Sneaky Bible-Teacher Trick
While prepping for the upcoming semester I finalized a little exercise I’ve been doing to have students inductively discern sources for themselves. Since a fair number of my readers teach the Bible, I thought it might be useful to some and additionally might provoke dialog on how to teach this concept. Read more…
Biblical Inerrancy for Dummies
A friend alerted me to this short, humorous, instructional video on biblical inerrancy by Father Matthew. Enjoy.
Random Ugaritic Error
Yesterday I was reading John J. Collin’s thoughts on the biblical book of Job in his Introduction to the Hebrew Bible
In Ezek 14:14 Job is linked with Noah and Danel (Daniel) as legendary righteous men. Noah is a biblical figure but prior to Abraham, and not properly an Israelite. Danel is known from the legend of King Keret in Ugaritic (Canaanite) lore. (508)
Right idea, wrong Ugaritic story. Danel (or more properly, Daniʾil) from Ezek 14:14 is most definitely that of Ugaritic lore and not the late apocalyptic biblical book of Daniel. However, Danel shows up not in the legend of Kirtu (Keret) but in the tale of Aqhat. This error managed to make it into Collin’s Short Introduction to the Hebrew Bible
Stray Thought on Khirbet Qeiyafa Ostracon
With the recent press release from University of Haifa (and Haaretz’s subsequent article) it seems that the internet is a again flutter with discussion of the Khirbet Qeiyafa ostracon. Recent penetrating posts include Doug Mangum’s at Biblia Hebraica and Bob Cargill (see also the older post by John Hobbins over at Ancient Hebrew Poetry). What I find most fascinating is the Qeiyafa Ostracon Chronicle over at the dig’s official site. The timeline it reconstructs screams to me the question: would such effort have been expended on a stray inscription from another culture?
Read more…
The Young and the Westless
The last few months have seen some monumental changes. On September 18, 2009 the CBS’s soap opera Guiding Light went off the air after a run of some 72 years. On December 8, 2009 CBS announced that the last episode of As the World Turns would air September 17, 2010. As of January 1, 2010 Jim West has ceased blogging.
The comparison is, of course, approximate. While Jim’s blogs have been prone to melodrama and intrigue (who deleted his first blog?), they can’t compare to the sheer schmaltz of your average soap. However, at the same time Jim West is as much of an institution to the biblioblogosphere as the Guiding Light or As the World Turns is to the soap opera.
It’s difficult not to look for correlations between their disappearances. I find it hard not to see in this the harbinger of change. Yet what this could signal, I haven’t a clue.
2009 Year-end Wrap Up
Festive Sphinx at the Penn Museum
Happy New Year! I haven’t posted much in December. This was due both to the crush of grading four classes and to the need to spend time with family. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t provide some sort of year-end wrap up. Read more…
SafeAssign and TurnItIn Tips
I’ve been using SafeAssign from Blackboard to upload students’ papers for the last few semesters. I’ve blogged before on my continuing woes with the plagiarism check, but I keep coming back to the software as a convenient way of collecting and collating papers. After running through many variations of the same issues, I’ve come up with a few tips for those having problems.
Read more…
Silent Monks Hallelujah Chorus
This is brilliant:
HT: Targuman
Conservapedia and Epistemology
Stephen Colbert had Andy Schlafly of Conservapedia on his show the other night. While the supposed topic was the Conservative Bible Project, the subtext was epistemology. Take a look:
Vodpod videos no longer available.
HT: Polycarp
Too Many Ideas
This year I didn’t submit a paper for SBL Regional. I’ll be chairing the Torah section; I’m finishing the dissertation; and I have another project due in May on some Mesopotamian texts. All that while teaching three classes in the spring will be a full plate.
However, I can’t say I’m happy with passing up a chance to throw some new ideas out there. There are a lot of areas of research that my dissertation and teaching responsibilities have brought to my attention. I have two abstracts sitting on my desktop, both on rituals in the Deuteronomistic History. I simply don’t have the time to work these ideas up into papers for the spring.
Perhaps I’ll wind up giving multiple papers in Atlanta — along with hocking my wares on several other fronts. Too many ideas and not enough time.
Ketuvim: the Writings of James R. Getz Jr. 