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My musings on Biblical Studies, Biblical Hebrew, Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint, Popular Culture, and pretty much anything else that interests me! I will also let you know about site updates and special academic events in the Edmonton area, among other thin
Recent Posts Tagged With 'old testament'
Introduction to the Bible Textbooks: Any Thoughts?
One of the new courses I will be teaching regularly at The King’s University College is a one semester introduction to the Bible (i.e., the Christian Bible, Old and New Testaments). At Taylor,...
Jonah’s “Big Fish” Story 3: Jonah and the Sailors (1:1-16)
[I will be republishing my series on the Hebrew text of Jonah for my current introductory Hebrew class since I had to go back and fix the Hebrew in the posts] The first chapter of the book of Jonah be...
Cain and Abel: A Cameo from Year One
My previous post on Cain and Abel reminded me of a somewhat funny (OK, it is funny — just a little dark) trailer for a new Harold Ramis film, The Year One: WPvideo 1.10 Download The film foll...
What Was Wrong with Cain’s Offering? A Possible Hint from Hebrew Grammar
One of the many crux interpretums in the early chapters of the Book of Genesis surrounds Yahweh’s negative response to Cain’s offering. Why did Yahweh accept Abel’s offering and reje...
New and Forthcoming Commentaries on Genesis
I have been perusing a couple new commentaries on the book of Genesis and decided to update my commentary listing. I am aware of four recently published commentaries on Genesis: Bill T. Arnold. Gen...
What Does Harmonizing Genesis 1 and 2 Really Accomplish?
I am teaching an undergraduate course on the book of Genesis this semester and have been reflecting on how to best read the creation accounts in Genesis 1 and 2. Many of my students have been brought ...
Jehovah, Adonai, LORD, Yahweh: What’s In a Name?
The Vatican made the news recently with the barring of the pronunciation of the name “Yahweh” — the proper name used for Israel’s God in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament — ...
Is Yahweh a Hermaphrodite?
Of course Yahweh isn’t! But that was the title of an article in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune, however. The article, “Is God a Hermaphrodite?“, makes reference to an article pu...
Peter Enns - His Departure from WTS
It saddens, yet doesn’t surprise me, that Prof. Peter Enns will be leaving Westminster Theological Cemetary Seminary as of August 1, 2008. You can check out Enns’s own site for the announc...
Codex Sinaiticus Digitization Project Going Live
The first online phase of the Codex Sinaiticus digitization project headed by the Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing at the University of Birmingham, in cooperation with the Brit...
Yahweh - a Moral Monster?
One of the biggest moral and theological challenges modern readers face when reading the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible is the brutal violence found within its pages. And if the graphic descriptions of v...
Exiled Gods in the ANE and the Bible
The “Concept of Exile in Ancient Israel and its Contexts” workshop was held two weeks ago at the University of Alberta. Due to teaching and administrative responsibilities, I wasn’t...
In Support of Dr. Peter Enns
As many of my readers may have already heard, Dr. Peter Enns, Associate Professor of Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia), has been suspended by the Board of Trustees effec...
The Mysterious Appearance of “Satan” in English Translations of the Book of Job
The appearance of “Satan” in virtually all English translations of the book of Job befuddles me since it is very clear that Satan was never in the book of Job to begin with! While alm...
How to Understand Proverbs (and Avoid Twisting Scripture)
How do we read and understand individual proverbs found in the book of Proverbs? Do we take them as universal truths? Do we read them as promises from God to be claimed? Either way of reading proverb...
The Fear of Yahweh and the Hermeneutics of Wisdom
I’m teaching a course on wisdom literature this semester and I thought I would do a few posts relating to the wisdom literature of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. In this first post I want to l...
Bad Sermon: “Him that pisseth against the wall”
Check out this sermon on the phrase “him that pisseth against the wall” from the KJV of 1 Kings 14:10. The phrase also occurs in 1Sam 25:22, 25:34; 1Kings 16:11, 21:21, and 2Kings 9:8. The...
Commentaries on Chronicles Galore!
There has been a resurgence of scholarly interest in Chronicles, which is evident in the number of commentaries recently published on this oft-neglected book. There is truly a wealth of resources in E...
Alter on the Psalms
Slate has an interesting article by Robert Alter, entitled “Psalm Springs: How I translated the Bible’s most poetic book,” in which discusses his just-released translation of the Psa...
Top Ten Old Testament Scholars Since 1800
Charles Halton has written an interesting list of the “Top Ten Old Testament Scholars Since 1800” over at Awilum. The only surprises on the list (IMHO) are the inclusion of Thompson and ...
Goat Skin DNA, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Tehillim
Goats and Scrolls While it is not odd to see the Dead Sea Scrolls in the news — especially with the scroll exhibit touring the United States — there is an interesting article by Judy Siege...
