Wellhausen's Prolegomena on the Net

Anyone interested in reading Julius Wellhausen's groundbreaking historical critical introduction to the Bible can download the book for free here. Gutenberg have also now digitalized the entire International Critical Commentary, which is an awesome service.

I'll be giving a paper tomorrow on the canonical approach in front of a faculty that, on the surface at least (and part of my thesis is in fact that the differences are not so big after all), reads the Bible in a manner that would seem diametrically opposed to anything resembling synchronic exegesis. I'm giving my paper as descriptive analysis of Childs' approach, but I think it's pretty clear that I'm also out to defend him. If any of my readers are into praying, then pray for clarity, wisdom, and generosity on the part of all (oh, and pray for my German, too).

Free Audio and Video from Westminster Seminary Archives

Justin Taylor of Between the Two Worlds has pointed out that one can now access audio and video resources from Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia for free. You need to register first, but it looks as if it may be worth it. Justin lists the following names that may be of interest.

E.J. Young
Cornelius Van Til
John Murray
Edmund Clowney
Sinclair Ferguson
Richard Gaffin
Vern Poythress
Darryl Hart
Willia Edgar
David Powlison

Two names he hasn't mentioned are the renowned Old Testament scholar Bruce Waltke, who has spoken 14 times there, and a Tim Keller, who is an incredibly gifted preacher (he preached what has been for me one of the best sermon series ever, also available for free download).

Barth's Dogmatics, searchable and for free, online!

Jim West, via Stephen Cook, links to an amazing online resource: Karl Barth's entire Church Dogmatics, in English, searchable and for free on the Internet!

Is there anything else that can brighten up your day more than that?

Update:

OK, something else brightened up my day today. On this post, John Hobbins said this:

The most vital form of biblical criticism has always been Sachkritik, that is, straightforward engagement, disagreement not excluded, with the substance of a biblical text.

The word Sachkritik and its emphasis on substance has become so central to me over the past couple of years, yet, apart from Childs, I've not come accross anyone who uses it. So thank you John: you also made may day!

A new OT blogger

There's a new Old Testament blogger on the scene, a certain John Anderson, with a taste for literary/synchronic reading (though not the the exclusion of the diachronic). His academic interests

include the book of Genesis, specifically the texts of deception in the Jacob cycle; Old Testament Theology; Psalms; historical Jesus; Gospel of Matthew; ancient and modern Jewish history and philosophy; and anything pertaining to the study and origins of Judaism.

He's a third year PhD student at Baylor University and has decided to call his blog Hesed we'emet.

Welcome to the blogosphere, John!

[HT: Ancient Hebrew Poetry]

A Trinity bibliography

Nick Norelli of Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth has published a manificent bibliography of journal articles, seminar papers, dissertations/thesis, and books related to the important issue of the Trinity. It really is worth bookmarking, especially as it is in pdf and so is searchable.

Blogger seeks dialogue

One of the main reasons - perhaps the only reason - I started blogging was my need for dialogue concerning issues I'm wrestling with in my PhD (I've posted my research proposal, which has admittedly changed a bit since then). I'm a long distance student based in Bonn, Germany (my supervisor is Gordon McConville in Gloucestershire, England) and after one year of talking to myself in my office I noticed signs of insanity cropping up. A friend put me on to these things called "blogs," the first of which (and the best of which) is now dead, and then to Chris Tilling's excellent Chrisendom. From there I moved on to the Biblical Studies List and finally decided to take the plunge myself. Though I sometimes wonder about the countless posts that have disappeared into the ether (probably to be dug up and embarrassingly revealed by my future employer), I'm am truly grateful for the many people (all of whom I have never met) that have taken the time to read my posts, register their responses and criticisms, and engage me in dialogue. It's brought me further along the way and I can only recommend it to others who find them in a similar situation.

Which brings me to the actual point of this post ...

A certain Martyn Smith has just started a doctorate in theology and seems to have found himself in a similar situation to myself. He's set up a blog - appropriately named Faith Seeking Understanding - and has declared himself ready to engage people in dialogue on the issues that concern him. He only has one post up so far, but bookmark him and see what he has to say.

The best of luck to you Martyn!

