etc. understood Jesus.

So, on the whole, I'll try take all of that into account when I provide some thoughts about the question later today. But I'll probably understand "Jesus" to refer to non-Biblical discussion about the person Jesus, and therefore also include texts that discuss the aspect of Messiah as well. Whether that is intended or not, I don't know — but it's my blog, so I get to do what I want. :)

Update II (2007-11-09): Ok, here's my list, with some brief explanation. I consulted a few references along the way to help me with my memory of these things, notably New Testament Apocrypha Vol 1 (amazon.com) and Moreschini & Norelli's Early Christian Greek and Latin Literature (amazon.com) (also vol. 1). This list is sort of in a preferred order, though if pressed I'd probably change it around.

• Tatian's Diatessaron. That's right; some may say this is Biblical, but I'd say it isn't. Content from the four gospels is stitched into a running narrative. How can this not be helpful in understanding Jesus?
• Eusebius' Letter to Carpianus. Huh? You know, this is the one published in the front of your NA27 explaining the Eusebian Canons, in which Eusebius delimits lists based on Ammonius' sections. This is a cross-referencing system between the gospels; it also highlights material unique to each gospel. Again, very helpful if you want to work through instances that the gospels record concerning Jesus' life. Please examine Kevin P. Edgcome's very helpful page about the Canons; also see his translation of the Letter to Carpianus.
• Testimonium Flavianum. I agree with some of the commenters to this post, this is valuable even if it is a later insertion.
• Odes of Solomon. Again, this might surprise some. But these are early hymns, likely first or second century, likely Christian, and likely used in Christian worship. If early Christian hymns were good enough for Paul to use in some of his writings (e.g. 1Ti 3.16, Php 2.5-11), then I'd think hymns like some of those found in the Odes would be helpful in understanding the early church's conception of Christ (which is part of "understanding Jesus", to my mind). Charlesworth's edition actually inserts headings where the voice shifts from the Odist to that of Christ.
• Symbol of Chalcedon. Yes, this is later (circa 450 AD/CE) but it is definitive. If you want to know what the church thinks about who Jesus was (and is), then this is an important text.
• Second Clement. Ok, not really. But I had to mention it because of the agrapha it contains. I guess I'd make a catch-all category here called something like "early agrapha" and include the sayings from 2Clem and other stuff like gospels of the (Hebrews|Nazoreans|Egyptians|Ebionites) as well as some of the POxy fragments, Egerton 2, and stuff like that.

Stuff I wouldn't include because I contend that overall they would contribute to misunderstanding Jesus: Gnostic gospels and apocalypses, particularly stuff found at Nag Hammadi and also the recently found Gospel of Judas. I'd say these are very important for understanding gnosticism and for understanding the gnostic conception of Jesus; but I just don't see how that helps us understand Jesus.

Thoughts?

[This is part of a series of posts, for a list of all posts see Drobner's The Fathers of the Church]

I'll start off by saying that I don't plan on doing comprehensive blogging of this book; so there won't be a post for each part/chapter. But I made it through the introductory material and the first chapter, so I figured I'd post.

Initially, it's everything I expected. I've noted some titles in the bibliographies that I should probably track down at some point. And the explanations are decent.

I also understand that introductions, by their very nature, are complicated to write. That is, it is hard to be judicious when introducing material that may, when further studied, have several different layers or approaches. So, unsurprisingly, I can report that I'm not the happiest with the perspective taken when providing dates for NT books. Drobner places all gospels after 70 CE (Mark in 70 CE, Luke in 80, Matthew in 90-95, and John in 100). He also only sees six (6) authentic Paulines: First Thessalonians, Galatians, Corinthians (?), Philippians, Philemon and Romans.

I don't necessarily have a problem with his views (though I think he's wrong); I have a problem with them being presented as undisputed fact. But ... I say again ... I wasn't surprised; this sort of thing usually happens in handbooks/introductions like this. One item I was surprised at, though, was part of Drobner's description of an apocalypse. He contends that "Although there are 'no formal laws which are applicable to all apocalypses' and the apocalypse of John is accorded a special place among all the apocalypses, it is possible to discerna a number of enduring stylistic and content-related features" (Drobner 38). Ok, sure. But these aren't (and can't be) rules. Even so, his first item is very curious:

All apocalypses are written pseudonymously under the name of a significant male of the past who lends the work an authority that the author himself does not possess. This means that an apocalypse is always written from a perspective of fictitious anteriority, as a book that alleges to be ancient already and, because of being sealed up, has to be keppt secret until the predetermined time of the end (cf. Dan 12.9; Rev 6). (Drobner 38)

I can buy this statement from non-canonical works; but it is harder to swallow when one includes Biblical apocalypses like Daniel and Revelation. Does that mean that if I think John (whichever John you wish; the elder or the apostle) is responsible for Revelation that I therefore cannot hold that Revelation is an apocalypse (when it clearly is)?

That said, the section on the Epistle to Barnabas is good; as is that on Hermas. And again, the bibliographies are excellent.

Chapter Two, "Postapocalyptic Literature", looks good as well ... though I'll probably have dating qualms with Drobner's stance on the dating of Ignatius' epistles (Drobner's range is 105-135; I'd say 110 at the latest). But I'll write on that chapter after I read it ...

I left the office early yesterday to attend the memorial service for my great aunt Jo, who passed away over the weekend after an extended illness. I came back to the office this morning to find a copy of Paul Treblico's The Early Christians In Ephesus from Paul to Ignatius (amazon.com) sitting on my desk, waiting for me; a review copy from the kind folks at Eerdmans.

I've been salivating upon mention of this book for years, since I read of the original printing by Mohr-Siebeck in 2004. In typical fashion, Mohr-Siebeck priced the 800 page book at something like $280 so I resolved myself to reading a library copy sometime down the road — if I ever found a library that stocked it. I did drool over a copy at the 2005 SBL, though.

Cheers, congratulations, and much appreciation then for the folks at Eerdmans. They are publishing the US edition of Treblico's work in paperback with a list price of $85.00. Amazon sells it as well — see current price in upper right corner of this post; it's probably discounted from list. And if you'll be at ETS and/or AAR/SBL in San Diego, I'd guess you'd be able to get a below-list price from Eerdmans as well. And if you do purchase it at SBL, make sure to tell the folks at Eerdmans that you really appreciate them republishing books like this!

My reading is piling up, but I've been waiting a long time for Treblico (longer than I've waited for Drobner!) so I'll be working it in to the top of the list. And as I read, I'll blog about it. So stay tuned. Until then, here is some material from the publisher's web site. First, the blurb:

The capital city of the province of Asia in the first century CE, Ephesus played a key role in the development of early Christianity. In this book Paul Trebilco examines the early Christians from Paul to Ignatius, seen in the context of our knowledge of the city as a whole.

Drawing on Paul's letters and the Acts of the Apostles, Trebilco looks at the foundations of the church, both before and during the Pauline mission. He shows that in the period from around 80 to 100 CE there were a number of different communities in Ephesus that regarded themselves as Christians — the Pauline and Johannine groups, Nicolaitans, and others — testifying to the diversity of that time and place. Including further discussions on the Ephesus addresses of the apostle John and Ignatius, this scholarly study of the early Ephesian Christians and their community is without peer.

And here's the table of contents from the Eerdmans catalog page. A brief and much abbreviated TOC is below:

Introduction
Chapter 1: The Context

Part One: Beginnings in Ephesus
Chapter 2: Paul in Ephesus: The Evidence of His Letters
Chapter 3: Acts and the early Christians in Ephesus: Beginnings and Success
Chapter 4: Acts and the early Christians in Ephesus: Endings and Departure

Part Two: The Pastoral Epistles, Revelation and the Johannine Letters
Chapter 5: What do the Pastoral Epistles tell us about the early Christians in Ephesus?
Chapter 6: What do the Johannine Letters tell us about the early Christians in Ephesus?
Chapter 7: Revelation 2.1-7: The Proclamation to the Church in Ephesus and the Nicolaitans

Part Three: The Relationships Between the Readers of the Pastorals, the Johannine Letters and Revelation
Chapter 8: The Wider Culture and the Readers of the Pastorals, the Johannine Letters and Revelation: Acculturation, Assimilation and Accomodation
Chapter 9: Material Possessions and the readers of the Pastorals, the Johannine Letters and Revelation
Chapter 10: Leadership and Authority and the readers of the Pastoral Epistles, the Johannine Letters and Revelation
Chapter 11: The Role of Women Among the Readers of the Pastoral Epistles, the Johannine Letters and Revelation
Chapter 12: What Shall We Call Each Other? The Issue of Self-Designation in the Pastoral Epistles, the Johannine Letters and Revelation
Chapter 13: The Relationships between Traditions and Communities in Ephesus

Part Four: Ignatius' Letter to Ephesus
Chapter 14: Who Are the Addressees of Ignatius' Letter to Ephesus
Chapter 15: Ignatius and additional facets of the life of the Christians in Ephesus

Chapter 16: Conclusions

In an earlier post, I mentioned The Fathers of the Church: A Comprehensive Introduction (amazon.com) by Hubertus Drobner, translated by Siegfried Schatzmann.

Like Mike Aquilina, a copy arrived for me today! Many thanks to Hendrickson for sending it along. And it looks wonderful. The bibliographies look great (full, and sectioned into sections like 'Editions', 'Bibliographies', 'Dictionaries' and stuff like that). So you get an idea of what the book is about, here's the last paragraph of the Preface to the English Edition:

It [the book] is not a "manual" that intends to cover the entire field in all its details. It is a textbook that presents an overview of the most important authors, works and themes, imbedded in their historical, political, and ecclesiastical background. For everything beyond this basic aim, the numerous bibliographical data given serve to point the way to further and more specialized studies. (Drobner xvi)

Here's a link to the Table of Contents. Here's a link to the Introduction. Here's a link to a sample chapter. And here's the blurb from Hendrickson:

Good, solid, contemporary introductions to patristic authors and writings are difficult to find in the English-speaking world, and European volumes are expensive. This volume, which is Siegfried Schatzmann’s translation of Lehrbuch der Patrologie, offers English-speaking readers easy access to Hubertus R. Drobner’s traditional introduction to early Christian thought.

Hubertus R. Drobner brings patristics scholarship up to date in this traditional introduction. His work is sufficiently broad to be a useful summary of early Christian history and the expansive strokes of doctrinal debate and development and provides a clear presentation of early Christian thought.

Drobner introduces new materials throughout this recently updated edition of his handbook. A general map and several timetables add to the clarity of the volume.

The Fathers of the Church is valuable in its presentation of contemporary studies and views. Patristics students will benefit from this dependable overview of early Christian texts, and scholars and libraries will appreciate the extensive bibliography, indexes, and other resources.

Here's a somewhat abbreviated Table of Contents:

Introduction: Patrology as Subject

Part One: Apostolic and Postapostolic Literature
   Introduction: The Rise of Christian Literature
   Chapter One: Biblical Apocrypha
   Chapter Two: Postapostolic Literature

Part Two: Literature of the Period of Persecution (Mid-Second to Early Fourth Centuries)
   Introduction: The Impact of Persecution
   Chapter Three: Greek Literature
   Chapter Four: Beginnings of Latin Literature

Part Three: Literature of the Ascending Imperial Church (Early Fourth Century to ca. 430)
   Introduction: Essential Features of the History of the Fourth Century
   Chapter Five: First Phase of Arianism
   Chapter Six: Apollinarianism and the Second Phase of Arianism
   Chapter Seven: Pastors, Exegetes and Ascetics
   Chapter Eight: Monastic and Hagiographic Literature
   Chapter Nine: Augustine of Hippo

Part Four: Literature of the Transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages (ca. 430 to the Mid-Eighth Century)
   Introduction: Retrospective Collections and Progressive Works
   Chapter Ten: Theological Controversies of the Fifth Century
   Chapter Eleven: Literature of the Latin West
   Chapter Twelve: Literature of the Greek East

Part Five: Literature of the Christian East
   Chapter Thirteen: Independent Bodies of Literature
   Supplementary Bibliography

All in all, it looks wonderful and also looks to be a great counterpart to Moreschini and Norelli's Early Greek and Latin Literature: A Literary History (amazon.com); though Drobner looks to have more information on area it treats (Patristic Literature) and the bibliographies look more complete and, at least in the English translation, more geared toward English readers.

Updated: I've begun a series as I read the book.

• 2007-11-05: Part I

I'm stoked.

Poking around the newly-redesigned Amazon.com front page, I noted that volume 2 in Rick Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy is out. If you have done any reading on WWII, you owe it to yourself to read Atkinson's first volume, An Army at Dawn (amazon.com), which is all about the war in Northern Africa from 1942-1943. It seems most WWII stuff is either on the war in Germany or else it is personality-focused (e.g. Patton, Eisenhower, Rommel, etc.). Atkinson is writing a history of the liberation of Europe, and the first volume was awesome. I've been waiting for the second volume for five years, and it's here now. Here's the book's LibraryThing page.

Bonus: I used an Amazon.com gift certificate to pay for the book. Thanks to those who click on links & sidebars to purchase stuff via ricoblog, I do appreciate it (and I will enjoy The Day of Battle (amazon.com) immensely)!

Yes, it has been fairly quiet in the corner of the blogosphere recently. Amy and I have been moving house; we're out of the old house (it sold quickly, thankfully) and into a new house (yay!). This past week was pack-n-move time; with the majority of actual moving happening this past weekend.

So, obviously, we're still settling in, but things are in good shape.

Also ... a little bird just told me that Siegfried Schatzmann's English translation of Hubertus Drobner's Lehrbuch der Patrologie (Fathers of the Church: A Comprehensive Introduction (amazon.com)), to be published by Hendrickson but long-delayed for many and sundry reasons, has actually hit the warehouse. That means ... well ... it is like, you know, done and stuff. And in paper. And ready to read. WOO HOO!!!!

When I get a copy (which should hopefully be soon; I've been waiting over two years!) I'll certainly mention it and blog about it somewhat.

Speaking of which, I'm about to wrap up Skarsaune & Hvalvik's Jewish Believers in Jesus (amazon.com). This is an awesome book; I can't recommend it highly enough. I was lucky enough to receive a gratis copy. I likely wouldn't have bought it, but I would've missed out greatly and kicked myself repeatedly had I found out what a treasure I missed. You should really check it out — when you're at SBL, cruise the Hendrickson booth and pick up a copy to browse (then buy!)

Found these mentioned in a footnote in Skarsaune & Hvalvik's Jewish Believers in Jesus (amazon.com); this is the proverbial "note to myself" so I can dig the references out again:

Kenneth Berding, Polycarp and Paul: An Analysis of Their Literary and Theological Relationship in Light of Polycarp's Use of Biblical and Extra-Biblical Literature (amazon.com) (VCSup 62; Leiden: Brill, 2002)

Paul Hartog, Polycarp and the New Testament: The Occasion, Rhetoric, Theme and Unity of the Epistle to the Philippians and its Allusions to New Testament Literature (amazon.com) (WUNT 2.134; Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 2002)

That is all.

This morning Scot McKnight (Jesus Creed) mentions two books I've mentioned before: Skarsaune & Hvalvik's Jewish Believers in Jesus and Bowman & Komoszewski's Putting Jesus in His Place.

What I didn't know is that Jewish Believers in Jesus (amazon.com) has a web site at something called the Caspari Center. You can find more information there. Also, you can find more information on Putting Jesus in His Place (amazon.com) at http://www.deityofchrist.com.

I'd recommend them both, particularly Jewish Believers in Jesus (amazon.com).

I've finally begun reading David Weinberger's Everything is Miscellaneous (amazon.com). It's been on my to-read list for awhile but I've only recently gained access to a copy.

I've also been reading about Discourse Analysis and Discourse Grammar (the latter has more to say about what's going on at the sentence-clause level). One of the primary principles of Discourse Grammar is described by Stephen H. Levinsohn in his article The Relevance of Greek Discourse Studies to Exegesis. Here it is.

Jan Firbas, a Prague School linguist, was a pioneer in recognizing that, in the majority of sentences in a natural text, the order of non-verbal constituents tended to follow what has come to be called the "Principle of Natural Information Flow" (Comrie 1989; see Firbas 1964). According to this principle, non-verbal constituents that convey established information are placed before those that convey new or non-established information. (Levinsohn 14).

So, according to the principle of natural information flow, established information occurs first, and new information comes after.

Really, this is related to Weinberger's book (amazon.com). Trust me.

Here's Weinberger, in the chapter "The New Order of Order", subsection "Everything has its places".

The two processes by which new things are introduced into our homes are typical of how we handle information: we go through new arrivals and then we put them away. We go through the mail and file it in the special places we have for bills (the desk), cards from relatives (the refrigerator door), and junk mail (the trash). We go through bags of groceries and put the food away within minutes of bringing it into our house. We address these elements of disorder—unsorted mail in the mailbox, groceries sorted by relative weight into bags by a clerk in the store—with remarkable alacrity. (Weinberger 11)

We know how to sort our mail because it is ours. It is familiar. We go through the jumble of the mailbox, and certain things stand out: the electricity bill that needs to be paid; the envelope with the hand-written return address that looks like a card or letter (we open that one first because it is 'good mail'). The advertising circular that always comes on Tuesdays is likely plopped in the recycle bin on your way in the house because you know you already get the best price because you use your club card when you shop at that store.

Anyway, we process the information as we encounter it and filter it. We deal with the known (mail we recognize by some feature—size, color of envelope, type of postage, return sender, etc.) and move to the unknown. In so doing, some pieces of mail become prominent. We open those first because they're likely worthy of opening (except that clever junk mail in the manilla business-letter-sized envelope that looked like a check from the bank) and because we either have an inkling of what is inside or because it looks juicy but we don't really know what it is.

My flash of inspiration upon reading Weinberger after having read some papers on Discourse Analysis and Discourse Grammar — Reading involves the same process.

We do it innately with our native language because, like our mail, it is ours. We know how we've processed it in the past and we have lots of experience to filter through the new batches and determine what is promenent (the mail we open first) and what isn't (the flyers we throw in the recycle bin and the junk mail we rip up without even opening it). In our native language we naturally supply the known information and naturally note the new information and assimilate it into our further reading of the sentence/paragraph.

It is, however, much more difficult with a non-native language like Hellenistic Greek. We simply don't have enough experience "filtering the mail" to know which envelopes to open first, and which to throw out in the recycle bin. We can read the sentence/paragraph and get the gist of what's going on by assembling the words (more of a code/decode process) but we have problems picking out the salient bits because we haven't really internalized rules to tell us what is salient as we process the bag-o-words.

And this is what can be helpful in approaching the text of the NT from a Discourse Analysis and Discourse Grammar approach: we get some ideas on how to filter the mail. It gives us clues as to what to "open first" as we process a sentence or paragraph or an even larger discourse. It helps the prominent/salient bits become more evident, and this in turn helps our exegesis focus on what is necessary in order to properly handle the text.

I'm still thinking through this stuff; I'm interested to know what anyone thinks about this. Please use the comments if you have more to add to the discussion.

I've blogged about Jewish Believers in Jesus (amazon.com) a few times now. The more I read the book, the more I think it needs to be more widely read. Why, you ask? Not because it is perfect, or because I agree with everything in it. But it is a book that makes you think. It is not a re-hashing and presentation of current scholarship on the issue; instead it springboards from that, making assertions and connections between the data points that makes me think. And that's good — that's what reading and studying should be like.

Danny Zacharias of Deinde recently blogged about Jewish Believers as well. Danny's reaction? Pretty straightforward:

Earlier this year I made an authoritative declaration that every NT scholar ought to read Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (amazon.com). This is now my second binding authoritative declaration: Every NT scholar needs to have this book on his or her shelf.

Nijay Gupta (at his eponymous blog) also mentions Jewish Believers. (Apologies for being late with this one, I just heard of Nijay's blog from Mike Bird.) Nijay had the inside scoop; he apparently used to work for Hendrickson:

I just obtained a copy yesterday and it looks fantastic. I remember it was coming down the pipeline when I was working at Hendrickson and they did an excellent job. 

I agree. So heed both Danny and Nijay and get your copy now (amazon.com).

[NB: I originally got the title of the book wrong in the headline; I've changed it but it will likely mean the post will show up twice in your news readers. Apologies, RWB]

The kind folks at Hendrickson Publishers just today sent me a copy of Rodney Whitacre's A Patristic Greek Reader (amazon.com), and I must say it looks mighty fine — if you want to improve your Greek reading skills, then you need to read large chunks of unfamiliar text. A Patristic Greek Reader (amazon.com) looks to be an excellent way to do just this.

