Ancient Hebrew Poetry

Resetting the Discipline of Biblical Archaeology

The amount of top-notch research now being done in the field of biblical archaeology, most of it published in modern Hebrew, is unprecedented. Three authors whose research, methodology, and conclusions are must-reading are Avraham Faust, Israel Finkelstein, and Amihai Mazar. They differ in detail, but they agree on a point of fundamental importance: the need to stake out a middle ground between maximalism and minimalism. Maximalists and minimalists alike raise a ruckus, attract camp followers, and otherwise make a spectacle. It is usually people who are neither who are engaged in groundbreaking primary research.

Great Posts on Teaching Dead Languages

Seumas MacDonald has posted an excellent four-part series. Start here. Daniel Streett weighs in here.   

Reflections on Torture

A hateful subject, to be sure. For reflections by others, and discussion thereof, go here and here (Mike Aubrey), and here (Stephen). For background to this post, go here.

A Response to Kurk Gayle

Dear Kurk,

I've been meaning to interact with you a little bit for a long time.

That was your stone, dear old Rashi, the most precious of stones!

Shimshon Meltzer’s famous poem (1940) recreates a world which hardly exists today, a world in which 5 and 6 year old Jewish boys pored over the Tanakh day after day for hours on end. An extract:

“I sing of Rashi” by Shimshon Meltzer

Shimshon Meltzer’s famous poem (1940), so far as I know, never translated in its entirety into English, begins as follows:

Dahlia Ravikovitch: A Biblical Poet

Dahlia Ravikovitch’s Hovering at Low Altitude describes what we do with heart-wrenching directness. We watch from a safe distance and pretend we do not see. We see and pretend we cannot act. We act but we are careful not to do anything that threatens our own existence. No matter what we say, neither justice nor mercy takes precedence when we engage the world from the comfort of our living rooms.

Biblioblogger of the Month

My interview with Cynthia Nielsen is up over at biblioblogs here. She describes her journey into biblical scholarship with verve and flair. Nielsen is a careful scholar and a prolific reviewer. You might check out her posts on biblical scholars, N. T. Wright included. On biblical hermeneutics, in which she interacts with Foucault and a host of others. She has 22 posts up already in which she engages the thought of Hans-Georg Gadamer. Or check out the posts that interact with scripture per se.     

Johnny Cash: “I discovered that the Bible can shed a lot of light on commentaries”

HT: Ben Myers. For more interaction with Cash’s Sache-oriented reading of the Bible – a reading of the Bible intent on the text’s subject matter, primarily, the ways of God with man - go here, here, and here.

How to spend $2,000 in books and other media for a church library: suggestions?

One of the most exhausting things I do as a pastor is prepare a funeral service. That’s because my Lutheran homiletics professor, Jürgen Kleemann, taught us to preach the gospel of simul iustus et peccator through the eulogy.