SBL have a blog

which is a great resource for the latest titles in Biblical studies along with thorough and professional reviews. Go to the site and subscribe the their feed here:

http://rblnewsletter.blogspot.com/.

A delightful new blog

Not only so because of the eloquence of its language, but also because of the task it sets itself: to read through Barth's Church Dogmatics, five pages a day, in five years. Here's what the author of Zoommatics has to say about himself:

Karl Barth was a bit of a legend. As far as theology goes, he was a savage. But I love him all the more because outside of his printed theology he served in the role of theologian; he had a sense of humour about himself and his job, he had the integrity and courage to stand up to the German government when it was the responsibility of all Christians to do it (a responsibility that sadly too few took up), he had healthy interests outside of the field (most charmingly in his passionate love of Mozart’s music) and to top it all off, he was friends with Dietrich Bonhoeffer. What more could you ask for? Eh?

Still, he wrote 12000 words a day. So catching up on all the thoughts he had to share is quite a project and dealing with his titannic and masterful Church Dogmatics was something I always wanted to do. Over the next five years I hope to do it and use this here little blog as a kind of sketchpad to keep track of the odd note or excellent tidbit that must be saved and stored and promulgated for the betterment of all humanity!

So that is what this is, Zoomtard’s reading of Barth’s Church Dogmatics. Zoommatics, if you will.

I, too, hope one day to read through what looks like an utter masterpiece (the CD, I mean, not the blog), but seeing as I read like a snail I may well have to make do with Zoomtard's witty and amusing summaries of whatever has caught his attention this week.

[Hat tip: Faith and Theology]

A new Biblio-/Archeo-blog

Jim West calls it "the gathering of the great." The authors stem from or are associated with what has come to be known as the Copenhagen school, as can be seen from the title of the blog: The Guild of Biblical Minimalists. Some are well enough known enough to have their own Wikipedia entry. Check them out. If they are as energetic on this blog as on the Biblical-Studies List then they should be spirited dialogue partners.

This would seem to be their mission statement:

Our purpose is to offer the best of Biblical and Historical scholarship to interested persons.

I guess that leaves a crack open for the non-minimalists to make a contribution ...

[Hat Tip: Biblia Hebraica]

Free online access to all SAGE journals until October 31, 2008

You can now register for free online access to over 500 SAGE journals with content available from 1999–current, until October 31, 2008!

Earlier this year, SAGE celebrated the launch of the 500th journal site on the SAGE Journals Online platform. SAGE Journals Online provides users access to one of the largest collections of social science, humanities, and scientific, technical, and medical content in the world.

Off the top of my head, three of the titles of interest to those in Biblical Studies are JSOT, JSNT, ET, etc. There are far more and you can search them all according to content and author and simply download the pdf for free. It really is a geat offer.

To access the articles you have to register.

Update: I forgot to mention, this time you can only download articles from 1999 onwards. Bummer.

[Thanks again to Old Testament Passion for making me aware of this programme a year ago]

Something's wrong with Site Meter

Up until recently, Site Meter had been providing a valuable service for this blog. Due to a widgity type thing inserted into my blog I could track who had visited my blog: when, where from, and most importantly of all, for how long. The duration element was important to me as it helped me distinguish between those who accidentally came across my blog and then left in the blink of an eye, and those who actually take time to read what I post. Well, my ability to sift through "hits" in terms of their duration has been removed, due to their snazzy new upgrade which makes the service no longer serviceable.

Worse - and being a technological numpty I have no idea why - shortly after I had installed their new JavaScript code, my webpage kept "disappearing." I'd get a glimpse for a few minutes and then I'd be redirected to a Dell site and be told my page was inaccessible. Luckily, I managed to get into my layout page before being redirected again and have now throroughly expunged my blog of any link to Site Meter. Perhaps Statcounter will do a better job, though to be honest I preferred the old Site Meter.

And while I'm complaining about such things (what is the generic term?), what's up with technorati? I've been linked to numerous times, yet the site has hardly registered anything. This isn't a issue of me wanting to boost my rating, it's a matter of wanting to stay up to date on who's reading and publicising me (or demonizing, but I have to say that hasn't happened yet. Unfortunately. I do like a good debate).