Here's the blurb from Hendrickson:

The heart of this book is a selection of Greek texts from early Christian writers, accompanied by notes so that a person with one year of Greek can read the texts. Basic translations of the texts are also provided so that readers can check their work. A list of words used 50+ times in the New Testament and the principal parts of several verbs is included.

The Greek selections represent a variety of styles and levels of difficulty. The notes also vary, with very extensive notes provided in some cases.

Passages that have played a major role in the history of Christian thought are included, as well as passages that contribute to matters of spirituality and pastoral care. Several passages are of more purely historical interest. The author includes an introduction to the writings of the early Church to help orient readers to the writings of the Fathers in general and also give the rationale for the particular selections included in the book. Each selection also has a brief introduction discussing its historical setting and content. A brief bibliography is included for the particular selections included and for the Greek reference works cited. However, the book would also be of interest to those studying the Classics and could be used by anyone as a brief introduction to some samples of early Christian thought. This may be the only book available that provides such translation notes for selections from the Greek fathers.

The contents (full TOC here) include the following writings (either in total or in part):

• The Didache (the whole thing)
• 1 Clement (in part)
• Ignatius to the Romans (the whole thing)
• Epistle to Diognetus (in part)
• Martydom of Polycarp (in part)
• Justin Martyr's First Apology (in part)
• Melito of Sardis, On Pascha (in part)
• Clement of Alexandria's Miscellanies (partial)
• Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History and Life of Constantine (partial)
• Athanasius, On the Incarnation (partial)
• Gregory of Nazianzus, Orations (partial)
• Desert Fathers and Mothers, Apophthegmata Patrum (partial)
• John Chrysostom, Homiliae in Matthaeum (partial)
• Hesychios the Priest, On Watchfulness and Holiness (partial)
• Symeon the New Theologian, Hymns (partial)

You should really check out the sample chapter provided by Hendrickson. The text is the first five chaptes of the Didache, plus an introduction to the Didache (note I have a "phrasal interlinear" translation and some comments on the Didache available as well). You will get a good idea of how things are laid out and how the reading notes work. Everything is translated, but the translations are in a completely different section of the book, so there's no easy cribbing on the facing page.

I really like how the text notes provide the form in the text, followed by the dictionary form, followed by a short gloss and any other notes that Whitacre deemed necessary.

If you want to improve your Greek reading skills, you owe it to yourself to purchase and diligently work through this book. You'll get into non-familiar text, which means you'll stretch your reading muscle and learn a great deal along the way. The readings are even ranked and an appendix in the back (Appendix C) sorts out "Easiest", "Intermediate" and "Advanced" texts so you can pick your poison, or work up from "easy" to "advanced".

I've enjoyed reading the portions of Hearing the Old Testament in the New Testament (amazon.com). Again, I should stress I haven't read the whole thing. I have read the first two essays, the essays on Pauline literature, and part of Köstenberger's closing essay.

Of the essays I read, I most appreciated Köstenberger's essay which treated the Pastorals, the general epistles, and Revelation. Why? Because it seemed the most practical of them all. It actually treated the subject looking at the general question of usage of the OT in the NT book. Most of the other essays that I read were good, but they were very narrowly focused—on a particular way that OT passages were used in the NT book. That's all well and good, but I was really looking for something a bit more general. And I guess that's why Köstenberger's article stood out to me. I don't think it was just because that was the essay that discussed the Pastoral Epistles.

While examining Hearing the Old Testament in the New Testament (amazon.com), a ricoblog reader pointed me to another essay of Stanley Porter's, published in JSNTSup 148, Early Christian Interpretation of the Scriptures of Israel (amazon.com): "The Use of the Old Testament in the New Testament: A Brief comment on Method and Terminology". This essay was helpful in providing some background on method and terminology and also because I culled a few references from footnotes on stuff I'd like to follow up on (the book also mentioned many of these titles in its footnotes):

• C.D. Stanley, "Paul and Homer: Greco-Roman Citation Practice in the First Century C.E." NovT 32 (1990), pp. 48-78.
• C.D. Stanley, Paul and the Language of Scripture: Citation Technique in the Pauline Epistles and Contemporary Literature (amazon.com) (SNTSMS 74; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992)
• E.E. Ellis, Paul's Use of the Old Testament (amazon.com) (repr. Wipf & Stock, 2003[1957]).
• Richard B. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (amazon.com) (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989).
• Richard N. Longenecker, Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period (amazon.com) (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1999).

There are more, but that seems to be a good start.

I've poked around Stanley E. Porter's Hearing the Old Testament in the New Testament (amazon.com) a bit. I haven't read everything, but have read some things. This post will just be a listing of the Table of Contents; I'll write a subsequent post (hopefully in the next few days) with some thoughts on the book itself.

Preface
Contributors
Abbreviations

Introduction: The Use of the Old Testament in the New Testament
     Stanley E. Porter

The Use of the Old Testament in the New Testament as a Rhetorical Device: A Methodological Proposal
     Dennis L. Stamps

Biblical Texts and the Scriptures for the New Testament Church
     R. Timothy McLay

Scripture, History, Messiah: Scriptural Fulfillment and the Fulness of Time in Matthew's Gospel
     Michael P. Knowles

The Beginning of the Good News and the Fulfillment of Scripture in the Gospel of Mark
     Craig A. Evans

Scripture Justifies Mission: The Use of the Old Testament in Luke-Acts
     Stanley E. Porter

"They Saw His Glory and Spoke of Him": The Gospel of John and the Old Testament
     Paul Miller

Written Also for Our Sake: Paul's Use of Scripture in the Four Major Epistles, with a Study of 1 Corinthians 10
     James W. Aageson

In the Face of the Empire: Paul's Use of Scripture in the Shorter Epistles
     Sylvia C. Keesmaat

Job as Exemplar in the Epistle of James
     Kurt Anders Richardson

The Use of Scripture in the Pastoral and General Epistles and the Book of Revelation
     Andreas J. Köstenberger

Hearing the Old Testament in the New: A Response
     Andreas J. Köstenberger

Index of Modern Authors
Index of Ancient Sources

I realized I hadn't posted a table of contents for this book when I blogged about it earlier. The TOC is extensive and runs for six of the book's 900+ pages. I've only listed parts, chapters and contributors below so you can get an idea of the scope of this book. The full TOC is available as a PDF on Hendrickson's site. I'm enjoying reading it thus far and am interested to read many of the essays.

Part One: Introduction
1 Jewish Believers in Jesus in Antiquity—Problems of Definition, Method, and Sources
     Oskar Skarsaune, Oslo, Norway
2 The Definition of the Terms Jewish Christian and Jewish Christianity in the History of Research
     James Carleton Paget, Cambridge, England

Part Two: Jewish Believers in Jesus in The New Testament and Related Material
3 James and the Jerusalem Community
     Richard Bauckham, St. Andrews, Scotland
4 Paul as a Jewish Believer—According to His Letters
     Donald A. Hagner, Pasadena, California, United States
5 Paul as a Jewish Believer—According to the Book of Acts
     Reidar Hvalvik, Oslo, Norway
6 Named Jewish Believers Connected with the Pauline Mission
     Reidar Hvalvik, Oslo, Norway
7 Jewish Believers and Jewish Influence in the Roman Church until the Early Second Century
     Reidar Hvalvik, Oslo, Norway
8 Jewish Believers in Asia Minor according to the Book of Revelation and the Gospel of John
     Peter Hirschberg, Bayreuth, Germany

Part Three: The Literary Heritage of Jewish Believers
9 The Jewish Christian Gospel Tradition
     Craig A. Evans, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada
10 Jewish Christian Editing of the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
     Torleif Elgvin, Oslo, Norway
11 Jewish Christian Elements in the Pseudo-Clementine Writings
     Graham Stanton, Cambridge, England
12 Fragments of Jewish Christian Literature Quoted in Some Greek and Latin Fathers
     Oskar Skarsaune, Oslo, Norway
13 Jewish Christian Sources Used by Justin Martyr and Some Other Greek and Latin Fathers
     Oskar Skarsaune, Oslo, Norway

Part Four: Jewish Christian Groups according to the Greek and Latin Fathers
14 The Ebionites
     Oskar Skarsaune, Oslo, Norway
15 The Nazoraeans
     Wolfram Kinzig, Bonn, Germany
16 Cerinthus, Elxai, and Other Alleged Jewish Christian Teachers or Groups
     Gunnar af Hällström, Joensuu, Finland, and Oskar Skarsaune, Oslo, Norway

Part Five: Other Literary and Archaeological Evidence for Jewish Believers
17 Evidence for Jewish Believers in Greek and Latin Patristic Literature
     Oskar Skarsaune, Oslo, Norway
18 Evidence for Jewish Believers in the Syriac Fathers
     Sten Hidal, Lund, Sweden
19 Evidence for Jewish Believers in Christian-Jewish Dialogues through the Sixth Century (excluding Justin)
     Lawrence Lahey, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
20 Evidence for Jewish Believers in “Church Orders” and Liturgical Texts
     Anders Ekenberg, Uppsala, Sweden
21 Jewish Believers in Early Rabbinic Literature (2d to 5th Centuries)
     Philip S. Alexander, Manchester, England
22 Archaeological Evidence of Jewish Believers?
     James F. Strange, Tampa, Florida, United States

Part Six: Conclusion and Outlook
23 The History of Jewish Believers in the Early Centuries—Perspectives and Framework
     Oskar Skarsaune, Oslo, Norway

Bibliography Index of Modern Authors
Index of Subjects
Index of Ancient Sources (selective)

A few weeks back, I blogged on Greek Readers. I blogged about A Patristic Greek Reader (amazon.com), Wikgren's Hellenistic Greek Texts (amazon.com), and Goodspeed & Colwell's Greek Papyrus Reader.

Today I noticed a few more Greek readers that will apparently be released by the end of the year, meaning that they might be previewable at the ETS and SBL conferences in November.

1. Koine Greek Reader: Selections from the New Testament, Septuagint, and Early Christian Writers (amazon.com). This one was put together by Rodney Decker; it'll be published by Kregel in November 2007 (so I'd guess you'd be able to get one at ETS or SBL). The Amazon.com description follows:

Providing graded readings in Koine Greek from the New Testament, Septuagint, Apostolic Fathers, and early creeds, this unique text integrates the full range of materials needed by intermediate Greek students. Its many features include four helpful vocabulary lists, numerous references to other resources, assorted translation helps, a review of basic grammar and syntax, and an introduction to BDAG-the standard Greek lexicon.

2. A Historical Greek Reader: Mycenaean to the Koine (amazon.com) by Stephen Colvin. Published by Oxford with a release date of December 6, 2007. I'd love to be able to page through it at SBL as it sounds very interesting. Here's the Amazon.com blurb:

A Historical Greek Reader (amazon.com) provides an introduction to the history of the ancient Greek language by means of a series of texts with linguistic commentary, cross-referenced to each other and to a reference grammar at the front. It offers a selection of epigraphic and literary texts from the Mycenaean period (roughly the fourteenth century BC) to the koine (the latest text dates to the second century AD), and includes a wide range of Greek dialect texts. The epigraphic section balances a number of well-known inscriptions with recent discoveries that may not be easily available elsewhere; a selection of literary texts traces major developments in the language of Greek poetry and literary prose. The book finishes with an account of the linguistic and sociolinguistic background of koine Greek. The commentary assumes no prior knowledge of Greek historical linguistics, but provides a basic amount of up-to-date bibliography so that advanced students and others can pursue linguistic issues at greater depth where necessary.

Or so is the title of the interesting post by Mike Bird over on Euangelion.

Reading his post, I thought of a book I've recently been reading, The Early Centuries: Jewish Believers in Jesus (amazon.com) by Oskar Skarsaune and Reidar Hvalvik. I've only read the introductory essay, but it's really prompted me to think about the spectrum between Jews and Christians in the early Christian Era.

The most intriguing insight, for me, was that there weren't just two flavors, "Christian" and "Jew". There definitely were "Christians" and "Jews", but there were also Jews moving toward Christianity (what the book calls "Jewish Believers") and Christians being influenced by and moving toward Judaism (what are typically called "judaizers"). Sort of like this quick diagram I made up:

Of course, there are other influences—don't even get me started on gnosticism—but the idea of thinking about the movement between these two poles and thinking about where, on this particular spectrum, different examples from different early writings could be plotted, causes me to think now when I read or notice Jewish-sounding influence in Christian writings.

Skarsaune & Hvalvik's book (amazon.com) should be interesting the more I get into it.

For two years now, I've been drooling over a Mohr-Siebeck title: Paul Treblico, The Early Christians in Ephesus from Paul to Ignatius. It was published in 2005 and sold for like $250 as I recall.

It is out of print now (they must've only printed five copies) and unavailable. A search of Mohr's website only finds a few paragraphs from reviews of the book, but no listing. RBL reviewed the book as well.

For about a year, I've been lamenting that I was never able to purchase the book. Today, however, I was browsing Eerdmans' upcoming releases in preparation for my annual SBL book-buying spree and noticed that they've got the book slated for publication in October (just previous to SBL!) at a price of $85! That means mortals like me could actually purchase the book at SBL and probably get a decent discount.

This was encouraging in light of my recent disappointment with Royse's Scribal Habits book ...

I received the following today from Eerdmans:

Stanley E. Porter, ed. Hearing the Old Testament in the New Testament (amazon.com). (Wm. B. Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, MI), 2006. xii, 316pp with indices.

It's quite timely; I'm doing a lot of work thinking about quotations of the Pastoral Epistles in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers and I'm considering a paper on OT references in the NT* for the inaugural BibleTech 2008 conference, hosted by Logos in January 2008. The book should come in very handy to me, particularly Aageson's essay on the major Paulines. As I dig more into that, I will likely blog more about it.

If you have experience with the book, particularly if you've read it and have feedback for how different authors approach quotation, allusion and even looser forms of reference, please feel free to comment here or zap me an email.

Update (2007-08-17): Regarding the phrase, "... I'm considering a paper on OT references in the NT", I mis-remembered what I proposed. What I really proposed was locating NT cross-references automagically; nothing to do with OT references specifically. Whoops. Glad I remembered before I started writing the paper.

Update II (2007-08-29): There are two more posts related to this book:

• TOC of Hearing the Old Testament in the New Testament
• Some thoughts and response to Hearing the Old Testament in the New Testament

I'm frustrated.

A few years back I noticed that Eerdmans was going to publish James Royse's monumental dissertation, Scribal Habits in Early Greek New Testament Papyri — consistentely and frequently cited in footnotes in just about every NT text-critical tome I've read or looked at in the past three years. "Woo Hoo!", I thought. It would be available and might even be less that $100, which means I could buy it at SBL at a reasonable price!

Yesterday, I read the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog post on Brill's NTTSD series, which notes:

For those of you who have waited on James R. Royse's study of Scribal Habits in Early Greek New Testament Papyri finally to be published (the orginal dissertation on which it is based dates from 1981) will be pleased to hear that it is due this autumn (according to Brill's representative whom I met in Vienna). According to the gossip at the SBL in Vienna the delay of Royse's book on the part of the former publisher Eerdman's caused frustration for both the author Royse and the SD editor Epp and led the latter to turn to Brill which has now resulted in this permanent solution.

Well, I'm glad the book is getting published. But Brill wants $369.00 for it! (amazon.com) That means it is destined to only be purchased by university libraries; that it will suck hard-to-come-by money from other book purchases at said libraries, and it will be destined to sit in the office of some NT prof (or a departmental library) away from the main stacks where folks could actually use the durn thing.

What to do?

Don't buy the book. Go to the UMI dissertation express. Search for "Royse, James". It looks like you can get a copy of the dissertation for under 50 bucks, at least in the US. The 751 page dissertation was submitted in 1981, and the text has surely been sharpened in the past 26 years ... but hey, you'll actually be able to read and refer to it on your terms.

Even if Brill releases a paperback, who knows what the price will be. If you've considered the book before because, like me, you've seen it cited in footnotes and have drooled over it, then consider getting the dissertation via UMI instead of spending upwards of $400 with Brill.

Update (2007-08-09): Responding to the comments, particularly to Mike. I know the book would be expensive, but $370 is crazy. Are libraries really going to drop $370 on one title, and that not a substantive reference title? I am very glad Brill is publishing the title. My hope is that a few years down the road, after the libraries pay off the book's cost, it'll be put out in paperback, perhaps even by the SBL, and it will be do-able price-wise. I understand the economics of publishing and know there are costs for publishers to account for -- they don't grow money on trees. My post was a bit of a rant (hence the "rant" category), but also to point out that the primary substance of Royse's book, his dissertation, is available at a much more reasonable price for those who are really interested in the work but don't have a good library close (or who, like me, might be able to get it at a library but are such zealous bibliophiles they don't like to let go of books they've read, particularly if they could be useful in future studies). Anyway, c'est la vie, Scribal Habits. If I deem my text-critical reading needs to require Royse before a paperback is available, I'll head to UMI to get the dissertation.

Just received from Hendrickson Publishers:

Oskar Skarsaune and Reidar Hvalvik, Editors: The Early Centuries: Jewish Believers in Jesus (amazon.com).

Here's the blurb from Amazon:

Jewish Believers in Jesus: The Early Centuries (amazon.com) examines the formative first five centuries of Christian history as experienced by individuals who were ethnically Jewish, but who professed faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Offering the work of an impressive international team of scholars, this unique study examines the first five centuries of texts thought to have been authored or edited by Jewish Christians, including the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, the New Testament Apocrypha, and some patristic works. Also considered are statements within patristic literature about Jewish believers and uses of oral traditions from Jewish Christians. Furthermore, the evidence in Jewish, mainly rabbinic, literature is examined, and room is made for a judicious sifting of the archaeological evidence. The final two chapters are devoted to an enlightening synthesis of the material with subsequent conclusions regarding Jewish believers in antiquity.

As I get into the book, I'll surely blog more about it.

Update (2007-08-06): Oh, yes — I was also told that there will be a session at the SBL meeting in San Diego on this very book (amazon.com). So if the topic (Jewish Believers in Jesus in the early centuries of Christianity) interests you, then you might want to check out the book and consider attending the session in November.

Update II (2007-08-16): Mentioned a bit more about the book in response to a post by Michael Bird. Check it out.

Update III (2007-08-22): Blogged the TOC of the book, which is extensive and gives a much better picture of the book's coverage.

Update IV (2007-09-16): Danny Zacharias of Deinde blogs about Jewish Believers as well. Danny's reaction? Pretty straightforward: "Earlier this year I made an authoritative declaration that every NT scholar ought to read Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (amazon.com). This is now my second binding authoritative declaration: Every NT scholar needs to have this book on his or her shelf." I agree. So heed Danny and get your copy now (amazon.com).

I blogged the other day on Hendrickson Publisher's upcoming book, A Patristic Greek Reader (amazon.com). It sounds very good, but it isn't published yet (the date is sometime in September 2007, as I recall).

In lieu of that, I thought I'd blog about some other readers that are on my shelf. I haven't actually made it through these, though I have slogged through some portions of them.

1. Hellenistic Greek Texts (amazon.com) by Allen Wikgren. This was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1947, but still appears to be in print. The copy I have (purchased used and given to me as a Christmas gift by my mother- and father-in-law) is in good shape. The manuscript is typewritten. It is 290 pages; the back 65 pages are a glossary with very brief definitions. Selections from LXX, NT, Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus, Apostolic Fathers, other early Fathers, some Papyri and some other pagan Hellenistic literature. Recommended particularly if you'd like to broaden your horizons but only buy one book. Also, you can (without too much trouble) find English translations of most of these works, though the text itself has no translations.

2. A Greek Papyrus Reader with Vocabulary by Edgar J. Goodspeed and Ernest Cadman Colwell. This as well was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1935 with a second printing in 1936. But it doesn't appear to still be in print. As the title says, the focus is on papyrus. There are 82 papyri within the 108 pages of the book. Each papyrus has a brief intro and some notes at the foot. At the back are 20+ pages of vocabulary (a gloss list, essentially). The primary issue with this slim volume is that there are no translations, and it is difficult to find translations to check your work, so you're left wondering if you've got the gist of everything correctly.

3. While not technically "readers", I can recommend two diglot editions of the Apostolic Fathers: Michael Holmes' third edition (amazon.com), to be published in November -- though my primary experience is with the second edition; and Bart Ehrman's two-volume Loeb edition (Vol I (amazon.com), Vol II (amazon.com)). In my experience, Ehrman is more idiomatic and Holmes is more literal, so you take your pick. These have translations but no glossary/vocabulary sections.

