After reading Mark Goodacre's belated notice of Biblical Studies Carnival II, I suddenly realized: "Whoa, I'm hosting BSC:III ... I'd better get some things together!"

So this is the official call for submissions and nominations for the third Biblical Studies Carnival. What is a "Biblical Studies Carnival"? Tyler Williams summed it up well:

The Biblical Studies Carnival is patterned after the History Carnival, the Philosophers’ Carnival, and the Christian Carnival, among others.

A blog "carnival" is a blog post where a host blogger links to and sums up the best blog articles in a given subject area in specific period of time. The host typically rotates among a number of different bloggers ensuring diversity and different perspectives in the subject area. Some carnival hots will group entries following different themes, while others go through the entries in order of submission (the former is preferred, though not required).

What does this mean? It means you get to tell me what carnival-itize. You suggest, I assemble (with short consideration as to relevance, of course). I've already flagged a few posts, but I need your help to pull it off. Please note: Only posts made in the month of February 2006 will be considered.

If you read blogs in the Biblical Studies realm, send email with links to suggested posts (your own blog or someone else's blog) to: biblical_studies_carnival AT hotmail DOT com. Or use the submission form at BlogCarnival.com. Either way, I'll get the submissions and cobble together a post that will pale in comparison to the brilliance and mastery displayed by the ineffable Tyler Williams in the Electric Boogaloo version Biblical Studies Carnival.

If you're a blogger in the Biblical Studies realm, send links to your stuff using the above methods. Please don't be bashful about selecting a few of what you consider to be your best posts of the month and send them my way; this is one cool way to expand your blog readership. People who don't normally read your stuff will click on the link and end up at your site; if they like it they may just decide to stick around. What could be better?

BSC:III will run in early March. I'm shooting for March 1 but may be just a little late.

I've mentioned my little Manuscript Copying Project before.

In the past week, two folks have mailed me handwritten copies of 2 Timothy based on the text I sent them. In short: The stuff is awesome. Big-time thanks to Suzanne McCarthy (details on her very cool stuff here) and Eli Evans. I've posted a pic of Eli's gorgeous MS (smaller version below). Eli has indicated to me he may blog some notes on his experience, so I'll post a link when he does.

(Update: Eli has two posts with more on the way: Post A (an intro); Post B; Post C; Eli discusses the MS he produced in Post B. Eli discusses his setup and even has a pic of a diglot he slammed out in Post C.)

There's still time to help out. If you have a hankerin' to copy some Greek, send me an email (address on sidebar) and I'll send you the details. I'm not planning on starting collation until spring (late March at the earliest).

Me? I'm still playing around, though I did copy about the first half of 2 Timothy on Saturday morning (sample below).

This sample is a little different. I'm using a sharpie ultra-fine tip; I think that'll be the one I use for my final effort. This one went much better than the last one. Yes, I'm playing with nomina sacra type stuff and I'd intended to do that before seeing Eli's MS. I may or may not do that in the final MS; it sure does make things flow easier -- I can see why abbreviating things or combining strokes was something to consider. I've thought through the mechanics of zeta and xi and even though they don't look that good, they were easier to write this time. You can still see that words that are unfamiliar are spread out a bit longer than words that are familiar. No paragraph starts on this page so no cap stuff, though my plan is to save space for that on the MS and go back and do larger letters later, perhaps adding color, perhaps not.

Ligatures in minuscule text confuse me. I do not understand their squiggles and coalescing of letters. Their strange forms frighten me with their letter-like shapes and unfamiliar conglomerations.

Now, I may just be a simple caveman, unfrozen from my chilled stupor by your "modern science"; I may be simple in my approach to things text-critical.

But one thing I do know: If a critic is confused by abbreviations in Greek inscriptions/papyri/etc., said critic should consider purchase of Abbreviations in Greek Inscriptions: Papyri, Manuscripts, and Early Printed Books by Al. N. Oikonomides for enlightenment (at least according to the bottom of this page from Gary Dykes). I have done this; I will report back on its utility once I am in receipt of said tome.

[for those who don't get the joke — google "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer" for enlightenment]

Words from brother Lawrence:*

Whatever we do, even if we are reading the Word or praying, we should stop for a few minutes -- as often as possible -- to praise God from the depths of our hearts, to enjoy Him there in secret. Since you believe that God is always with you, no matter what you may be doing, why shouldn't you stop for awhile to adore Him, to praise Him, to petition Him, to offer Him your heart, and to thank Him?

What could  please God more than for us to leave the cares of the world temporarily in order to worship Him in our spirits? These momentary retreats serve to free us from our selfishness, which can only exist in the world. In short, we cannot show God our loyalty to Him more than by renouncing our worldly selves as much as a thousand times a day to enjoy even a single moment with Him.

This doesn't mean you must leave the duties of the world forever; that would be impossible. Let prudence be your guide. But I do believe that it is a common mistake of spirit-filled persons not to leave the cares of the world from time to time to praise God in their spirits and to rest in the peace of His divine presence for a few moments.

* Brother Lawrence lived over 300 years ago, serving as a cook in a monastery. His meditations and correspondence are collectively known as The Practice of the Presence of God, and are available in several different editions and even on the web.

