Biblical Studies Carnival XLVI

Welcome to the 46th Biblical Studies Carnival and the first BSC to be hosted from Africa.

Big Deals

Three things were big deals this month: the NIV 2011, gender, and the SBL affiliation with bibliobloggers.

Rick Mansfield announced the coming revision of the NIV, the NIV 2011 (and hence the discontinuation of the TNIV). There were many interesting responses to this news, the funniest of which had to be Danny Zacharias. Other bloggers responded, some even with suggestions.

Doug Magnum, Matthew Montonini, More from Rick, Peter Kirk, Michael Metts, Wayne Leman, Jim Getz, Jason Staples, Rick Brannan, and John Hobbins

April DeConick asked why there are so many male bibliobloggers and so few females and in so doing created the discussion for the month. Some of the resulting conversation was productive. Some of it was not. Here’s a handful.

Deidre Good, More from April, Julia O’Brien, Loren Rosson III, Stephen Carlson, Jim Linville, Sue McCarthy, Judy Redman, James Crossley, Kevin Scull, Brenda Heyink, Claude Mariottini, Bryan Bibb, and Rachel Marszalek.

Jim West announced (well, Kent Richards announced it, but he ain’t a blogger) the new affiliated status that bibliobloggers have with SBL. Reactions to the news were mixed. Daniel McClellan created the list of reactions.

Book Reviews and Interviews

Ben Blackwell continued his interview with Mike Gorman. Jared Calaway reviewed Mark George’s Israel’s Tabernacle as Social Space. Adam the Artist reviewed Garrett and DeRouchie’s Modern Grammar for Biblical Hebrew. Mandy thoroughly reviewed the first edition of Kittel and Hoffer. Matt broadcast his interviews with Robert Yarbrough and Richard Bauckham. Nevada reviewed Horton’s book on Wright/Dunn NPP. Calvin reviewed Leslie Wilson’s The Book of Job: Judaism in the 2nd Century BCE. And Skinner interviewed Thomas scholar Nicholas Perrin.

General

Dutch Bible bloggers launched BiblioblogNED, so now we’ve got a regular job for the Google translator. Perhaps anticipating all the affiliation hub-bub, Nijay Gupta asked what the conferences are for anyway. Charles Halton released a pre-publication of his article in ANES. A number of bloggers attended the British New Testament Conference. Simon Holloway shared beautiful Bible pics. Scott Bailey whined his way onto our blogroll. Mike Kok started the popular Top 5 Female Biblical Scholars meme, results here. Loren Rosson III collected memorable moments from the heretic preacher Steven Anderson. Jared Calaway told us what pathos is. We all learned of the origins of biblioblogging. Bloggers remembered where they were on 9-11-01. JK Gayle combined the book and female scholar meme lists. Mark Goodacre held online office hours. Tony Siew encountered a very cool blogger related issue with a student. Matthew Thiesen offered his complete paper Luther and the Jews. More of us need to put our formal work online. Much thanks to him and Charles for doing so. Brandon Wason discussed what to do about blogs and CVs. Roland Boer pointed out some facts about SBL. McGrath halted the perpetuation of bullshit on the Butler campus. Gupta posted on the Wright conference (Chaplin responded with 10 Wrightian talking points). Wiggins wigged over The Boss… or at least his tight jeans.

Archaeology/Culture/History

ANE

Mike Heiser babbled about Genesis, Sumeria, and Akkad. Jared Calaway announced the horde of Bar-Kochba coins more. Theophyle broke down ancient Israel’s divided monarchy under the Assyrian Empire. Jim Getz turned into a zombie. Daniel McClellan decoupled Yahweh and El. Duane got punny in Akkadian. Claude Mariottini and others posted on the Egyptian “Joseph” coins.

1st cent

Benji Overcash said that the baby Jesus had a star on his head… me too! Ken Schenck posted part 2 of Paul’s Unknown Years. Julie Clawson looked at Jesus in the temple. Deidre Richardson posted on women deacons in the east. Josh Mann flushed the toilet in his first century apartment next to his household idol. Todd Bolen and others posted on the synagogue found at Magdala.

Theology/Reception

Rachel Barenblat enjoyed a bit of divinity as she entered the third trimester of her pregnancy. R Joseph Hoffman got philosophical and coined the phrase Pharisaic Humanism. Michael Carden theologically howled at the moon. Peter Enns thought out loud on the new atheism. Rachel Marszalek jumped in the comp/egal conversation. Mike Heiser performed some naked baptisms. Ben Byerly mixed in some African theology. James Pate read Neusner on messiah. Loren Rosson III preferred a Sanders/Esler approach to Paul rather than a Wright/Dunn approach. Julie Clawson discussed implications of Kingdom of God theology. Art Boulet got started on the literal Adam  (also James Anderson and Nick Norelli). Sue McCarthy said we are slaves to one another and offered a list of those in the feminine language for God conversation. Colin reflected on one of O’Brien’s posts, part of which became a quote of the day. Wiggins offered us two choices: religion or death? And Elizabeth Young provided a family tree for understanding dispensationalisits (which we plan on using).

