Tom Holmen and Stan Porter have edited a four-volume series with Brill, Handbook for the Study of the Historical Jesus (a total cost of $1329!). While none of us can ever afford to buy this, I will torture you with some attractive essay titles: Volume 1: “How to Marginalize the Traditional Criteria of Authenticity” (Dale Allison) “The Historical Jesus: How to Ask Questions and Remain Inquisitive” (Charlesworth) “Remembering Jesus: How the Quest of the HJ Lost its Way” (Dunn) “From... Read more

I would like to direct your interest to an interview I conducted with Susan Eastman regarding her article with the new Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters and her thoughts on a variety of other matters. Read more

Right now I am researching on early Jewish and Christian idol polemic. It is common for Biblical scholars to argue that the Jewish diatribe against pagan idol worship is a caricature and, in fact, “pagans” (like Greeks) knew that their cult statues were not really gods, but symbols and sometimes a means of communication or point of contact. In my research, I want to show that the state of the issue is much more complex. While Greek philosophers seemed to... Read more

I asked before what kind of path we should cut out for ourselves in research. I am still working on that but a commenter offered a link to a very useful Inside Higher Ed article called “The Myth of the Muse.” I really enjoyed this short article. The “myth” is that too many people are waiting for their Muse (inspiration) before putting pen to paper. The best advice in the article is this: “articles and books get completed when ideas... Read more

I would just like to mention a new Biblical commentary series by IVP called “Resonate.” The editors seem to all come from Multnomah University/Seminary and the series is non-technical. Here is the series explanation: “The aim of the Resonate series is to provide spiritual nourishment that is biblically and theologically orthodox and culturally significant.” Also, the purposes include: “guiding, guarding, and growing readers as they move forward in their own spiritual journeys.” I have had a chance to read most... Read more

Over the break I finished reading Larry Hurtado’s fine book on God in New Testament Theology (Abingdon). It is a short read (just over 100 pages) and surprisingly fills an important niche since there are so few books on “God” in the New Testament, as Nils Dahl complained about a few decades ago. In the first chapter, Hurtado covers a number of recent treatments on the question of God in the NT. While there have been a good number since... Read more

Happy new year! The beginning of a new year brings thoughts about what is next. From an academic perspective, thoughts naturally turn to new writing projects. At SBL I had some good conversations with friends and scholars at various stages in their careers, from just beginning (like me) to seasoned, prolific writers. One thing seems to be clear. The expectations have changed considerably in the last half century regarding scholarly output. A generation ago, it seemed outstanding to publish more... Read more

Happy Christmas to all! So far, it has been a good Christmas for my family as we have traveled from Seattle to Ohio and Indiana. We watched a nice documentary on TV called “After Jesus” on CNN, narrated by Laim Neeson and scholars interviewed include Bart Ehrman and Judith Lieu. I got a few books for Xmas (some are for Journal review, but they are virtually “presents”!) God in New Testament Theology (Hurtado, Abingdon, 2010) Since I read Dunn’s Christology... Read more

Making a (short) book-length contribution to the question of Christology and monotheism in early Christianity, Dunn’s new book (Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?) brings an important critical voice to the conversation that has largely been dominated in the last decade or so by Larry Hurtado and Richard Bauckham. The way into this discussion is through the (seemingly) simple question: Did the first Christians worship Jesus? Dunn points out that most Christians ASSUME the answer is YES. He thinks otherwise, based... Read more

A “big box” arrived yesterday – The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism ed. by John Collins and Daniel Harlow. Firstly, it is huge – a whopping 1300 pages, each page about the 8.5 x 11 size (dictionary style). This is a very untraditional dictionary as it is both textbook and encyclopedia. The first 300 pages contain a series of “essays” on early Judaism; the next 1000 pages are the actual entries of the dictionary. Essays include: “Early Judaism in Modern... Read more