Biblical Studies Carnival 218

Who knew that
ChatGPT did birthday cakes
for Pentecost (via James McGrath)

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Phillip Long is, as always, looking for volunteers to compile a monthly Biblical Studies Carnival. If you would like to host a carnival, please contact Phil on Twitter (@Plong42) or via email (plong42@gmail.com).

Compiling a carnival is really fun. I had forgotten how much fun it is. As the month progresses, themes emerge. There are surprises. Who knows what it will be in advance? 

Thanks for tips via James McGrath @ReligionProf on Twitter, and Jim Davila on PaleoJudaica.com and the many scholars writing for TheTorah.com.

"The solution, then, is rupture with the in-between time and rescue of the long lost past, despite the human folly that has nearly destroyed everything in between." [spelling corrected]

Images - AI? - via Jennifer Guo

Hebrew Bible

מכלל לאו אתה שומע הן: Out of a “no” you hear a “yes.”? Idan Dershowitz on Leviticus 18. Martti Nissinen adds further suggestions for interpretive context as does Julia Rhyder.

Theodore Lewis on Piercing the name as attempted deicide.

The Hebrew language detective explores halva'ah and livui and the potential meanings of the name of Levi.

[Addendum] I should have included this record of the Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars. Don Moffat's question of learning in context is: What is the Genre of the Book of Genesis. The lecture is from New Zealand, May 23/24 2024.

Guy Darshan explores the post-destruction editing of the text of Kings.

Daniel Vainstub writes "Jeremiah excoriates the Judahites for sacrificing babies to Baʿal at the Tophet, in a valley near Jerusalem." Read all about child sacrifice here -- from Canaan to Carthage.

Exodus 2:28 -- a "statute that is not good"?

James Tabor's word of the month is not. Not is here, Not is there, Not is nearly everywhere.

A linocut project by
Gabriel Oakes on Amos 8.
Note also the eggsegesis here.

Richard Beck on Psalm 48, warns the political faction of self-deception. He ends the month with Psalm 52 - under the rubric "you love evil instead of good".

Ian Paul takes apart the liturgical use of Psalms 95 and 100 among other canticles. "Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about." (G.K. Chesterton)

Drew Longacre is calling for volunteer transcribers for the Psalms. 

A long shadow
Selwyn College Chapel.
Photo Thomas Allen.  

Jerome Van Kuiken on Mother's Day and the Ascension explained by Psalm 113.

John Hobbins posted in the Scriptura forum, a group of scholars in the midst of detailed study of the psalms, "bridging the gap between scholars and translators". Elizabeth Robar outlines the process in their May newsletter.

For Psalms Images and AI - Click through to see Stephen Cook's psalms class final project. (I am waiting for ChatGPT to write the music too. The bot reads and interprets MusicXML in a flash - without emotion, nuance or expressivity.)

The intertextual Bible, comparing psalms 2 and 59, notes there is no humor, no joyous laughter echoing from the heavens but rather laughter in derision. Unkind or real?

And here via David Koyzis you can hear Psalm 121. The Kodaly arrangement is worth the click too.

Douglas O'Donnell asks whether Job is historical. 

Was there really a man named Job?
Did he live in a land called Uz?
Was he perfectly righteous with a perfectly blessed life?
Did he in one day lose everything but his troublesome, unnamed wife?

Job 1:1 -- mimicking the music of Genesis 1:1

Bob MacDonald offers an introduction to the music of Lamentations 1:1 to display the theory of Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura's decoding of the te'amim. A little history of her own experience is linked here. His hope is that her work will cast a long shadow.

New Testament

Met Gala meets Biblical Studies

Bosco Peters continues his series on Mark in Slow Motion. He also critiques the latest NRSV for rendering θάλασσαν as either sea or lake.

Ian Paul welcomes the return to Mark "after being seduced by the beloved disciple".

Bill Heroman complains on Facebook that HJ scholars fail to engage narratology... 

Michael Kok notes that the Gospels are formally Anonymous: i.e. "the author is not named in any of the texts and the Synoptic Gospels are not presented as written from any character’s particular vantage point, and that they continued to circulate anonymously in some quarters in the first half of the second century."

Ian Paul offers some structural analysis of the Lord's Prayer.

Kurk Gayle and his students ponder art with AI and the last supper. 

What do you see? - check out the conversation on FaceBook.

James McGrath shares some photos of his visits to the places from when he was working on his book: Christmaker: A Life of John the Baptist. ChatGPT finds James's scholarship innovative.