Any other readers out there anyone would like to add to the list?

If you're interested in Sahidic Coptic (and what serious NT scholar or NT scholar wannabe isn't?) then perhaps Bentley Layton's new intro is what you're looking for. Coptic in 20 Lessons: Introduction to Sahidic Coptic with Exercises and Vocabularies (amazon.com).

Speaking as someone who attempted Lambdin's Sahidic Coptic Intro (amazon.com), this sounds interesting. I made it through three or four lessons in Lambdin, just enough to not be freaked out by the extra letters (when compared to the Greek alphabet) or some other features, but not enough to really read anything. I've not yet purchased Layton's intro, but it is on my Amazon Wish List.

Here's the blurb:

Coptic in 20 Lessons (amazon.com) is written by the author of the most authoritative reference grammar of the Coptic language, and is based on decades of pedagogical experience. In easy steps and simple explanations, it teaches the patterns and syntax of Sahidic Coptic, along with the most useful vocabulary. Drills, compositions, and translation exercises enable the student to gain fluency. All words that occur more than fifty times in the Sahidic New Testament are introduced lesson by lesson in vocabulary lists, which are arranged by semantic field and accompanied by both Greek equivalents and English glosses. The book concludes with three chapters of the Gospel of Mark, in which all new vocabulary is glossed in footnotes. Coptic in 20 Lessons (amazon.com) is the ideal resource for use in the classroom or for teaching oneself Coptic.

Anyone out there familiar with the book and want to chime in on it's usefulness, particularly compared to Lambdin?

I forget where I saw mention of this, but I filed a note away to blog about it, so that's what I'm doing.

(Update: Of course, it was Mike Aquilina who blogged about it in the middle of June. Thanks, Mike!)

Looks like Hendrickson is getting ready to release A Patristic Greek Reader (amazon.com) by Rodney Whitacre. This sounds really good. Here's the book description from Amazon:

The heart of this book is a selection of Greek texts from early Christian writers, accompanied by notes so that a person with one year of Greek can read the texts. Basic translations of the texts are also provided so that readers can check their work. A list of words used 50+ times in the New Testament and the principal parts of several verbs is included.

The Greek selections represent a variety of styles and levels of difficulty. The notes also vary, with very extensive notes provided in some cases.

Passages that have played a major role in the history of Christian thought are included, as well as passages that contribute to matters of spirituality and pastoral care. Several passages are of more purely historical interest.

The author includes an introduction to the writings of the early Church to help orient readers to the writings of the Fathers in general and also give the rationale for the particular selections included in the book. Each selection also has a brief introduction discussing its historical setting and content. A brief bibliography is included for patristics in general, for the particular selections included, and for Greek tools a person would need for continued reading in such material.

The primary readership for A Patristic Greek Reader (amazon.com) are those who have studied Greek in order to read the New Testament. However, the book would also be of interest to those studying the Classics and could be used by anyone as a brief introduction to some samples of early Christian thought.

This may be the only book available that provides such translation notes for selections from the Greek fathers.

So, if you want to beef up your Greek and dig into some of the writings of the Apostolic Fathers at the same time, give A Patristic Greek Reader (amazon.com) a try. Though note it has a ship date of Sept. 30, 2007, so you won't be able to read it right away.

I was thinking earlier today — if I was stranded on a desert island, what 10 books would I want to have with me?

This isn't necessarily a list of my favorite books, it is a list of stuff I'd like to have with me if I could have no other books, no access to libraries, internet, or Logos Bible Software (or other software packages, of course), computers, etc.

That's why the list is heavy on primary texts, lexica and grammar. But there are a few curves in there that you may not have anticipated:

1. Bible, probably an NRSV (amazon.com) so I'd also be able to read the apocrypha in a modern translation. I would not want a study bible, but I would want cross-references and translator's notes.
2. NA27 Greek New Testament with Dictionary (amazon.com)
3. LXX (amazon.com) (Rahlf's one-volume)
4. BDAG (amazon.com)
5. Holmes' Apostolic Fathers diglot (amazon.com)
6. BDF (amazon.com)
7. Alexadre Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo (amazon.com)
8. C.S. Lewis' Perelandra (amazon.com) (vol. 2 in the space trilogy)
9. BHS (amazon.com)
10. An introductory Hebrew Grammar (not Lambdin). Might as well take the time to learn me some Hebrew while I'm stranded on that thar' desert island ...

Anybody else have a list?

These are titles on Logos Bible Software's Community Pricing page. If you're interested in this sort of stuff, you should bid sooner rather than later to lock in your low, low price for the book(s) in question.

• H.B. Swete's Patristic Study.
  

  The aim of Patristic Study is to draw the attention of the reader to the vast store of wisdom to be found in the writings of the Fathers of the ancient church. Monuments of Christian thought in the first generations of the Church's life, the writings of the Fathers are still of perennial interest and importance. As Henry Barclay Swete states, "The Fathers, in the stricter sense of the term, are the great champions of orthodox belief, whose writings became the standard of Catholic truth."

  by Henry Barclay Swete | Published 1902; Longmans, Green and Co. | 194 pages

• The New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers
  

  The New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers is a classic work in Biblical scholarship, treasured by generations of scholars since its initial publication in 1905. Prepared by a committee of Biblical scholars upon appointment of the Society of Historical Theology in Oxford, this volume presents passages from the Apostolic Fathers which display – or are thought to display – the Fathers' acquaintance with New Testament literature. These include passages from Barnabas, Didache, I Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, Hermas, and II Clement.

  From the The American Journal of Theology:

  "The Oxford Society of Historical Theology has, through a committee of six scholars, done a real service to all students of early Christian literature in the volume on The New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers… This enterprise… is designed to make the more important patristic writings accessible and intelligible to a wider circle of students and clergy."

  by the Oxford Society of Historical Theology | Published 1905 | 144 pages

Now on my books-to-buy-at-SBL list:

The New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers 2 volume set (amazon.com) (Paperback). Edited by Andrew F. Gregory and Christopher M. Tuckett. Oxford, 2005.

Amazon Book Description: The two-volume set The New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers offers a comparative study of two collections of early Christian texts: the New Testament; and the texts, from immediately after the New Testament period, which are conventionally referred to as the Apostolic Fathers. The first volume, The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers, presents a comprehensive and rigorous discussion of the extent to which the writings later included in the New Testament were known to and used by each of the Apostolic Fathers. Contemporary research on the textual traditions of both collections is used to address the questions of textual transmission and reception. The second volume, Trajectories through the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers, discusses broad theological, literary, and historical issues that arise in the comparative study of these texts, and which are of importance to the study of early Christianity. It deals with the most important current debates concerning both the Apostolic Fathers and the New Testament, such as baptism, Pauline theology, the function of apocalyptic elements, Church order, and Jewish and Christian identity.

The paperback 2-volume is 80 bucks and has a release date of Nov. 14, 2007. The currently-available hardback (amazon.com) is 164 bucks from Amazon, 180 retail. From all I can gather, this one is the "bee's knees" when it comes to use of the NT in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, something which I'm very interested in. I knew of the hardcover but had written it off due to expense. But if I can get the $80 paperback set at a discount at SBL ... well, that would be mighty groovy now, wouldn't it?

Update (2007-07-10): Stephen C. Carlson (Hypotyposeis) tantalizes me with the following comment: "They were giving them away for free at the Oxford reception at SBL."

Yikes! If anyone made it to that reception, has the book(s), and knows they'll never use 'em ... well ... I'm interested. So zap me an email to let me know how I can take 'em off your hands. Gracias!

Various books of the New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS) have been available in preliminary form for a few years. However, in the past few months, the NETS crew have finished their work and placed PDFs of everything online. So check it out. Oxford University Press will publish the print edition ... I'd guess in time for SBL.

(hat tip: Epistles of Thomas)

Over the past few years, I've been impressed with at least a few titles in Baylor University Press' seasonal catalogues. I've blogged about a number of them:

• Klauck's Ancient Letters and the New Testament
• McKnight's Jesus and His Death
• Longenecker's Rhetoric at the Boundaries
• Carlson's The Gospel Hoax
• Culy's I, II II John: A Handbook on the Greek Text
• Culy and Parsons, Acts: A Handbook on the Greek Text

I visited Baylor University Press' Fall 2007 catalog the other day. I found nothing that I wanted to read. Nothing. I was hoping for at least one more volume in the Handbook on the Greek Text series (where did that thing go?). I've heard rumors of a volumes on James and 1 Peter in various states, but nothing else for awhile.

Oh well. I guess my reading list is too packed anyway. But usually I can count on Baylor for at least one title to grab my attention.

(hat tip: Jim West)

The critical edition of the Gospel of Judas (amazon.com) has finally been published by National Geographic. Copies can be had at Amazon.com.

Here is the description from Amazon's page (amazon.com):

For the first time in a single volume, discover the complete text of Codex Tchacos—the remarkable ancient papyrus book that contains the Gospel of Judas. Hidden for 1,600 years in an Egyptian cave, only to be found, traded, and all but destroyed before its restoration began in 2001, Codex Tchacos contains four texts that shed important light on the ancient world and the emergence of Christianity.

Featuring beautifully rendered, full-color photographs of the original papyrus pages alongside the Coptic text and its English translation, this critical edition provides everything needed for a full examination of the Codex. The Letter of Peter to Philip provides a mystical, Gnostic picture of Jesus; the text entitled James presents Jesus discussing the meaning of life and death with his brother James; the Gospel of Judas casts a new light on Judas' betrayal; and the previously unknown book of Allogenes, though fragmentary, portrays Jesus as a stranger who brings light to a world of darkness. Ideal for the scholar and layperson alike, these texts are published here by an international team of scholars and supplemented by insightful introductions, indices, and other revealing, explanatory essays.

Though I'm curious about the " ... other revealing, explanatory essays". Hopefully none are written by Bart Ehrman, who has said plenty enough already about the Gospel of Judas.

Update (2007-06-29): I received my copy yesterday. The book looks good. Photos of the entire codex, as well as transcription with English line-by-line translation. French translations appended. Notably, the index looks to be complete! Each tractate indexed with some degree of morphological sorting going on, with English and French translations. All in all, good stuff. Even better: I haven't seen the word "Ehrman" yet in the book!

Here's what's in my "To Read" pile:

• Donald Hagner, The Use of the Old and New Testaments in Clement of Rome.  Series: Suppl. to Novum Testamentum vol 34 (Brill: Leiden), 1973. I'm particularly interested in what Hagner has to say about quotation formulas (primarily OT/LXX) and also in determining allusions to or dependence on NT material.
• Bruce M. Metzger, "The Formulas Introducing Quotations of Scripture in the NT and the Mishnah" in Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 70, No. 4 (Dec. 1951), pp. 297-307. Cited by Hagner in the above, and it sounded interesting. If you're an SBL member, JBL articles are pretty easy to retrieve so it doesn't make any sense to not read them.
• Robert M. Bowman Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski, Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ (amazon.com). (Kregel: Grand Rapids) 2007. This is not published yet, but the authors sent me pre-press PDF after reading my short notes on Heresies and How to Avoid Them. I plan on examining the book (don't know that I'll read the whole thing) and writing a post in the hopefully not-too-distant future. I think it is planned to hit the streets in late September 2007. More info is online at http://www.deityofchrist.com. Do check out the book's endorsements.

There's more, but it's on my desk at the office and I'm at home, so ... perhaps I'll update the post later with the additional info.

The good folks at Hendrickson Academic have recently sent me a copy of Heresies and How to Avoid Them: Why it Matters what Christians Believe (amazon.com). No, they haven't found me in any heresy — so they say — they sent me the book because they thought I'd be interested in it and just might blog about it. Thankfully, the book is interesting and I will blog about it to some degree. But first, I need to point out the cover art because it is so cool. It's Augustine battling a demonic-looking heretic with a Bible and what appears to be a light saber!

Now that is cool. How can you not want to read a book with cover art like that?!

One thing I really like about this book is that it began as a series of sermons. These aren't intricate theological definitions of heresy; they are intended to be heard and understood by the person in the pew who may not have a strong background in dogma and heresy. You know, someone who would think "Arianism" has more to do with Hitler than heresy in the fourth century. Ben Quash writes in the book's prologue:

Appreciative inquisitiveness was the premise for devoting a term-full of sermons in Peterhouse Chapel, Cambridge (where the editors of this volume serve as Anglican priests) to great heresies, and the majority of essays in this volume were first delivered as sermons in that series — intended not to be excessively encumbered with scholarly apparatus, but to be informed and accessible accounts of how these ancient debates still have much to say to Christians today as they try to make sense of their faith in thought, word and deed. The huge interest in the sermons took us by surprise, and the idea was hatched of making them available to a wider audience by publishing them in a book. (Quash and Ward, 8)

Here's the back-cover blurb, which is different than the publisher blurb you'll find at Hendrickson's site or on Amazon. I think the back-cover blurb is better than those other blurbs.

What don't Christians believe?
Is Jesus really divine?
Is Jesus really human?
Can God suffer?
Can people be saved by their own efforts?

The early Church puzzled over these questions, ruling in some believes and ruling out others. Heresies and How to Avoid Them (amazon.com) explains the principal ancient heresies and shows why contemporary Christians still need to know about them. These famous detours in Christian believing seemed plausible and attractive to many people in the past, and most can still be found in modern-day guises. By learning what it is that Christians don't believe — and why — believers today can gain a deeper, truer understanding of their faith.

Topics Include
Adoptionism—did Jesus become the Son of God at his baptism?
Docetism—was Jesus really human or did he just appear to be so?
Nestorianism—was Christ one Person or a hybrid with a divine dimension and a human dimension?
Arianism—was Christ divine and eternal or was there a time when he did not exist?
Marcionism—is the God of the New Testament the same as the God of the Old?
Theopaschitism—is it possible for God to suffer in His divine nature?
Pelagianism—can people save themselves by their own efforts?
‘The Free Spirit’—are there two kinds of Church membership, one for the elite and one for the rest?
Donatism—do Christian ministers need to be faultless for their ministrations to be effective?

From what I can tell (I've read the intro and the first two essays) the essays strive to define and place the heresy in proper historical context, discussing the milieu in which the heresy came about. Each essay begins with a paragraph-long definition of the heresy in plain language, followed by major scriptures that provide foundation for the orthodox position. The essays provide the setting and discuss the heresy, and then also discuss the theological implications of the heresy. Good stuff. As I read the first two essays, I thought that Heresies and How to Avoid Them (amazon.com) might even make good fodder for book-study groups in local churches. There are sections in the back with a few recommendations for further reading and a brief glossary. There's an index as well.

I say: check it out. I may blog further on the book as I read it, I may not. We'll see what happens.

I came across a mention of The Dangerous Book for Boys (amazon.com) somewhere, thought I don't quite recall where. If the Lord chooses to bless us with a son,* then you can rest assured I'll be getting a copy of it. Here's the description:

The bestselling book for every boy from eight to eighty, covering essential boyhood skills such as building tree houses, learning how to fish, finding true north, and even answering the age old question of what the big deal with girls is.

In this digital age there is still a place for knots, skimming stones and stories of incredible courage. This book recaptures Sunday afternoons, stimulates curiosity, and makes for great father-son activities. The brothers Conn and Hal have put together a wonderful collection of all things that make being young or young at heart fun—building go-carts and electromagnets, identifying insects and spiders, and flying the world's best paper airplanes.

The link is to the US edition (amazon.com), which was just released. The UK edition was apparently a big-time best seller last year.

* For those wondering, Amy is about a week overdue; we're hoping and praying the baby comes quickly! We don't know the sex of the baby either, so my musing here may be fulfilled very, very soon. Of course if it's a girl, then point me to the requisite book(s) about tea parties, dollhouses, and all that other jazz!

This week RBL reviews New Testament Manuscripts: Their Texts and Their World (amazon.com), an unpurchasably-priced collection of essays from Brill ($181.00!). The review is here. It all sounds interesting, but why is it so blasted expensive?! I realize Brill's primary market for these sorts of things are libraries, but why not have some sort of option whereby regular joes can purchase such things as well?

Anyway, from what I can tell from the review, I'd guess that if it sounds interesting to you then you'd also enjoy looking at Larry Hurtado's recent and much more reasonably priced book, The Earliest Christian Artifacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins (amazon.com). One of the essays in the mondo expensivo Brill book is by Hurtado on the Staurogram. Hurtado revises and updates that work in his book on The Earliest Christian Artifacts (amazon.com) (cf. p. 135, footnote 1 where Hurtado notes that he "draws heavily upon" the essay in the Brill book).

Tony Chartrand-Burke, on his Apocryphicity blog, posts a 10-page how-to for manuscript collating called Collating for Dummies. It even takes on the page layout of that well-known series. (h/t Jim Davila). It's a good read, though I'd hoped he'd give a little more info on the physical process of collation and comparison. But it's only 10 pages, and the bibliography looks to have some promising sources to follow up on.

Tony gives some props to Bruce Metzger as a resource for decoding ligatures and abbreviations in Greek. Metzger's book on paleography, Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: An Introduction to Paleography (amazon.com) is good and the recommended introduction. But you may require more information on abbreviations and ligatures in Greek MSS. If so, I'd recommend Abbreviations in Greek: Inscriptions, Papyri, Manuscripts and Early Printed Books (amazon.com). I've blogged about this book previously (here and here). It contains four monographs (some short, some long, some with extensive catalogues and other such material) having to do with abbreviations in Greek. These monographs are:

• "Abbreviations in Greek Inscriptions" by M. Avi-Yonah
• "Abbreviations and Symbols in Greek Papyri" by F. G. Kenyon
• "Abbreviations in Greek Manuscripts" by T. W. Allen
• "Abbreviations in Early Greek Printed Books" by G. F. Ostermann and A. E. Giegengack.

If you're only interested in ligatures/abbreviations, skip Metzger (amazon.com) and get Oikonomides (amazon.com). You'll save $40 overall (based on Amazon prices current as of original composition of this article) and get more information specific to your interest.

Excellent news from Michael Bird (Euangelion).

A series of essays on the Apostolic Fathers that originally appeared in the Expository Times has been collected and is being published by Continuum under their T&T Clark imprint. The book is titled The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers (amazon.com), edited by Paul Foster (who wrote several of the articles, along with other folks like Michael Holmes and Charles Hill). Each article in the series is an overview of one of the works with the corpus popularly known as the "Apostolic Fathers".

This is excellent. I have no journal access and have snagged articles in the series when I've been in libraries, or when the SBL has a free month of access (usually in December) to a select group of journals as a promo for Sage Journals. These promos typically include Expository Times. To have the whole collection, with introduction, edited in one volume is awesome news! It's on my Amazon wishlist and I hope to get it at some point in the future.

I'd recommend The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers (amazon.com) though I've not read all of the essays. The essays I have read have been top-notch. If you're teaching a class on the Apostolic Fathers, it may even serve as a great introductory text.

If you went "huh?" when you read that title then you haven't thought about how "Oxyrhynchus" would translate into English.

The "What's New in Papyrology" blog pointed to mention of a book by this title awhile back. Today they pointed to a review of City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish: Greek Lives in Roman Egypt (amazon.com) in the New Statesman.

Do check out the review. The book sounds fantastic.

Check out these reviews out from RBL:

Charles E. Hill
From the Lost Teaching of Polycarp: Identifying Irenaeus' Apostolic Presbyter and the Author of Ad Diognetum
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5512
Reviewed by Mark Weedman

Matthew Brook O'Donnell
Corpus Linguistics and the Greek of the New Testament
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5362
Reviewed by Paul Elbert

I own and have read both books. The review of Hill's is spot on from my perspective; more folks need to read and interact with the material Hill presents. I'd say the review of O'Donnell's book is overly pedantic but worth reading.

So I'm reading along in my Metzger's Text of the New Testament (amazon.com) (I have the non-Ehrmanized 3rd edition), minding my own business (I have a growing interest in the development of printed editions of the GNT), and there it is. Page 96, footnote 1.

For a list of many of the ligatures used in incunabula, see the Style Manual of the United States Government Printing Office (Washington, 1945), pp. 316-18, or Georg F. von Ostermann, Manual of Foreign Languages (New York, 1952), pp. 105-8

I'm curious, but not curious enough to buy an edition. You can buy a copy of the 1945 edition of the Style Manual for $15 from some place called Oak Knoll Books. The USGPO web site does have the 2000 edition, but alas, it appears no ligatures are therein. I searched Google Books and found a 1973 copy, but this isn't (strangely) a full-view book.

