Over the past few weekends, I've been spending my time working on yet another little side project: PastoralEpistles.com.

The site is a bit of a mutt. It is part blog, part wiki, and part something else that I'm not sure how to describe. What it allows me to do is to post information about the Pastoral Epistles in a few different formats:

• Blog-style: So, the posts I've been making here that touch on the Pastorals will probably move over to the Pastoral Epistles.com blog.
• Bibliography-style: One thing I really want to do is develop an annotated bibliography for the Pastoral Epistles. And not just books, but journal articles and web sites too. This will probably be the primary type of content, at least in the short term, for the site.
• Articles: I may write longer articles, or post sample PDF files of the stuff I'm writing as I work my way through the Pastorals.
• Site Documents: There's a certain amount of site overhead and communication that needs to go on.

The setup is extensible so I can create new "post types" by popping a new XML file in the right spot on the server. Rather than typing in HTML, the syntax is based on some very simple wiki-style codes. I can add different codes and such fairly easily. (I do still need to support dumping in raw HTML and ignoring it, though ... )

I'm sure James Tauber is thinking right now, "Gee, sounds like Leonardo." It may be. But writing the code is the fun part, isn't it? And why should someone else have all the fun?

The site still has a decent amount of work left to be done. Consider the current incarnation a beta. I haven't written the component that generates an RSS file yet, and there are some management tools I've yet to write, plus a few other things. I hope to get to the RSS file bit next weekend. I also don't have any support for comments (I still haven't decided if I want to support comments). But the mechanics of posting and browsing are supported, so I figured I'd make it live and get some folks banging on it so I can see what I haven't anticipated and what I need to fix.

Please check it out. Poke around. Click on stuff. I'm interested to know what you think about it. I've viewed the site in FireFox, IE 6.0, and Opera (all on WinXP) and it looks fine, so it should fly just about anywhere, I'd think. It looks the worst in IE (the login and password boxes not lining up is the problem; they do in other browsers. I'll have to work on that).

The login, BTW, is for "authors" to post links. If you're interested in being an author for some reason, contact me at: articles | pastoralepistles | com. Point me to stuff you've written online and plead your case.

Also, if you know of sites that I should include in the URL Bibliography, please drop a line to me at: articles | pastoralepistles | com. I'm guessing you'll know how to munge that into an email address.

Update: James Tauber writes in the comments:

It's also made me wonder if you, me and Zach Hubert should put together some kind of hosted site where people get a blog and a bunch of collaborative tools suited specifically to serious biblical study.

As for me: It sounds interesting. I've already learned a few lessons in writing the code for PastoralEpistles.com, and I'm sure I'll learn many more before things in the weeks to come. I'll warn you all, though -- I'm more of a data hound than an actual, bona-fide programmer, but it could at least be fun to talk about. If Zach chimes in and thinks it's a good idea, perhaps James can drop us both an email with some more details of what he's thinking?

Tech Geeks: It's all server-side JScript that munges/writes XML for posts and views of posts. This is the thing that I wrote the Beta Code to Unicode converter for a few weeks back. It lets me key the Greek in according to Greek Beta Code in the wiki-syntax, but it munges it into normalized unicode for the display. For the record, I'm not interested in releasing the code to the public. It's a big byzantine ball o' spaghetti-fied crud that nobody but me should be penalized with having to grok.

First, Marc Goodacre has posted a copy of the Greek of the Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim Fragment) online. It's a word doc, and it's unicode. If you read my li'l backwoods of a blog, you surely read Dr. Goodacre's, so you probably already know about this. But I mention it just in case you don't. (In which case — add the NT Gateway Weblog to your aggregator now.)

So, I had to grab the transcription and give it a look-see. I can futz may way through the Greek, but I still have problems getting sentences together, so I did a search and (of course) ran into Early Christian Writings' English edition of the Apocalypse of Peter. So, I'm scanning down them both, trying to make sense of it all.