So head on over to Tyler Williams' Codex Blogspot and check it out.

Biblical Studies Carnival III will be hosted right here on ricoblog; an announcement and post submission information is forthcoming. Until then, head to the carnival and check out the links. You might even find a few links to ye olde ricoblog ...

Coffee-licious — though too bad they messed it up with all that milk.

PJ Williams of the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog writes about Why spelling matters.

He's not discussing English, he is discussing the practice of consolidating spellings (mostly) for words within editions of the Greek NT. And he thinks the practice is suspect.

I think this makes sense. We're dealing with lemmatised and morphologically analysed texts now, for the most part. That is, we can find specific forms despite different spellings if the text itself has different spellings where MS evidence is convincing. We don't need consolidated spellings to find the same form of the same word for concording/searching purposes.

Make sure to read PJ Williams' post; he goes into much more detail than I do here. It would be a big task, though. It makes me wonder — what does Reuben Swanson do in his NT Manuscripts project? If he charts the variants in differing MSS against Vaticanus, wouldn't his volumes reflect this data?

I've been looking into 2Pe 1.5-7 as part of a home-group study I'm taking part in. If you've read ricoblog for awhile, you know I love these repetitive structures because they drill concepts into my brain. And I think translations that dump this stuff into straight prose miss something. First, here's the English (from ESV):

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement 
    your faith with virtue,
    and virtue with knowledge,
    and knowledge with self-control,
    and self-control with steadfastness,
    and steadfastness with godliness,
    and godliness with brotherly affection,
    and brotherly affection with love. (2Pe 1.5-7, ESV)

Here's the Greek:

Καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦτο δὲ σπουδὴν πᾶσαν παρεισενέγκαντες ἐπιχορηγήσατε
    ἐν τῇ πίστει ὑμῶν τὴν ἀρετήν,
    ἐν δὲ τῇ ἀρετῇ τὴν γνῶσιν,
    ἐν δὲ τῇ γνώσει τὴν ἐγκράτειαν,
    ἐν δὲ τῇ ἐγκρατείᾳ τὴν ὑπομονήν,
    ἐν δὲ τῇ ὑπομονῇ τὴν εὐσέβειαν,
    ἐν δὲ τῇ εὐσεβείᾳ τὴν φιλαδελφίαν,
    ἐν δὲ τῇ φιλαδελφίᾳ τὴν ἀγάπην. (2Pe 1.5-7, NA27)

Even when you read this in the English, you get the idea of some sort of process with the next item building on the previous. But is that what is really going on here? Is Peter (or "the author", depending on your view of authorship here) really positing that there is some sort of cascading relationship/progress between all these qualities such that:

faith
 -> virtue
     -> knowledge
         -> self-control
             -> perseverance
                 -> godliness
                     -> brotherly affection
                         -> love

That is, is a strict progression/structure in mind? I can't supplement my faith directly with knowledge, but virtue has to intervene? Well ... I really don't think so. I don't think there are six qualities that I need to progress through to get from faith to love. That doesn't seem to jive with 1Co 13 which talks about faith, hope and love (where's hope in the above progression?) Some of these qualities are "fruits of the spirit" as seen in Ga 5.23, and there is no progression stated there, it's just a flat list.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Ga 5.22-24, ESV)

And some things in that list aren't directly reflected in 2Pe 1.5-7. Now, this is just me thinking out loud here; I haven't done any deep study and I haven't read any commentaries. But I think 2Pe 1.5-7 is saying that each of these qualities are things we need to pursue, and that we are not to pursue any to the exclusion of another. They are all to be on the increase.

Look again at how v. 5 starts: "For this very reason". This points back to vv 3-4. The basic conclusion of those verses is that as Christians, we are "partakers of the divine nature" and that we have therefore "escaped the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire". It is because we are partakers of the divine nature and have escaped corruption (in Pauline terms, we are no longer slaves to sin, we are now slaves to righteousness) that we instead pursue these other things. And that's what vv 8-11 reiterate:

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2Pe 1.8-11, ESV)

Note the bold text, it marks areas that refer to the above list of qualities (faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly affection, and love). We're not to have a selection of these qualities, or even one of them (the seemingly ultimate love based on the structure of the list); we're to have them all. And they're all to be increasing.

Is that then what it means that these things are "supplemented" (ἐπιχορηγέω)? This is an important verb because it is the verb that (if you're diagramming this baby) all of the prepositional phrases hang from. The same word occurs later in 2Pe 1.11, with "will be ... provided" its translation in the ESV. In v. 5, ἐπιχορηγέω is a second person plural aorist imperative, hence "supplement". This is addressed to the hearers of the letter; they are to supplement or add to their existing qualities. To their faith, they are to add virtue. To their virtue, they are to add knowledge. And so on. Everything is on the increase. It isn't a recipe -- it is turning up the volume across the board.

Last question, then: What's up with vv 10-11?

Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2Pe 1.10-11, ESV)

Is this saying that "turning up the volume across the board" (as I put it above) results in not falling (πταίω, BDAG p. 894 be ruined, be lost)? I have my thoughts (in a word, "no"), but it is getting late so I'll hold off explaining them (indefinitely; I may never come back to finish this thread). But if you have thoughts, please feel free to leave some comments.