Its the Jolly Great Hodge Podge Biblioblogging Carnival!

Yes, it is here! The whatever-monthly Carnival of Biblioblogging Bible Bloggers! As you may remember, I asked folks to vote on the theme for the carnival, and here are the results:

Slinky Rio Carnival Babes parading around 3/4 nekkid with big feathery hats 9.3% (4 votes)

Swanky Jazz Band 11.63% (5 votes)

Lolcats and Hotdogs 13.95% (6 votes)

Science Fiction TV and Movies 18.6% (8 votes)

Rate the posts on how much they are likely to be considered dilettantish or depraved by Jim West 18.6% (8 votes)

But the winner is:

All of the above in a jolly great hodge-podge 27.91% (12 votes)

And so, here’s Hodgepodge!

Don’t you feel in a carnival mood already?

Ok, so this carnival is late, but reality intervened. Anyway, with the aid some a number of avid bibliobloggers and their fans, I’ve received a number of suggested blog posts and I found a whole wack more on Biblioblog Reference library.

Here is the obligatory slinky Rio carnival babe parading around
3/4 nekkid with a big feathery hat. Didn’t say I’d get a full frontal Carnival picture, did I?

But let’s begin with the beginning, shall we? Here is a carnival cat just to launch the theme on a cat note!

The Top Biblioblog rankings for March declared April to be the Month of April in honour of April DeConick of Forbidden Gospels! So, lets start there, shall we?

THE MONTH OF APRIL The most recent news from Prof. DeConick is that the cover of her upcoming book, Holy Misogyny: Why the Sex and Gender Conflicts in the Early Church Still Matter has been released. The cats and I (and the rest of the biblioblogging community, I’m sure) wish he all the success with it.

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JIM WEST DAY was also celebrated with a few posts

What Jim West had for his Easter Dinner

Nathan Eubank uncovered the true story of the Lead Codices: They’re Q! Breaking: Lead Codices Revealed to be the Q Document And don’t forget to follow his second link for the TRUTH™

And speaking of Q there will be a new series published by the largest Bible scholarship publishing house on its block:

James McGrath also knows the TRUTH™ about the metal books, which he translates rather literally. As Tom Verenna observed, the Lead Codices  have led to surprising psychological reactions by many Biblioloogers. They’ve snapped!

Here is a snap I found of a frequent commenter on the codices, Jim Davila,
who has put on the full armour of faith in the lead “codpieces” .
Silly boy. He should read more carefully!

Of course, Jim West Day will not be complete without noticing the proliferation of  shameless irreligion in accredited universities! Thanks to Mark Goodacre for noticing this. Complete Deparavity Indeed!

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GENDERED BLOGGING

An awful lot of traffic this month on the issue of the prominence of male bloggers in our community with a lot of writers calling for a greater visibility for women. These calls were also made by some of the guys. JK Gayle lamented that it’s still a man’s world and Rod of Alexandria and Unsettled Christianity took up the call. The folks at the Top 50 site declared the rankings open to women. J K Gayle, Aristotles Feminist Subject, discussed The Gender of Blogger Clout on the fifth (with an update), while the next day Suzanne McCarthy spoke up in piece on women in the blogging community: On Women.

Click the pic for more details.

Rod wrote on Political Jesus some responses to NT Wrong (at the Top 50). Rachel Marszalek at Revising Reform finds her spot on the Top 50 (for April) to be a little lonely and then begins a great reflection on the story of Jesus and the woman at the well. Shepherdess Writes wrote (but not sheepishly) on the Top 50 rankings and said “So I, too, have been doing a bit of reading by women bloggers and there were a few things that I found interesting. One was the number of women who have, by one means or another, downplayed, hidden or outright lied about their gender when writing publicly.” On related issues, Kristen Bonikowsky wrote that she was afraid of being labeled, taking the The Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Lesley’s Blog has some of the best Christian blogs by women. Kristen also, had a four part series on Women in the Text: Creation Order: One , Two, Three, Four.

