Grades are finally in!
As of about an hour ago grades are in and posted for the semester. It’s been a busy fall. I had a grand total of 23 hours between submitting the final draft of my dissertation being and starting the fall semester. I need a break.
Of course, a break is never really a break. I need to finalize a review of Kathryn McClymond’s Beyond Sacred Violence: A Comparative Study of Sacrifice
Review of Baden’s J, E, and the Redaction of the Pentateuch
David Carr has a very critical review of Joel Baden’s J, E, & the Redaction of the Pentateuch
In the end, I very much hope this book is not an indicator of the direction of future pentateuchal scholarship, especially scholarship conducted in North American contexts…. Aside from my issues in detail with the multitude of textual analyses presented as givens across the book, the main problem I see is the extent to which this book as a whole is a triumph of system over detailed textual observation, caricature of opposition in place of detailed engagement, and a sad example in North American research of ignorance of and lack of specific engagement with recent European scholarship (particularly untranslated German pentateuchal scholarship).
Carr’s criticisms are valid to some extent. At this level you really have to at least give a nod to the larger scholarly world.
However, Baden’s work is doing something very different than what is happening in German pentateuchal scholarship. I’m not sure how he would have adequately addressed Carr’s concerns. A host of “contra” footnotes?
Personally, I found Baden’s interaction with pentateuchal scholarship quite sizable, but his concerns are more akin to my own. I can only hope that Carr doesn’t read the source-critical discussion of the Sinai narrative in my dissertation.
Comparative Soul
Judith Weingarten has interesting post comparing “soul” nbš/npš of the Kuttamuwa inscription with (much) later stele from Palmyra. Very interesting comparative work.
(HT: PhDiva)
Polyglot Meme
James F. McGrath tagged me in a list of linguistic prowess. Apparently there’s a place in the new facebook to list the languages you “know.” Generally speaking, I’m pulled into the lates versions of facebook kicking and screaming and spend days learning how to turn off “new ways to share” my information that each iteration of the site sets in motion. BUT, here’s a list of languages that I purport to “know” in some undefined sense:
- Akkadian (Old Bab, Old Assyrian, and Standard Bab, some peripheral)
- Aramaic (including Old, Imperial, Targumic and Syriac)
- French
- German
- Greek (koine)
- Hebrew
- Hittite (including Luwian)
- Italian
- Moabite (do two inscriptions make a “language”?)
- Phoenician (including Punic)
- Spanish
- Ugaritic
Not quite the list that James reports but still a respectable baker’s dozen if you include English. I’d also like to include Sumerian and Hurrian on the list, but I’ll leave them to the side since they’re such minefields of research. Additionally, my knowledge of Arabic and Ge’ez is just enough to be dangerous.
While James has left an open invite for any who read his blog, I’d really like to see what the abnormally interesting Duane Smith has in his linguistic toolbox.
For Those of Us Grading
For those of us in the midst of grading, I give you a summation of the English language by Sheldon Comics:
Last Call for MAR SBL 2011
Just a reminder, today is the last day to submit a proposal for the Mid-Atlantic Region Society of Biblical Literature meeting, March 17-18 at the at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Get the full details here (pdf). And, submit those proposals!
A Scene from the Hipster Bible
Image curtesy of Caldwell Tanner at collegehumor.com.
(HT James McGrath)
Acquitted because of Bad Grammar
The Washington Post‘s Tom Jackman reports of a most grammatically egregious situation:
Dropped ‘at’ in Va. law yields acquittal in school bus case
Virginia law on passing a stopped school bus has been clear for 40 years. Here – read it yourself:
“A person is guilty of reckless driving who fails to stop, when approaching from any direction, any school bus which is stopped on any highway, private road or school driveway for the purpose of taking on or discharging children.”
Yes, drivers must stop a school bus which is, er, stopped.
Wait. Is something missing there?
Indeed. The preposition “at” was deleted in 1970 when the law was amended, the statute’s history shows. And a man who zipped past a school bus, while it was picking up children with its lights flashing and stop sign extended, was found not guilty recently by a Fairfax County Circuit Court judge.
“He can only be guilty if he failed to stop any school bus,” Judge Marcus D. Williams said at the end of the brief trial of John G. Mendez, 45, of Woodbridge. “And there’s no evidence he did.”
Read more of the article here. Also, check out Marc Lierberman’s extensive discussion of different possible grammatical reasons for the present wording at Language Log.
(HT: Dr Platypus)
Sci-Fi at the next SBL/AAR?
James McGrath posits possible a session at next year’s AAR/SBL on Sci-Fi and the Bible and/or religion:
I wonder how many people would be interested in there being a session on [SciFi and the Bible/religion], and if there is significant interest, how we go about making it happen. Input from those who have spearheaded the creation of new sessions, either as long-term projects or as one-off events, would be greatly appreciated (even if you aren’t a science fiction fan yourself!). But I’d also love to hear from anyone who thinks that a session on a topic like this would be a good.
Click the link and share your insights with James. I, for one, would be very interested in such a session. The Bible and pop culture really isn’t my research area, but I do have a huge file on Gilgamesh on pop culture….
Book Addiction
Comic courtesy of Incidental Comics.
Ketuvim: the Writings of James R. Getz Jr. 