A useful free Bible referencing web tool

It's called RefTagger and is provided by Logos, though you don't need to own the software to install it on your blog. Here's the description:

RefTagger is a free web tool that automatically turns all of your Bible references into hyperlinks to the passages at BibleGateway.com.

Simple and effective. It saves me from having to look up each Bible verse and hyperlink to it. For example, all I have to do is type in Gen 12:1-3, and voilà, you can read it for yourself. Go to the website for more details and the necessary JavaScript.

[Hat Tip: :-)Blog(-:]

Go to Halden's blog

I've found myself linking to inhabitatio dei so much recently that I think I might as well tell people straight out to subscribe to him in a reader and keep up to date yourselves. I'm not a systematic theologian at all - though I yearn to be - so a lot of what Halden writes just goes over my head. But when I do grasp where he's coming from I see flickerings of light that not only point the way I want to be going but also warm up the dark recesses of a soul hungering for a bit of quality in its walk with God. Sounds pretentious, I know, but we're holistic, integrated beings so I don't think one can look down too much on the cerebral athletics that these systematic types spend their time practising.

If there's one thing I'd like to see more of on his blog it would be exegesis. Isn't it the case that whatever one holds concerning the "divine reality," the "substance" of faith, it is mediated through Scripture as a vehicle? Sometimes I wish that the intricate contours of Scripture could play a more substantive role in his theorizing about protology and eschatology, Hebraic and Greek ontology, the function of gender in the ministry, or the correct stance of the church vis-á-vis the world. Perhaps this is the place to cite a criticism Brevard Childs made of T.F. Torrance concerning his work on the relation between faith and science:

Although I have tried reading several of his learned books on this subject, I do not feel that I understand him well enough to offer a critical assessment and I shall leave this tasks to others. My disappointment in his writings in this area is that whatever I do understand of his approach does not cause me to return to scripture with a fresh illumination of the biblical text, which in my judgement, is a crucial task of dogmatics.

Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments, 406.

And while I'm on the topic of polemics, here's Halden's latest goody:

I’ve written quite a few polemical sort of pieces on this blog, some of which, in retrospect, end up being quite bitting [sic]at points. More often than not I think this is warranted and appropriate. Christian love should never come to be equated with rhetorical nicety or saccharine friendliness. Too often, I think, our attempts at caution, precision, and measuredness reflect a sort of false humility that refuses to allow theological subject matter to obviously matter to us in our disagreements with one another. If I and someone else can utterly disagree about certain fundamental implications of the gospel and carry on as if our disagreement is no big deal, what does that say about how seriously we take the gospel? How often does our politeness really just indicate the degree to which we view theology as a role-playing game rather than a life and death endeavor. There’s far too little fear and anger in theology. And far too much etiquette.

A free commentary on Matthew/Mark!

Honestly, I couldn't believe this when I read it. I figured there's got to be snag. But no, Logos are in the process of preparing a new commentary series, the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary (9 vols). In order to get publicity they are simply offering the commentary of Matthew/Mark for free. Go here for the details. I've downloaded it and it looks like it'll be a useful supplement to my growing digital library. One of the authors is the blogosphere's very own Darell Bock (who also edits the whole). I'm not much a New Testament person, but I've been told by Chris Tilling that he's a highly respected scholar. I look forward to reading what he has to say about prophecy and fulfilment in Matthew!

By the way, I really am trying not to sound like a salesman here. It just goes to show that the difference between form and content is not something that can be identified by genre alone.

A new Biblical Theology blog

I am delighted that the issue of Biblical Theology is not dead, as can be seen by the establishment of a new blog dedicated to the issue (I'm sure Childs would be delighted!). Here is their opening statement:

This blog exists for the glory of God, in service to the church, to promote the study and discussion of biblical theology’s history, methodology, aims, achievements, developments, direction, and points of contact with other approaches to the study of the Bible. This will be a collaborative effort, and the purpose of this post is to introduce the contributors to the blog.