LEAD ZEPPELINS DON’T FLY

The BIG news  for much of the early part of the month were those metal books. The number of posts was astounding, but here are some representative samples, especially from the early days of the story:

April 1: Paleo-Judaica tried to to spoil everyone’s fun with a dose of reality:  Hebrew-Inscribed-Metal-Codices Watch:  A Fake The Macintosh Biblioblog reported on news story that the Hebrew in Lead Codices Turns Out to be Sindarin. Don’t know if that’s a Mac thing. Maybe Linux. If it was Windows the books wouldn’t stay open long enough to read them. There were a lot of biblical scholars quoted and misquoted in the press, as Tom Verenna noticed: Margaret Barker Responds on Lead Tablets Ferrel Jenkings on his Travel Blog wrote that the discovery reminded him of the Kinderhook Plates which were forgeries used to test the the veracity of LDS prophet Joseph Smith’s abilities as a translator.

April 2 Jim at PaleoJudiaca posted some Random thoughts on the fake metal codices and declared that he prefers his fakes ancient!

April 3: James (Jimmy Page) McGrath gets the Lead out and declares that bibliobloggers are doing a better job than the professional media in reporting on the codices. Jim  Davila also notes the Media Fail. The Rouge Classicist  charges once more into the reach and comments on the media storm. Roger Pearse, with some help from Tom Verrenna made a Wikipedia article and Tom commented on the wiki site and offered some  photos of the fakes and treated readers to a roundup. An excellent summary and list of discussions was also offered by  Daniel O. McClellan.

April 4: The Crocodile Conspiracy was exposed by Hamblin of Jerusalem who noticed that the crocodile impression appeared to have been made by toy crocodile.

Dogged by the crocodile scandal, controversial antiquities dealer Bowser tries to evade reporters.

David Larson of Heavenly Ascents assented to a post by Bryce Haymond  at Temple Studies about authentic metal books. More photos can be found at Daniel O. McClellan’s long post: Thoughts on the Jordan Lead Codices The Aramaic Blog’s Steve Caruso has more images and discussion Finally a Good Look at the “Lead Codices” Script

April 7 Dean Galbraith made a startling discovery:  The Lead Codices were NOT Forged! They were cast, the usual way of working lead. Besides, he said, they were not hammered. As far as I am concerned, this rules out a Maccabean date.

April 8 The Lead Codices and the Inscription from Madaba are the subject of a post by Daniel O. McClellan.

April 11 Steve Caruso got interviewed The Lead Codices on LiveScience – And My Interview and Jim Davila adds some more comments to a communication by  Philip Davies by Philip Davies on the metal codices. Steve also has an important post on Live Science.

Now, I’ve inserted a Zeppelin reference above but let’s get back to the assortment of thematic stuff that is supposed to guide this carny. In place of heavy metal:

LETS GET JAZZY!

Here is my favourite singer, Sophie Milman and Lonely in New York!

Now, we all know who won April’s top biblioblog. So, listen to Sophie but sing these words:

Your bloglist seems to disappear
when you’re lonely on the blogs
Internet leads only here
when you’re lonely on the blogs

Mock the fellow senseless, but you can’t stop
when you’re lonely on the blogs
Internet’s  a Zwingli-net,
when you’re lonely on the blogs

The guy with the snark he’s your one and only judge
leave him a comment and he’ll hold a grudge
You’ll trade  your good taste  for a string of posts
when yer lonely on the blogs!

New York is a lonely place for Jim West once he starts singing

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Ok, so where was I? Oh yeah, Historical Jesus (or the lack thereof)!

BUT I DON’T EVEN BELIEVE IN  JEBUS!

This phase of the Carnival is Sub-Titled: A BUNCH OF DILETTANTES! THE LOT OF YOU! OF COURSE JESUS EXISTED! I READ IT IN ZWINGLI!

As usual, the conversation was dominated by James McGrath’s Exploring our Matrix blog (“there was a historical Jesus”) and Neil Godfrey’s (“No there wasn’t) blog, Vridar, which featured some posts by Earl Doherty.  There were a number of other good posts, too. For example, J. Quinton at διά πέντε wrote: Low-Hanging Fruit and the Historical/Mythical Jesus Debate and concludes: “I kinda think there was a historical Jesus, but not for any really academically sound reason.” I agree, for equally unacademically sound reasons. J. Quinton isn’t that impressed with either McGrath or Doherty: The Dragon In The Garage of Historical Jesus Studies.

Neil posted an interview with Earl Doherty on April 2 and two days later, Earl D. goes after Apostle Paul in a response to a commenter on the earlier post. On April 11, McGrath posted A Menu of Answers to Mythicists. The next day, Clayboy commented  McGrath’s criteria of authenticity: Questing for Jesus: James McGrath’s defence of the criteria of authenticity. Godfrey was hardly left speechless (April 16) complaining of logical inconsistencies by the historicists. Earl Doherty became a food critic and sampled McGrath’s menu on the 23rd.  April 25 had McGrath responding to Earl Doherty and his best answers. Vridar featured an Interview with René Salm on the 27th.