Then I come across the first part of § 24 (English from M.R. James edition):

I ran across κοσμηθεῖσαι and I thought to myself, “I know that word!”; as in, I've looked into it before. It's also found in 1Ti 2.9:

Knowing I'd written on this before, while at home for lunch I went back to my notes on 1Ti 2.9. Here are some other citations (English only):

• 1Pe 3.5-6: “For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.” (ESV)
• Re 21.2: “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (ESV)
• Testament of Judah 12.1: “And after these things, while Tamar was a widow, she heard after two years that I was going up to shear my sheep, and adorned herself in bridal array, and sat in the city Enaim by the gate.” (from R.H. Charles' edition. cf. Ge 38)
• Josephus, Wars 2.444: “ ... for he went up thither to worship in a pompous manner, and adorned with royal garments, and had his followers with him in their armor.” (Whiston translation)
• MPoly 13.2: “When the pyre was prepared, Polycarp laid aside all his garments and loosened his belt. He was also trying to undo his sandals, even though he was not accustomed to do so, since each of the faithful was always eager to do it, to see who could touch his skin most quickly. For he was adorned with every good thing because of his exemplary way of life, even before he bore his testimony unto death.” (Ehrman translation)
• 1Cl 33.7: “We should realize that all those who are upright have been adorned with good works, and even the Lord himself, when he adorned himself with good works, rejoiced.” (Ehrman translation)

All in all, κοσμέω is a fun little word. Notably, the passage in 1Ti 2.9-10 uses the word in both its literal and figurative senses at the same time. According to this passage, women are to “adorn themselves” with “respectable apparel” — things like modesty, self control, and good works. They are not to “adorn themselves” in an ostentatious show of wealth and pride by wearing gold, pearls, and super-fancy hairstyles.

Now I have another citation to add to my list: Apocalypse of Peter 24. Thanks, Dr. Goodacre.

Update: I knew I'd seen something else on this before. H.B. Swete published an edition on the Gospel of Peter from Ahkmim Fragment. The Life and Works of Henry Barclay Swete has Swete's translation of the Gospel of Peter fragment up, along with (somewhat smallish) graphics of the fragment itself. The site setup makes direct linking impossible, so from the front page click on the "Antique Texts" item in the sidebar. Then scroll down to the section "Editions of Antique Texts". You should see the link in that section.

I think I need to declare a book-buying moratorium for the month of February, at least for me. But sometimes you run across a unique title that you know you'll use, so you just have to get it.

I was reading Donald Hagner's New Testament Exegesis and Research and hit the bibliography section where he mentioned the title Hellenistic Commentary on the New Testament, edited by M. Eugene Boring and a few other folks. The title sounded intriguing, so I checked it out at Amazon.com. They want $70.00 for it — too rich for my blood.

So, I checked AbeBooks for a used copy. Bingo. There was a bookseller in Portland, OR selling a copy in great shape for under $30.00. That bookseller has at least two more copies available (at the time of this posting) at $27.00, check it out if you're interested.

The book is arranged canonically. There are 976 units on which "commentary" is provided. The commentary is an excerpt from a classic document of some sort — in my short perusal I've seen Philo, Josephus, Qumran stuff, Pseudepigrapha, Apocrypha/Deuterocanon and a whole lot of other classical sources cited. After each citation is a short explanation of how the citation applies to the verse at hand, sometimes with references to other textual units. It is fully indexed, so you can hop to the index in the back and see, for example, where Seneca has been quoted (26 times).

Here is unit 828 on 1Ti 1.9 “understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers,” (ESV).

828. 1 Timothy 1:9

Sentence of Antiphanes

The one who does no wrong is in no need of law. (MEB/from Stobaeus, Anthologium vol. 3).

Cf. Similarly no. 540; Menander of Carchedon, “Wherever good is found, it is better than the law” (MEB/from Stobaeus, Anthologium vol. 3); and Philo , “Allegorical Interpretation” 1.94: “There is no need, then, to give injunctions or prohibitions or exhortations to the perfect man formed after the [Divine] image, for none of these does the perfect man require” (LCL).

Most of the quotes are longer; I picked this one because it was short to type. The book is 633pp, published in 1995 by Abingdon.

Folks —

I noticed some trackback spam starting to crop up in some older posts on ricoblog. Therefore I've disabled the trackback features.

Not that big of a deal; nobody was using them anyway. But I thought I'd mention it in case somebody actually noticed and was wondering why.

About a month ago, I blogged about the New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS) Provisional Edition, which is slowly making its way online.

More has been posted. If you haven't been able to check it out for the past few weeks, you should. There are provisional editions of 11 books, plus a provisional edition on the twelve minor prophets, making for 23 books in total. The Pentateuch is now represented in its entirety. The complete list (and links to the PDF files) is on the page, give 'er a look-see.

Over the weekend, I stopped at Costco to do some shopping. Whenever I stop at Costco, I like to pick up a few bottles of wine. I typically purchase something I know (this time it was a Ravenswood Zinfindel — yummy) and something I don't know about. My wildcard purchase this time was a 2000 vintage Merlot from Colvin Vineyards.