I'm really curious to see what those ligatures look like, so if you can't help yourself and drop the $15+S&H, let me know. Heck, I'll even host images (3 pages, 3 images, right?) if you scan 'em. I'd think the book is in the public domain because it's published by the gummint, so that shouldn't be a big deal.

On other sources for ligature documentation, see previous posts here and here. I still highly recommend the book by Oikonomides, which appears to include the portion of Ostermann's 1952 work on the topic (which also appears to be a USGPO publication).

The good folks at Eisenbrauns had a little book-giveaway via RSS feed a few weeks back. I was one of the 30 lucky book-winners. James Spinti (Idle musings of a bookseller) kindly sent me a copy of:

Holy Spirit and Religious Experience in Christian Literature ca. AD 90-200
with a foreword by James D.G. Dunn
Studies in Christian History and Thought - SCHT
by John Eifion Morgan-Wynne
Paternoster Press, 2006
xxi + 381 pages, English
Paper
ISBN: 1842273191
List Price: $39.99
Your Price: $35.19
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~MORHOLYSP

This is pretty cool because I figured the book I'd end up with would be some sort of deeply technical tome on things Hebrew and semitic. But this one is up my alley. Thanks, James! And Thanks, Eisenbrauns!

Gastro-intestinal discomfort I've experienced over the past few months turned out to be gallstones passing. So last Tuesday I went under the knife for laproscopic cholesystectomy and am now a gallbladder-free individual. Amy says I'm cuter now than I've ever been. It must be love!

Anyway, I've been doing a bit of reading over the past few days while I get back up to speed. (Really, I'm doing fine!) Here's the list:

• J.B. Lightfoot. Apostolic Fathers Part I: Clement of Rome, Volumes I & II. I finished up vol 1 and began vol 2 which begins to deal with the writing we know as "Second Clement".
• Jerome D. Quinn. The Letter to Titus (amazon.com) (Anchor Bible). I read the introduction which is good. Quinn goes for pseudepigraphy and a suite of three epistles composed at once. At least, that's what I think he's saying. He reviews a lot of data but doesn't really come down to an "Here's what I think is going on" style conclusion.
• Luke Timothy Johnson. The First and Second Letters to Timothy (amazon.com) (Anchor Bible). Again, I've just read the introduction. It is excellent; everyone looking into the Pastorals should read it. Johnson interacts with the past century's criticisms of the Pastorals and concludes that while neither side (Pauline vs. non-Pauline) can prove claims, taking Paul as the author makes most sense of the available data. Preach it. Johnson also has a great section on patristic and medieval commentaries on the PE that is complete with volume/page number references to Patrologia Graeca and Patrologia Latina. Some of his descriptions of the material make me want to look up the commentaries and fight through the Greek, at least for select passages.
• Richard N. Longenecker, "Ancient Amanuenses in the Pauline Epistles", in Longenecker & Tenney, New Dimensions in New Testament Study (amazon.com). Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974, pp. 281-297. I was spurred to re-read this by a footnote in L.T. Johnson's intro. Good stuff overall, but read E. Randolph Richards, Paul and First-Century Letter Writing (amazon.com) for a more comprehensive picture. However, this essay does have a quotable on stylometry/authorship studies from none other than W.F. Albright, responding to computer analysis of text by A.Q. Morton:

Since St. Paul's Greek was dictated to different amanuenses at different times and in different places, we could not possibly expect uniform quasi-literary style or vocabulary in his letters. For this reason attempts to determine the authorship of the Pauline Epistles by statistical data obtained with the use of computing machines prove little except the kind of literary Greek preferred by different amanuenses. (Longenecker quotes from W.F. Albright, "Retrospect and Prospect in New Testament Archaeology," The Teacher's Yoke, ed. E.J. Vardeman and J.L. Garrett (Waco, TX: 1964), pp. 28f.)

I've got some further JBL articles to read from footnotes in L.T. Johnson's 1&2Tim as well as the intro to Schneemelcher's NT Apocrypha (amazon.com).

Luke Timothy Johnson's Anchor Bible volume on 1 & 2 Timothy. Why another commentary? The patristic citations alone make this one very interesting. Update: Also have added Jerome Quinn's Anchor Bible volume on Titus. The citations to patristic quotations are impressive in Quinn's volume as well. 

Awhile back, I posted some quotations from J.B. Lightfoot. The book is J.B. Lightfoot's The Apostolic Fathers Part I: S. Clement of Rome. A Revised Text with Introductions, Notes, Dissertations and Translations (Volume I). Macmillan: London 1890. I'm still reading the book, and there is a lot of quotable stuff in here. I stop almost nightly to tell Amy, "oh, you gotta hear this!" I'm sure she's sick of me doing that, but she always manages a laugh and a smile. So it's worth trying. :)

Anyway, here are some more quotations.

On responding to a Volkmar's (whoever he is) theory that the book of Judith is an allegory:

I shall not attempt to dissect this theory in detail, for it would be mere waste of time to do so. Those who wish to see it torn into shreds have only to consult the criticisms of Hilgenfeld and Lipsius, who have shown that neither the dates nor the localities nor the incidents will admit it. (p. 356)

On the genuineness of First Clement:

There is lastly the circumstance that its genuiness was never questioned by any individual critic of repute or by any Church for more than seventeen centuries, from the reign of Domitian or Nerva to the reign of Victoria. I pass by one or two writers of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th, whose method deprives them of any weight as authorities, and whose opinions it would be a waste of time to discuss or even record. [NB: he then gives a footnote with two citations, to Lipsius and Harnack, so one could follow up and find the worthless opinions]. (p. 362).

... As a matter of fact, [the passage concerning the phoenix] is one of the best authenticated passages in Clement; and indeeed we may well excuse a simple Christian for a credulity of which not a few among his higly educated heathen contemporaries were guilty (see the note on sect. 25). Again soon after, an Englishman, E. Bernard, suggested that some later impostor had foisted into the text of the Roman Clement some fragments of the Alexandrian who quoted him. This was hardly worth refutation, but it was refuted by Wotton. (p. 363).

That's it for now. More later if/when I come across it.

Update (2007-04-04): ricoblog reader Mike Aubrey (who has his own blog εν εφέσω, check it out) comments:

Rick, I'm trying to make a decision here...Is it worth it to pick up Lightfoot's five volume work on Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp? I know that most of his writings are still quite valuable, but I'm a little nervous about dropping that cash for these volumes.

So, yes its worth it or do you think there are other more recent works that should be invested instead?

Yeesh, I dunno. First off, it's not worth it if you're going into debt. If you're floating a book purchase on a credit card, you're spending money you shouldn't be. If you pay off your card at the end of each month, then go ahead. But don't borrow money to buy books.

Mike, if you're near a decent seminary library or university library with a seminary, then head to the library and check out the volumes and see if they're something you really want to drop the cash on. Alternately, you could try searching Google Books to find 'em. I just did that; here's Ignatius & Polycarp Part II Vol I ; Part II Vol II. I think; I can't guarantee the links will work. But I searched http://books.google.com for "Joseph Barber Lightfoot" clement volume. 

I'd say if you're deep into the Apostolic Fathers, or Clement/Ignatius/Polycarp in particular, then sure. Lightfoot discusses relevant sources and at times even provides them in the original language and translation. The only place I've really learned about the three primary sources of Clement (Alexandrinus, Constinopolitanus, and the Syriac) is via Lightfoot. Sure, other editions (e.g. Ehrman, Holmes, Lake) talk about them in introductions; but Lightfoot actually gives MSS history and does comparison of MS trends in his discussion of textual history of the Clementine epistles. But Lightfoot goes both ways -- I've skipped a massive essay (a book in itself) on Roman succession; in one of the Polycarp volumes there is a massive tome on calendars and dating that is beyond me. Stuff like that I skip over; maybe it'll come in handy some day. But in the five vols. Lightfoot does do a ton of work with citations of the writings in later literature and also with canonical citations in the writings that might be hard to find elsewhere. And he's got commentary on the Greek editions of each writing and then some.

In the "best sentences I've read tonight" department, from J.B. Lightfoot's The Apostolic Fathers Part I: S. Clement of Rome. A Revised Text with Introductions, Notes, Dissertations and Translations (Volume I). Macmillan: London 1890.

On the whole this MS appears to give a good text. The shortcomings of the scribe are generally such that they can be easily corrected; for they arise from petty carelessness and ignorance, and not from perverse ingenuity. (p. 120)

Follow-up (2007-03-29): After discussing Alexandrinus' version of First Clement, Lightfoot moves on to the version recorded in the Constantinopolitan MS. On p. 123-124, he writes:

[Constantinopolitanus] is written with a fair amount of care throughout, so far as regards errors of transcription. In this respect it compares favourably with A, which constantly betrays evidence of great negligence on the part of the scribe. But, though far more free from mere clerical errors, yet in all points which vitally affect the trustworthiness of a MS, it must certainly yield the palm to the Alexandrian. The scribe of A may be careless, but he is guileless also. On the other hand the text of C shows manifest traces of critical revision, as will appear in the sequel.

Some of you have no doubt noticed the Amazon.com links on the sidebar and the occasional links to books on Amazon.com in my blog posts over the past few months.

Thanks to those of y'all who have clicked and eventually purchased things from those links, I was able to do a little shopping on Amazon.com today.

What did I get? Well, commissions from those sales helped me out in purchasing:

• Luke Timothy Johnson's Anchor Bible volume on First & Second Timothy (amazon.com)
• Jerome Quinn's Anchor Bible volume on Titus (amazon.com)

Thanks again! Amy and I appreciate your support of my bibliophilia!

From the What's New in Papyrology blog comes word of the US release of a very interesting sounding title.

Jean Bingen and Roger Bagnall (eds.). Hellenistic Egypt: Monarchy, Society, Economy, Culture. Selected Essays on Ptolemaic Egypt, with introductions by R.S. Bagnall (amazon.com).

The UK edition is published by Edinburgh University Press. The US edition will be published by University of California Press and is scheduled for a May release. in both hardcover ($65) and paperback ($24.95).

So there I was in the doctor's office this morning, reading through Ehrman's edition of Papias and Quadratus (amazon.com), which is volume 2 in the set.

Anybody else notice a skip from p. 108 to p. 111? The pages in my edition are in the following order:

• 108: Latin/Greek of Papias frag. 5 (end) through 8 (start)
• 111: English of Papias frag 8 (end) through 10
• 112: Greek of Papias frag 11 through 12
• 111: English of Papias frag 8 (end) through 10
• 112: Greek of Papias frag 11 through 12
• 113: English of Papias frag 11 through 12

In other words, the bold pages are repeated and pages 109-110 are missing. 109 would have the English of Papis 5 (end) through 8 (start), 110 would have the Greek of Papias 8 (end) through 10.

Does anyone else with this print edition have this problem? If not, could you provide the missing Greek and English to me, either via scanned image or typing it in or whatever? I'd appreciate it.

Update (2007-03-07): Kudos to ricoblog reader Damian who confirmed that his print of Ehrman vol. 2 has the same issue and also provided me with images of the proper pages. Thanks, Damian! In the meantime, I've contacted Harvard University Press regarding the misprint and am awaiting their response. If/when they respond, I'll update this thread.

The NW Regional ETS meeting this past weekend was in Salem, OR. That means that we had to drive through Portland, OR. You may or may not know, but Portland is home to Powell's Books. Their main store is one city block, and it is all books, new and used. You've gotta stop by if you're in town.

So we stopped, but only for about half an hour since we were hungry. The trip was focused, but I found two books that piqued my interest, and I only spent 20 bucks!

• Cyril C. Richardson, ed. Early Christian Fathers.
• Benjamin Wilson, The Emphatic Diaglott. This is an interlinear from the mid 1800's, but it is one easy place you can get the Greek text of J.J. Griesbach. So I got it. (Note: I blogged about an online version of the Diaglott awhile back)

It was a great time just poking through some books in the religion section.

Then, at the regional meeting, they had a book giveaway. I was the lucky bibliophile who walked away with the following five books:

• Bill Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek (amazon.com). No, I didn't have a copy (learned with ATHENAZE back in the day) so it's nice to have as a reference.
• UBS 4th Edition Greek New Testament. I actually only have a 3rd edition and the NA27, so this was a nice one to grab as well.
• Frank Thielman's Theology of the New Testament (amazon.com), more on this book from Matthew Montonini.  
• Carson & Moo's Introduction to the New Testament (amazon.com)
• Aland's Gospel Synopsis in English (amazon.com)

All in all, a great day!

Note Michael Pahl's thoughts about Richard Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (amazon.com), where he breaks his discussion into "things I like" and "areas that failed to convince".

Some of the areas that failed to convince Michael also failed to convince me — notably the "inclusio of eyewitness testimony". As regards Mark, if his main source is Peter, what is the likelihood that the first and last testimony he uses are Peter's? Er ... uh ... probably the most likely of the options. It is interesting, and Bauckham provokes thought here, but it just doesn't hit me.

At the recent ETS meeting in Washington DC, I availed myself of the opportunity to purchase cheap books. One book I purchased was an ESV Bible, as a Christmas present for my sweet wife Amy.

In sifting through the myriad of possible formats and covers, I made a mistake. I got the right Bible, with the right layout, and the right cover, but I neglected to ensure that the text had the words of Christ in red.

I only realized this after Christmas, after my lovely wife opened the package and kindly asked, "Hey, why aren't the words of Christ in red?"

Thankfully the great folks at Good News/Crossway took the exchange no problemo. Today we received the replacement from them. They were a pleasure to work with. Thanks for your excellent and understanding staff!

Actually, it's probably been at the office a few days; I've been on a two-week holiday and just got back to the office this afternoon.

I don't know that I'll dig into Caragounis' tome right away; this one seems more like a slow simmer of a read than a blitz and I have some blitzin' to do for a few papers.

Here's the blurb, though:

Languages inevitably evolve, and our understanding of texts from particular times and places must be illuminated by an awareness of changes and continuities in linguistic usage over time. The Development of Greek and the New Testament explores the relationship between the developing Greek language and the body of writings in Greek that make up the New Testament, arguing that the history of Greek is vitally important to New Testament interpretation. Caragounis provides a wealth of historical information not otherwise readily available to students of New Testament Greek. Extensive tables, indices, and bibliographies aid further study. An essential resource for advanced students of New Testament Greek, this unique work is highly valuable for all Hellenists, Byzantinists, and students of Greek patristics.

Over the past few days, I've been reading Michael Hoey's Lexical Priming: A New Theory of Words and Language (amazon.com) and it has been very thought-provoking. My friend Randall Tan pointed me to the book and has invited me to work with him on a paper based on sections of Hoey's book for the upcoming International SBL meeting in Vienna. Here's the abstract of the paper, which has been accepted for presentation in the "Hellenistic Greek Language and Linguistics" section:

In his provocative study, Lexical Priming: A New Theory of Words and Language (amazon.com) (Routledge, 2005), Michael Hoey argues for a new theory of the lexicon. Hoey's claim is that words and sequences of words that we learn are cumulatively loaded with the contexts and co-texts in which we encountered them and that grammar is the result of our recognition of recurrent features in this "lexical priming." In effect, his theory reverses the roles of lexis and grammar, proposing that "lexis is complexly and systematically structured and that grammar is an outcome of this lexical structure" (1).

In this paper, one of Hoey’s specific claims will be examined: “When a word is polysemous, the collocations, semantic associations and colligations of one sense of the word differ from those of its other senses” (13). Specific words and word groups (including sequences of words involving controversial genitive constructions) in the Greek New Testament will be explored with corpus linguistic techniques, using newly available syntactically-tagged Greek New Testament databases (i.e., the online OpenText.org annotation and the Logos implementation of OpenText.org as well as the Lexham Syntactic Greek New Testament). The dual goal is to verify the extent to which Hoey’s claim can be substantiated and to propose new avenues to adjudicate interpretational controversies.

Hoey's book is not about Hellenistic Greek, all of his examples are based on a 98 million word corpus composed largely of material from the Guardian Newspaper from 1991-1994. So this means you need to understand some basic grammar and not be afraid of linguistic terminology. However, Hoey writes well and the book is approachable by, I'd guess, just about anyone with an interest in grammar and linguistics. You don't have to have much linguistic background to really get into what Hoey is proposing.

I can heartily recommend Paul and First Century Letter Writing (amazon.com). Richards does a great job focusing studies of the mechanics of writing letters in the first century and applying what we know about Paul from his own letters.

Readers of ricoblog know that in the past I blogged about and recommended Hans-Jozef Klauck's Ancient Letters and the New Testament (amazon.com) as an introduction to epistolography. I still stand by that, Klauk's book is a good general introduction to epistolography (not just NT, but epistolography in general). I'd recommend Paul and First Century Letter Writing (amazon.com) over Klauck because Richards is less technical and more directly applicable to NT epistles, particularly those of Paul. I'd go so far as to say that if you teach a course on Paul's epistles, you'd do well to consider requiring Paul and First Century Letter Writing (amazon.com) as a text so the students can get a grasp of how Paul might've actually gone about composing his letters.

Here's the brief TOC of Paul and First Century Letter Writing (amazon.com):

Introduction
1: A Modern, Western Paul
2: Paul as a First-Century Letter Writer
3: The Tools of a Letter Writer
4: Secretaries in the First Century World
5: Paul's Use of a Secretary
6: Identifying Inserted Material
7: Weaving Together a Letter
8: Classifying Paul's Letters
9: Analyzing Paul's Writing Style
10: Preparing a Letter for Dispatch
11: Dispatching the Letter
12: Paul's Letter Carriers
13: Paul's Use of His Letter Carriers
14: Collecting Paul's Letters
15: Inspiration and First-Century Letter Writing
Conclusion

Again, this book is heartily recommended.

Next book in my queue: Lexical Priming: A New Theory of Words and Language (amazon.com) by Michael Hoey. This was recommended to me by my friend Randall Tan; we'll be writing a paper applying some of Hoey's concepts to NT Greek for International SBL in Vienna (though I won't be able to attend the conference). I'm sure I'll blog a bit about that as I read it. Dunno if I'll get through it as fast as this last one, though.

Yes, I've been quiet for the past week or so. Here's what I've been reading in that time:

• Clayton N. Jefford's The Apostolic Fathers and the New Testament. I blogged about this previously. I finished it up. I had a slight criticism of the first few chapters: Jefford seemed apologetic in making his views known as opinions. I'm pleased to say that the balance of the book didn't exhibit that same degree of apology. Overall the book was good and it provides decent introduction and discussion particularly on the issues of "Christians as Jews" (chapter 5) and "Christians as Citizens" (chapter 6).
• Larry Hurtado, The Origin of the Nomina Sacra: A Proposal (JBL 117:4, Winter 1998, pp. 655-673). If you're an SBL member, you can get this article through JSTOR. I read this as follow-up to a few footnotes in Hurtado's recent book The Earliest Christian Artifacts (which I've blogged about). Note another JBL article by George Howard: "The Tetragram and the NT" (JBL 96:1 (1977), pp. 63-68) which I have a note to read but haven't read yet. Maybe this afternoon. Again, I'll note: If you are into Biblical studies but not at or near an institution with easy journal access, an SBL membership and its included access to JBL back issues via JSTOR is a wonderful thing. If used frequently, it is worth the annual membership price alone. Same goes for the ETS and its JETS back-issues and annual subscription for members.
• E. Randolph Richards, Paul and First Century Letter Writing: Secretaries, Composition and Collection. This was a Christmas gift from my lovely wife (yay!). I've only read the first 100 pages or so, but I've already taken down at least four notes of books or articles to read in follow-up. For me, that's the sign of a good book — I'm stimulated to the degree of interacting with sources. I'll blog about this one more I'm sure.
• Didache 11 because I'm working on translating it. (See main post on my Didache series) This is a longer chapter than most in the Didache, so it's taking longer than usual.
• The Epistle of James because I'm in a home-group Bible study on this epistle. We'll be spending the next 11 weeks looking at it.

That's it for now.

Since I finished Bauckham, I'm now reading Larry Hurtado's The Earliest Christian Artifacts. Yet another SBL purchase. After this comes either Wayne Kannaday on apologetic influence of scribes or a book on Paul and early letter writing.

I don't know that I'll blog on this one much. The first few chapters look at aggregate counts of Jewish and Christian documents and begin to make preliminary conclusions. The sample sizes (in light of known papyri) seem pretty small to base any conclusions from, but the insights and approach is interesting nonetheless.