HB/GNT Studies and Bible Translation

Sue McCarthy compared Ryken vs Köstenberger on translation. JK discussed sheep and ανθρωποι and consolidated the ανηρ posts (at the bottom of his post). More here.

HB

Brady and others went back-and-forth on Genesis 1. Here’s a roundup of relevant posts. There’s a good response to Peter Lopez’s reading of Genesis 1 from newcomer Seth the Biker.  Deane Gailbraith posted on how innovative the satan is in Job. George dropped science on the ten commandments. Simon Holloway criticized a translation of JRR Tolkien (response here). John thought she-ass was a word people use in English (guess they do in the vast farm wilderness of Wisconsin),  and he offered a few good translations, focusing on the particle כי. Julia O’Brien asked if Jacob, or anyone for that matter, changed. Colin blogged on animal apocalypse in Daniel and Enoch. Roland critiqued the criqiute of idolatry from Isaiah 44.9-20. His critique is critiqued here.

GNT

Alan Bandy revisited TNIV issues. He must be trying to squeeze it in until the TNIV is no more. Stephen Carlson posted on the ending of Mark. Ken Brown introduced the gospel of John. Mike Bird blogged on Paul’s speech in Acts 13. Mark Goodacre offered a fantastic podcast on Junia mentioned in Romans 16 (with follow up here). McGrath asked if Matthew used Luke, Goodacre answered and Carlson also jumped in. Then McGrath asked if Jesus claimed to be God (He’s quite the explorer!) and Chaplin and Brennon answered. Peter Head got text critical on Hebrews 2.8 in the NA27. William Varner proposed Jude as the author of Hebrews. David Miller on Romans 2. And Joel compared AIDS to leprosy in Bible translation.

Linguistics

Steve Runge examined historical presents in the synoptics. Rod Decker explained the function of tense switch in the imperatives of Mark 8.34. We noted that substitution is a more frequent use of תחת than the spatial sense of ‘under’. DLC explained some Hebrew etymology. Mike offered his linguistic wisdom with a  sweet post on language change. Finally, Duane knew how to use a lexicon (and Answers in Genesis didn’t).

Pedagogy

J Brian Tucker posted a lesson on the NT Greek writing system. Eutychus listed ten things to do while learning Greek and the value of quotes. Matt Malcolm recounted story-telling methods of teaching Greek. John Anderson continued to muse on why he loves teaching. Brooke Lester offered help for students writing papers. Just who is their audience? Karyn noted some fun items she uses to teach Hebrew. A subsequent contest with a prize for one of the items is now underway. Nijay Gupta decided to blog through teaching Greek for the first time, more here. Brenda Heyink talked PhD programs.

Hermeneutics/Criticisms

Doug Magnum got tense about retribution. Alan Lenzi’s nerve was struck (Sept 1 South Africa time, Aug 31 in CA) about something Hobbins wrote and he wondered why there aren’t more apostate biblical scholars. Hmm… He must have been reading DeConick’s mind. James Kennedy explained what Russian Formalism has to do with the Bible. Lenzi used the M-word. Targuman responded. Phil Sumpter taught us about proportional exegesis. April got critical on the origins of the gospels of John and Thomas. Christopher Skinner replied to DeConick., and Skinner doesn’t look from nowhere, by the way. April said separating confession from work is the greatest issue for her generation (Responses: Doug Chaplin, Mark Goodacre, Mike Whitenton). Ben Shaw offered truth for students on over-interpretation. James Harding offered a blow-out on historical method and raised more questions. April offered her 10 commandments of historical criticism (Responses: Skinner, Chaplin, JK, April rebuts, Mike DeVries, McGrath, Redman). John Anderson offered a modest proposal on the relationship between science and religion.

Technology

Karyn informed us of iPhone apps for the Hebrew Bible. BibleWorks 8.0 was reviewd by both Greg and Ben. Joel Willitis told us the story of he and Accordance.

Be sure to catch next month’s carnival at Kevin Scull’s Paul of Tarsus!

Place Your Orders Now

I’ve been knitting and crocheting for about a year now. Here are some pics of things I’ve made.

A shirt for me.

A hat for Daniel.

Baby clothes for a friend’s new niece here in Stellenbosch.

