If you're going to be at the 58th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) in Washington DC from Nov. 15-17, 2006, please do consider coming to the session in which I'll be presenting. The paper is largely "in the can", I've got my presentation together, and even have the handout ready.

Date: Thursday, Nov. 16, 2006
Time: 11:00-11:40 AM
Location: State (wherever that is ... )

Paper Title: Subjects and Predicates and Complements, Oh My! Searching the New Testament with Sensitivity to Syntax

Abstract:

Logos Bible Software have implemented an edition of the OpenText.org Syntactically Annotated Greek New Testament. One facet of OpenText.org's work isolates clause boundaries. Within each clause, subjects, predicators, complements and adjuncts are identified. This enables searching of the Greek New Testament with sensitivity to clause-level criteria. This advance raises certain questions: How should syntactic annotation be used? What sorts of things can be searched for?

This paper examines different sorts of searches that can be pursued from the starting point of a word. Questions like "When is [word] used as a subject?" or "What verbs are used when [word] is a subject?" will be examined and discussed.

Update (2006-11-08): Cliff asks if I'll make the paper available. Yes, the paper will be available, either here or on the Logos Bible Software Blog.

If there has been note of some sort of biblioblogger get-together at either ETS or SBL, I've missed it. Has there been?

If not, is there any desire among y'all for an informal "hey, y'all!" get-together at either (or both) conferences to put faces with names?

If we need a place to meet, we can meet at the Logos booth, I'm sure.

If you're interested, add a comment to this post along with some suggestions and we'll see what happens.

If you're disturbed I began four (whoops, make that five!) paragraphs with "if" ... well, you need spend less time editing your (monograph|doctoral thesis|MA thesis|journal article|dictionary entry|etc.) and more time getting out.

Update (2006-11-07): Tim Bulkeley (Sansblogue) suggests perhaps meeting after a CARG session. Sure, why not? How about the CARG session on Sunday, Nov. 19? It ends at 3:00, and the next sessions begin at 4:00. I have a paper that day in the 4:00 session, so I'll only be around for a little bit. But it should give folks time to meet and perhaps make further arrangements with whomever they'd like. The CARG session meets until 3:00 in room 103A-CC. Spread the word — See you there?

I'm in need of an article and don't have time in the near-term future to make it to a library (in either Seattle or the Vancouver area). If you have access to the following article and can provide a copy, please let me know. My email address is on the sidebar.

Terence Y. Mullins, “Petition as a Literary Form”, Novum Testamentum 5 (1962), pp. 46-52.

While you're at it, if you have access to Mullins' article on the disclosure formula, it would be cool to look at. This isn't nearly as much of a need, though.

Terence Y. Mullins, “Disclosure, a Literary Form in the New Testament”, Novum Testamentum 7 (1964), pp. 44-50.

Thanks in advance if you're able to lend a hand.

Update (2006-11-03): Much thanks to ricoblog reader Jan Krans (The Amsterdam NT Blog) for supplying both articles.

Update II (2006-11-03): If anyone else does retrieve and read those articles, please note that there are two typos in Bible reference citations on the last page of the article on petitions (p. 54). “2 Corinthians xx 2” should be “2 Corinthians x 2” and “2 Corinthians v 20; v 1” should be “2 Corinthians v 20; vi 1”.

<soapbox>Speaking as someone who has worked with actually looking up each and every citation in books programatically for the past 10 years ... well, you'd be amazed at how many times invalid references occur in print. If you're using lists of references from articles/books/dictionaries to make a point ... well, you should at least look up those references to ensure they really do make your point.</soapbox>

Below are the lyrics to a song called My Savior, My God by Aaron Shust that have been running through my head with some frequency over the past month. The below are the verses, they are taken from an older hymn. Shust's chorus (which I've not reproduced here) is his own. Me? I like the verses, so that's what I reproduce. Read, think and meditate on them.

I am not skilled to understand
What God has willed, what God has planned
I only know at his right hand
Stands one who is my savior

I take him at his word and deed
Christ died to save me, this I read
And in my heart I find a need
For him to be my savior

That he would leave his place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You count it strange, so once did I
Before I knew my savior

Yes, living, dying; let me bring
My strength, my solace from this spring
That he who lives to be my king
Once died to be my savior

That he would leave his place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You count it strange, so once did I
Before I knew my savior

I believe you can listen to the song on Rhapsody, whether you're a subscriber or not Rhapsody provides 25 free plays per month per IP, I think.

(Thanks, Bob, for mentioning the song a few months ago)

Michael Pahl of the stuff of earth blog has posted BSC:XI. Do check it out, he's done a stellar job of rounding up and aggregating the month's biblioblog discussion topics. There were even a few ricoblog posts represented. Thanks, Michael!

BSC:XII (for November, 2006) will be hosted by Jim West of the eponymous Dr. Jim West blog.

Nothing new this year. Here are my Reformation Day posts from the past two years:

• Reformation Day Reading (2005): Links to a PDF copy of the 95 Theses
• Reading on All Hallow's Eve (2004): Links to each chapter of the Martyrdom of Polycarp, in both English and Greek.

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.