Among other posts of interest there was a review of Anthony Le Donne’s  Historical Jesus: What Can We Know and How Can We Know It?,by Nick Norelli at Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth. James McGrath also reminded me of his post on part the forthcoming book edited by Chris Keith and Larry Hurtado, Jesus Among Friends and Enemies, that deals with issues of authenticity). Another book review relevant to this topic can be found on Confessions of a Doubting Thomas, this one treating Richard Braukman’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses

The book that should settle it all.

Some guy, who claimed NOT to be Deane Galbraith (perhaps because he hasn’t got much “giant” left), sent me the links to an in depth, multipart review of “Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?” in Maurice Casey’s Jesus of Nazareth: An Independent Historian’s Account of His Life and Teaching. Part One discusses how NT scholarship is dominated by conservative apologetics. Next, the empty tomb  empty tomb then  the end of Mark. The fourth instalment  looks text critically at the post-resurrection episodes and their inconsistencies. Then there is the question of whether Jesus thought of himself as the Son of Man. Sixth, the women at the empty tomb and finally, “how all of the early Christians were doing some really wicked drugs and having spaced-out visions”  Airton José da Silva at Observatório Bíblico posted on a variety of responses to Casey’s book at  O que Casey nos conta sobre Jesus de Nazaré?

Rene Salm was interviewed at Vridar: about his work on Nazareth and mentions the Mandeans, only to  find a respondent in James McGrath, Mythicism Meets Mandaism, who takes on James Randi and suggests that freethinkers think, I think. He also talks about James the Brother of the Historical Jesus.

CASTING YOUR FORGERIES UPON THE INTERNET…

According to Bart Ehrman, biblical books were not cast but really were forged! His new book elicited a number of biblioblogging comments.

Ben Witherington published a withering ton of critiques, going chapter by chapter in a multipart review: Part One; Two; Three; Four; Five: Six; Seven. James Mcgrath takes a stab at Witherington: Scholarly Consensus on the Pastoral Epistles? Ben Witherington vs. Bart Ehrman Ian Paul at Psephizo thinks this is Ehrman’s best book but still isn’t buying it: Is the NT mostly forged? Well, he might have bought it. Perhaps he got a free review copy.

Really, has anyone seen Jesus’ REAL birth certificate?

“DEPRAVITY! You’ve gotten this far and haven’t really started talking about the BIBLE yet!” Ok, Dr. West, here we go… geez, what a guy!

So here’s some Bible stuff.

GENESIS was rising at Sects and Violence in a post by Steve Wiggins who laments the “let the students decide” mentality when it comes to the origins of the earth. Genesis was the beginning of many chuckles at my own LOLaCreationist contest. More seriously, Seumas Macdonald over at Compliant Subversity asked: Is the wood of Genesis 22 a typological foreshadowing of the cross? Mr. Popular Sentiment at Carpe Scriptorum cuts to the chase: Genesis 17: Foreskin Fetish. He also seems to be blogging all of Genesis: check out his earlier posts.

EXODUS

Exodus was big this month with Passover (see below), while Clayboy mentions it in the context of Matthew’s Passion dialogue, but there were some textual and historical studies, too. James Pate concluded his reading of Lemche’s work and comments on the Sea or Reeds and Exod. 15. He also attends to Van Seters’ Source Division of Exodus 19-20 and  Van Seters on J and E in Exodus 19 and Exodus 15. Claude Mariottini posted on the historicity of the account here,here, here, here and here.

LEVITICUS

James Spinti, the idly musing bookseller, made some posts on Leviticus and holiness:Mitigated Punishment-again, The second observation on Leviticus, The communal effect of sin. Charles at Bible X at Preaching Leviticus in a Christian Context flagged Darren Hansons ‘Daring to Delight in Leviticus.

NUMBERS

Numbers played into James’ Spinti’s post on  Forgiveness, and was the subject of one of Tim Bulkeley’s posts in his series on humor: Humour in the Bible: Book 4 Numbers, Tim getting a laugh out of poor Moses suffering at the hands of the unruly Israelites.