Update (2007-01-15): Finished it this afternoon. Overall some things to think about, but nothing earth-shattering. Hurtado's proposals on the origin of the nomina sacra stimulate thought. The section on the staurogram had interesting background but wasn't surprising. If you're into early Christian MSS or even perhaps "Christian Origins" (whatever that really means) then you'll probably want to check this out.

I finished reading Jesus and the Eyewitnesses last night. I won't do any in-depth blogging on the book as a whole — Chris Tilling has that covered — but I will say it is well worth reading. I have a few areas of the book that I do plan on digging into further; some of that will likely make it onto the blog.

As well, I have proposed a paper for the Northwest regional meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society based in part on some of the stuff Bauckham brings to light. If that one is accepted, I'll blog the abstract. Of course, I'll post the paper after the conference (in the end of February).

In reading Jefford's The Apostolic Fathers and the New Testament, I noticed a citation that sounded interesting:

Finally, this volume is not designed to be a methodical, text-critical comparison of the New Testament texts with parallels from the apostolic fathers, focusing upon the variations in manuscripts and sources. In that vein, several worthy efforts have already been made to cover the entire corpus of the apostolic fathers in the past, including the early work of the Oxford Society of Historical Theology in 1905 ... (Jefford 3)

A footnote goes on to descibe this volume:

A Committee of the Oxford Society of Historical Theology, The New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers (Oxford: Clarendon, 1905).

On a whim, hoping to find more information about this title, I googled for it. And I was amazed when I saw an archive.org link in the results, because that usually means that an edition of the work is available. And it is! PDF (10 megs) is sitting on a server waiting for you to grab it and devour it.

I'd recommend clicking on the "Keyword" links to search for other available items.

Update (2007-01-08): The folks here at Logos figured this would be a good "Community Pricing" title. See the product page for more info.

Also, for those longsuffering ones out there who have been waiting for the Logos editions of the Apostolic Fathers in Greek and English, please know that I'm working on it right now (sorting out some issues with morphological annotations of each edition) and hope to make good progess on it in the near-term. It's probably 2/3 of the way there, though sometimes the last bit can be a bit of a push.

I've begun to work Clayton N. Jefford's latest book from Hendrickson Publishers' Academic imprint into my reading schedule. The book is The Apostolic Fathers and the New Testament. Full disclosure: the book was sent to me by Hendrickson Academic. And I was happy to receive it; I'd noticed the title a few months back and almost picked up a copy at SBL but I decided not to.

So as I read a chapter or two, I'll blog about the book. I've read the introduction and the first chapter, so I'll start with those — after I post the Table of Contents. Note that Hendrickson have the TOC, the Introduction and a sample chapter on their web site. The sample chapter is chapter 1.

• Introduction: How to Talk about the Apostolic Fathers?
• Chapter 1: Finding a Time and Place for the Texts
• Chapter 2: The Authority of Texts and Traditions
• Chapter 3: Codes of Conduct and Christian Thinking
• Chapter 4: Imagery of the New Testament Faith
• Chapter 5: The Question of Christians as Jews
• Chapter 6: The Question of Christians as Citizens
• Chapter 7: How Persons and Places Influence History
• Conclusion: The Significance of the Apostolic Fathers for New Testament Study
• Index of Subjects
• Index of Ancient Sources 

At this point in my reading of the book, my summary is: "Helpful information in an approachable format. A good place to start if you're a student of the NT entering into study of the Apostolic Fathers".

Jefford's information is good and he surveys the landscape fairly well in Chapter 1. One thing I've noticed, however, is the apologetic tone of the book. A good book should convey to me the author's research, findings and conclusions unapologetically. Some authors, however (particularly in academic settings, and often in conference papers and such where presentations can be defensive in nature) have a need to state that they're telling you their opinion, then state their tidbit, then remind you that this was only their opinion and that critical minds diverge on the issue. This is fine (to some degree) in an introduction where one is stating methodology and intent and also when surveying large amounts of data where there are ranges of views and no clear, succinct data points. So in Jefford's introduction and first chapter this is OK, though I do think he does this overmuch. He does it at the start of chapter 1:

"The present chapter is offered as a means by which to differentiate where and when the texts of the apostolic fathers were penned, at least as I understand the situation. I am fully aware that a variety of views may be found within the secondary literature. ... (Jefford 7)

The above fine and helpful (though I'm not a fan of first-person singular dialogue in the context of academic writing). But it goes on for three paragraphs, and again in each subsection conclusion of the chapter. Please don't get me wrong; the information is good and likely helpful as an introduction to the Apostolic Fathers for students of the NT. But when almost everything is couched in this type of permission-asking terminology, it makes me wonder about the author who is writing the material. I've given him permission to tell me his opinion and/or conclusions by reading the book; he shouldn't have to come to me sheepishly with his material.

I don't want to be too harsh, and, as I said, that sort of thing can be appropriate in introductions and surveys. I'm hoping it tones down as the book progresses. I'll keep y'all posted as I read.

Update: I finished the book up. I had a slight criticism of the first few chapters: Jefford seemed apologetic in making his views known as opinions. I'm pleased to say that the balance of the book didn't exhibit that same degree of apology. Overall the book was good and it provides decent introduction and discussion particularly on the issues of "Christians as Jews" (chapter 5) and "Christians as Citizens" (chapter 6).

Also note that Danny at Deinde reviews Jefford's work as well. Do check out his take. 

As I've mentioned before, I'm reading through Richard Bauckham's new tome Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. In the chapter on Eyewitness Memory, Bauckham lists many factors that point to the "reliability of recollective memory" (pp. 330-346). One of those factors is what he calls "Gist and details" (pp. 333-334; 344). Bauckham introduces the concept by saying:

Some writers, particularly those who emphasize the likelihood of inaccuracy in long-term recollective memory, argue that the "gist" of the memory is likely to be accurate, even when the details are not. Barclay maintains that hte recollective memories are "true in the sense of maintaining the integrity and gist of past life events" (Bauckham 333).

As I read this, I flashed back to Bart Ehrman's Gospel of Judas and his presentation on Judas' betrayal. I remembered blogging on the topic and noting how Ehrman focused on the differences of each account of Judas' betrayal and essentially used the differences to cast aspersions on the whole of each account, concluding that the accounts in Matthew and Acts were "impossible to reconcile". My response was to examine each account and determine what was consistent between them and consider that the basis of the event. Using the lingo I just read in Bauckham, I'd say one should examine the different accounts to get at the "gist" of the situation. Bauckham does the same sort of thing when considering Peter's denials of Christ:

A good example of the consistency of the gist along with variation in inessential detail is the story of Peter's three denials of Jesus as told in all four Gospels (Mt 26.58, 69-75; Mk 14.54, 66-72; Lk 22.54-62; Jn 18-15-18, 25-27) (Bauckham 344).

Bauckham goes on to describe the essential and inessential detail of each account and build a likely view of the event based on shared essential detail. The subsection-concluding paragraph wraps it up nicely:

In such examples [here accounts of Peter's denial] we can see that the gist of an eyewitness memory, preserved in all tellings even if other details are not accurately preserved, and the gist of an oral tradition, preserved in all performances even when other details are varied, can readily coincide. This is a most important conclusion for the study of gospel traditions. It is a conclusion that recognizes the realistic extent to which memory can be relied upon, in the case both of the memory of the eyewetness and the memory of the preformer of oral tradition. The transition from the one to the other need not entail a significant decrease in reliability, though of course this is possible (Bauckham 345).

In my hot little hands: The Logos Bible Software edition of Max Zerwick & Mary Grosvenor's A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament, 5th Edition.

A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament presents a verse by verse analysis of the original Greek New Testament. Breaking down the significant Greek words, it offers parsing, including cross-references to the author’s Biblical Greek, notes, glosses, and other relevant information. Grammatical Analysis also provides a succinct interpretation of figures of speech and other explicit or implicit information within the Greek text. The analysis is preceded by a glossary of grammatical terms.

Just got the weekly email scoop from Publishers Weekly.

In the "Books Written by People Who Should Know" department, we have (I excerpt this directly from the web page):

Jesus for the Non-Religious
John Shelby Spong. Harper San Francisco, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-06-076207-0
In this impassioned work, Spong, the iconoclastic former Episcopal bishop of Newark, details in this impassioned work both his "deep commitment to Jesus of Nazareth" and his "deep alienation from the traditional symbols" that surround Jesus.

Ok ... don't they have an editor check these things? Or is there some dittography going on in the transcription here? (cf. repetition of "in this impassioned work")

Yes, I realize I'm a bit late here (the conferences were a month ago!) but I said I'd do it, so here's the list.

• Jesus and the Eyewitnesses by Richard Bauckham. What a book! Lots to interact with in this one, and I'm thoroughly enjoying reading it. Also note Chris Tilling's series on the book with interaction from the Bauck-meister himself.
• Apologetic Discourse and the Scribal Tradition by Wayne Kannaday. I'm looking forward to this one.
• The Earliest Christian Artifacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins by Larry Hurtado. I've read the preface and the premise sounds interesting. And, it's Hurtado so it's gotta be good.
• Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians: Volume I by Ben Witherington III. The essay on pseudepigrapha has been worth the price of admission.
• The Letters to Timothy and Titus (NICNT) by Philip Towner
• A Textual Guide to the New Testament by Roger L. Omanson

A few others are on order (one on Paul and First Century Letter Writing from IVP, and Chrys Caragounis on the Development of NT Greek from Baker). Look for me to write more about Bauckham's book in the future (though not likely right away ... ).

It's that time of year.

The Economist released their list of "Books of the year 2006". Not much sounds interesting to me, save the de Tocqueville biography, and that won't even be published in the US until March 2007 ... though you can buy it from Amazon today. If you're really interested, get it from Amazon.co.uk and have it shipped to the states.

But hey, I've got an armload of books (and then some) that I bought at ETS and SBL. I'll probably blog that list later since I've yet to do that.

[Overview, Part I, Part II]

I finally finished going through Klauck's Ancient Letters and the New Testament. Overall, I'd recommend it. However, you should note that Klauck discusses the NT letters as they fit his framework. He presents no alternatives or discussion regarding dating, authorship and authenticity of the NT epistles. Instead he takes the standard "scholarly" perspective (that is, something like Pastorals ==> not Paul, 2Thess/Col/Eph/Php ==> maybe Paul, Romans, 1 & 2 Cor, Gal, 1Th, Philemon ==> probably Paul).

But one thing that he does and does consistently is analyze the epistles as epistles. He looks at them as letters, he examines their rhetoric, and there is good information in the book -- particularly as entails structure and makeup of epistles.

He also has a plethora of analysis of epistles in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin literature. Chapter 6 reviews "Letters in Early Judaism". This includes brief summaries of things like letters in 2 Maccabees, 2 Baruch 77-87, 4 Baruch and the Bar Kokhba letters.

The last two chapters of the book (130+ pages) discuss the New Testament epistles as well as the letters found within the book of Acts.

Klauck's work is a handy book to have on the shelf for reference, but it is good to read straight through. So while you're at SBL, do yourself a favor and stroll on down to the Baylor Press booth, page through a copy, and see if you'd be interested in it.

Looks like Volume 3 of the Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism has been posted. There are 10 PDF articles, some of which look very interesting to me.

Remember, these articles won't be online forever. The Sheffield Phoenix Press will publish them as a print volume, and when they do that, the PDF goes offline. So download now, while you can.

(Thanks to Matt O'Donnell for the note)

Also: The JGRChJ now has an RSS feed. Pop it in your aggregators so you never miss an update.

Update (2006-10-30): Note that the tenth article, Robert Stephen Reid's Ad Herennium Argument Strategies in 1 Corinthians, has an invalid link. I'll update this post when I'm aware that this has been fixed.

Update (2006-10-31): The link to Reid's article has been fixed.

I just received this one last week after pre-ordering it well over a year ago:

Craig A. Smith. Timothy's Task, Paul's Prospect: A New Reading of 2 Timothy. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press. 2006.

Overall, it looks good. Smith gets into epistolary form criticism to examine the "charge" 2Ti 4.1-8:

4 ¹ I solemnly urge in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, the one who will judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His Kingdom. ² Preach the word, be persistent in season and out of season, correct, rebuke, encourage, with complete patience and instruction. ³ For there will be a time when they will not put up with sound doctrine but according to their own desires they themselves will accumulate a great many teachers to tickle their ears ⁴ and indeed they will turn their ears away from the truth, and turn aside toward myths. ⁵ But you be self-controlled in all things, suffering misfortune, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. ⁶ For I am already poured out as a drink offering, and the season of my departure is imminent.

⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸ Henceforth the crown of righteousness is reserved for me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only me but all those who have loved His appearing.

That's from my own translation of Second Timothy. Here's the blurb from Sheffield Phoenix Press:

In this challenging book, Craig Smith propounds the novel thesis that the famous lines in 2 Timothy 4 where 'Paul' announces that the time of his departure has come have been misunderstood. This is no farewell speech, Smith avers, and Paul is not intending to pass on the baton to his younger colleague, Timothy.

Deploying epistolary analysis and rhetorical criticism, Smith shows that these verses (4:1-8) do not have the literary structure or the vocabulary of a testament or a farewell; rather, they are a 'charge', an authoritative command, comprised of five specific formal elements. This charge form is found also in the exorcism command and in some magical texts, Christian and non-Christian.

From this perspective, Paul's being poured out as a libation is his experience of preaching to the Gentiles at his first trial, his 'departure' is the imminent release from prison that he is expecting, the fight he has fought and the race he has finished are his trial that he has withstood. Far from appointing Timothy as his successor, he is contemplating a continued companionship and collegiality as they continue their ministry together.

[See Part I and Part II in this series]

Well, I'm through the whole book, so it's time to blog about chapters 9-11. Recall these chapter titles:

• Who Was Judas Iscariot?
• What Did Judas Betray and Why Did He Betray It?
• The Gospel of Judas in Perspective

I've got to say, I'm a bit Bart-ed out. As he rolled to his conclusion, the battle-of-the-competing-orthodoxies vibe became more and more prominent. This is enough for me to commit, here and now, to say that I will not read any more of Bart's "popular" books. If he pops out some editions of gnostic texts in their original and translation, with or without commentary, I may jump on those. But the whole "victorious orthodox party" schtick is tired, old and has begun to grate on me. For perhaps the prime example of the last chapter of the book, consider this sub-section-ending paragraph on p. 179:

Is it just a coincidence that none of the noncanonical writings discovered over the course of the past century embody an orthodox perspective? If orthodoxy was so widespread, why is it that only heterodox documents of the second century have been discovered? The answer to this question leads me to consider why, after all, the Gospel of Judas should be seen as so important. (Ehrman, 179)

Where to start?

First ... uh ... well, we have this thing called the "New Testament" that Erhman would classsify as "orthodox" ... and we've had it for almost 2000 years. I don't think we're going to magically discover new canonical gospels seeing as how the canon is closed.

Second ... well ... we have these writings from guys called "church fathers" and the dudes they dialogued with in their writings. Some are orthodox, some are heretics, and some walk the line (that's right, a Johnny Cash reference in a post on Bart Ehrman!). We've had these for hundreds of years.

Third ... er, wasn't the Didache discovered in the mid-to-late 1800's? And wouldn't that be considered to be, for the most part, "orthodox"?

In other words, the orthodox stuff from that time frame (and before) is well-known and has been for centuries. Is Ehrman really saying that because no "orthodox documents" dating to the second century have been discovered in the past 100 years (so, pre-1906?) that therefore, QED, "heterodox Christians" must've been in the majority? I can't think so, but that seems to be the force of his argument here.

If we're measuring on mass of documents discovered alone — and not just documents located in the past 100 years — then we have scads of orthodox (and heretical/'heterodox') stuff from the NT canon, to the writings of the Church Fathers on down. (On that count, shouldn't Ehrman subscribe to the priority of the Byzantine text if numbers are the important thing?)

Anyway, I'm babbling. I was unsatisfied with Ehrman's conclusion. Because we really don't know much about Judas apart from that he "betrayed" Jesus (for a sum) and then either commited suicide or died horribly, Ehrman ends up spending much of his conclusion providing his view of Jesus — that Jesus was an itinerant apocalyptic preacher — so he can then posit that because that's what and how Jesus taught, that's what Judas must've subscribed to wholeheartedly. After all, Judas was one of the twelve. So then Ehrman discusses why someone with the sorts of beliefs he ascribes to Judas could possibly have betrayed his itinerant apocalyptic Jesus. Ehrman thinks that Jesus taught one thing publicly (son of man will arrive in judgement) and another thing privately to his disciples (Jesus will be the 'King of the Jews'). What Judas betrayed was that Jesus really did claim to be 'King of the Jews' and therefore provided the necessary evidence for the trial.

I see a few problems with this.

Following Ehrman's logic, then, all twelve of the inner-circle disciples would've believed that same stuff to the degree Judas did. But only Judas betrayed. Why? Why did the others stick it out if they were ultimately looking for the same thing Judas was?

While Judas was in the circle of the twelve, he wasn't routinely (to our knowledge) included in the sub-group of Peter/James/John. So there were likely some disciples closer to Jesus. If Jesus was what Bart says, why wouldn't others (e.g. Peter/James/John) more acutely come to the conclusions that Judas apparently did?

Also, people following Jesus wanted to make him king, and that relatively early on in his ministry. We see this in John 6.14-15:

When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. (Jn 6:14-15, ESV, emphasis added. See also Jn 12.12-15)

So the Jesus-as-King vibe is known (or at least desired) outside of the group of twelve. And Jesus didn't want to be king. At least, not a king like the people in John 6 wanted him to be.

I don't have a worked-out alternate view of why Judas did what he did. But Ehrman's view reads just as much into the person of Judas and his motives as any other view does (particularly traditional views). Ehrman relies on his reconstruction of Jesus, then reads a sort of proto-disciple out of that view and applies those attributes/motives to Judas, attempting to make sense out of the gospel texts and his reconstruction. Given his reconstruction, he goes the only places he can.

After examining the "historical Judas", Ehrman then goes into why Gospel of Judas is so spectacular (the last chapter). But he wants to do it responsibly:

How do we put a discovery like this in perspective? We should recognize the Gospel of Judas as the spectacular find it is, without sensationalizing it into something that it is not. (Ehrman, 172).

Sure, I can agree with that. The problem is where it goes next:

The Gospel does matter, a lot. Not because it gives us more reliable information about what happened in the life of Jesus, but because it gives us more reliable information about what was happening in the lives of his followers in the decades after his death. For understanding the early history of Christianity, the Gospel of Judas is tremendously important. It is safe to say that it is the most significant Christian text to appear in the past sixty years. (Ehrman, 173, emphasis added).

My problem with this statement is that he's classifying Gospel of Judas as a "Christian" text. It's a gnostic text, and — apart from the false dialogues between Judas and Jesus — a fairly standard one at that.

The use of "60 years" is a bit specious. Nag Hammadi documents were discovered in 1945 ... just outside that spectacular 60 year window. I'm guessing that Bart would say Nag Hammidi gnostic documents were "Christian" too, hence the 60-year window.

Lastly, note that the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1948. So Dead Sea Scrolls have no impact on Christianity but Gospel of Judas does? I'm lost.

Anyway, I'm rambling now. I need to get home (I'm writing this at the office) and think about dinner. The bottom line is: I don't think Gospel of Judas has much if anything to say about early Christianity. I'd say it has something to say about Sethian Gnosticism and it's co-opting of New Testament personae, and that we have (rather) early evidence of this now. But Christianity? Nope.

And so ends my rolling series on Ehrman's Gospel of Judas book. If you've read this far, thanks for doing so, and apologies for the scatteredness. I should end and once again say that there was good stuff in the book, but the use of it as a platform for all this other stuff, as well as the conclusions about the value of the Gospel of Judas* made it a trial for me to read.

* What, a book about Judas and the Gospel of Judas finds that the Gospel of Judas is a spectactular find, the most important "Christian" document in 60 years? Hmmmmmm, why is that a surprise. I'd guess that a book on that topic, written like this one is, would have to come to that conclusion, no?

[see Part I in this series on Ehrman's Gospel of Judas]

I'm through the first eight chapters of Bart Ehrman's The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: A New Look at Betrayer and Betrayed. Perhaps it's time for a listing of chapters, so you'll know what I've been reading:

1. My Introduction to the Gospel of Judas
2. Judas in Our Earliest Gospels
3. Judas in Later Gospel Traditions
4. Before the Discovery: Our previous Knowledge of a Gospel of Judas
5. The Discovery of the Gospel of Judas
6. The Gospel of Judas: An Overview
7. The Gospel of Judas and Early Christian Gnosticism
8. Jesus, Judas, and the Twelve in the Gospel of Judas
9. Who Was Judas Iscariot?
10. What Did Judas Betray and Why Did He Betray It?
11. The Gospel of Judas in Perspective

So, I've read the first eight (through page 140) and I'm in the midst of chapter nine, though I'll only report on chapters four through eight here.

