Biblical Studies Carnival for December 2017

Welcome to the final Biblical Studies Carnival for 2017. December is typically a slow month for bloggers both in terms of posts and traffic. Usually everyone reverts to Christmas posts for a few weeks and all the college students plagiarizing their papers are home for the holidays. This means the final Carnival of the year is a bit light on links. Many of the blogs I usually rely on for a Carnival were silent this holiday season.

Here is the lineup for the next few months. I would like to get volunteers for June-August, and the final three months of the year are also open.

• January 2018 (Due February 1) – Bob MacDonald (@drmacdonald)
• February 2018 (Due March 1) – Jacob Prahlow (@prahlowjacob)
• March 2018 (Due April 1) – Jim West (@drjewest)
• April 2018 (Due May 1) – Ruben Rus
• May 2018 (Due June 1) – Tim Bulkeley
• June 2018 (Due July 1) –
• July 2018 (Due August 1) –
• August 2018 (Due September 1) –
• September 2018 (Due October 1) – Jim West (@drjewest)

Email me  (plong42 at gmail.com) or direct message on Twitter (@plong42) to volunteer. You can also leave a comment here with your contact info and I will get back to you.  If you use FlipBoard to read blogs, consider following my Biblical Studies magazine. The Web-based version is OK, but FlipBoard is an essential app for your iOS device. I use it on my iPad for news and other special interests.

Follow me on twitter (@plong42), I tweet less than the president.

Old Testament

• Jason Tron at TheTorah.com, Joseph: The Making of a Prophet
• Bob MacDonald on Deuteronomy 20
• David Corder wonders “Where did the Amarna era habiru come from?”, probably because he has been reading Richard Elliott Friedman’s The Exodus: How it Happened and Why it Matters.
• Archaeology: Christianity Today’s Biblical Archaeology’s Top 10 Discoveries of 2017, Todd Bolen has a Top Ten list as well.

Second Temple Literature (including Canon and Textual Criticism)

• There were a few Septuagint posts this month. William Ross has a report from the 2017 ETS Septuagint Consultation. The meetings were in late November, but he did not post it until December. Tavis Bohlinger offers some tips on getting started studying the LXX.
• Michael Kruger at Canon Fodder asks, Was the NT Text Reliably Transmitted? Watch his video to find out his answer.
• Peter Gurry at Evangelical Textual Criticism points out a few problems with digitizing manuscripts. Peter M. Head has a short note on Matthew 1:21 ‘You will call his name Jesus’ in Codex Vaticanus.
• Dirk Jongkind asks “Should I buy the Tyndale House Edition of the Greek New Testament?” (spoiler: his answer is yes)

New Testament

• Deane Galbraith provides a comprehensive overview of Larry Hurtado curious feud with Richard Carrier on Jesus Mythicism. James McGrath add a few more comments in his What Happens When You Review Richard Carrier.
• At The Jesus Blog, Oral Tradition and Synoptic Verbal Agreement.
• Come for Alan Garrow’s solution to Synoptic Problem: Matthew used Mark and Luke, stay for a link to Mark Goodacre pointing out a serious flaw in Garrow’s argument. Garrow responds to Goodacre, and Goodacre responds to the response….confused yet? Just click on the posts in order.
• Claude Mariottini interacts with Scot McKnight’s commentary new on Philemon: The Letter to Philemon, Slavery in the Roman World, Philemon: A Call to Reconciliation
• Thomas (who needs to post more) at Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, Narrative Rhetoric of Paul’s Letter to the Galatians.
• The Mohr Siebeck Interviews: Seyoon Kim Discusses “Paul and the New Perspective: Second Thoughts on the Origin of Paul’s Gospel”

Scholars Ruining Christmas for Everyone

• Bill Heroman, The Academics’ Christmas Stories
• Deane Galbraith, The Two Stories of Jesus’ Birth in Bethlehem and Jesus’ Birth in Bethlehem Again: Possible Harmonizing Interpretations versus Probable Contextual Interpretations at Remnants of Giants.
• Michael Kok, The Predictions to Elizabeth and Mary, The Birth of Jesus and The Visitors of the Infant Jesus.
• Phillip Long, Luke 1:46-55 – Mary’s Song, Why did the Wise Men bring Gifts to Jesus?
• James McGrath, Is Jesus’ Birth in Bethlehem “Fake News”?
• Carl Rasmussen, Away in a Manger (feeding trough!). Carl also has a great post on An “Unknown” Christmas Site Near Bethlehem.
• Jim West, When Santa Becomes a Calvinist…, the War on Christmas started in the 17^th century, and Joseph minds the baby while Mary reads in bed.
• Ian Paul, Should Christmas carols be biblical?
• The blog Biblical Studies has links to a few podcasts to ruin your Christmas cards.
• Claude Mariottini, Bethlehem of Judah and the Birth of the New King

Scholars Ruining (or not) the Lord’s Prayer for Everyone

• Over at CoolCatholics.com, Pope Francis has some things to say about new translations of the Lord’s Prayer.
• James McGrath offers several new versions of the Lord’s Prayer, New Age Translation of the Lord’s Prayer?
• Ian Paul has some trenchant thoughts on the new Lord’s Prayer as well.

Book Reviews (in no apparent order):

• Jonathan Kline, Keep Up Your Biblical Languages in Two Minutes a Day (William Ross)
• Thomas Bolin, Ecclesiastes and the Riddle of Authorship (Brennan Breed)
• Mira Beth Wasserman, Jews, Gentiles, and Other Animals: The Talmud After the Humanities (M Adryael Tong)
• Stanley Porter and Bryan R. Dyer (editors), Paul and Ancient Rhetoric: Theory and Practice in the Hellenistic Context (Emanuel Conțac)
• James Ker and Christoph Pieper, eds. Valuing the past in the Greco-Roman World: Proceedings from the Penn-Leiden Colloquia on Ancient Values VII (Kelsi Morrison-Atkins)
• John Goldingay, Reading Jesus’s Bible: How the New Testament Helps Us Understand the Old Testament (Phillip Long)
• John Collins, Scriptures and Sectarianism: Essays on the Dead Sea Scrolls (Amanda M. Davis Bledsoe)
• Timothy Howe, Lee L. Brice (ed.), Brill’s Companion to Insurgency and Terrorism in the Ancient Mediterranean. Brill’s Companions in Classical Studies: Warfare in the Ancient Mediterranean World (Gabriel Moss)
• Kelly J. Murphy and Justin Jeffcoat Schedtler (ed.) Apocalypses in Context: Apocalyptic Currents through History (Daniel Hawkins)
• Anthony Le Donne and Larry Behrendt, Sacred Dissonance: The Blessing of Difference in Jewish-Christian Dialogue (Simon J. Joseph)
• Mignon Jacobs, Haggai and Malachi. NICOT (Phillip Long)
• Jon C. Laansma and Randall X. Gauthier, The Handy Guide to Difficult and Irregular Greek Verbs: Aids for Readers of the Greek New Testament (Kevin McKissick)
• Editio Critica Maior: Acts Volumes (Larry Hurtado)
• Grant Osborne New Testament Commentaries on Romans and Galatians (Phillip Long)
• Robert Cole and Paul Kissling, Text and Canon (Lindsay Kennedy)
• CSB Reader’s Bible (Jason Gardner)
• Andrew T. Le Peau, Mark Through Old Testament Eyes (Randy McCracken, Phillip Long)
• Stephen G. Dempster, Micah. Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary (Phillip Long)

Finally, Jim West points out what we all knew: Most Bible Publishers Don’t Know Anything About the Bible.