Category Archives: Biblical Studies

ἔστιν πανουργία καὶ αὕτη βδέλυγμα καὶ ἔστιν ἄφρων ἐλαττούμενος σοφίᾳ There is cleverness that is also an abomination, and there is a fool lacking in wisdom. Wisdom of Sirach 19.23, Rahlfs-Hanhart and NETS

If you have a copy of the New English Translation of the Septuagint (Oxford, 2007), then you’ll likely want to correct the following: 1.) Iezekiel 37.23: “recue” should read “rescue” 2.) Sirach 28.24-25: The second “25b” should read “25a” so that the verses progress thusly: 24a, 25b, 24b, 25a 3.) 3 Reigns 4.9: “Mackemas” shouldContinue reading “NETS Corrigenda”

And as for his concubine, whose name was Reema, she too bore Gaam and Tabech and Tochos and Mocha. Genesis 22.24 NETS With all those babies I’d bear a mocha too, with a triple-shot of espresso.

This has got to be some kind of joke. One of the guys more responsible than not for the uninformed public’s impression of the Bible—namely that it is a completely invented late artifact of little historical value for the periods it ostensibly covers—now notices one of the side effects of this is a complete andContinue reading “Fat chance!”

Everyone who’s ever been serious about Bible study is familiar with concordances. In the days before computer programs that would do searching and concordancing for you, there were massive printed volumes which would show you the occurrence of every word, most with short excerpts of context. Two of the most famous of these, Cruden’s CompleteContinue reading “Concordances are fun!”

I’ll dispense with two memes in this single post. First, Nick Norelli tagged me for Five Influential Primary Sources, “sources that have most affected your scholarship, thoughts about antiquity, and/or understanding of the NT/OT.” I list these in no particular order. 1.) The Law Code of Hammurapi: In my first year of Akkadian, we translatedContinue reading “Two birds, one stone”

From Michael Wyschogrod, The Body of Faith: God in the People Israel (Jason Aronson/Rown & Littlefield, 1996), xiv: No living culture can survive on the basis of history alone. History is essential because we need to know what our forebears thought. But after we discover what they thought, we need to decide what we think.Continue reading “Reading and Life”

Perspective 1: During my second campaign, bent on conquest, I marched rapidly against Babylon. I advanced swiftly, like a violent storm, and enveloped the city like a fog. I laid siege to it and took possession of it by means of mines and ladders. I delivered over to pillage its powerful […]. Great and small,Continue reading “Perspectives”

Several years ago I compiled an index (really more of a concordance) which lined up the texts common to William Hallo and K. Lawson Younger’s Context of Scripture, and James Pritchard’s classic Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. I had intended to do some more work on it, but this simply slippedContinue reading “My COS/ANET Index”

The following comes from my notes on the chapter “The History of Religions School and the Jews” in Anders Gerdmar, Roots of Theological Anti-Semitism (Brill, 2009) Johannes Weiss (1863-1914) was, like Wilhelm Bousset (1865-1920), a student of Albrecht Ritschl (1822-1889). Both were considered members of the History of Religions School (Religionsgeschichtliche Schule), an academic movementContinue reading “What Might Have Been”