Earlier, I mentioned something about the book title being misleading since (to the point I'd read to) the book was more about examining the canonical gospels than the Gospel of Judas. Well, that was true for the first 50 pages, though the emphasis on the Gospel of Judas is alive and well in the last 3/4 of the book. So ... I get to retract that criticism. Please make a mental note of it, apologies for misleading anyone.

Now, on with the new stuff.

Ehrman gives a pretty standard run-down of pre-2005 knowledge of "Gospel of Judas" in referring to Irenaeus' description. Ehrman's typical battle-of-the-competing-orthodoxies vibe runs through this section. You can pick up the vibe in sentences like this:

To help make sense of Irenaeus's comments about the Gospel of Judas, I need to provide some background information on Irenaeus himself and on the book that he produced, in which he attacks "heretical" groups of Christians as nefarious enemies o the truth. (Ehrman, 55-56, quotes are his).

Here's another:

Irenaeus was particularly distressed about the widespread presence of Gnostic Christians in the midst of the church. He viewed Gnostics as false believers propagating a false gospel, sowing weeds among the pure wheat of the true people of God. These heretics needed to be rooted out and destroyed—not by torture and execution by by invective and argument. For the church to be pure, it had to embrace the true teaching about Christ and his apostles. And so Irenaeus wrote a long attack on Gnostic [RWB: are big-G Gnostics different than little-g gnostics?] heretics in which he detailed their nefarious views, described their insidious writings, attacked their heretical perspectives, maligned their immoral teachers, and generally tried to se the record straight so that his readers would know the "truth" about the Christian religion they claimed to profess. (Ehrman, 56-57, quotes are his).

Maybe we need a "Gospel of Irenaeus" so we can rehabilitate our views of Irenaeus. (Yes, that's sarcasm).

Ok, getting back to the show. Again, I can only really say that there is decent information in the book once you get through the trying-too-hard-to-be-folksy approach used to introduce entry-level readers to the larger topics at hand. But getting through that (as in the Irenaeus sections quoted above) can lead to grinding of teeth. Perhaps it reads well if my primary reading on gnosticism (or Irenaeus for that matter) has come from the notes in the NIV Study Bible, and perhaps that's the audience. It just gets tiring after about five minutes.

Chapter five is a recounting of the modern end of the tale, the finding and mis-handling of the Gospel of Judas. Ehrman recounts it just fine, so there's no need to detail it here.

Chapter six is an overview of the Gospel of Judas itself. Again, it is serviceable and adheres largely to the text as established by Kasser/Wurst and translated by Meyer.

Chapter seven paints GJudas in the gnostic milieu. There's nothing really new here, either. And because Ehrman is talking in generalities about gnosticism (or is it Gnosticism?) there's no opportunity to fuss about differences in different accounts. At the end of the chapter, though, he begins to bring out the idea that there are traces of Jewish Apocalypticism within gnostic texts in general and GJudas in particular.

Chapter eight begins to look back again where we left off in chapter three—back to Jesus, Judas and the Twelve. This time, however, they're looked at in the context of the Gospel of Judas. And here we come to the point where, upon reading a sentence (the bold-italicised one below), my only comment was "Why, Bart? Why?!" (you can ask my wife, she heard me say it!). Here's the text:

The Gospel of Judas provides an alternative vision [RWB: context here: 'alternative' to standard treatments with Judas as bungling but vengeful revolutionary fueled by zealousy, greed, sin and devil-possession and subsequently painted as anti-semite]. It is true that over the years some Christians have wondered if the consistent denigration of Judas was fair. Theologically, some have asked, if Christ had to die ofr the sins of the world, and Judas is the one that made it possible, wasn't that a good thing? SOmething that Christ himself wanted? moreover, some scholars have noted that with the passing of time our ancient traditions portray Judas in increasingly villainous ways. Could it be that in the very earliest traditions, which now have been lost, Judas was seen as an itimate of Jesus who simply did his master's will?

If Judas ever was portrayed this way, there is no surviving evidence of it, no text that speaks of Judas in any positive way—until now. The Gospel of Judas stands alone in insisting that Judas was not only close to Jesus but also was the only one among the disciples who understood who Jesus was and did what he wanted. (Ehrman, 138)

Note to folks that are writing books: If you write sentence that, on first draft, causes you to smile smugly and say "yeah, that's awesome!" ... well, flag it to review in two weeks. Chances are you'll read it then and say "How could I have written that cliché-ridden tripe?!" Have a good friend who can write read it, and they'll say the same thing. Then remove the offending line and re-write the paragraph.

This, in a nutshell, is my interaction with Ehrman's popular work. The bent to sensationalise. I can hear the carnival barker now imploring me to check out the wonders of the incredible, new-found gospel. It makes me cringe. But at the same time, there is enough one can scrape out (once the sensationalism is disposed of) that is decent introductory material (though the babbling about "all the differences" and "competing orthodoxies" does get tired).

I plan on one more post to finish up the book. The last three chapters are where discussion on the "historical Judas" take place, and the part I'm most interested to read. I'm afraid of what I'll read, though; I keep fearing it'll be about inconsistencies of accounts. But I keep telling myself: "It'll be OK. He'll come around, and the sensationalism will be muted at the end. Really." Tune in and see where we end up.

Stephen C. Carlson (Hypotyposeis) points us to the OUP Blog for some stuff by Bart Ehrman on the Gospel of Judas. Two posts:

• Oct 9, 2006: A Few Questions for Bart Ehrman
• Oct 10, 2006: Why I Wrote The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot

I have been discussing this book. The intro post, along with an index to subsequent posts, is Bart Ehrman: The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot.

I've read through approx. 3/4 of the book and should have another post either later today or tomorrow. I'll revise some of the statements I made earlier, and discuss some of the content I've read.

In addition to Klauck's Ancient Letters and the New Testament and Ehrman's Gospel of Judas book, I have a few others in the hopper at present:

• The Expectant Father by Armin A. Brott
• What to Expect When You're Expecting by Heidi Murkoff
• Great Expectations: Your All-In-One Resource for Pregnancy and Childbirth by Sandy Jones

Hmmmmmm ... what's the common theme here?

Well, the portion I've read (about the first 50 pages) is less about the newfound Gospel of Judas and more about Judas in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). Ehrman starts with Mark, then moves to Matthew, then Luke/Acts, then John. He notes each gospel's use and reference of Judas in an effort to begin considering the "historical Judas".

While reading, though, I've finally been able to discover what it is that I don't like about Ehrman's writing. Sure he's engaging, and he does a good job of accounting for the reader who is unfamiliar with recently scholarly/academic trends in Biblical Studies — though sometimes he can seem a bit patronizing in his descent to explain to the uninformed reader. But (and I'm willing to chalk this up to hyper-sensitivity on my part) Erhman always seems to focus on differences between accounts, going as far as calling the differences in the accounts of Judas' death in Matthew and Acts irreconciliable:

The book of Acts has a different account [than Matthew] of Judas' death and its relationship to this field. It is probably impossible to reconcile the details of these two accounts. (Ehrman, 36)

It wouldn't be so bad (to me, anyway) if Erhman actually built his argument. But he hasn't really, at least not yet. He's focused on noting differences in the Gospel accounts of Judas. But he's said very little regarding similarities between accounts outside of the flat-out obvious. He's willing to contrast differences between Gospels but he's relying on the reader to track what is similar between the accounts. So the reader is left to conclude similarities like (the list is not exhaustive, and is off the top of my head, where two or more canonical sources [Gospels/Acts] concur on some aspect of Judas' life):

• Judas Iscariot is listed as one of the twelve
• He was named or clearly implied to be the betrayer
• He was paid a price for the betrayal
• He was with the party that apprehended Jesus
• He died an untimely, un-natural death (suicide or horrible circumstance) after his betrayal
• His payment was associated with the purchase of the "field of blood"

Several times (at least three, I think) when he verges on getting down to brass tacks, he adds thoughts like "those are the questions we will ask at the end of the book". Like this whole paragraph (pp. 33-34), which occurs after noting that complete synthesis of gospel accounts is bad. I agree it's bad (duh!) but that doesn't mean that we throw out the vectors that do meet between accounts. Erhman (at least at present, up to and around page 50) seems to distrust all of it:

The historical conclusion is that we have different accounts from different authors writing at different times to different audiences for different reasons. Given the differences of the accounts, we will eventually want to reexamine them to see if it is possible to draw some kind of historical conclusions about what really happened. In some cases, the differences between the accounts turn out to be irreconcilable. ... [brief hint of Matthew/Acts item mentioned above] ... Accounts that contain discrepancies cannot both be historically accurate. Is one more accurate than the other? How would we know? What can we say for certain about the life of Judas — what he did and why he did it — based on our few surviving sources? Those are the questions we will ask at the end of the book, after looking at other ways Judas was portrayed, first from other surviving Christian sources such as the book of Acts, the Gospel of John, and several apocryphal works (in the next chapter), and then in the newly discovered Gospel of Judas, a book with its own agenda and distinctive portrayal of this one who betrayed Jesus. (Ehrman, 33-34).

Note the focus on differences? Why is nothing said about similarities of accounts? Why not compile and check similarties along with differences as the literature is cumulatively examined through the course of the book? Perhaps he will do this as the book progresses; I've just read about the canonical gospels. But — showing my bias here — I'd say that's our best shot at getting to the "historical Judas". Why not lay both sides of the foundation? Why save (I hope) part of it for later? Well ... focusing on differences (much like focusing on textual variants) really is the more sensational thing. And I've blogged before on what I think regarding Ehrman's sensationalistic tendencies.

So, basically, the first fifty pages of the book is less about the Gospel of Judas and more about examining Judas himself, throwing on the newly-found Gospel of Judas for good measure since we can. Let me be clear, though, that this aspect of the book (brief intro/analysis of the canonical gospels and then examining Judas' role in them) is, apart from focusing primarily on differences between accounts, quite good. There's good information here. It's the undertow of the sensationalism (again, I may be hypersensitive ... I'll easily admit that) that sticks in my craw.

Given this, the book title does seem a bit misleading (along the same lines of the the "Misquoting Jesus" title, where textual variants outside of the words attributed to Christ were, as I understand it, where most of the discussion was centered). [paragraph nixed, this isn't fair to say based on the balance of the book. RWB 2006-10-11]

I'll blog more as I get further into the book.

About two weeks ago I blogged about being offered a complimentary copy of Bart Ehrman's new book, The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot. The book arrived today. I'm planning on reading through the Gospel of Judas a few times (see my post on Erhman's essay in the National Geographic book The Gospel of Judas for some background) and then digging in to Erhman's treatment.

We'll see what I think concerning Ehrman's shark-jumping status once I get into the book. I will by all means blog my reactions as I read it.

Either way, thanks to OUP for sending along the copy of the book!

Update: I'm blogging as I'm reading through the book. Entries will be linked to here.

• 2006-10-05: Bart Ehrman on Gospel of Judas, Part I
• 2006-10-10: Bart Ehrman on Gospel of Judas, Part II
• 2006-10-16: Bart Ehrman on Gospel of Judas, Part III

Update I (2006-10-04): Just a test to see how UTF8 Coptic in the proper Unicode range is handled in browsers. Nevermind me ... these are the first few lines of Kasser & Wurst's transcription of the Gospel of Judas, typos are mine:

ⲡⲗⲟⲅⲟ[ⲥ] ⲉⲧϨⲏ̣ⲡʼ ⲛ̅ⲧⲁⲡⲟⲫⲁ
ⲥ̣ⲓⲭ ⲛ̅[ⲧⲁ ⲓ̈]ⲏ̣̅ⲥ̅ Ϣⲁϫⲉ ⲙⲛ̅ ⲓ̈ⲩⲇⲁⲥ

It appears to work on my side, though it assumes you have the font New Athena Unicode installed. Note that the diaresis in the font clashes with the iauda, hence the one-dot-to-the-left look.

Update II (2006-10-05): Coptic works, for me anyway, in IE6 and FireFox 1.5.0.7. It doesn't work in SharpReader (no surpise, it strips style attributes) or BlogLines. I guess I should say that it works in those two, but that the default font has no characters in the Coptic unicode range. The bytes are there, but no characters exist in the font(s) for Coptic. C'est la vie.

Update III (2006-10-05): Phil Harland, with a post titled Judas Iscariot may be evil after all, links to Jim Davila's PaleoJudaica, which has an abstract describing Louis Painchoud's contrarian critique of the National Geographic translation/commentary/etc of the Gospel of Judas. Do check it out, particularly if you think the recently found Gospel of Judas is good fodder for "rehabilitating Judas".

Update III (2006-10-10): Note a post I wrote, Ehrman on Ehrman on Gospel of Judas, (h/t to Stephen C. Carlson (Hypotyposeis)) which points to interviews and such with Ehrman on Oxford University Press' blog.

(See Part I here, and an Overview here)

I've been examining Hans-Josef Klauck's Ancient Letters and the New Testament some more. It's fun stuff. I've made it through chapters 3 and 4:

• 3: Nonliterary and Diplomatic Correspondance
• 4: Poetry and Philosophy—Literary Letters

As you can see, the book isn't strictly about New Testament epistles. It is about the ancient letter form in all its major varieties. I'm most looking forward to chapters 6-8 as they are about Letters in Early Judaism (chapter 6) and then two chapters on New Testament Letters.

Chapter 3 offers some stimulating discussion of the importance of diplomatic correspondance in approaching Pauline epistles. Klauck has sections on the letter of recommendation and Hellenistic royal letters. The final section in the chapter is a serious examination of Claudius' imperial letter to the Alexandrians. He provides a translation of the letter, a full outline, and detailed analysis. The prescript of Claudius' letter sounds positively Pauline:

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus the Emperor, Pontifex Maximus,
holder of the tribunican power, consul designate,
to the city of the Alexandrians, greeting.

Chapter 4 offers a catalogue of authors that is really quite handy. Names I'd only seen as abbreviations in BDAG suddenly have new meaning to me as a result of skimming across the text. I say "skim" because it really serves as a brief handbook to authors of Greek and Latin letters.

I've begun chapter 5, which is titled Epistolary and Rhetorical Theory. Good stuff. Gets into topoi, examines some classical letter templates and "style" handbooks, among other things.

I'll blog more after I'm a bit further along in the book.

I noted earlier that I'd received a copy of Klauck's Ancient Letters and the New Testament. I've been reading the first few chapters and have to say that I've been enjoying it.

The first chapter, Foundations—Two Letters of Apion and Two Letters of the "Elder", uses the well-known examples of letters from one Apion (BGU II 423 and BGU II 632, Greek and English provided) to his family. These were used to identify and discuss epistle structure and standard letter components. After this, Klauck uses 2 and 3 John (in parallel!) as source material and identifies components and details structure. The exercise at the end of the chapter is, essentially, "do the same thing for Philemon". Thankfully, Klauck has answers in the back so one can do the work and compare. One is not left hanging when doing exercises.

The second chapter, Practical Realities—Paper and Postal System, gets into how letters were written and delivered. Good background stuff that folks don't normally think about, but it is good to know.

When I'm able to get through a few more chapters, I'll by all means let y'all know. But for now I'm very impressed with the book and quite happy to have it available as a resource. If you're teaching a class on epistles or epistolography, I'd say this is pretty much a no-brainer for students to have, particularly with the added exercises.

More info, of course, is on the Baylor Press web site.

PJ Williams at the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog notes an email he received offering a complementary copy of Ehrman's upcoming book The Lost Gospel of Judas: A New Look at Betrayer and Betrayed from Oxford University Press (OUP).

I received the same email too. And I've only ever interacted with Ehrman's stuff on this blog, so they must've searched around a bit to find folks.

I blogged about Ehrman primarily in a post called Bart Ehrman has "Jumped the Shark", lamenting his slide toward sensationalism at that time evidenced in his essay in the Gospel of Judas book from National Geographic.

I can't pass up a free book on a topic I'm interested in (development of early Christianity, along with Greek and Coptic) so I've responded to the offer with a request for the book. I'll let y'all know what I think if/when I receive the book.

Also note that PJ Williams mentions a forthcoming book on Gospel of Judas by ETC's own Simon Gathercole noting it will have " plenty of philological learning as well as sound judgement on the subject". Now that's a book I hope Oxford promos and wants to offer me a complementary copy of!

Side note: The post on Ehrman jumping the shark has a humorous comment from one purporting to be Dr. Ehrman. If that really was Dr. E, I note that you'll be in Seattle on Oct. 9. If you're able to slide up to Bellingham (just under two hours freeway drive north on I-5) I'll fire up the BBQ. Have your people call my people.

Baylor Press are publishing Han-Josef Klauck's Ancient Letters and the New Testament: A Guide to Context and Exegesis. The book is in their Fall 2006 catalogue. It is a translation and complete revision of Klauck's 1998 volume Die antike Briefliteratur und das Neue Testament: Ein Lehrund Arbeitsbuch.

Here is the publisher's blurb from the Baylor Press web site:

This volume places the New Testament letters squarely in the middle of all the important letter corpora of antiquity. Chapters cover the basic letter formula, papyrus and postal delivery, non-literary and diplomatic correspondence, Greek and Latin literary letters, epistolary theory, letters in early Judaism, and all the letters of the New Testament. Part I of each chapter surveys each corpus, followed by detailed exegetical examples in Part II. Comprehensive bibliographies and 54 exercises with answers suit this guide to student and scholar alike.

• Comprehensive, detailed, essential reading
• A major book by a leading expert
• Perfect for all students of the New Testament

Through a fortunate twist of fate, this intrepid blogger has secured a copy of the book before release. I'll be reading through it and blogging a bit along the way.

I can tell you this much right now: It looks very good. One great feature is the end-of-chapter exercises. That, and the preface starts out with a quote from Alice in Wonderland. How cool is that?

Update I: I've blogged a bit about the first two chapters: Klauck on Epistolography Part I.

Update II: Klauck's Ancient Letters, Part II is now up.

Update III: Part III is up as well.

While spending a few days in Victoria, BC last week with my lovely wife, I was able to convince her to let me browse a used book shop.

OK, there was no convincing needed -- she knows me and enthusiastically suggested it when she saw the store! I love this woman!

While browsing the religion section, I happened across an edition of Alexander Souter's Greek New Testament. I already have access to the first edition of his GNT, published in 1910. Souter issued a revision in 1947. That's the edition I found.

As noted in The Encyclopedia of New Testament Textual Criticism, the cool part of Souter's edition is the apparatus and the attention paid to patristic citations in Souter's second edition. From the Encyclopedia:

A noteworthy feature of Souter's apparatus is the degree of detail it gives about the Fathers. These are cited in careful and specific detail. This is one of the best features of Souter's edition.
The revised edition of Souter cites papyri through P⁴⁸, uncials through 0170, minuscules through 2322, a full list of versions (including Armenian, Gothic, Georgian, and Ethiopic), and nearly two hundred fathers of all eras. The Byzantine text is cited under the symbol w.

So this is a fun find. Throw in that it was $10 (Canadian!) and Rico is thrilled with this purchase.

Watch out, I'm in "corporate schill" mode again.

Just noticed that Logos Bible Software (my employer) has announced an "Introduction to Biblical Greek Collection" on its pre-pub program. This includes two books:

• Swetnam's Introduction to the Study of New Testament Greek
• Zerwick's Biblical Greek, Illustrated by Examples

How cool is that?!

Update (2006-06-21): Logos added another pre-pub: Moulton-Howard-Turner's four volumes on Greek Grammar, including another volume from Turner on Grammatical Insights.

After reading Hill's stuff (see post below) I'm convinced, once again, that I need to do some serious reading of Irenaeus.

The problem is that I have no idea what a good modern edition of Irenaeus would be. I'd like something that doesn't sound like the KJV. If it has the Greek and notes that is bonus. Something like a Loeb edition with a modern translation would be perfect, but I'd also go for a cheap (but good) modern English translation and a recommendation as to which Greek edition to pursue (assuming the organizing schemes between the two editions are compatible).

Any help? Any ideas? Feel free to leave a comment or email me with edition citations.

Thanks!