Change Your BH Vocab Cards

Cause most often, תחת connotes instead and not under. Guess that’s just one card that’s needs changing… for now.

So I’ve taken a first look at all 517 instances of תחת (according to the Westminster morphology) and my current hypothesis (that I’m pretty well convinced is fact) is that in the HB, תחת most often connotes a sense of substitution. Within this substitution category, there is succession (Gen 36.33), replacement (Gn 4.25), and exchange (Gn 30.15).

The numbers will definitely flucuate in the next year as things get tweaked, but as things stand now, תחת connotes instead (substitution) 198 times and under (spatial) 113 times. So your vocab card should have תחת on the front and instead, under (as opposed to under, instead) on the back. Yeah, 198 and 113 isn’t the greatest difference in the world, but its there.

What’s the big deal? Thinking linguistically, it confirms that data from the HB cannot conclusively inform us about Hebrew semantics at large. It can only tell us about what happens in the HB. And in the HB, תחת is used to connote substitution relationships more than spatial relationships. That doesn’t mean that תחת primarily means instead and secondarily under (not that תחת means any English word). If one examines all kinds of Hebrew (from various times and mediums), its easy to see that תחת connotes under at its most basic, “core” level. Its just happens to be that in the HB there’s a lot of succession going on (typically, Y reigns in place of his father X), so תחת does that job more often in these kinds of texts.

So, should we change our vocab cards? As L2 users of Hebrew (if your reading in Israel, ignore this), this data matters and needs accounting for. As of now, if your goal with Hebrew is only to read the Bible, change your vocab card to give priority to instead. If you want to learn Hebrew to watch Israeli movies… though not in Toronto, leave your cards the way they are.

Poll for Pastors

Here’s another poll in the vein of Mike Aubrey’s polls, trying to get at what we do with our biblical language knowledge. This one is aimed at pastors and Bible teachers.

Sad and Stupid

People criticize the state of Texas for a lot of things. Unfortunately, we learned of another ongoing travesty in our home state that should know better. Uncle Jesse writes in a family email-

The State of Texas was exercising its Ferrel Hog Eradication Program near our ranch yesterday evening using a helicopter. If you’ve never seen something like that before it’s very disturbing. They chase them out of the thickets with the helicopter and then shoot them with shot guns from the helicopter. The downed animals are then left to lay and waste. Surely, there are better ways to manage the animals and better ways to dispose of them.

We’re not activists for animal rights. If anything, this hurts my chances at bagging a hog when we go home to visit. State of Texas, quit being stupid and leave the shooting of hogs to those who wish to eat them.

Out

Former Caedmon’s Call-er, Derek Webb, has a new album out. We don’t and won’t normally do music reviews. But we’ve always considered Derek Webb’s music important.

Stockholm Syndrome is available for download now, but won’t be physically released until September. And now, Derek Webb joins the ranks of Dr. Dre, Marilyn Manson, and the Wu-Tang Clan as this “Christian” artist’s album will have an explicit lyrics sticker on it. The CD will be offered in a ‘clean’ version and ‘explicit’ version. We highly encourage the explicit version. Sounds more Christian. (There’s a few shits and hells and damns, but you’ll live.)

As to our last question, the answer is- not totally. While Webb’s music is moving in a digital direction, it still sounds like Derek Webb music. Mainly because of the lyrics. Clearly polemicizing against his evangelical culture, Webb condemns highlighting homosexuality as the epitome of sin, even sexual sin, in this day with the song What Matters More. And we see Webb’s theological poetry deepen in Becoming A Slave. And we get kind-of an acoustic track with Heaven.

Musically, Derek Webb’s interest in different sounds is fully enjoyed on this album. If you want another 10 tracks of Derek Webb playing his Martin and signing by himself, this is not the album for you. But if you’ve enjoyed the musical development of I See Things Upside Down and The Ringing Bell, then you’ll understand Stockholm Syndrome as the next logical step.

Lyrically, Derek is becoming very comfortable (or at least finally public) with his words. He does not have to withhold what he thinks or dilute how he thinks it as he would if he were still in a contemporary Christian music band. His theological poetry is prophetic.

Please take your hands off my brother.

Please take your laws off my lover.

-Derek Webb. American Flag Umbrella

UPDATE: Listen to the Prayer of Jabez story (and why Webb left Caedmon’s Call) here.

Cape Town 4th

Our day in Cape Town with Jamie, Mimi, Josh, and Bri. Tonya drove.

Taking the scenic route to Cape Town via the Strand.

Cape Town’s waterfront.

Heading south to Camps Bay

Accordance at ETS/SBL

Helen Brown updates Accordance users who will be in New Orleans Friday Nov 20 to a “a superb, in-depth training seminar”. Always good to learn new tricks.