I decided to open a bottle for Sunday dinner, and I went with the Colvin Merlot. I knew something was wrong off the bat, it didn't smell right; it had the smell of wet leather. It tasted horrible. The wine had gone bad somewhere along the line and it was simply undrinkable.

After tasting it, I decided to contact the vintner. So I hopped on the web and popped to their home page. It seems the 2000 Merlot actually won some awards. Bummer the bottle I got went bad. I went to their contact form, retrieved the contact email address, and wrote an email letting him know of my experience, that I figured it was a bad bottle, and sent the message. Then I dumped the bottle down the drain.

This morning, I had an email from Mark Colvin, the owner, proprietor and head wine-dude-ologist (I think that's the term) with the following message:

Sorry to hear of your flawed bottle experience.  That vintage of Merlot is sold out and was well received, but does not guarantee that an occasional bottle will be out of whack.  It happens to all wine, even the most expensive and highly regarded.

If you send your address I will be happy to send a 2001 Walla Walla Merlot.  While I am dismayed when one of these bottles pop up, I have to remember it is a part of the business and do whatever it takes to make it right.

I was down on the winery. I figured they had decent wine, but I didn't want to risk buying another bum bottle. Mr. Colvin's email and offer wasn't entirely expected, but boy was it appreciated. Depending on how the next round goes, his winery could be on my list of wineries to look for when I'm looking for a bottle of wine. 

In the past, I blogged on the use of a particular idiom that occurs in 1Ti 4.16:

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

I blogged about this in three previous posts (that I can find) where I'd noticed the same idiom appearing in some of the writings of the Apostolic Fathers:

• The Responsibility of the Teacher (cf. 2Cl 10.5)
• 2 Clement and "double" (cf. 2Cl 15.1; 2Cl 19.1)
• Ignatius to the Ephesians and "double" (cf. IgEph 16.1-2)

Well, I've been poking through my latest acquisition, and I came across a document entitled The Life of Polycarp. I've heard of this but never had the opportunity to read it. Lightfoot doesn't consider it genuine by any stretch. He thinks it was written in the middle of the fourth century and as such is a witness to ecclesiastical stuff a-goin' on back then. He included a transcription of the Greek, with apparatus and notes and also an English translation.*

And there it was. §XXV.

The Greek and the translation are from Lightfoot (Part II, Vol. II, §2, pp. 1038 [Greek] and 1080 [English]), any typos are mine.

* It's almost superfluous to mention, but Lightfoot was a stud.

Sometimes, I just can't help myself.

For the past year or so, I've been looking off and on for a set of Lightfoot's Apostolic Fathers volumes. No, not the one-volume Lightfoot/Harmer edition that was published after Lightfoot's death. I'm talking about the five volume set:

• Apostolic Fathers Part I: Clement of Rome (vol. I): 496 pages, including a complete 'autotype' (facsimile) of the "Constantinopolitan MS', the only complete witness to both letters of Clement in the Greek. It's a 50 pages of miniscule and it is awesome. It makes me want to take a course in paleography.
• Apostolic Fathers Part I: Clement of Rome (vol. II): 532 pages, with the Greek text, apparatus, notes, and translations of the letters. Several extended citations from parallels found in other MSS or mentions of Clement as well.
• Apostolic Fathers Part II: Ignatius and Polycarp (vol. I): 739 pages, with background information, quotations, parallels, info on MSS of Ignatius and Polycarp.
• Apostolic Fathers Part II: Ignatius and Polycarp (vol. II, §1): 584 pages. Greek texts, notes, apparatus, translations and introductions to the Ignatian epistles. 
• Apostolic Fathers Part II: Ignatius and Polycarp (vol. II, §2): 530 pages. An appendix to the Ignatian letters, with fragments and alternate recension in Latin, Syriac, Coptic and Arabic. A beautiful book. Also the Greek text, notes, apparatus, etc. for the Polycarp material.

Well, I spotted vol II §§1&2 of part II listed by a bookseller in London. I sent an inquiry asking if they had the other volumes available as I was interested in the set. They were able to cobble together a set of the five volumes, and next thing I know they were winging their way to me across the Atlantic. I wasn't expecting them for about another week, so when they arrived today it was a complete (and welcomed) surprise.

These books are just plain cool. I'm looking forward to being able to consult them and also working through the material. Polycarp first, at some point, and I'll figure out the rest after that.