DEUTERONOMY

James  Pate again reflects on Van Seters:  J Follows Deuteronomy and Messes Up His Chronology. Joel Watts reviews Lincicum’s revised dissertation: Paul and the Early Jewish Encounter with Deuteronomy.  Dan McClellan on “What is Deity in Septuagint Deuteronomy?” is Michael Heiser’s response to Daniel McClellan’s SBL paper. Daniel responds at length (and quite civily) here: Angels and Demons (and Michael Heiser) Joel Watts wrote on Moses as Prophet in Deuteronomy

JOSHUA

There was a bit of a ganging up on Joshua’s Genocide and Matt Flannagan who provoked the ire of Thom Stark and Deane Galbraith.

JUDGES

Judges didn’t get much press, but James Pate continued his reading of key literature in the study of ancient israel with some comments on Lemche and Mayes on the Amphictyony. Duane Smith tried Divining Balaam: A Problem With Omens.

SAMUEL

Jonathan and David, were they an item? Such thought occupied the mind of Better than Esdras, while Rebekah gives us the Primary Word on 1 Samuel 1-2: Who’s in the House?

Not only were they an item, they pre-dated Wham by almost 3000 years!

KINGS

Or at least the tombs of the monarchs mentioned in the book got a bit of notice from B.A.R.Have the Tombs of the Kings of Judah Been Found?

ISAIAH

With Easter it was inevitable that some reflection on Isaiah be found and Wayne Leman at Better Bible’s Blog did not disappoint with a post of sorrow on Maundy Thursday and Isaiah 53. Peter Leithart also wrote a Eucharistic meditation around Isaiah 11.

JEREMIAH had a way with words says Jim West, but Jim, alas, does not since he didn’t really say much about what Jeremiah said.

THE TWELVE

Congratulations are in order for Myrto Theocharous for successfully defending her University of Cambridge PhD dissertation entitled “Lexical Dependence and Intertextual Allusion in the Septuagint of the Twelve Prophets: Studies in Hosea, Amos and Micah” (supervisor: Professor Robert Gordon). She is a guest blogger at Evangelical Textual Criticism and the notice of her successful defence was posted by Tommy Wasserman. TOmmy includes links to some of Myrto’s online comments on essays in Internationale Fachtagung veranstaltet von Septuaginta Deutsch (LXX.D), Wuppertal 20.-23. Juli 2006. Hosea shocks Ian Paul of Psephizo (and a whole lot of other people). For Marc Cortez, Zephaniah is the link between Babel and Pentecost.

PSALMS

Bob Macdonald recommended one on his posts that deals with  Psalm 87 and the question of universalism.  John Hobbins examines Psalm 6  with a multi-coloured chart:  Psalm 6 Revealed. James Pate blogged on a lot of different Psalms and this is but a sample. He looked at Psalm 18 and ANE parallels and Psalm 19 and its history of interpretation. Psalm 37 is on the Poetry of Christ blog (Bob MacDonald). Phillip J. Long cleaned up his act in Psalm 51:7-9 – Clean Me and I will Be Clean! and also wondered about Psalm 72 – A Messianic Psalm? Claude Mariottini on Psalm 103 The God Who Satisfies and Bob Macdonald continues the discussion: Psalm 103 – don’t miss out big time

For those who can’t remember the words of
devotion when they don’t have a Bible to hand…

PROVERBS Kevin De Young prefers Proverbs to money, while Peter Leithart sticks to Proverbs 30:32-31:5

SONG OF SONGS Joel Watts is a very Unsettling Christian with a rumination on Song 2:7 illustrated with a goat. Deal with it. I met him once, and let me assure you I suspected something like this  this was coming.

RUTH James, one of the Oakleys, gleans some good stuff from the Law.

QOHELETH No need to doubt that Craig Benno is a guest blogger at Unsettled Christianity: Ecclesiastes 1:1-11….faith, pessimism and doubt.

MARK

Michael Kok has a new blog dedicated to this gospel:   http://ntmark.wordpress.com/ and he kicks things off with a nice list of commentaries.

LUKE & ACTS

Richard Fellows, one of Paul’s Co-workers (well, he’s a little late for his shift, but who hasn’t slept in for a few millenia?),  assesses “New Evidence that Lucius/Luke wrote Acts“. Michael Barber’s study of Acts and Luke has been posted in three parts: One, Two, and Three.  Larry Hurtado starts Rethinking the Text of Acts, in the light of a 5th century manuscript

You see, Jesus was a Space Alien!