Update (2006-06-13): I purchased two volumes. One is Irenaeus' Proof of the Apostolic Preaching. The other is Book I of Irenaeus' Against the Heresies. Both are volumes from Paulist Press' Ancient Christian Writers series. Note they only have Book I of Against Heresies, I guess I'll find another edition to cover the balance unless they rush out with the balance of it. If anyone has any leads on decent English editions of others of Irenaeus' works, please feel free to let me know, either via email or through comments on this post (comments are preferred).

About six weeks ago, I blogged about the first part of Charles E. Hill's book From the Lost Teaching of Polycarp, where he argues (somewhat convincingly) that Polycarp is the source of Irenaeus' anonymous presbyter in AH 4.27-32.

I read the second part of the book today. Amy is at a bridal shower, so after I got some chores 'round the house done (mowed the lawn, pressure-washed the driveway and front walk) I figured I could sit down with a book for awhile and get lost. Since I'd been meaning to get back into Hill's book (disclaimer: I took a year of Greek and a class on the Johannines from Dr. Hill when he was at Northwestern College) it seemed the thing to pick up.

As Hill himself mentions, the links between Polycarp and the work known as the Epistle to Diognetus (henceforth ad Diognetum) are largely circumstantial and cannot, with current data, be proven beyond reasonable doubt. That said, Hill makes a strong case. As a result of reading his work, I'm more ready to say that the work likely came from a Smyrnaean milieu, though a specific, direct tie to Polycarp is another matter.

For me, there are just too many jumps to make in order to get there. Each step seems legitimate, but as a group the whole seems rickety. Granted, there are few if any other theories about the authorship of ad Diognetum that do as well as Hill's in covering bases. But the textual jumps are, I think, too strained. They could be used as evidence with other more certain proof, but standing on their own they are inconclusive.

What are they? I'll say first off that Hill has many more parallels (textual, cultural, epigraphic, and geographic) than I'll list here. If you're interested, you need to read the book.

The primary jump -- the initial one Hill makes, anyway -- seems to be from the Martyrdom of Polycarp to chapters 11-12 of ad Diognetum. Hill makes a strong case that Polycarp was known as a "disciple of the apostles", language in common between Martyrdom of Polycarp and ad Diognetum. But from here we have to jump back from the Martyrdom -- an account of Polycarp's death with some reported speech that may or may not be accurate -- to Polycarp himself. And we have to jump over the large lacunae between chapters 10 and 11 of ad Diognetum.

Hill does this well. He makes a strong case for the unity of the ad Diognetum, positing that the lacunae are missing sheets from the same document, not a work of someone else pasted on the end of the ad Diognetum.* Hill also then makes the case that ad Diognetum is protreptic, that is, it is a work that was read by the author in the presence of Diognetus; it wasn't a letter. Hill finds other similarites between reported speech of Polycarp in the Martyrdom of Polycarp.

And again, it all could be, but to me it seems too stretched to stand on its own. Hill's thesis is worthy of consideration, but it, with current knowledge, cannot be proven. Even Hill admits that. In his preface he writes:

At the outset I will state that the two cases [i.e., Polycarp as source of AH 4.27-32 and Polycarp as source of ad Diognetum] rest on quite different sets of evidence; each case is presented and should be evaluated separately. The first will render results which, I will suggest, may be treated as a certainty. The results of the second rest, I believe, high in the realms of probability, though perhaps not quite at the same level as the first.

From my perspective, I can agree with this. That is, I think Polycarp as source of ad Diognetum is within the realms of probability as a result of reading Hill's work; but I do think it is still far from certain.

If you have an interest in the Apostolic Fathers, particularly in Polycarp, the ad Diognetum, or Irenaeus; or if you have an interest in authorship studies or general texutal analysis, I recommend Hill's work with enthusiasm.

Update (2006-06-04): Stephen C. Carlson (Hypotyposeis) asks about where Polycarp's epistle to the Philippians fits into this whole theory. It does fit in, but Hill finds more parallels in the martyrdom because it is more contemporary with ad Diognetam in Hill's view. The martrydom happened in 155 or 156 (likely); Hill places ad Diognetam in the 140s. The epistle, however, is much earlier (30 years earlier, at least, perhaps 40). Hill also sees differences in genre. The epistle is just that, an epistle. The ad Diognetam is apologetic and intended to be given as an address to convince. This is why Hill focuses more on the reported speech sections of the Martyrdom; if they are accurate of Polycarp's style of debate and presentation, then they will likely show more parallels. Hill does have a whole section (pp. 136-140) on the corresponences between Polycarp's epistle and ad Diognetam. One major item of correspondence is discussion of Christ's atoning as substitutionary, which Hill says "is not at all comon elsewhere in the second century": Poly 1.2, Poly 8.1, Poly 9.2 compared to Diog 9.2-5.

* I think the case is strong enough that the adherents of the general consensus that chaps 1-10 and 11-12 are from different documents need to respond to the case presented by Hill.

Something very cool happened at Logos the other day.

If you're into Biblical studies or if you're a bibliophile or if you just want some more high-end academic reference works and monographs in your digital library ... well, you should really check out this article on the Logos Bible Software Blog.

My favorite book cataloguing site and my favorite used book site form a partnership. Check out the press release from Abebooks.

Let's just hope there isn't an 'AbeThing' in the offing. But all in all, it sounds awesome. Congrats, Tim!

Related News: Check out LibraryThing's new Thing-ology blog if you're at all into book cataloguing or social aspects of networks.

[disclaimer: I do work for Logos Bible Software, but the below post is from me, not from Logos.]

If you're in Biblical Studies at all, working with the text of the Hebrew Bible or the Greek New Testament, you've heard of the Hermeneia Commentary series.

All 40 published volumes will be published as a CD-ROM product in the Libronix Digital Library System (LDLS), fully compatible and complementary to Logos Bible Software.

You can pre-order Hermeneia now via the Logos Pre-Publication system. The price is currently $500 (do the math: $12.50 per volume!), the pre-pub system only charges you upon release and shipment of the software.

You don't have to like the conclusions of the Hermeneia commentaries, but if you're doing anything serious, you have to deal with them. The series is unique in that it includes volumes of extra-biblical material too (e.g., 1 Enoch, Didache, Ignatian Epistles, 4 Ezra, etc.).

More info is on the pre-pub page. Do check it out.

Ten months ago, I blogged about the effect the Mohr-Siebeck catalogue can have on a well-meaning bibliophile such as myself.

Well, I succombed and ordered Hill's book, From the Lost Teaching of Polycarp (with SBL meeting discount order form, of course) at the end of the year last year. I received it in February. I've finally made it through the first part of Hill's book so I thought I'd comment.

Note also that the book was mentioned on the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog in early March.

Anyway, in Part 1, Hill seeks to show that Irenaeus bases portions of his Against Heresies on memorized recollections of his earlier teaching by Polycarp. The formal title of the first part is "Polycarp Contra Marcionem: Irenaeus' Presbyterial Source in AH 4.27-32".

That is, Hill's position is that in those sections, when Irenaeus appeals to "the presbyter", he is in actuality appealing to Polycarp's teaching, and that the teaching therein is direct recollection of Irenaeus' earlier teaching received under Polycarp.

The argument is convincing and well-supported. If Hill's position is correct, one of the interesting side-effects is a newfound position of Polycarp as heresiologist, specifically disputing against Marcion and his ilk. Another insight would be in the realm of interpretation of Scripture. The interpretive process shown in the specified sections would logically be tied back to Polycarp.

All in all, it is an interesting read. If you're interested in this sort of stuff (Patristics, Apostolic Fathers, early church history, development of early Christianity) then Part 1 of Hill's book is highly recommended.

I'm really looking forward to Part 2, where Hill advances speculation that Polycarp could be the ultimate source of the text we know as The Epistle to Diognetus. In his preface, Hill admits this is much more speculative than his position in Part 1. Given my interest in both Polycarp and the Epistle to Diognetus, this one should be fun to work through.

Upon perusing upcoming releases noted in Publishers Weekly, I noticed a title that Thomas Nelson is set to release (Amazon says Aug. 8, 2006) by Darrell Bock: The Missing Gospels: Unearthing the Truth Behind Alternative Christianities.

There isn't much information on Thomas Nelson's web site. They simply say:

In an easy-to-understand writing style, best-selling author and New Testament expert Darrell Bock helps you examine the claims about missing "secret" gospels and other early forms of Christianity. Bock presents samples of extra-biblical materials and compares them to biblical texts, enabling you to make your own judgments.

Sounds like it could be a response to Bart Ehrman's Lost Scriptures and Lost Christianities volumes from Oxford.

Does anyone know anything else about this upcoming volume from Bock?

Oh yeah. I can't not blog this. Even though this is my third post today, I need to mention it. It is too good not to pass along.

Logos Bible Software have placed Barth's Church Dogmatics (yes, 14 volumes of Barth-tastic goodness!) in its pre-publication system. Given enough interest it will be produced and made available electronically in Logos Bible Software.

Read more here. Now, tell your friends. Go.

Ok, it isn't really the news, but it is in Publisher Weekly's Religion BookLine.

Hebrew Classic Might Bring Surprises for Christians

It's on Exodus in Targum Onkelos, the first of five volumes to be released covering all of Targum Onkelos. Queue up to get your copy, the article says they're only publishing 3000 of them ...

My good friend (and my boss, but that has nothing to do with this) Bob Pritchett has written a book called Fire Someone Today. It hits the streets in April, published by Nelson Business. Don't worry, the book isn't all about firing people — though that chapter does deal with a lesson that can be tough to learn in any environment.

Business books aren't normally my cup of tea. Bob's book, however, is not a mushed pablum of "you can do it!" positive expectation management crud; and it is not simply a list of maxims with some expanded and vapid thoughts. Instead, Bob writes about experiences he's had and what he's learned in the context of running a small business (Logos Bible Software). This is take-home stuff that can be applied.

While the chapters are geared toward entrepreneurs, there are some that are generally applicable outside of that environment. The chapter that simply recommends that you take people to lunch — frequently — is a good one that can be applied just about anywhere. If you have a colleague whom you respect or want to know more about, invite him to lunch. If you have students, or a pastor, or a parishioner you'd like to become more familiar with, lunch is a great option.

Anyway, check out the preview info on Bob's book on his web site, FireSomeoneToday.com.

I ran across two books on the subject that are online that could be of interest to bibliophiles out there.

Bookbinding for Beginners by Florence O. Bean. Originally published 1914.

Bookbinding and The Care of Books: A Handbook for Amateur Bookbinders & Librarians by Douglas Cockerell with Drawings by Noel Rooke. Originally published 1902. Includes a handy glossary!

For those interested, Publishers Weekly is running an interview with Bart Ehrman on his recent book Misquoting Jesus.

The interview is really short, so don't get your hopes up. FWIW, I blogged briefly on the book back in July when PW had a preview of the book.

Loren Rosson is on a tear. He's now blogging Perelandra, my favorite of the C.S. Lewis space trilogy. Rosson writes:

Perelandra serves an evangelical purpose like anything else Lewis wrote, but it works for the secular reader as much the Christian, reading like mythology or science-fiction. It's a fascinating and intense examination of how a person from an unfallen world processes thought, and what she is capable of doing as she struggles to think for herself. Try and imagine it: a world where everything is good -- there aren't even words for "bad" or "evil" -- its (two) people so in touch with their deity that stepping outside his will is impossible to conceive, at least on their own.

Check it out. And read the book, too -- it is relatively short and shouldn't take to long to get through.

Perhaps I'll bust out my copy and give it a read to keep up with Loren as he goes.

Update (2006-01-24): Loren makes his first post. I'm already behind! But his post touches on why I so enjoy reading Perelandra: It makes me think about the depth which sin affects us. In our day-to-day comings and goings, things and perspectives we can't even fathom have been touched by the depraved nature we carry. The very idea that, as Loren puts it, "not all events are pleasing or welcome" is foreign to me. We live in a world where disappointment, deception and death are the norm. Yet in Perelandra, the Green Lady has little to none of this; or at least she doesn't see situations as disappointing. We'd say she's naive because she seems so innocent and unknowing; in reality it is an indictment on us and our sin that prevents us from experiencing the purity of the experience as the Green Lady does. If you have read Lewis' Screwtape Letters and enjoyed the dialogue of letters between Screwtape and Wormwood regarding their attempts to infiltrate the lives of humans for nefarious purposes, I'd say you'll enjoy Perelandra exponentially more because it deals, via dialogue (almost Socratic), with explaining concepts taken for granted in a sinful world to one who is innocent and pure. In so doing, it causes the reader to re-evaluate these concepts and even understand their influence in our lives to a greater degree.

Update II (2006-01-26): Loren's second installment is up. Go read it. He's walking through the progression of Weston's (who is devil-possessed) argument to the Green Lady; attempting to walk her mentally from obedience and reliance to disobedience. The argument is subtle yet powerful (one gets the sense that Wormwood or one of his cohorts could be at Weston's helm) with, as Loren describes, the idea that to disobey when obedience has no ground or common sense may actually be intended by the Maker. That is, when obedience to a given command makes no sense, Weston's/the devil's argument is that perhaps that command is meant to be broken, that the act of disobedience in that one nonsensical area is actually liberating — like tasting new fruit. Loren captures this fairly well when he writes:

There must, according to the devil, be a specific reason why God gave a commandment so different from his other commandments. In all other matters, obedience to God amounts to doing what seems good in one's own eyes (such as loving and not killing). But one cannot see the goodness in a prohibition against dwelling on the Fixed Land. The reason, he suggests, is that it is a commandment given for no other reason than to be broken — to empower God's creatures to think and act for themselves.

Stated bluntly to a Christian who understands that one is either a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness, this seems a bit absurd. We obey because we are His, not because we happen to agree with His commands at a particular point. But Lewis' progression of the argument in Perelandra is an incredible thing to behold; at times one finds himself reacting similar to the Green Lady: It sounds all wrong but strangely makes sense. How to counter? That's up next for Loren to examine.

Update III (2006-01-27): Loren's third installment is up. He even cites and links me in his discussion (cheers for that, Loren). Ransom's response to the sorties of Weston/the devil is similar to mine above (and I haven't re-read the book yet — that's comforting). Loren quotes Ransom on this:

It's true that the commandment against living on the Fixed Land is different from other commandments, but this isn't because God secretly wants it to be broken. It's because there must be one commandment obeyed for the sake of obedience alone, in order to taste the joy of obeying. Obedience must amount to more than doing what seems good anyway. (101)

The counter to this argument offered by Weston/the devil is one of pragmatism; to say that the goodness and blessings of Christ — cherished, loved and valued by Christians — would never have happened had man not disobeyed. This, of course, is true; but it presupposes that salvation in Christ (which I cherish deeply; praise and glory to God for His goodness!) is better than if man had not sinned.

Stepping away from the context of Perelandra for a moment, this is the crux of the issue for me: Who is God? Is God? Or am I? If I am sovereign and in control, then obedience to a rule about fixed land (or which tree not to eat from) is silly. I make the choice. If, however, God is God, then obedience to his commands, whether they seem silly on the surface or not, is to be done. Christians largely realize that obedience requires effort and that our obedience cannot be perfect. Our goal is no less, we run the race with no less vigor, but our ability cannot reach the goal. Thus the need for Christ, our Mediator and Savior.

Stepping back into the context of Perelandra, we can see some of what Lewis is doing: He's causing us to think about the issue of obedience from the perspective of the Green Lady; the one who knows nothing other than obedience to His will. We see that she is innocent and rational, capable of learning and assimilating new ideas and concepts. She is offered a choice between Ransom and Weston. Weston says that freedom for the Green Lady and her children lies in, as Loren puts it, "truly awakening" by transgressing the command of God? Ransom says that's rubbish; that "... there must be one commandment obeyed for the sake of obedience alone, in order to taste the joy of obeying". (101)

Loren, thanks for blogging about this; it is good for me to remember the book (which I still need to re-read) and to consider these issues. I'm looking forward to your next post.

Update IV (2006-01-30): Loren's fourth installment (apparently in a series of five posts plus introductory post) is up. Go check it out. I won't be able to comment further on his post as time is tight right now. Perhaps later.

Update V (2006-01-31): Loren's fifth and concluding installment in the series is up. Again, not much time to interact with Loren's stuff. And, since I have not seen and am not familiar the the movie Pleasantville which he references, I don't know how much I should comment. From Loren's description, it sounds like Pleasantville isn't all that pleasant or perfect — but I wouldn't expect a proper and true conception of edenic paradise to come from the mind of anyone, C.S. Lewis included. None of our conceptions of a perfect, sinless world/land/state will be adequate — though Lewis' portrayal of Eden-on-Venus in Perelandra is likely as close as we'll get.

It's true, Logos Bible Software (my employer) has placed three new titles into its "pre-publication" system. These are things that we'll work on given enough interest to cover costs. These titles are:

• Wolfhart Pannenberg, Systematic Theology (very nearly over the top ... rush and reserve it at what will likely be its lowest price — $69.95 as I type this, it will change!)
• G.C. Berkhouwer's 14 volume Studies in Dogmatics. Hoo-baby that's awesome! And, I mean, Berkhouwer is Dutch, so you know it's gotta be good!
• The Lectionary Commentary: Theological Exegesis for Sunday's Texts (3 vols). I know little about this because I don't come from a tradition that uses the lectionary. But it is still worth checking out, particularly if you use the lectionary in your worship and teaching.

If you're unfamiliar with the Logos Prepublication System, there is more info on the Logos web site.

Awhile back, Bob and I were doing a lot of reading about the founding fathers. Guys like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Gouverner Morris. But our favorite was John Adams. If you're into history and biography, you should get a copy of David McCollough's John Adams. This is what historical biography should be like.

Adams was a prolific letter writer. And just yesterday, I noticed that the Massachusetts Historical Society's Adams Family Papers site has made the correspondence between John Adams and his wife Abigail public.

There are images of the letters as well as transcriptions. Letters from John to Abigail and from Abigail to John are there.

One letter (from Oct. 4 1762, during the Adams' courtship, apparently) gives some insight into the sort of guy that Adams could be.

I've got it, and Eric Sowell (The Coding Humanist) is the source of my woe.

He's got a leaf of the Complutensian Polyglot. So very cool. That thing is almost 500 years old! And it is an awesome work. They don't call it a 'polyglot' for nothin'.

Note I've blogged about the coolness and structure of the Complutensian NT.

Finally. It's here in my grubby little hands. Matthew Brook O'Donnell's Corpus Linguistics and the Greek of the New Testament. I've been waiting months for this book. I'm so stoked that it is in print.

When you do what I do for a living — munge Greek text — a title like this simply begs to be read. So now I get to read it. Here's the first paragraph of the blurb at Sheffield Phoenix Press:

The burgeoning field of corpus linguistics studies aspects of a language that are susceptible to computer processing once a sizable electronic corpus of the language has been assembled. In this groundbreaking work, O’Donnell takes the unusual step of applying the techniques of corpus linguistics to Hellenistic Greek and especially the Greek of the New Testament, and in three areas shows, with a multitude of worked examples, how it could sharpen our appreciation of the language.

I may or may not comment further on it on this blog. I'll say that if you're into linguistics generally, and into the Greek of the New Testament specifically, then you may want to consider the book even if you're not into analysis of linguistic corpora. True, there is some technical stuff in the book (how awesome to see a book in Biblical Studies with XML on the page!) but there is also good thinking about different approaches and data analysis that could come in handy even if one isn't into such things.

If you're generally interested in stuff like this, you should check out the OpenText.org project too. Matthew Brook O'Donnell is the project's Director of Research and Development. They are doing some seriously cool stuff. Also note that Logos Bible Software (my employer) will be publishing an edition of the OpenText.org Syntactically Annotated Greek New Testament; this has been mentioned in some detail by yours truly in the Syntax section of the Logos Bible Software Blog.

I should also state that because of Logos' involvement with the OpenText.org material, I've had the pleasure of working with Matt and others from the OpenText.org project. The experience of working with them on implementing the OpenText.org material has been one of the highlights of my year. I've learned much as a result and look forward to learning more in working through Matt's book and continuing to work on the OpenText.org material.

Update (2005-12-13): Thanks, Wayne (Better Bibles Blog) for the encouragement and for posting a notice to the B-Greek list. B-Greekers, if you happen to come here and check it out, you may be interested in other posts I've written in the Greek category. There are a bunch of posts in that category, so it may take time for the page to generate.

M.R. James' Old Testament Legends: Being Stories Out of Some of the Less-Known Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament has been keyed and is now available via Project Gutenberg.