The blog has an impressive cast of moderators (with the promise of more):

Dr. Desi Alexander is Director of Christian Training for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, based at Union Theological College, having previously lectured for nearly 20 years in Semitic Studies at the Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. He co-edited the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology (IVP) and has recently written a book on biblical theology, From Eden to the New Jerusalem, published in the UK by IVP and coming out soon in the US from Kregel. An elder in Fitzroy Presbyterian Church, he is married to Anne, and they have two children, Jane and David.

Dr. Michael Bird is Tutor in New Testament at the Highland Theological College in Dingwall, Scotland. He is an Australian and holds a Ph.D from the University of Queensland. Michael’s research interests include the historical Jesus, the Gospel of Mark, Pauline theology, New Testament theology, and Christian origins. He is married to Naomi and they have two children and together they attend Dingwall Baptist Church.

Dr. Steve Dempster is the Stuart E. Murray Professor of Religious Studies at Atlantic Baptist University, New Brunswick, Canada. He is the author of Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible, and he contributed to the Anchor Bible Dictionary, New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, and Biblical Theology: Retrospect and Prospect.

Dr. Jim Hamilton is Associate Professor of Biblical Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, USA, having previously served as Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Houston campus and as the preaching pastor at Baptist Church of the Redeemer. He is married to Jill, and they have three sons.
Posting from Ireland, Scotland (by an Australian), Canada, and the United States, we are excited about the international character of this blog, and we hope it will serve you well. We seek to know God in Christ by the power of the Spirit as revealed in the Bible.

Justin Taylor is evidently responsible for the idea for the blog. The tone has already been set by the Evangelical Text Criticism blog, as summarized by P.J. Williams, who wrote

I want this forum to be robust in two ways: first, it is not going to be embarrassed about believing that the Bible is true and that the Bible is made up of particular words which come from God. Secondly, it is going to be a place where we discuss textual criticism based on a familiarity with the issues involved. . . .
The blog will not generally try to justify the historic evangelical perspective that says that the inspired text of the Bible is Greek for the NT and Hebrew (or Aramaic) for the OT. Justifications may emerge within this group, but it will be more profitable to those involved if we take this as our basis.
What is said there about text criticism can be applied here about biblical theology, and we hope you will find this blog profitable.

I look forward to hearing more!

Hmmm ... the question is: which blog roll do I add them to: "biblical studies" or "theology"?

[Hat tip: Celucien Joseph of the blog Christ my Righteousness]

Bibliography for the figural reading of scripture

This is Christopher Seitz's recommended reading, printed on p. ix of his outstanding book, Figured Out: Typology and Providence in Christian Scripture.

I've only read the article by Childs, which is exciting as ever, but I intend to work through the rest in due course. Any thoughts on the others?

J. Barr, "Allegory and Typology," in Old and New in Interpretation (Harper & Row, 1966), 103-48.
B.S. Childs, "Allegory and Typology within Biblical Interpretation" (unpublished paper delivered at the University of St Andrews, April 2000).
H. Crouzel, "The Interpretation of Scripture," in Origen (ET; T&T Clark, 1989).
R. Greer, Theodore of Mopsuestia: Exegete and Theologian (The Faith Press, 1961).
___, Broken Lights and Mended Lives (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1986).
A. Louth, Discerning the Mystery (Oxford, 1983).
T.E. Pollard, "The Exegesis of Scripture and the Arian Controversy," BJRL 41 (1958-9), 414-29.
M. Simonetti, Biblical Interpretation in the Early Church (T&T Clark, 1994).
K. Torjesen, Hermeneutical Procedure and Theological Method (de Gruyter, 1986).
J.W. Trigg, Origen: The Bible and Philosophy in the Third Century (SCM, 1985)
___, "Allegory," in Encyclodpedia of Early Christianity (2d ed.; Garland, 1998)
Frances Young, "Exegetical Method and Scriptural Proof: The Bible in Doctrinal Debate," Studia Patristica 29 (1989) 291-304.
___, "Allegory and the Ethics of Reading," in The Open Text. New Directions for Biblical Studies? (F. Watson, ed.; SPCK, 1993)
___, "Typology," in Crossing the Boundaries: Essays in Biblical Interpretation in Honour of Michael D. Goulder (S.E. Porter, P. Joyce, D.E. Orton, eds.; E.J. Brill, 1994) 29-48.
___, Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture (Cambridge University Press, 1997).