JOHN

Deirdre at On Not Being a Sausage looks at Martha, first witness of the resurrection and “second Peter” in regard to John 11:27, commenting on a 2009 book, Martha from the Margins: The Authority of Martha in Christian Tradition by Allie M. Ernst.

ESPISTLES

Brian LePort nears Emmaus with some Romans, which puts Paul’s thoughts on Adam and Christ under the microscope. Part 1 was back in March, Part 3 newly published in May.  Iver Larson at Better bibles Blog takes a contextual approach to 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 Chuck Grantham has on his A ‘Goula Blogger a very long set of excepts on Colossians Chapter 1:3-20 Antique Commentary Quotes and Philippians Chapter 4:1-7, 8-9, 11-13,15-19 from Antique Commentaries Meanwhile, Is Philippians 2:6-11 a pre-Pauline hymn? is something Daniel James Levy wants to know. In Reigning with Christ: the Millennium in Ephesians? Peter Kirk at Gentle Wisdom has some thoughts on Ephesians 2 and Revelation 24 with a little help from 2 Peter 3.  Cheryl Schatz, one of the Women in Ministry, has something to say about 1 Timothy 2:12 prohibitions revisited, and Philip Payne’s work on the subject.

JOHANINE LITERATURE Charles at bible X has some kind words for : C. Marvin Pate’s , The Writings of John: A Survey of the Gospel, Epistles, and Apocalypse

PAUL Zealous much? Paul, Character of God is zealously studied by Chris Brady, the Taguman.

OLD TESTAMENT IN THE NEW & EARLY CHRISTIANITY

In Law in OT and New Daniel Kirk writes, “Throughout the NT, the purpose of the Law is, in some sense, Christo-referential.” See also his: Law in Romans: Promissory. Ben Witherington reprises an old post on  John Chrysostom on the Old Testament and the New Ari blogs on the use of the OT in the Early Gentile Church

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PATRISTICS AND EARLY CHRISTIANITY

Alin Suciu, discusses Patristics, the Apocrypha, and Coptic stuff. Among his April posts is a one on The Dossier of the Asceticon of Abba Isaiah: With a Contribution on the First Bohairic Fragments. He also posted Coptic Vestiges of a Paschal Homily Attributed to Epiphanius of Salamis: A Preliminary Report. Andrew Criddle gets a little dizzy over the Seven Circuits in Clement of Alexandria. Richard Fellows at Paul and his Co-Workers  http://paulandco-workers.blogspot.com/ wrote on “The prominence of women in the early church” thinking that later folks tried covering it up. Apparently, Corinth managed without Erastus: Which city did Erastus manage?  Probably NOT Corinth, at least according to Bill at NT/History Blog.

PASSOVER reflections in a strictly Jewish context were badly outnumbered by Christian discussions of Passover/Easter, but Rachel Barenblat, the Velveteen Rabbi, has a Passover Haggadah. The blog Balashon has a post on shabbat hagadol, the Sabbath before Pesach. Paleojudaica links to a slide show of the Samaritan Passover and has a post on it.

For a LOLcat Passover story, go here.

Mozis borned anyweh, adding to spekulashun taht Mozis wuz akshually a kitteh. Because of Mirium, who is speshul hoomin femunists liek, Pharo’s dautur sees babeh Mozis in bullrushes, which iz plants kittehs eat when want to throw up on teh carpit latur. Dautur says, “WANT!” Kittehs think she mean teh bullrushes but means babeh. Silleh hoomin.

EASTER

Wide ranging Paschal Thoughts is what brings Michael back to a career of making internet Jottings.Katia’s Esoteric Christianity Blog reflects on the anointing of Jesus by Mary Magdalene who “is clearly styled as the Bride of the Easter Mysteries”. “The word ‘Easter’ comes from the name of a pagan goddess is the first of a series of posts on the origins of Easter feast by David Withun from Pious Fabrications. Vridar asks if the notion of a crucified Messiah needs a historical Easter experience.  It’s unlikely that the Last Supper was a Seder, according to Was the Last Supper a Passover Seder? by Menachem Mendel. Easter Dying and Rising Gods and Inanna are studied by Carissa Cegavsk at the Queen of Heaven, while Lisa Robinson wonders if she should Ditch ‘Easter’, Bunnies and Eggs but then decides that maybe they are not necessarily the problem.

