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.

At the start of his discussion of "Similarly Spelled but Identically Pronounced Variants":

The contribution of commentaries on the following text-critical discussion is minimal, since commentators as a rule follow the text of the GNT [UBS4] or NA [NA27] without further ado. Where they do take up a variation unit for discussion, they normally accept the verdict of the editors and the explanation supplied by Metzger's commentary, which they express in their own words. (Caragounis, Development of Greek and the New Testament (amazon.com), 518)

And he's right, but his comparison is wrong. In the setting of a commentary, unless it is focused on being a textual commentary, it would be questionable to devote pages and pages to each text-critical complication. It is right to mention them, but one need not work them out in painstaking detail unless that is the raison d'etre for the commentary. In the setting of an article on a variant, however (which is what Caragounis has done) one would be irresponsible to not work things out in significant detail, as Caragounis does in the next section of his book (the one dealing with variants at 1Co 13.3, pp. 547-564). And even in the current section (pp. 517-546) Caragounis usually only presents enough information to show that the variants are spelled the same, they sound the same, and the evidence is split.

But overall, he's right. When *most* commentators bring up a variant, they typically defer to Metzger and move on.

[Looking into use of the word αυταρκεια this morning (cf. 1Ti 6.6) I came across Hermas Mandates 6.2 and had to post it. — RWB]

36. “Now hear,” he said, “about faith. There are two angels with man, one of righteousness and one of wickedness.” (2) “So how, sir,” I said, “will I recognize their workings, given that both angels live with me?” (3) “Listen,” he said, “and understand them. The angel of righteousness is sensitive and modest and gentle and tranquil. When this one enters your heart, immediately he talks with you about righteousness, about purity, about holiness, about contentment, about every righteous deed, and about every glorious virtue. Whenever all these things enter your heart, you know that the angel of righteousness is with you. These, then, are the works of the angel of righteousness. So trust him and his works. (4) Now observe the works of the angel of wickedness. First of all, he is ill-tempered and bitter and senseless, and his works are evil, tearing down God’s servants. So whenever this one enters your heart, recognize him by his works.” (5) “But I do not know, sir,” I said, “how to recognize him.” “Listen,” he said. “When some angry temperamental outburst or bitterness comes over you, recognize that he is in you. Then comes the desire for much business, and extravagant kinds of foods and drink, and much drunkenness, and various kinds of unnecessary luxuries, and the desire for women, and greed and arrogance and pretentiousness, and whatever else resembles or is similar to these things. So whenever these things enter your heart, you know that the angel of wickedness is with you. (6) Recognizing, therefore, his works, shun him and do not trust him at all, because his works are evil and harmful to God’s servants. You now have, then, the working of both angels; understand them and trust the angel of righteousness. (7) But shun the angel of wickedness, because his teaching is evil in every respect. For even if one is a man of faith and the thought of that angel enters one’s heart, it is inevitable that that man or woman will commit some sin. (8) On the other hand, if one is an extremely sinful man or woman, and the works of the angel of righteousness enter his heart, of necessity he must do something good. (9) You see, then,” he said, “that it is good to follow the angel of righteousness, but to shun the angel of wickedness. (10) This commandment explains the things about faith, in order that you may trust the works of the angel of righteousness, and that doing them, you may live to God. But believe that the works of the angel of wickedness are dangerous, so that by not doing them you will live to God.”

Holmes, M. W. (1999). The Apostolic Fathers : Greek texts and English translations (amazon.com) (Updated ed.) (391). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.

So, the idea of the angel/devil on the shoulder — popularized for me by several Warner Bros. cartoons as I recall — goes back. Way back. Probably further back than Hermas (second century?).

I'm stoked about THIS:

For those without Logos Bible Software, you should really obtain and read at least a few sections of the Handbook of Classical Rhetoric (amazon.com). You should also consider Porter's Handbook to the Exegesis of the NT (link to Logos) and his Idioms of the Greek NT (link to Logos).

Ignatius, To the Magnesians, 11

Ταῦτα δέ, ἀγαπητοί μου, οὐκ ἐπεὶ ἔγνων τινὰς ἐξ ὑμῶν οὕτως ἔχοντας, ἀλλʼ ὡς μικρότερος ὑμῶν θέλω προφυλάσσεσθαι ὑμᾶς μὴ ἐμπεσεῖν εἰς τὰ ἄγκιστρα τῆς κενοδοξίας, ἀλλὰ πεπληροφορῆσθαι ἐν τῇ γεννήσει καὶ τῷ πάθει καὶ τῇ ἀναστάσει τῇ γενομένῃ ἐν καιρῷ τῆς ἡγεμονίας Ποντίου Πιλάτου· πραχθέντα ἀληθῶς καὶ βεβαίως ὑπὸ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, τῆς ἐλπίδος ἡμῶν, ἧς ἐκτραπῆναι μηδενὶ ὑμῶν γένοιτο.
Holmes, M. W. (1999). The Apostolic Fathers : Greek texts and English translations (Updated ed.) (Ign. Magn. 11). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.

I am not writing these things, my beloved, because I have learned that some of you are behaving like this. But as one who is less important than you I want to protect you from being snagged by the fish hooks of worthless ideas. You should be fully convinced of the birth and suffering and resurrection that occurred in the time of the governor Pontius Pilate. These things were truly and certainly done by Jesus Christ, our hope. From this hope may none of you turn away.
Erhman, B. (2002) The Apostolic Fathers (Ign. Magn. 11). Series: Loeb Classical Library, vol. 23. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

If the sitemeter reports are to be believed, sometime in the next 24 hours ricoblog will top 100,000 visitors.

And that doesn't include folks who actually subscribe to and read from RSS feeds. Yikes.

Thanks to all who read or stumble here. I'm continually amazed that folks actually would sign up to read my meanderings. Thanks for your support and encouragement.

Update (2007-04-27): Visitor 100,000 was just here, arriving at 5:35 AM (my time, UTC-7 w/Daylight Savings), visiting from Ankara, Turkey (UTC+2, so 14:35 or 2:35 PM). The visitor arrived from a Google search via Google.com.tr for "participle clauses in context". The lucky post was "Ephesians 5 and Clauses". Hopefully you found what you were looking for!

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.