I have written before about the UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader’s Edition (Hendrickson), but I will say it again: all pastors, scholars and students (who read Greek) will rediscover their Bible through this book. As I have mentioned before, using the UBS ecclectic text, it offers footnoted glosses of all words in Greek in the text that occur less than 30x. The process of reading the NT for someone who knows a decent amount of grammar is almost flawless.... Read more

Several bloggers have addressed how to get the most out of SBL, but a commenter of a recent post asked me to pitch in, so here I am. First of all, your ‘conference goals’ are largely determined by your place in the chain (student versus scholar) and your ambitions. But, I think I itch most students where they scratch with a few general statements. 1. ALWAYS TRY TO PRESENT A PAPER – from early on in your PHD, think through... Read more

Last night in Durham’s weekly New Testament seminar we were delighted to have Richard Hays speaking on the topic of Mark’s distinctive ‘echoes’ of Scripture and how he comments on and draws a picture of the divine identity of Jesus.  Hays actually didn’t use the word ‘echoes’, though.  As you might already know, Hays has nearly phased himself out of Pauline studies and has concentrated his attention now on the use of Scripture in the Gospels.  But, he is not... Read more

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am working on a review of Douglas Moo’s Colossians (Pillar) commentary. Let me say, first of all, it is excellent in that Moo is a sharp scholar who does not make unwarranted claims and has fair assumptions. The prose flows well and it is easy to read. I do have a concern with the way the Pillar series operates, which is not unlike other commentary collections. Because it is geared towards ‘serious... Read more

Never judge a book by its cover, right?  Well, we do it all the time.  We buy books at SBL because of who wrote it and/or the title of the book and sometimes how attractive the cover design is.  There is another factor: blurbs -that is, who has endorsed the book on the back.  An endorsement from Bruce Longenecker goes a long way in some circles.  In other circles, it is Joseph Fitzmyer.  And on and on.  The problem is,... Read more

I am currently reviewing two new commentaries (one on 1 Corinthians and one on Colossians).  Though some new insights are interesting on one verse or another, most of the time the comments are similar to conclusions and discussions previously reached in similar commentaries.  For instance, a commentary on any of Paul’s letters has to treat his ‘grace and peace to you…’ intro comment.  All modern commentaries will say the same thing.  What choice do they have?  They can’t just skip... Read more

I have just been informed that there is an interesting debate going on on the website ‘infidels.org’ regarding Paul and the nature of the resurrection-body of Jesus.  The debate is described as follows: ‘Historian Richard Carrier and theology scholar Jake O’Connell debate whether Paul believed that Jesus rose from the dead in the same body that died, or in a new body, leaving his old body behind to rot in the grave’. The opening statements and ‘first rebuttals’ have been... Read more

The new JSNT issue (December 2008) has been posted electronically on the Sage website (http://jnt.sagepub.com/current.dtl). I am happy to say that therein you will find my first article in a major journal (which explores a series of allusions to Ps 78 in 2 Thessalonians 3). I am experiencing some fear and trembling as my article has been given a place alongside some magnates in this issue: David A. deSilva Out of our Minds? Appeals to Reason (Logos) in the Seven... Read more

In our weekly New Testament seminar, it was a pleasure to have our own Francis Watson presenting on the Gospels (as he now is working on a large project involve, especially, non-Canonical gospels).  He chose a very interesting topic with the title: ‘Is Q Still a Hypothesis?’. The Synoptic Problem is neither an area I am well schooled in, nor is it actually an area that I find interesting.  But, Prof. Watson did a good job of making the discussion... Read more

I am excited that I just received my copy of DJ Moo’s new Pillar commentary on Colossians and Philemon (Eerdmans, 2008). Having just begun it, I was appreciative of his careful discussion of authorship. He explains that the broadest issues involve language (vocabulary and style) and theology. Some rely on the problem of hapax legomena, stylistic tendencies that vary from the undisputed letters, especially syntactical variances. Ultimately, Moo points, out, the problem of language is not conclusive because such variety... Read more