I note that R. N. Longnecker's Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period (Paternoster Press, 1992) isn't on the list. I randomly bought the book at the age of 19 (?) from a Doulos ship and still haven't got round to reading it. I hear he's critical of patristic interpretation ... Is that why he's excluded from this list?

A psalmic pop-group: The Sons of Korah

I'm currently trying to get through a translation of an essay on the relationship between the German Protestant church and the establishement of the State of Israel which has to be done by tonight. Hence, the paucity of posting. Here's one I drafted before rushing off to Italy. I soon hope to get back to my "mega" thread: principles of Christian exegesis (see the summary so far here).

Richard of תהלים links to a interesting band from Australia, The Sons of Korah. Their music consists in one thing only: singing the Psalms. And I don't think worship music can get any better than that. The leader singer has a PhD in theology/philosphy and has even written a commentary to every Psalm that has appeared on their various albums.

They have a great intro to the importance of the Psalms in worship here, with an interesting bit about the story of the Korah family as a story of God's grace.

You can listen to samples of their music here. I'm delighted to see that they've covered the two Psalms that will be busying me in the near future, Psalms 15 and 24 (click the link for an audio sample). Unfortunately, they are on two separate albums, but then it is my birthday soon ...

My completed threads

I should probably dedicate my last post this morning before I jump into my car and drive off south to the fact that I have a new box on the right of this blog page, under my "about me" box, summarizing all the threads I have completed over the past year (all, that is, apart from the first one on traditional Christian exegesis, which is still under way).

Like I said, feel free to criticize. I'm always up for a good debate.

Andersen-Forbes website (and a short praise of Logos)

Thanks to Exegetica Digita for pointing this out. The website is at andersen-forbes.org/.

I recently purchased Logos Biblical Software (Original Language Library), and though I've had little time to actually use it, the resources it offers are unbelievable. Seeing as I intend to live a rather nomadic lifestyle, having an integrated, searchable digital library is one of the most useful resources I could dream of. Reading on a computer should take a bit of getting used to, but as far as I can see it's just a matter of habit. I use the computer so much these days that it really doesn't represent a break from what I normally do. Perhaps the only major complaint I have so far is that the Biblia Hebraica doesn't come with the critical apparatus, which basically means I have to have the print version at my side when reading the Bible on the computer! You can buy it extra, but only as part of a larger package that includes books already on the Original Library and which costs far more than it's worth for the appartus alone.

Apart from that, I'd like to take this opportunity to praise Logos' outstanding customer service! This had already been given to me as a reason for going for Logos, but I experienced it first hand yesterday as I had had problems with a large order. I had the World Biblical Commentary package sent to me from the States, but had to send it back as German Customs decided to add $103 customs tax! I hadn't ordered the downloadable version as, being the technological numpty that I am, I'd experienced problems in the past. Luckily, a certain Don phoned me at home, linked my computer to his in the States and downloaded the whole thing for me, pointing out what I was doing wrong and giving advice on how to proceed in the future. Amazing technology (it impressed me, anyway) and great service, I thought. Now I have to figure out how to burn a backup copy ...

Free audio books of key Christian thinkers (ancient ones)!

Sister Macrina, of the interesting patristic blog A Vow of Conversation (for a brief overview see here) has linked to an awesome audio resource: public domain audio books for people with Catholic tastes. Volumes of St John of the Cross, St. Catherine of Sienna, Thomas a Kempis, Origen, St. Athanasius, St. Ignatius of Antioch, Tertullian, Pope St. Gregory the Great ... The list goes on!

Such things are ideal for people like me who want to get their teeth into some raw material but don't have the time or energy to read books not related to their immediate concerns. For simple audio books I find I can listen while jogging in the mornings, but it's not quite the same as samba. If you happen to have a wife who insists on spending copious amounts of time on the beach, then they can also be a great way for giving your eyes a break, allowing you to take in information in a comfortable position (i.e. lying on your back instead of leaning on one arm or holding the book in the air, while being blinded by the sunlight and trying to ignore unwelcome sand stuck in various crevices), and while away the time.

I don't like beaches.