Ancient Hebrew Poetry

Sid Leiman’s Evocation of Moshe Greenberg מורו ורבו

Moshe Greenberg (1928-2010) excelled as a scholar, teacher, and Bible translator. In what sense was he a great teacher? 10 years ago, Sid Leiman, a brilliant scholar in his own right, painted a picture of Greenberg the professor whom he studied with at U of Penn. Here is the full text of Leiman's tribute (HT Michael Pitkowsky). A few key grafs:

The Dalai Lama’s Strong Misreading of the World’s Religions

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, is a strong reader of the world’s major faiths. In an op-ed for the New York Times today, he begins with his self-understanding as a Buddhist, and the transformative impact his encounter with Christians like Thomas Merton has had on the way he thinks. “Merton told me he could be perfectly faithful to Christianity, yet learn in depth from other religions like Buddhism. The same is true for me as an ardent Buddhist learning from the world’s other great religions.”

That has also been my experience, and that of a growing number of Jewish and Christian believers in the last two or three generations. Nonetheless, it does not follow, despite the Dali Lama’s fond hopes, that finding common ground among faiths will serve to help humanity “bridge needless divides at a time when unified action is more crucial than ever.” That is a bridge too far. It is useless to pretend otherwise.

The Future of the UW-Madison Department of Hebrew & Semitic Studies

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s M.A. and Ph.D. programs in Hebrew, Hebrew & Greek, and Hebrew Bible have long been known to be among the most challenging and rewarding in North America. The Bible track at the UW-Madison is intended to produce scholars who study and teach the Bible as an academic discipline based on a wide array of literary and linguistic tools, in particular, a knowledge of Hebrew philology and cognate languages. You can’t finish up a graduate degree at the UW-Madison without attaining a level of competency in Hebrew, Aramaic, and – for many – Hellenistic Greek, far beyond that expected in many institutions. Students in the Department don’t dabble in the field. They immerse themselves in the primary and secondary literature until they almost drown. This is on the theory that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. No wonder so many Madison grads have gone on to be tenured professors in leading institutions around the country.

The Department is in transition. Where is it headed?

Christopher Seitz on the Literal Sense of the Old Testament

“A Canonical Approach to the Sensus Literalis of the Old Testament” should have been the title of a recent, very precise lecture by Chris Seitz at Dallas Theological Seminary. Go here. HT: Rob Kashow. The literal sense of the Old Testament as understood by Aquinas was its spiritual sense, the single-sense making of the text's divine author. To be inspired is to speak of things that are beyond one's own comprehension. 

The Essential Trait of a Biblical Scholar: The Example of Moshe Greenberg (1928-2010)

That trait would be intellectual curiosity, more precisely, a love of languages. There are two extant accounts of Moshe Greenberg’s decision to dedicate his life to biblical studies. They differ in detail. Each account I’m convinced evinces the truth.¹ Adam Shear recounts the serendipitous beginning of Moshe Greenberg’s long and fruitful commitment to biblical studies in the following way (go here for more context and other delightful anecdotes):

Moshe Greenberg (1928-2010): A Tribute (1)

 משה גרינברג Moshe Greenberg was the first Jewish biblical scholar appointed to a secular university in the United States after World War II. He was a pioneer in the trend that now sees Jewish biblical scholars leading the field and well-represented in universities throughout North America. But Greenberg was more than a top tier academic scholar. He was also a keen practitioner of Jewish Bible scholarship. He longed for, and offered in his own writings, scholarship designed to be a source of sustenance to the Jewish community. He also gave spiritual sustenance to the Christian community. Below the jump, a few examples of what I mean.

Why N. T. Wright would not be asked to speak at the Pentagon’s National Day of Prayer event

It’s not hard to come up with reasons why the good Bishop would never be invited to speak at a National Day of Prayer event. To begin with, he lacks US nationality. But he would also be disqualified from doing so because Wright – like Franklin Graham – has said harsh things about Islam and its holy book, the Quran. Note the following.

We must let scripture be itself, and that is a hard task.  Scripture contains many things that I don’t know, and that you don’t know; many things we are waiting to discover; passages which are lying dormant waiting for us to dig them out.  Awaken them.  We must then make sure that the church, armed in this way, is challenging the world’s view of authority.  So that, we must determine—corporately as well as individually—to become in a true sense, people of the book.  Not people of the book in the Islamic sense, where this book just drops down and crushes people and you say it’s the will of Allah, and I don’t understand it, and I can’t do anything about it.  But, people of the book in the Christian sense; people who are being remade, judged and remolded by the Spirit through scripture.

The cite is from the conclusion of an article by N. T. Wright, “How Can the Bible Be Authoritative?” [The Laing Lecture 1989, and the Griffith Thomas Lecture 1989], Vox Evangelica 21 (1991) 7–32. Available online here. Some reflections.

The Daily Kos popularizes God as designer of the universe

What is the world coming to? Is it no longer hip and fashionable to sneer at the idea that the universe was designed? It seems a little dangerous to read widely in physics. It seems to turn a-theists into theists. Key grafs:

Deprivileging the Bible: Does “Progressive Christianity” Have a Future?

Bishop John A. T. Robinson was famous for driving a wedge between the Bible, no longer identified with the word of God, and Christ. Below the jump, a characteristic quote. Progressive Christians today think of Robinson as a mentor. Fixed religious beliefs of any kind are considered to be a nuisance. The common denominator of progressive Christianity is not Christianity, except by accident. It is nothing more and nothing less than a version of political correctness. Two questions come to mind. (1) Does the progressive approach to the Bible attempt to read the biblical texts on their own terms? (2) Does “progressive Christianity” have a future? The answer is in the negative on both counts.

What does the Bible say about Pole Dancing?

Nothing. I just want to see how many hits a post with the above title will get. To be clear, the Bible delights in dancing, but of the kind in which people dance together, young and old, or in joy before the Lord. For the steamy details, go here.