Andrew Perriman commenting on Acts 17, searches for a different sort of missional theology.

Steve Walton published his slides from a lecture in Alberta on Church planting in Acts.

Andrew Perriman is not convinced by the argument of Jacob Mortenson and Matthew Novenson that Romans 2 is addressed to a gentile.

Images via Jennifer Guo

Heather Thiessen on Romans 4 and Genesis 17 and Colossians 1:24-2:3.

Marg Mowczko: Submission & the Saviour in Ephesians 5 on Paul's paradoxical use of hypotassō.

Marg Mowczko on Lois and Eunice, Timothy's mother and grandmother.

Brian Small introduces a new commentary on Hebrews by Amy Peeler and posts Hebrews Highlights for April and May 2024

Jennifer Wright responds to Lynn Huber and Gail O'Day's Commentary on Revelation. "Where apocalyptic eschatology looks to the future to address a misperceived present, biblical commentary has looked to the past to correct a misperceived text."

Henry Neufeld asks about Beastly attributes.

Books and Reviews

Jacob J. Prahlow reviews Rebecca Idestrom's Show me Your Glory.

Via Jim Davila at PaleoJudaica- 

• a brief review of Loanwords in Biblical Hebrew by Jonathan Thambyrajah. 
• Also: Kazen & Roitto, Revenge, Compensation, and Forgiveness in the Ancient World. 
• And a report on Mark Lester's book: Deuteronomy and the Material Transmission of Tradition "the Deuteronomic composition adapts the media aesthetics of ancient treaty tablets and monumental inscriptions to a story that is itself transformed into an artifact of the past".
• And among others, Smith, Luke was not a Christian. Joshua Paul Smith challenges the long-held assumption that Luke and Acts were written by a gentile. Biblical Interpretation Series, Volume 218.

Ayrton posts on Candida Moss's Os escritores fantasmas de Deus. Also on Stefano Salemi's A Linguistic-Theological Exegesis of Ezekiel as Môphēt.

AWOL posts on an open access book on the Apocalypse of Peter.

Clint Burnett reviews Adela Yarbro Collins. Paul Transformed: Reception of the Person and Letters of Paul in Antiquity.

Phillip Long reviews James D. Nogalski, The Book of Micah (NICOT). "Nogalski begins his forty-three-page introduction by observing that Micah originated in the eighth century B.C. but reflects editorial activity after 586 BC to clarify the blame for the destruction of Jerusalem."

Other

Nicola Denzey Lewis asks if the Gospel of Thomas is gnostic. Michael Kok has more questions about Secret Mark. James Tabor posts a lecture by Michael Stone on Armenian Apocryphal Texts. Oliver Parkes reviews Xavier Lafontaine, Hellénisme et prophétie. Les Oracles sibyllins juifs et chrétiens.

Brent Niedergall posts on the benefits of studying Ostraca. Marg Mowczko on Cerula and Bitalia in Catacomb Art. 

Jim Davila points us to the Hebrew Bible and its ruins -- how ruins have been viewed through history. Brent Nongbri reports on the length of papyrus sheets and dating of codices. James McGrath points out The borderscape project, "a multidisciplinary endeavor that investigates how the rise of the Egyptian state at the end of the 4th millennium BCE impacted and transformed the socio-spatial landscape of the First Nile Cataract region."

Peter Head asks if we should trust textual reconstructions. Ross McKenzie posts slides and a video on Science and Christianity - can we trust both?

Matt Page is starting a series on Noah films.

Michael Wilder speaks on the importance of music: To be human is to be musical.

Richard Beck shares some posts on mysterious soft enchantments. He also channels Jaques Ellul and his book Money and Power in several posts beginning here.

And Claude Mariottini, quoting the Terminator, promises "I'll be back". May he speak for the carnival also.

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So -- are you ready to host a carnival? Contact Phil on Twitter (@Plong42) or via email (plong42@gmail.com).

My first question to ChatGPT-4o (May 25 -- too late for any last minute preparations!) was to ask for some suggestions for a BS carnival. I wonder if carnival composers will be replaced by AI. The first answer I got didn't include any links - but it sounded very intelligent. So I asked for some links and it searched four sites -- unfortunately they were not for May 2024 and several were behind a paywall. I asked it to try again - but the posts were still outside the date bounds that I gave it. O well, at least I am not being replaced this month. I guess I could work on my AI prompting skills. Copilot will report on random carnivals if you are searching.

James McGrath goes the distance with his ChatGPreachT module.