Mark Goodacre posted NT Pod 53: Are the Passion Narratives “Prophecy Historicized”? and NT Pod 54: The Horror of Crucifixion, but more immediate horrors are the subjedt of  a post by Megan at Women in Theology offers an Easter meditation on violence, suffering and the Christa, the female Christ image. Katie at Women in Theology reflects on The Cross and the Lynching Tree and the need to recognize Jesus as black. On a related note, with the 150th anniversary of the start of the US civil war, or war between the states, some bloggers ruminated on the issue of slavery. Joel Watts, for example, while K. Bonikowski reflected on the biblical justification of that horrible insitution:

GOD

Baal and adon: Balashon, the Hebrew Language Detective discusses traditions about the plural form of the name of God and “Baal”.

Tim at Sansblogue discusses the Isrealite aniconic deity in the light of other ANE gods and Psalm 131:2  Biblical Talk of the Motherly God: A Personal God without Icons Mark Goodacre has Pod 52 available for those who really want to know what “Son of Man” means: NT Pod 52: Who is this “Son of Man”?

ALL BIBLES ARE CREATED EQUAL (BUT SOME BIBLES ARE CRAP)

Joel Hoffman at God Didn’t Say That discusses Why the Debate between Formal Equivalence and Functional Equivalence is Deceptive and describes What Goes Wrong when we Translate the Grammar. Daniel Kirk was one of the many bloggers who noticed the upcoming release of The King’s Version: N.T. Wright’s New Testament Nazaroo give a long history of the battles over the Bible in Christendom Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Modern Evangelicals In What does it mean to hallow God’s name? John Hobbins rips into the roaring  debate over “what constitutes a better Bible has been going on of late”, a follow up to long discussions (arguments?) on a pair of posts at the Better Bibles Blog. David Ker reposted there some of his Lingamish posts. Nearly 100 comments attend another post by Peter Kirk at Better Bibles.  Hobbins figures prominently in both. Kirk’s piece was Literal Bible translations: crutches for bad teachers? which responds to T. C. Robinson’s post at New Leaven on the ESV.  For Suzanne McCarthy, this is the real question, and she writes: Why not choose the ESV for your church. T C Robinson at New Leven wonders if the Updated NIV got James 2:20-24 “right”? Bible Translation Survey Results by T. C. Robinson puts the English Standard Version on top. The Dean at kjvonly2 exposes The Sabotage of the Christian O.T. in favor of 20th cent. Judaism by the Fifth Column “who betrayed the Christian Public”. In a somewhat differently similar vein, An Argument for “Antiquated” Translations is made by Nick Norrelli. On more specific issues, Wayne Leman from Better Bibles Blog has, like many men, the foolish virgins on his mind.  But the ethics of the matter is investigated by by Bill and Bob on their blog in a post called Is the Marriage Bed Undefiled? (Heb 13:4) ANE

Claude Mariottini went lion hunting with Ashurbanipal and has the holiday movie to prove it: The Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal Duane Smith has to ask Which Way Are They Facing? (important to know when people are shooting arrows) wondering about  Greek magical papyri and Akkadian ritual texts. More magic from Duane, who won’t believe it despite it being tried and tested. Did They Actually Believe This?

HEBREW AND GREEK HELPS

Daniel and Tonya at Hebrew and Greek Reader posts videos to help with your Hebrew.  (My apologies to Daniel and Tonya, for errantly attributing this post to someone else – whose name I even mispelleded). Here I am:

Rachel Marszalek provides a test for Bible Verse integration in Blogger.

Yes, you too can write like the sage Yodadiah! Just in case the Empire Strikes Back and you have trouble getting a date with someone syntactical! Mark Vitalis Hoffman at Biblical Studies and Technological Tools looks at Shibboleth: New version 0.9b… and typing in Greek. Ridicule is not enough when it comes to concordances. Well, some of those words show up in the post by Bob MacDonald.

TEXTS AND MANUSCRIPTS

Mr. Scrivner at Pericope de Adultera: has The Interesting Case of Codex Delta (Δ) and the PA while at NT Textual Criticism) he gets a case of Uncial, but hopefully he has a good health plan Uncial Talk (2) – Brown & Lovett. The beautiful images of medieval manuscripts do cheer one up, though. Part 3 is here: Uncial Talk (3) – M. Brown

The newly discovered Hebrews texts got a good bit of attention, including some by ETC

An Early Manuscript of Hebrews Discovered by Tommy Wasserman appears at Evangelical Textual Criticism. Well, Tommy didn’t actually discover the manuscript, and the discovery didn’t happen at ETC, but everything else I’ve said is true.

