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.

I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands;
I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand

Refrain:
Than to be the king of a vast domain,
Or be held in sin’s dread sway;
I’d rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.

I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause;
I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause;
I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame;
I’d rather be true to His holy name

(Refrain)

He’s fairer than lilies of rarest bloom;
He’s sweeter than honey from out the comb;
He’s all that my hungering spirit needs;
I’d rather have Jesus and let Him lead

(Refrain)

The best version of the song is that done by Jacob's Trouble on their "... let the truth run wild" album, which you may have to hunt around to find (unless it's been re-released recently).

(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!

Stopped for a coffee at Starbucks (grande drip, no cream, no sugar) on the way into the office. On the cup was "The Way I See It #242".

Children are born with such a sense of fairness that they will accept no less than equal treatment for all. I know — I have three. I hope that as they grow, they keep that sense of justice and learn to challenge the old adage "life's not fair." It should be, in so far as we have control of it. — Beth Vanden Hoek, Starbucks ass't mgr, St. Louis, MO

Now, pardon me as a three-week-new father, but children are not "born with such a sense of fairness that they will accept no less than equal treatment for all". Ella (my sweet daughter) has one concern: herself. When she's hungry, she wants to eat, and it doesn't matter if it is two in the afternoon or three in the morning: She cries, wakes up Mom & Dad, and gets fed. She doesn't stop and think it might be more "fair" for her to wait a while for a more convienent time for Mom & Dad to awaken. Same for wet diapers. Or if she just wants to be held.

Apologies to Beth, but children aren't born with an innate sense of fairness and sharing. Kudos to Beth if that's the way her kids have been raised such that they act that way, it reflects well on her. But that is not innate, in-born behavior.

(I'll stop ranting soon, please bear with me)

Have you actually looked at all the junk on an Amazon.com book page recently?

It is seriously crowded with a bunch of junk that means nothing. Taking a book from the top of my wishlist, Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture (amazon.com), I see far too much junk on the book's page at Amazon.

There are sections on this page for:

• Better Together: where Amazon tries to sell you a related title too. OK, this is fine (though note, the price is simple addition of both books, it isn't discounted for buying both!)
• Customers who bought this item also bought: OK, I can see this too. Maybe.
• Editorial Reviews: Yep, this is fine.
• Product Details: Yep, this is fine too — though I'd like it further up the page, like right after the price/picture/etc.

Next comes the cruft:

• Help others find this item: What? Why is this here?
• Tag this product: Again ... what the ?!
• Are you the publisher or author? Learn how Amazon can help you make this book an eBook: This is nothing but spam. I wonder how often this actually gets a bite ... and then how often the resultant 'eBook' (blast, I hate that camel-casing stuff!) is actually purchased. I know it isn't worth my while. How many people does this annoy, on every page?!
• Rate this item to improve your recommendations: Maybe I can see this ... but how much sewage does one wade through to get here?
• Customer Discussions: How many books (besides Harry Potter) actually have discussions? Again, this is cruft. I'm buying books, not socializing with nameless, faceless know-it-alls.
• Your Recently Viewed Items: Too far down the page to be worthwhile.
• Look for similar items by category: Helpful ... but it should be much higher up the page.
• Look for similar items by subject: Hmmmmmm ... what, according to Amazon.com, is the difference between a 'category' and a 'subject' ? This is too much stuff.
• After this come a bunch of ads, followed by a feedback link.
• Then, at the bottom of the page ... a Your Recent History page. Didn't they just tell me my Recently Viewed Items a few items ago? So why is this here?
• After that come the Sponsored Links. Wow, glad those are there.

Now I just might be missing it, but I sure would like to customize my Amazon.com viewing experience so that most of that craptastic crud is never seen, and I can just see information about the book I'm interested in purchasing.

Because my sample page is a book yet to be published, it doesn't have the "Inside This Book" block. So check out The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers (amazon.com) to see an example. This is where textual ephemera like 'statistically improbable phrases' and 'captialized phrases' along with a concordance and text statistics are given. OK, so this is cool and at least somewhat relevant (it is info about the book I'm browsing) so I can let this one lie.

Also — did anyone else notice the inconsistent headline casing for page section titles? Sometimes they're all-capped ("Your Recently Viewed Items") and sometimes not ("Look for similar items by category"). What's that all about? Is there no house style for these sorts of things?

Ok, rant over. But I would love it if Amazon would trim the cruft off of their book pages.

These pages need some serious pruning.

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.

This has been a busy month and I can't believe I forgot to mention this. But it seems that I am Biblioblogs.com's "Biblioblogger of the Month" for June 2007.

They've got an interview with me and everything, so do check it out.

Mark Goodacre (NT Gateway Weblog) was in town for the Logos Lecture Series. We'd met a few years back at SBL in Philly, where he chaired a session on biblioblogging for CARG in which I presented a paper.

It was good to spend some time with him while he was in Bellingham on Monday. I broke away from Amy and Ella for a few hours (thanks, Mom T for coming by and spending time with Amy and Ella while I was out!) and was able to hang out with Mark and a few other folks from Logos for the afternoon. It was a hoot of a time. Mark talks about it some more on his blog.

I wasn't able to attend the lecture, but from what I heard it went very well. Note that Mark mentions he will post the text of the lecture on his blog, so keep an eye out there if you're interested in his topic, "Did the Jews of Jesus' Day Expect the Messiah?"

Next up on the lecture series: Dan Wallace (yes, that Dan Wallace) talks about the work of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts. Note that if you've been to a lecture event before, the venue is changing. We'll be at the American Museum of Radio and Electricity instead of the Mount Baker Theatre.