Reading Acts launched in September 2008, and after three years hit about 50,000 views. As of today, the blog had its one millionth hit! Although the majority of these are undoubtedly spambots from eastern Europe hoping to steal my identity or sell me low-cost Ugg books, there are quite a few regular readers who occasionally leave comments, so I know some people are actually reading what I write.
In the early days I might have seen 20-30 hits a week, but now the average is well over 800 per day so far in 2016, and the last month as been closer to 1000 per day. Since the end of 2015 I am seeing about 25000 a month, and growth almost every month over the last two years.
I am quite humbled that Reading Acts has lasted long enough to pass this mark. Yesterday was my 1700th post over the nearly eight years I have been writing here. This is quite a few considering I do not write the types of posts that tend to go viral. You know the type: cheap shot political articles, clickbait, celebrity gossip, etc. I also do not espouse radical theological opinions to generate hits. No historical Adam histrionics or anti Rob Bell rants. Maybe if I wrote acid-laced rants about these hot topics I would generate more traffic, but I really can’t pull that sort of thing off.
For the most part I write all the posts (there have only been three guest posts). I did publish my dissertation in 2012, but it is not controversial nor all that exciting, apparently. I think I only get hints from people looking for Brant Pitre’s book of the same name (and different subtitle). Go buy a copy and review it on Amazon, it is only $10 for the Kindle version.
Most of my posts plod along a a few hits a week although there are a few which consistently turn up as top posts every week. Sometimes there are hits coming from a moodle page or from a University discussion board. Since I cannot see them, hopefully people are treating me gently. With only a few exceptions, comments on Reading Acts have been helpful and friendly.
Speaking of future plans, I was hoping to update the Top Five Commentary series from 2012 this summer. In the last four years new commentaries on virtually every book of the New Testament have been published so my original lists are now out of date. Several people have encouraged me to add more categories (historical Jesus, Parables, Pauline studies, etc.) Leave a comment if you have a suggestion for a similar “top five” category, I might just include it.
I am also considering a summer series on Jewish apocalyptic literature since I am teaching a Daniel and Revelation summer class and a Second Temple Period lit class in Spring 2017. I need to sharpen up on the material and a blog series is a great place to start. I am teaching Romans in the fall, so I am planning on a slow read through the book starting in September and going through December.
Since one million hits is a pretty big milestone, I will celebrate with a few book giveaways over the next few weeks. I have been setting a stack of books aside to give away all winter long, now is the time to get them out there! Check back after the weekend for the first book giveaway.
Once again, thanks to everyone who reads this blog, even the spambots.
In order to make this case, I apply what might be called an intertextual method to traditions or set of metaphors. The “text” in this intertextual study is the Hebrew Bible, but that text was heard by Jesus’ original listeners rather than read. They knew the metaphors because they heard them taught in their homes and synagogues. Jesus used these metaphors because they were current, but by combining them to describe himself, he created a new image of the eschatological age as a wedding banquet.