Nazaroo blogs on the Majority Text: The True Power of Probability (pt VII) in another multi-part series. Majority Text: The True Power of IMPOSSIBILITY (pt VI) Majority Text: True Power of the Probability Argument (pt V) Majority Text: True Power of the Probability Argument (pt IV) Majority Text: True Power of the Probability Argument (pt III) Majority Text: True Power of the Probability Argument (pt II)

Early Critical Greek New Testaments with some excellent images appear in a post by Rogue Physicist on KJVOnly2.

ARCHAEOLOGY

An Archaeologist uncovering a statue of the ancient deity of heavy breathing.

This post on Bible Places dumps on Gehenna. Jim Davila had to dig deep for this: The subterranean excavations in Jerusalem. Better than Esdras began a series of posts on important finds with a well illustrated article on the Moabite Stone exploring the troubled space between biblical representation of the past and archaeological evidence.

The Elah Valley Coins: Jim West has the loot via hench-person Joseph Laurer. Some nice photos, but not of Jim because that would just ruin the whole post.

Jordan creates online archaeology treasure trove reports David Withun from Pious Fabrications.  Michael Langlois has an interview in Est Républicain: Archaeology and Biblical Origins Joe Zias: On Recent Exaggerated Archaeological Claims, Including the ‘Zinc Coffin’ and the ‘Lead Codices’ by Jim West   How many people are there named Matt Page who blog at “Bible Film Blog?” we are left asking after reading a certain post called: Digging Out the Talpiot Tomb Debate

A.D. Riddle on Bible Places Blog reports on Carchemish Excavations – Further Details

SIMCHA’S JESUS NAILS: A STAPLE OF STUPIDITY

Only fans of Red Dwarf can realize just what a Smeg Head Simcha actually is.

Jim West declared it to be  More Lunacy and Exaggerated Claims from Pseudo-Archaeology: The ‘Discovery’ of the Nails Which Affixed Jesus to the Cross. The Bibbiablog team posted this: Are these the nails used to crucify Jesus? Jim Davila declared April 12 Bizarre historical claims day. He nailed it and then covered his tracks with Jesus’ towel. Mark Goodacre puts a Blackadder spin on things thinking Simcha  has a screw loose. Bob Cargill hits the nail on the head and just says no.

Mark Goodacre talks about Caiphas’ hardware store at Simcha’s Nails: Illustrating the Problem. Joe Zias’ article,  ‘More Amazing Dis-Grace- The JESUS NAILS: The Naked Truth vs. The Naked Archaeologist’ is posted by Jim West.

BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP

Megan Bishop Moore writes on Studying the World in Which the Bible was Written: History’s Contribution to Biblical Studies in the Classroom.  Even though the article is excellent, Jim West like it.

The Bible Reader Divide between the church and academy is the subject of a post by Jr. Daniel Kirk at Storied Theology. He hopes for a synergy between the two. He returns to this theme at Church and Academy Need Each Other and then again: Reading the Bible with Academy and Church Dean Galbraith seems to be of a different opinion, if his views on the InterVarsity Press are any indication.

PUBLISHING

Roland Boer (Stalin’s Moustache) announces that The Bible and Critical Theory Journal was resurrected, and is now online and, excitingly, open access.   Duane Smith (Abnormal Interests) notes that the final volume, U/W, of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary is now available. And it’s free online.   You can download the Online: Demotisch woordenboek over at Aantekeningen bij de Bijbel courtesy JP vd Giessen

BOOK REVIEWS

There were a ton of book reveiws and so here is good number of them, in no particular order:

Dwelling with Philippians, edited by E. S. Halstead, P. Dtterman, J. Borger and J. D. Witvliet, reviewed by Nijay Gupta.

Galations, by  Thoman Schreiner, reviewed by Nijay Gupta.

A Different Priest, by Albert Vanhoye, reviewed by Brian Small of Polumeros kai Polutropos

Wisdom Texts from Qumran by Daniel J. Harrington S.J., reviewed by Adam Couturier.

A Short History of Myth, by Karen Armstrong, reviewed by Steve Wiggins.

UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity, by David Kinnaman reviewed by Pastor Julia

How To Read the Bible by James L. Kugel, reviewed (pt. by Larry Tanner

ZEC Ephesians, by Clinton Arnold, reviewed by Daniel Doley.