For Real?

BBC Africa reports that 1 in 4 South African males (in KwaZulu Natal and the Eastern Cape, if you read the fine print) have raped someone.

Brian’s Western Cape

Our new friend Brian took me around Muzienberg today. Muzienberg is on the Indian Ocean side of the Western Cape Peninsula. Here are a few pics taken.

Hong Kong Haven

Jen has been in China for a while now. But she has ventured out of Hong Kong into mainland China, and the Chinese goverment has blocked her blog. Hopefully, she be back posting when she returns to Hong Kong.

Jesus’ Colour

It wasn’t white, answers Bri to the children of Franshhoek.

Has Derek Webb Gone Techno?

Hope not. Take a listen for yourself at these snippets.

HT: derekwebb.net

Gift

Tonya’s excited about using her gift.

Celebration

We were married three years ago today. Our day today will be full of eating, drinking, and not working.

New Blog

Friend and former student Jen is going to China and blogging about it.

Reappropriating the Wu

Josh sent us this picture yesterday. The little girl up front is the best part.

What I wanna know is, who coaches the Wu-Tang Clan kids soccer team?

The Big Debate

I don’t think we have many young readers, but this is an age-appropriate post.

Some of y’all know that we got a TV about a month ago and said TV only receives one channel. While doing some cleaning this morning, we turned on the TV to make some noise. But we ended up sitting down and watching the show that was on our one South African channel. The show was called The Big Debate.

Today, the debate was over all things sexual as relates to the many cultures of SA. We caught three topics-
1. Ritual circumcision
2. Homosexuality
3. Polygamy

The discussion of ritual circumcision was most disturbing. An 18 year old young man, a legal adult by SA’s constitution, needed to be circumcised for medical reasons. He comes from a traditional/tribal family, but converted to Christianity a few years ago. After consulting his pastor, the young man decided to be circumcised by a doctor at a hospital, as opposed to tribal “surgeons”, because traditional/tribal circumcision would involve sacrifice to his ancestors. The young man was circumcised successfully and went home. A few nights later, the young man was abducted from his bed at 4am by his father and other traditional leaders. They bound him and re-circumcised his already circumcised penis. The cut piece of flesh was forced into his mouth and he was made to eat it. They made him a traditional leaf covering for him, and left him there bleeding. A court case is pending.

The debate was over whether or not constitution trumps tradition. Obviously it does in  SA courts. In court, the constitution finds the father guilty (hopefully) of attacking, kidnapping, and mutilating another citizen. But the constitution is not enforced in most tribal villages. Times they are a changing, but not fast enough for SA villagers.

This raises another issue. What if the young man was 17? The father would still have attacked, kidnapped, and mutilated another person, but because it was his son, it would have been legal.

Next, the debate turned to homosexuality. In recent years, the number of violent crimes against lesbians has soared in SA. And generally speaking, the butchier the woman, the more violent the crime. At this point in the debate, the 18 year old young mutilated man spoke up and said that the men that do these “corrective rapes” are trained to do so in initiation rituals like the one he was subjected to. Apparently, the more masculine a female appears, the more severe her correction rape must be.

Many tribal leaders stated that they would never allow homosexual relationships in their villages, even though SA’s constitution provides protection for the individual’s sexual orientation.

Lastly, the debaters considered polygamy. The bottom line is most people in SA don’t care  as long as no one is being coerced. But of course, there were opposing views. One respondent said that polygamy prevents the spread of HIV. “In monogamous relationships,” he theorized, “if the husband gets angry with the wife, he might go sleep with someone else he does not know. They might have AIDS and he could introduce it to his wife. In polygamous relationships, if you’re angry with one wife, the next night you go into your second who you know is clean.” Makes sense in that patriarchal way.

But what of polyandry? Are women allowed to marry multiple husbands? Even further, can a woman take multiple wives as a man can? Today the reality is no, though SA’s young generation doesn’t seem to have a problem with the idea. Another respondent said, “Polygamy is not an African thing. Its a male thing. We have polygamy in SA because men have made the rules.”

To sum up our view on all three issues, we’ll paraphrase one of the respondents.

If African culture is one of violence wherein a person can be abducted and subjected to violence, if African culture is one that oppresses people, then I don’t want to be African.

Watch the show online.

After Second Thought…

..Nkoana-Mashabane, new appointee to Zuma’s cabinent, said that the Dalai Lama may now visit South Africa.

The Dalai Lama is more than free, like any other citizen of the globe, who would want to visit our country.

The BBC reports.

Apple Photos

Went apple picking today. Here are some photos I took.

Got one of these bags?