Ancient Hebrew Poetry

“Every day I bless you” - Psalm 145:1-7

    The indomitable strength of Judaism and Christianity resides in their capacity for taking Scripture literally. The movement away from the literalization of scriptural details is a weakening of the ability of those details to be embodied in ways beyond the literal.

Whose Crime? Whose Punishment? Suicide as Social Drama

    One of the characteristics of both Judaism and Christianity is the high regard accorded to the individual with the expectation that the individual is to exercise his or her moral agency in the face of general indifference and/or active opposition. Biblical passages addressed to a “you plural” in which the collective addressee is constituted as a moral agent are commonplace, but so are passages, such as Psalms 1, 15, 112 and Ezekiel 18, in which the individual is the moral agent constituted in discourse.

Abortion is a family issue

    Helen Alvaré is an articulate pro-life voice who believes in the search for common ground with those whose first commitment is to choice. She was a keynote speaker at a ground-breaking conference held at Princeton University, on October 15^th and 16^th, 2010, entitled “Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Fair-Minded Words,” which brought together people from a variety of points of view, including a philosopher, Peter Singer, who has come out in favor of infanticide. Here are two key excerpts from her speech.

The Moral Crudity of Jim West

    There are those who blog in order to rant; it seems to me that Jim West falls into that category. A waste of his time and ours, as he occasionally seems to recognize (West is famous for self-deleting his online production).

Dating Biblical Texts by Linguistic Means: Holmstedt & Cook vs. Young & Rezetko

    Over at Rob and John’s excellent blog, one can find echoes of a debate that bedevils contemporary scholarship: the problem of dating biblical texts by linguistic means. My own take: Ian Young and Robert Rezetko have formulated their point of view in terms such that they will be understood to be impersonating the role of “minimalists” in a debate dominated by “middle-of-the-roaders” and an occasional maximalist. I don’t see how this works in their favor. The notion that state-of-the-art linguistic analysis of ancient Hebrew texts – on its way thanks to Holmstedt and Cook – will be unhelpful to the adventure of dating said texts is counter-intuitive, precisely to someone with knowledge of the importance of text-critical data.

Is Something Wrong with Me? The Concept of Community in the Bible

    What standing do the blind, the deaf, and the crippled have, before God and men? The answer has often been, in society, in worship: little or none at all.

    One way to pose the question: how are Lev 19:14 and Lev 21:16-23 to be reconciled? The question receives a particular answer in a series of New Testament texts - though one might never know it if one depended on the practice of Christian communities. Christians succeeded well until recently in ignoring the import of their own foundational texts.

    Below the jump, an outline of a 90 minute module in a course entitled "The Bible and Current Events." Follow the links and you pretty much have it. 

The Bible is more anti-slavery than the US Constitution

An outline of a 90 minute module in a course entitled "The Bible and Current Events." Follow the links and you pretty much have it. 

Why Bulkeley’s approach to 1 Samuel 15 fails to convince

    Tim Bulkeley is arguably one of the best biblical bloggers around. Even when it is obvious that he finds a biblical text unacceptable, he somehow treats it lovingly. This sets his blogging apart from the blogging of many others who wallow in condescension as they bin all or select parts of the Bible.

    Lesley Lee Francis remembers that according to Robert Frost, “certain poems, like haphazard knowledge, stick to you like burrs in the field” (idem, Robert Frost: An Adventure in Poetry, 1900-1918 [Edison: Transaction Publishers] 5). That relates to an image I have, not only of Tim but of any authentic reader of scripture: if you are not covered with burrs after a stroll through Scripture, you are only pretending to have made your way through the text.

    Still, I am unconvinced by his approach to 1 Samuel 15.  In what follows, I cover ground touched on in conversation with Chris Tilling , James Pate, and Stephen (aka Q) [Stephen is now defunct to the blogging world, a pity] here.

What the New Testament has to say about women in ministry

I concur with many of Mike Heiser’s exegetical observations. Details below the jump, according to the numeration of his points.

Women in Ministry: Why the Issue Matters

    Michael Heiser is blogging about women in ministry. He describes himself as “unconvinced of egalitarian views while being relatively unconcerned over complementarian fears.” He doesn’t feel a need to oppose a woman’s sense of calling to the ministries of teaching and preaching, but he finds no exegetical basis for the view that scripture mandates the ordination of women to the role of episkopoi (“bishops”) or presbuteroi (“elders”).