Gospel of Peter by Paul Foster, reviewed by James McGrath

Historical Jesus, by Anthony Le Donne, reviewed by James McGrath.

Religions of the Ancient Near East, by Daniel C. Snell, reviewed by Charles Halton.

Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist, by Brant Pitre, reviewed by Joel Willittes and by Grasshoppers Dreaming.

Rethinking the Origins of the Eucharist, by Martin Stringer, reviewed by Clayboy.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit, by James Dunn, reviewed by Digalot

Catholic Study Bible: Book of Genesis, reviewed by Tim of Catholic Bibles.

Zondervan’s Big Bad Bible Giants, & The Boys Bible, reviewed by Deane Galbraith.

Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? by Maurice Casey, reviewed by Dean Galbraith.

God in New Testament Theology, by Larry Hurtado, reviewed by Nick Norelli.

Politics of Redemption, by Adam Kotsko, reviewed by Jeremey Ridenour (pt 1), Andy Thomas (pt. 2).

Is God a Moral Monster, by Paul Copan reviewed by Thom Stark (review is longer than the book!)

EVENTS

A lot of upcoming events to report that were advertised on the blogs. Again, no particular order.

Paul and Qumran Conference (Metz), 14-16 June. Noted by Jim Davila at Paleojudaica.

Corinth _ Paul, People and Politics (Macquarie Univeristy) May 14, 2011, noted by Ari

70 Faces (by Rachel Barenblat) Book Tour (Montreal), May, 2011, noted by the Velveteen Rabbi.

Durham NT Seminar: Easter Term 2011, noted by Ben of Dunelm Road

Richard Ascough Lectures at College of Emmanuel and St. Chad in Saskatchewan (November 2011),  announced by Matthew Theissen.

Bible, Critical Theory and Reception Conference (Sheffield),  September  announced at SBS blog.

Seeing the God in Late Antique Mediterranean and Roman Culture (Union Theological Seminary) May 12th, noted by Deirdre.

Digital Humanities Workshop (Brown University), Feb. 13-14, 2012, Call for Papers by Bob Cargill.

BIBLE AND POLITICS

Amanda Black at Political Jesus explains Canadian Politics but she can’t explain this. Well, here is the musical difference. Alas.

ALL SORTS

Esther and Mordechai interrupt the Persian king and Haman

Jan Pieter has a weekly Biblequiz. Jesus may rock, but Jude Raps at Evangelical Textual Criticism. The Quest for the Historical NT Wrong is beginning again at Aristotle’s Feminist Subject: and Political Jesus. There is a nice tribute to Norman Gottwald by Claude Mariottini.

A tribute to the Bible by Christopher Hitchens is reported by Remnants of Giants. The Remaining Giant muses briefly at Greco-Biblical Comic books

Popular misconceptions about the Bible are the subject of a post at The Naked Bible by Michael Heiser: Urban Legends (Unconscious Lies) About the Bible. R. Daniel Kirk thinks that, generally speaking, size matters when it comes to Romans 1: It’s in the way that you use it

Clayboy tells us Why we bless things. Others find reasons to curse. The Golden Age didn’t exist according to the Biblical World: The Myth of the Church’s Golden Age.

Dr. Who? Dr. Goodacre wants to collect all the scholarship on  Doctor Who and Textual Criticism while Rod of Alexandria talks about

Holy Saturday & Dr. Who Rod of Alexandria

TV AND MOVIES

Matt at Bible Film Blog talks about some More Non-Western Jesus Films, and also about some adaptations of Ruth. He also has some things to say about the BBC/HBO show, “The Passion”. Ian Paul has some issues with ‘Bible’s Buried Secrets’ iii: planting ideas in Eden? thinking presenter Francesca Stavrakopoulou and the makers have a fairly naive understanding of the Bible.

The Bible World has links to the videos of the series Did God have a wife? A four part BBC series.

Anyway, folks, that’s all I got.  Sorry it was late!

ONE MORE CORRECTION: I received an email in early April from Stephan Huller about his blog but forgot to put a link to any of his posts! Sorry! Here is his URL:

http://stephanhuller.blogspot.com/ A lot of secret Mark and other things.

Here are the upcoming carnival hosts.

June 1, 2011- Joel Watts July 1, 2011-

Christian Brady August 1, 2011-

Daniel McClellan September 1, 2011-

James McGrath October 1, 2011-

Scott Bailey November 1, 2011-

Tom Verenna December 1, 2011-

Remnant of Giants