Ancient Hebrew Poetry

Elizabeth Celi on the Abuse of Men by Women

Andrew Barry of Australia notes the following:

J. I. Packer Interview Appears in the Washington Post

For the interview, go here. Chris Brady touches on Packer’s eloquent insistence on the fact that the inerrancy of Scripture extends to the text as prepared for publication. That is, a high view of Scripture will affirm that the editorial process which gave us the Bible was subject to God's providence such that the words we have, not the ones we wished we had, are those God intended us to have. Whether particular words go back to an “author” or an “editor” (slippery terms in any case) is beside the point.

When Apologetics Incur God’s Wrath

Theodic discourse, that is, pious justification of evil and suffering, provokes God’s anger in the book of Job. In the book of Job, it is the sufferer, the one who screams bloody murder from a location within God’s jaws; it is the screaming sufferer who unlocks those jaws. Accusatory Job encounters divine favor, and is commended by God for having spoken rightly and sincerely about God.

It’s not what you say. It’s who you say it to, in what context. God, it appears, can take whatever *%#! we throw at him.

It’s right there in Job 42:7-8. Below the jump, text, translation, and commentary.

An Alternative to Coercive Forms of Justice

Retributive and redistributive styles of justice are practiced widely by states, movements, and individuals. The use of force is necessary, seldom or often, to make these styles of justice work. All too often, violence appears to be their means and end. If it were shown that it is possible to do without justice in either sense, the world as we know it would be superseded.

Enthusiasm for Retributive Justice

In his discussion of a work by Anne Burnett listed below, Michael Lloyd remarks (The Classical Review 49 [1999] 348-349; 348):

The Politics and Ethics of Lamentation

    It’s about time that the research of ethnographers and classicists on the politics and ethics of lamentation impact the world of biblical studies. A strength of Helene Foley’s research is her attention to examples of lament in Greek tragedy on the one hand and to studies of lament by ethnographers on the other.¹ Key grafs:

An Online Guide to the Study of the Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah

We are all indebted to David Reimer for the “OT Chronologies” page he has put up on his excellent website. Go here. Besides the tables, the list of online resources he has collected is well worth perusing, in particular, the articles by James Barr, John F. Brug, Gershon Galil, and Leslie McFall.

Lamentations 3:51: A New Proposal

Lam 3:51 as it stands is a conundrum. Delbert Hillers notes that “the MT is corrupt and yields no acceptable sense” (1992:118). Adele Berlin adheres to “the usual rendering although it is less than intelligible” (2002:83). Here is Lam 3:51 in context as I would reconstruct it:

Gender and Theology: Quotes from an Essay by Sarah Coakley

The essay is online: "Is There a Future for Gender and Theology? On Gender, Contemplation, and the Systematic Task," Criterion 47:1 (2009). HT: Ben Myers.

The Women of the Wall in Jerusalem: A Roundup of Articles and Posts

“She weeps and weeps in the night, tears on her cheek” (Lam 1:2a). For reasons which are perfectly clear to anyone familiar with Lam 1-2 and related passages in the Tanakh, the task of weeping and praying at the Wall in Jerusalem has been one that large numbers of Jewish women have shouldered with a sense of calling since it has been possible to do so in the last four decades. Two articles are worth reading on the subject: