Biblical Studies Carnival July 2016

Summer is always slow time for Biblioblogs. Since this was the hottest July ever in the history of the universe, so bloggers have crawled back under their rocks…or are excavating, like Andrew King (@aking443) or outside playing Pokemon Go. Seems everyone is playing this new mind-numbing game. Even Christianity Today is helping churches cash in on the fad, I expect to hear about “Jim West’s Church of Fun and Pokemon” soon.

Perhaps biblio-bloggers were was stunned to silence after the two presidential conventions. The un-stunable Wayne Grudem came out in support of Donald Trump in an op-ed piece “Why Voting for Donald Trump Is a Morally Good Choice” on TownHall, giving rise to responses from Matthew Boedy and many others. The best response, of course, was from the Donald himself, who declared that the Bible is not really a Christian. Yes, I am fully aware the Babylon Bee is a fake-news site, but sometimes fake news is better than real news.

Here is the upcoming Carnival Schedule. I always try to mix in some newer bloggers with a few carnival veterans. please notice I need a volunteer for October (due Nov 1), or if you are the type to plan ahead, any month in 2017 is open. Please contact me ASAP (@plong42 or plong42 at gmail.com, or leave a comment and I can contact you).

• August 2016  (Due September 1) – Kevin Turner, @TheJKTurner
• September 2016 (October 1) – Randy McCracken, Bible Study with Randy, @randalmccracken
• October 2016 (November 1) –
• November 2016 (December 1) – Jim West
• December 2016 (January 1) – Jennifer Guo, @jenniferguo

If are so inclined, follow me on Twitter (@plong42), or on the Flipboard Biblical Studies Magazine, especially nice for iPad or iPhone. I also have a few papers on Academia.edu if you are using that excellent site.

Old Testament

There was some archaeology news this month, including buzz over the Philistine graveyard discovered at Ashkelon, and some commentary from Aren Maier. Ferrell Jenkins has an encounter with Jonah and the great fish. Jenkins also had a nice summary of the excavations at Tel Gath this summer and a short discussion of the Ark of the Covenant at Kiriath-jearim.

The Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament 5.1 was published on July 23, download a PDF copy.

Bob MacDonald on Deuteronomy 27.

Claude Mariottini on Israel in Exile.

There were several blogs on the Writings this month, Bob MacDonald has notes on Job 30 and  Job 31. According to the Jewish Journal, Ruth’s conversion would not be accepted today. Extracted from Iain Duguid’s Song of Songs in the Reformed Expository Commentary series,  The 4 Most Popular Ways to Read the Song of Songs. That Jeff Carter left a few notes on Psalm 138.

Why Learn Ugaritic? Asks Zondervan, which has an Ugaritic textbook for sale. Brian Davidson discusses learning Latin, and Jacob Cerone had a nice post entitled “So You Want To Learn German?” Some good advice for those in a PhD program.

Second Temple Literature

Stephen Bedard began a series on the Apocrypha, including 1 Maccabees,   Psalm 151 and The Prayer of Manasseh?”

Here at Reading Acts, I finished a series on 1 Enoch, 2 Enoch, 3 Enoch and began the Sibylline Oracles. I hope to finish off 2 Baruch and 4 Ezra before the end of the summer.

New Testament  

James Tabor, A Wedding at Cana–Whose and Where?

Michael Kruger examines a Deep Irony in the New Perspective on Paul: Who’s Really Influenced by Their Cultural Situation? A Deep Irony in the New Perspective on Paul.

The Regalia of Artemis Ephesia from Marg Mowczko’s New Life blog.

David Capes, in anticipation of a second edition of his book, Rediscovering Paul (IVP), Capes is re-writing a chapter on Paul’s theology and (re)reading N. T. Wright’s two volume Paul and the Faithfulness of God (Fortress, 2013). The result is “The (W)right Way to Read Paul.” 

Fred Butler blogs at Hip & Thigh, Idol Meat and Christian Liberty: An Overview of 1 Corinthians 8-10.

Andy Naselli on Women in the Church: An Interpretation and Application of 1 Timothy 2:9–15.

There seemed to be more posts on Textual Criticism this month that usual. Peter Gurry and Evangelical Textual Criticism point out the Vatican has made color images of P72 and P75 available online. Dirk Jongkind has a little more on textual criticism, “What to do when a word is no longer in your manuscript?”  On his Text of the Gospels blog, James Snapp commented on Two Doctrinally Significant Variants in One Verse, Matthew 1:18 and another on Hand-to-Hand Combat: Codex B vs. Minuscule 496.

Theology

Based on his reading of Carl Trueman’s The Creedal Imperative, Scot McKnight asks, “Do We Need Creeds?”

Marg Mowczko also contributed two posts on Hell: Paul, James, and Jesus on Hell (Gehenna) and Eternal Torment, Eternal Fire, Eternal Death?

Interacting with John S. Hammett. 40 Questions about Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, Andy Naselli asks “Are Baptism and the Lord’s Supper Only for Churches?”

Fred Butler, Jesus and Wine Theology and the Reformed Hermeneutic.

Ian Paul discusses “The lost virtue of naiveté” and the sending of the 72 in Luke 10 at Psephizo.

Scot McKnight shares some of his favorite quotes from Elie Wiesel, who died on July 3.

Book Reviews

In publishing news, Eerdmans announced new editors for the Two Horizons New Testament Commentary series, Robert Wall and Stephen Fowl, replacing Max Turner and Joel B. Green.

Oliver Crisp and Fred Sanders, eds., Locating Atonement, (Zondervan, 2015), reviewed by Spencer Robinson at Spoiled Milks.

Joshua Jipp, Christ is King: Paul’s Royal Ideology (Fortress, 2015), reviewed by Spencer Robinson at Spoiled Milks.

Carol Hill, Gregg Davidson, Tim Helble, and Wayne Ranney, eds. The Grand Canyon, Monument to an Ancient Earth: Can Noah’s Flood Explain the Grand Canyon? (Kregel, 2016), reviewed by Phillip Long.

David Bentley Hart, A Splendid Wickedness and Other Essays (Eerdmans, 2016), reviewed by Phillip Long.

Jeffrey Bingham, and Glenn R. Kreider, eds. Eschatology: Biblical, Historical, and Practical Approaches (Kregel, 2016), reviewed by Phillip Long.

Michael Bird, What Christians Ought to Believe (Zondervan, 2016), reviewed by Jennifer Guo.

Silvia Luraghi and Claudia Parodi, eds. The Bloomsbury Companion to Syntax (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), reviewed at Exegetical Tools.

Reminder

I need a volunteer for October (due Nov 1), or if you are the type to plan ahead, any month in 2017 is open. Please contact me ASAP (@plong42 or plong42 at gmail.com, or leave a comment and I can contact you).