Here's the TOC:

ADAM
THE DEATH OF ADAM AND EVE
ABRAHAM
THE STORY OF ASENETH, JOSEPH'S WIFE
JOB
SOLOMON AND THE DEMONS
THE STORY OF EBEDMELECH THE ETHIOPIAN, AND OF THE  DEATH OF JEREMIAH
AHIKAR

What I'm not aware of is whether or not these are translations or retellings. They are not versified; so I'm inclined to think they may be retellings instead of formal translations. The preface does list the source(s) used for each document.

There's also a zip file with some of the page images (illustrations).

Update (2005-12-13): Jim Davila (Paleojudaica.com) links and adds comments and more links about M.R. James, his writings, his contributions and further discussion. All worth the read. Go check it out.

So, I had every intention of making Donald Hagner's paper on interpretation in the Apostolic Fathers, but by the time I found the room where the paper was being read, it was too crowded to get into. I hoofed it back to the convention center and sat in a few papers. One was Donald Fairbarin on Patristic Soteriology. Interesting stuff. The other was John Hutchison on Martyrdom and Suffering in the early church. He had some interesting stuff to say about Ignatius, and some thought-provoking comments on suffering as fellowship with Christ.

After that was a bunch of meetings -- impromptu and otherwise -- with all sorts of people.

In between all of that, however, I found time for a quick browse of the book aisles. I had promised myself I wasn't going to buy anything today, but then I found myself at Wipf & Stock. There were two slim volumes that jumped out at me. Together I spent less than 20 bucks on 'em, so I figure I did OK:

Francis Xavier J. Exler, A Study in Greek Epistolography: The Form of the Ancient Letter. I justified this one because, well, the Pastorals are letter, so looking into form is something that is important.

H.B. Swete, The Gospel of St. Peter: The Text in Greek and English with Introduction, Notes, and Indices. This was partly due to Stephen C. Carlson's clarion call to pursue critical editions of things, and partly due to some other factors I won't discuss here.

Anyway, a good day. But a tiring day. Hopefully I'll get some sleep tonight. 

I know nothing of the book Greek Popular Religion by Martin P. Nilsson (published in 1940) apart from its having been made available at sacred-texts.com.

The blurb on the site states:

This is a short survey of Greek religious practice and beliefs from ground level. The texts of Homer, Hesiod, and the Greek dramatists and philosophers, who defined Greek beliefs, have long been known and understood. There is a conventional view of Greek mythology which is taught by rote to school children (at least until recently), which relies on a neat set of 'myths and legends.' It was not until the pioneering efforts of Jane Harrison and other scholars in the 19th century that a picture emerged of what actually constituted Greek religion, and how it evolved. This monograph covers what was known by the middle of the 20th century. It gives a fascinating look at the very earthy popular side of Greek religion, with its noisy (and often messy) festivals, initiations, secret societies, oracles, and a practical but very superstitious belief system. He also discusses how some of these beliefs and festivals, under the guise of Christianity, have persisted to this day.

I figure it may be of interest to some, hence the post.

About a month ago, I blogged about LibraryThing. Several other bibliobloggers have mentioned the service as well.

For the unaware, LibraryThing is this cool service you can use to catalog your books fairly easily. For example, here's my profile.

The service has grown by leaps and bounds, and the guy who runs (Timothy Spalding) it has added some nifty stuff in the past month. I'd highly recommend it.

One of my early hesitations with LibraryThing was that I couldn't add my own stuff en masse. See, I have wanted (and wanted) to write my own book database thingie that would catalog both print and electronic resources (i.e., books for Logos Bible Software / Libronix Digital Library System). I've bugged Bob Pritchett about it for around three years now.

Then LibraryThing went and did it. Tim added a "universal import" that simply takes a list of ISBN numbers and then does the rest.

"Whoa ... I can make that work!" was my first thought.

I've hacked together a small HTA ("Hyper-Text Application") that (slowly) accesses the LDLS via the LDLS Object Model, builds a list of books, and allows you to export a list of ISBN numbers. Then ... if you sign up for LibraryThing (first 200 books are free!) you can import the list and use LibraryThing to start to catalog your print and electronic resources.

Realize that not all LDLS resources have ISBN data, but several do. So this is one way to get a large chunk-o-resources from LDLS into LibraryThing.

Before I provide a link, a few warnings:

1. It requires you to have IE on your machine (if you have Logos, you have IE).
2. It runs locally on your own box.
3. Your virus software will pitch a fit when it runs. It's OK. If you don't trust me, just disconnect from the internet when you run it.
4. Oh, you may have to adjust your IE security settings. I dunno. It worked on my box, though.
5. It is S-L-O-W.
6. The interface is horrid. Interruptive dialogs with no ability to cancel out? Oh yeah! Now you know why I munge text & data, and why I don't write interface stuff for Logos.
7. On reflection, "horrid" is being too kind. The interface absolutely stinks.
8. Have I mentioned that it is slow?
9. It works on my laptop at home. It may not work on any other machine in the known world at this time. As they say, your mileage may vary.
10. I wrote the guts of this years ago when I was cutting my javascript teeth. I've learned much in the intervening years. It could be oh-so-much better. I mean, it's pretty bad. Keep a bucket handy if you happen to look at the code.
11. I specifically disclaim any responsibility for anything that happens to your machine as a result of running this thingie. That means success or failure. If you run it, you're responsible.

Now, instructions.

1. Download the zip archive.
2. Unzip it all into its own folder.
3. Double-click MetadataExplorer.hta.
4. Chide me for stupid interruptive dialogs and bad interface design.
5. Wait awhile. Hey, I said it was slow!
6. Click the button that says Export ISBNs
7. Chide me again for dumb interruptive dialogs.
8. Find your ISBNs in LDLS-ISBNs.txt in the same folder as the HTA file.

Next, you probably want to de-dupe the list. Most text editors will have some sort of sort/de-dupe functionality. Yes, the script should do this. But it doesn't. Have I mentioned I'm a cheesebag and should be held in contempt for writing this little thing? If you don't de-dupe, LibraryThing may import multiple instances of a given book, and then you'll have to flip through your scads of books and remove dupes in LibraryThing. That's really not that bad since Timothy Spalding is a big-time stud and has made this pretty easy to do. But if you can do it before you submit ... well, you should.

Note that the HTA was actually written for a different purpose -- to browse the raw "dublin core" metadata in LDLS books. Click on a book in the list, hit the "Display Metadata" button. I added the ISBN export because it was easier to add it here than whip something new up.

What's that? You still want to run this blasted nausea-inducing thing on your box? Well ... you've been warned.

Here's the link to the zip file: MetadataExplorer.zip (4.05 KB)

I haven't read this, and I don't want to. I consider it my bloggerly duty to at least post concerning it.

God's Blogs by Lanny Donoho. Published by Multnomah Press.

I did check out the sample chapter. Let me just say, if you look at it ... you were warned. Keep a bucket nearby in case you can't stand the nausea.

I'd venture to say that many readers of ricoblog have decent libraries, and that those libraries have reference volumes, many of which are likely geared toward Biblical studies or language study. Stuff like dictionaries, encyclopedias and lexicons.

But have you ever stopped to read the front matter? So often with reference volumes, we expect to use them simply for that: reference. We'll pick 'em up off of the shelf if/when we need 'em.

That's a shame. Really.

Even if it is a reference book that you will only sporadically use, you need to familiarize yourself with it. You need to open it up and look at the title page. Who wrote it? Where was it printed?

You need to look at the table of contents. Many times these books have introductory essays or articles in an appendix. These sorts of articles are necessary to read to understand how to best use the reference work. Or they may have information you'll never come across anywhere else.

You also need to look at the abbreviations. Are they familiar to you, or not?

And the indexes. Are there indexes? What about appendixes? You'd be surprised where appendixes show up. Contrary to popular opinion, the appendix is not a needless piece of flesh stuck in the body because there was space left. In books, they mean something, and they should at least be evaluated before they are discounted.

Here's an example: TDNT. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. It is 10 volumes of hefty print. Did you know that in addition to the index in volume 10, there is a lengthy article called "Pre-History of the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament"? The article is nearly 50 pages, written by Gerhard Friedrich, and it sets the scene for the development of the text it is appended to. It gives you all sorts of insight on the development of the text. And that will help you know when (and when not) to consult TDNT. Has it been years since you've read it? Read it again.

Here's another example: BDAG. Have you ever stopped to read the foreword? You should. It explains the typography of the book. It talks about stuff that has been expanded. It as well gives a short history of development of the work, from Preuschen (and before) to Bauer to Danker. Fun stuff.

Last example: If you use a Greek New Testament such as the NA27 or UBS4, and you haven't read the introductions or front matter -- your study is deprived. Especially with the NA27. You need to read these, and not just to understand the apparatus. The marginal reference systems (for the NA27 this includes cross-references, Eusebian Canons, and other cool stuff) are explained there as well.

Anyway, if you're one who has never worried about reading prefaces, forewords or introductions to such things, you should stop right now and do it. Get familiar with these parts of the books you use so often. Your proficiency with these tools (yes, they're tools) will be better for it.

Note: This is true for electronic editions of these resources too.

You may have noticed the little "Random books from my library" thingie on the side of the page.

Browsing about, I happened across this cool thing called LibraryThing. I've been considering writing my own library organization database for awhile now, but when I came across LibraryThing, I figured I'd give it a shot.

Man, is it cool.

I entered some books -- which is very simple and almost addicting. Then I saw this "Similar Libraries" feature. Clicked the link. I saw that Brandon Wason's library (Novum Testamentum) is similar to mine. I ask myself, "what, didn't he blog this?". Used Google's blog search and found out that he did. Too bad I missed it. Bryan Cox (Biblaridion) and I also share some titles.

If you're a bibliophile -- if you're reading this blog, and you've read this entry this far, then you probably are -- check out LibraryThing.com.

I'm making curry tonight (Eli's Rajah Chow curry, man is it tasty!) and entering books while I let stuff simmer. Now that's multitasking!

We'll see if LibraryThing ends up on the list of web services/tools/things that I actually use (along with RealRhapsody and SharpReader). But for now, I'm completely enamored.

Update (2005-10-02): Brandon Wason and Loren Rosson comment about the coolness of LibraryThing. Loren's comment reminds me that I need to be a better citizen of the biblioblogosphere and make sure I keep up with other blogs at least semi-regularly, particularly if they've interacted on ricoblog in the past. So, I headed to bloglines and now have an extended blogroll for the site on the sidebar, which I'll be able to use to catch up on things every so often. Check out a few of the blogs, particularly if you're not familiar with them.

The Fall 2005 Catalog from Baylor University Press includes a new title from Scot McKnight, Jesus and His Death. His primary blog is Jesus Creed, though there appears to be a blog for this book too. Here's the book blurb from the publisher:

Recent scholarship on the historical Jesus has rightly focused upon how Jesus understood his own mission. But no scholarly effort to understand the mission of Jesus can rest content without exploring the historical possibility that Jesus envisioned his own death. In this careful and far-reaching study, Scot McKnight contends that Jesus did in fact anticipate his own death, that Jesus understood his death as an atoning sacrifice, and that his death as an atoning sacrifice stood at the heart of Jesus' own mission to protect his own followers from the judgment of God.

As with a few other Baylor University Press titles,** I was granted a sneak peek at this new book from McKnight (Amazon lists the release date as Sept. 30). Page proofs arrived in August; I set the goal of finishing it before September ended, and ... it looks like I've just barely made it.

The subtitle of McKnight's tome says it all: "Historiography, the Historical Jesus, and Atonement Theory". That really does sum it up. After setting the scene in the first chapter, McKnight delves into things like:

• What did Jesus know about his death?
• When did he know it?
• How did his understanding of his death develop?

This leads into the primary discussion of the book: What can be concluded regarding the concept of atonement based on the conclusions we can make regarding Jesus' statements and actions?

Not being one who has followed synoptic studies that much, I did feel like I was stepping into the middle of a conversation, especially at the beginning of the book. McKnight interacts with other material published in this area to a large degree. But, to McKnight's credit, he does a good job of orienting the reader with the necessary background material, authors and their material (the footnotes are excellent in this regard, ignore them at your peril!).

That said, realize that this is not a casual read, though I found McKnight more readable than, say, N.T. Wright. Chances are you'll want to have a Bible available to look stuff up as you work through major sections. The work is worth it; the section working through the Last Supper was highly illuminating, at least for me.

All in all: worth the read. If you have interest in Historical Jesus studies, synoptic studies, and stuff like that -- you should probably read this book.

** Other Baylor Press titles I've written about: Stephen C. Carlson's The Gospel Hoax: Morton Smith's Invention of 'Secret Mark' and Bruce W. Longenecker's Rhetoric at the Boundaries.

Mark Goodacre (NT Gateway Weblog) posts a press release from Fortress Press about George Nickelsburg's updated book, Jewish Literature between the Bible and the Mishnah.

The press release briefly mentions that the book comes with a CDRom containing the material in the book and more stuff.

I'd like to note that the CDRom uses the Libronix Digital Library System and is thus fully Logos Bible Software compatible. You can pick up this product from Fortress Press, in bookstores, or from Logos Bible Software — where we like to think the electronic version comes with a free paperback edition of the book!

For a list of more electronic titles published by Fortress Press that come with a free paperback edition of the book (19 of 'em!) check out this list (they're available in this collected group, or individually).

Some of this stuff is pretty cool: Brueggemann's Theology of the Old Testament? Danker's Multipurpose Tools for Bible Study? Check out the full list for more gems.

Update (2005-09-22): In the comments, Ben asks about linking within the Logos version of Jewish Literature between the Bible and the Mishnah. I don't know if I'm really supposed to do this, but since I have access to a version internally, I took a screen capture. Hopefully this will answer Ben's question:

Reading Marginal Revolution this morning, I ran across this: Integrating blogging and academic publishing.

It points back to this article at Crooked Timber, another econ blog. It discusses arXiv.org, an 'e-Print archive' covering areas of physics. Now, I'm not a physicist and I don't even play one on TV. But from what I can tell, arXiv.org is a pre-press archive of articles destined for physics journals. It has RSS feeds, so scholars/academics/interested amateurs can monitor feeds for papers. And they now have added trackbacks, so that blog posts that discuss a particular article can be listed with the article in question, showing further discussion relating to the article. In other words, arXiv.org is making it easier for bloggers and blog readers to both access content and interact with archived content.

If I understand correctly, arXiv.org receives articles before they are printed (perhaps before they are submitted for print) and disseminates them. A blog called Cosmic Variance (link via Crooked Timber) discusses the basics for us non-physicists. Here's an excerpt:

Over the last fifteen years, the way that physicists communicate research results has been revolutionized by arxiv.org, the preprint server devised by Paul Ginsparg. Any time you write a paper, you send it to the arxiv, where its existence is beamed to the world the next day, and it is stored there in perpetuity. Along with the SPIRES service at SLAC, which keeps track of which papers have cited which other papers, physicists have a free, flexible, and easy-to-use web of literature that is instantly accessible to anyone. Most people these days post to the arxiv before they even send their paper to a journal, and some have stopped submitting to journals altogether. (I wish they all would, it would cut down on that annoying refereeing we all have to do.) And nobody actually reads the journals — they serve exclusively as ways to verify that your work has passed peer review.

So, the questions to discuss:

1. Let's start small: Should RBL have RSS feeds and the ability to trackback from a blog post to a review? Note that human editors at RBL would need to approve these trackbacks to prevent spam.

2. Thinking larger: What are the possibilities for a similar pre-press archive for Biblical Studies? Is the model of the Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism applicable (PDFs on the web until the journal is published)? What sorts of synergies would a service like that have with the academic journal publishers, and how could they peacefully co-exist?

In this week's edition of the Religion Bookline from Publishers Weekly, an article notes a new effort from the Templeton Foundation Press: Legacy of Historic Gifford Lectures Presented Online. Here's a blurb:

Back in 1885, when Scottish jurist Adam Lord Gifford bequeathed 80,000 pounds in his will to establish a series of lectures on natural theology, he would never have imagined that more than 100 years later all those lectures would be available to scholars and the general public all over the world with the click of a small device called a mouse.

They soon will be. Templeton Foundation Press launched the online database, www.giffordlectures.org, August 15, during the Edinburgh Book Festival. The new site contains 48 of the 208 volumes that resulted from the 212 lectures (the most famous being William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience) as well as a third of the summaries of those books, and half of the lecturers’ biographies. The remaining 160 books will be added to the site in the next few years.

I don't know anything about the Gifford Lectures, and I'm not a great fan of "natural theology", but the site has 48 searchable volumes o' data, many of which are probably not easy to find. So I had to mention it, perhaps some folks out there will find it useable.

For reasons I've yet to fathom, I was granted a sneak-peak at a book to be published by Baylor University Press as part of their Fall 2005 offerings. The book is by Bruce W. Longenecker: Rhetoric at the Boundaries: The Art and Theology of the New Testament Chain-Link Transitions. Here's the blurb from the Baylor University Press site:

In Rhetoric at the Boundaries, Bruce W. Longenecker explores the way in which New Testament authors used an ancient rhetorical device to effect smooth transitions, both large and small. His study demonstrates how recognition of this rhetorical technique proves decisive for New Testament interpretation. Longenecker accomplishes this by examining the evidence for chain-link interlocks in a variety of ancient sources, including the Hebrew scriptures, Jewish and Roman authors of the Graeco-Roman world, and the Graeco-Roman rhetoricians. He then applies the results of the survey to fifteen problematic passages of the New Testament. In each case, Longenecker establishes the presence of chain-link interlock and highlights the structural, literary, and theological significance of the rhetorical device for New Testament interpretation.

I'm not through the book yet (nearly, but not quite) but I couldn't hold off writing about it anymore. I've learned a lot I hadn't considered in the past, specifically dealing with transitions between major and minor sections of text. I've only had one year of formal instruction in classical (Attic) Greek, the rest has sort of come along through reading references and trying to read Greek, so I've a lot to learn. Longenecker's book has helped me greatly in thinking about how sections transition from one to another.

I should also say: If you've only had a little bit of Greek and find running Greek text in books a daunting prospect, then the good news is that Longenecker has both Greek text and translation for most of his examples (both NT and other examples).

In the first section of his book, Longenecker actually takes the time to explain some different sorts of transitions that one comes across in Greek text of the New Testament period. He examines excerpts of Quintillian and of Lucian of Samosata, showing that the "chain-link" transition is something that was accepted rhetorical style of this period. He examines other non-canonical sources to establish that this transition style was used in different genres and by different writers.

He then applies his focus to the New Testament, and this is the most interesting part, at least to me. Longenecker identifies and elaborates upon several instances of the chain-link transition in various NT books and shows how they have been mis-identified and (in several instances) mishandled by most previous interpreters. These worked examples (for Romans, Gospel of John, the Apocalypse, and Acts) provide a good basis for understanding this type of structure.

Longenecker only examines a subset of potential links of this type, but he lays the proper foundation for identification and examination of these sorts of things. Looking back, I wish I'd read this before I started Ray Van Neste's Cohesion and Structure in the Pastoral Epistles, because Van Neste spends a lot of time examining transitions (the "boundaries" in Longenecker's title) for cohesion between sections. And there are times where Van Neste identifies chain-link transitions without calling them by that label.

If you're into discourse analysis, rhetoric, studies of textual cohesion, studies having to do with redaction criticism, or just working your way through the Greek text of a particular NT book, then you should consider reading Longenecker's work.

Update (2005-08-24): First off, thanks for the link, Wayne! Secondly, in the comments, John Kendall mentions George Guthrie's The Structure of Hebrews: A Text-Linguistic Analysis. I should say that Longenecker favorably mentions and interacts with this title from Guthrie. Ray Van Neste interacts with Guthrie's work as well. So I'd just recently put Guthrie on my to-buy list. The confirmation from John seals the deal.

I was all set to be done blogging for the weekend, and then I heard that we (Logos Bible Software) went and made another announcement about work we're doing with Greek stuff.

Blass-Debrunner-Funk as a Logos Prepublication

The sooner you order, the sooner we can commence work and get another high-quality reference grammar into Logos Bible Software!

[Oh, and while I've got your attention -- a little bird told me that the Logos Bible Software version of the New International Greek Testament Commentary (NIGTC) is very close to shipping ... like, the disk is at or on its way to the replicators ... which means the pre-pub price will soon be a thing of the past, if you get my drift (nudge, nudge; wink, wink).]

The Gutenberg Project has digitized a number of Doré's illustrations. UPenn has these editions online, the image quality is decent. Linking to the list of the books is a different problem. The below URL, copied and pasted to a browser address box, should work:

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/author?name=Dor%26eacute%3b%2c%20Gustave%2c%201832%2d1883