Welcome to the Archives

Welcome to the Archives of Biblia Hebraica!

Biblia Hebraica has been an active biblioblog from February 2008 until early July 2009.

Normal blogging is scheduled to resume in the fall of 2009.

In the meantime, the archives are conveniently located on the right hand sidebar. If you are new to this blog, there's plenty to keep you busy until September.

Thanks for dropping by!

Prelims on My Mind or TTFN

As I continue to strive for that sublime state of mind known as the Bibb-Lester "You Know What's Interesting..." Effect (aka the B-L "YKWI..." Effect - wherein intensive exam prep pervades all of life in creative ways), I've decided to take a break from much of my online activity, seeing it as more of a distraction than as a constructive part of my personal development for now. My exam schedule is set: General Exam-July 27, Hebrew Exam-July 30, Semitics Exam-Aug 11, Oral Exam (including dissertation proposal)-Aug 20. So I'm taking a sabbatical of sorts from the biblioblogosphere. I'll still moderate comments but don't expect much discussion or new content here until late August. I probably won't be paying much attention to what any other biblioblogs are saying either, though my subscriptions will remain in Google Reader. It will be interesting to see how many unread items I have once I achieve enlightenment (i.e., successful completion of exams). For round the clock updates on what is going on in the biblioblogging community in my absence, I refer you to the #1 biblioblog of all time.

New Revelation: The Apocalypse of Eve

The Apocalypse of Eve, also known as Biblical Studies Carnival 43, has been revealed and translated by Pat McCullough. Pat has put his research interest in apocalyptic literature to good use, translating an ancient scroll that surprisingly contained revelations about biblioblogging in June 2009 with uncanny accuracy. Very creative for a biblical studies carnival. Check it out!

Ancient Authors

Art has posted some thoughts on how authorship was understood in the ancient world (reflecting on Karel van der Toorn's Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible). Here's his final thought.

The point of writing this is to ask a question: if our understanding of authorship and our concept of author is a modern understanding that is pushed back onto the Hebrew Bible, then why do people make such a fuss about the Mosaic authorship of Torah or of Isaianic authorship of Isaiah or of Solomonic authorship of Proverbs, etc.? After looking at the data within the Hebrew Bible itself as well as the data within the historical milieu of the Hebrew Bible, to continue arguing issues of authorship seems to be not so much arguing for a “high view of Scripture” as much as it is arguing for a “high view of modern categories.” [emphasis added]

I've been wondering the same thing for a long time, Art. For some reason, their very ability to believe Scripture is divine seems to hang on it. I wrestled with the issue a while back in my posts on apologetics and Bible scholarship because those are the very issues that come up for debate. Somehow it's essential for inerrancy and inspiration. But I agree with Art's assessment that it's an argument from modern categories more than anything else. (See McGrath's review of Beale's book on the inerrancy debate for much the same assessment of his argument.)

Back in the Biblioblog Top 50

I have regained a place in the Biblioblog Top 50 at #21 for June. You may recall my inexplicable fall from the list in May when apparently I dropped to #101, not even in the top 100. My return is no doubt due to the substantial increase in posts for June, many of which people actually seem to be reading (24 posts vs. only 9 in May).

Genesis One and Creation

James Spinti keeps posting great quotes from John Walton's latest book The Lost World of Genesis One. I wish I didn't have so much to read already right now because I would really like to get this book. From the quotes James has offered so far, I think that Walton's perspective on Genesis 1 looks like a valuable contribution to the subject.

Viewing Genesis 1 as an account of functional origins of the cosmos as temple does not in any way suggest or imply that God was uninvolved in material origins—it only contends that Genesis 1 is not that story. To the author and audience of Genesis, material origins were simply not a priority. To that audience, however, it would likewise have been unthinkable that God was somehow uninvolved in the material origins of creation."—The Lost World of Genesis One, page 96 (italics original)

James has more quotes from Walton on the temple, dust, the focus of creation, translation, and what constitutes creation. Can I borrow the book when you're done, James? I guess it is pretty cheap though . . . only $10.88 at Amazon ($3.50 cheaper than Eisenbrauns, James!).

(Also see the recent discussion at New Leaven on the purpose of creation.)

More Pastors Need PhDs

In light of my last post on how a certain uneducated pastor butchers the Bible every time he goes to preach, Brian's post today about the need for more people with PhDs in biblical studies or theology to serve churches instead of staying in academia seems all the more relevant. It makes sense that any religious community will be better served by well-educated leaders whether priests, pastors, or rabbis.

We Don’t Need No Education

. . . to rightly divide the Word of Truth. At least, some people don't think education is important when it comes to reading and interpreting the Bible.

I was briefly distracted from my studies the other night when I saw this link that Ken Brown noted on Twitter (posted earlier by Brandon Wason). The link directs to an article titled "Why Bible College is Unscriptural and Wrong" by the infamous Pastor Steven L. Anderson (of "pisseth against the wall" Youtube fame), fundamentalist, King James only, uneducated . . . and proud of it.

I was baffled by his attempt to write-off "college" because the Bible doesn't mention "college" except once in the KJV and it's associated with . . . <gasp> a female preacher! More precisely, it relates to the prophetess Huldah in 2 Kings 22:14 (and parallel in 2 Chron 34:22) who lived "in Jerusalem in the college." Of course, if Anderson knew anything about Hebrew or used any other translation than the KJV, he would have known the word the KJV translates “college” is ha-mishneh “the Second Quarter” of Jerusalem; it has nothing to do with higher education. I’m really not sure where the translation “college” came from, unless it was just an anachronistic assumption that the prophets and prophetesses lived together in the same area (used religiously in the “college of cardinals” sense). I have to admit that I stopped reading at this point. I’d seen more than enough to recognize the work of a crank.

Then to my surprise, the crazy exegesis of Mr. Anderson popped up again yesterday in my RSS feeds. Darrell Pursiful and Dr. Claude Mariottini (also here) fearlessly take up the cause of pointing out how ridiculous Anderson's interpretation of Deut 22:5 really is (the part where the Bible says cross-dressing is wrong).

His completely ignorant, anachronistic way of reading Scripture can only be explained by the fact that he believes formal biblical training in college or seminary is somehow wrong and unscriptural.

Yes, we’re all incredulous at his assertions. Yes, he’s serious. He might be crazy, or at least slightly out of touch with reality. He definitely needs to take 1 Tim 2:2 about respecting the government more seriously.

I think he should be in the running for the next Worst Preacher Ever competition. There are many more examples of how bad he can be on his Youtube channel with over 400 videos uploaded. Education? He doesn’t need it.

30,000 - June 25, 2009

Sometime in the wee hours this morning, the page loads counter at the bottom of the screen rolled over the 30,000 mark. That's 30,000 page loads since I started keeping track last August 1 and 15,000 more since I passed the 15,000 mark about six months ago. Thanks to all for visiting!

Satlow: Between Faith & Reason

I've finished the first podcast of the "From Israelite to Jew" series by Michael Satlow entitled "Between Faith and Reason." (Background here). It is an articulate explanation of the assumptions underlying the academic approach to the study of religion and a thoughtful assessment of the struggle to relate faith and reason. The issues Satlow raises in this podcast relate directly to the quote that I posted recently from Stephen Prothero about the difference between studying religion and doing religion. All who were interested and involved in the discussion related to that post will find it well worth their while to listen to Satlow.  I'm sure Brooke would agree with me.