More Princeton Dead Sea Scrolls Sales at CBD
In addition to the sale at Christian Book Distributors on volumes 1 and 2 of the Princeton Dead Sea Scrolls series that Tod Bolen previously noted, the following volumes are also currently selling there at sharply reduced prices:
The Necessity of the LXX for NT Studies
In his latest post, Larry Hurtado encourages New Testament scholars to more seriously engage the Septuagint when trying to explain OT allusions or citations of the NT. Here is a little provocation intended to move you quickly toward reading the whole thing:
The first/primary question about any OT text thought to have been used in the NT is what the Greek form of the text was. Indeed, at the risk of being provocative, I would say that you need to justify consulting or at least making much of the Hebrew text.
Should you find yourself convicted of neglect and eager to repent, he points to a few helpful introductory resources. I have also posted reviews of three introductions to the Septuagint–including Jobes and Silva, which he mentions–on the book reviews page.
Though Jennifer Dines’ introduction is shorter, Jobes and Silva is certainly the place to start. One way of framing the difference between those two reader friendly introductions: Dines answers the question “What is the Septuagint?” Jobes and Silva answer that question plus “What is Septuagint studies?”
UPDATE 5/2/12:
Larry Hurtado posted a follow-up, noting another helpful resource, Hengel’s The Septuagint as Christian Scripture.
John Meade over at the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog noted Hurado’s original post. Be sure to check out John’s post because he links to a PDF of the Cambridge (Brooke-McLean) LXX! If you click the link to download it, note that the third “PDF” link on the left side of the archive.org page combines all eight volumes into one.
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“Blessed Are the Merciful” Applies to Professors, Too
I frequently tell the story of how I “learned to read” in college. Usually, I share this story in order to encourage people who struggle with reading comprehension. Today, I want to tell it for a different purpose.
The breakthrough took place while working through Craig Evans’ From Prophecy to Testament: The Function of the Old Testament in the New (FPTT). This book was required reading for a class taught by Dr. Paula Qualls at Gardner-Webb University, and I struggled immensely to understand it. I remember being so angry for having to read it. I thought it was over my head, irrelevant, and overly critical, to put it politely. Of course, I told her about it, and when I spoke, I’m sure my tone was less than properly respectful.
The program in which I was enrolled (and from which I graduated) was designed to help adults with full-time employment earn their bachelor’s degree. The average student in the Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy was a (at least aspiring) pastor or minister heavily involved in a local church in the area around Boiling Springs, North Carolina. The students I studied with were fantastic people, but when we entered the program, hardly any of us were acquainted with the genre of modern academic essays. Thankfully, most of my classmates didn’t respond as emotionally as I did.
Nevertheless, I poured over each essay in FPTT, reading them all multiple times, struggling to merely grasp the thesis of each, until one day the light came on. It started with the last paragraph of A. J. Drodge’s “‘No One Has Ever Seen God’: Revisionary Criticism in the Fourth Gospel.” I understood the last paragraph and slowly worked my way backwards through the entire essay–an unconventional way of reading, but one that worked on that day! As I took notes in the margin, it started to make sense one paragraph at a time. I found hope. I thought to myself, “You can understand this material! Forget about speed! Linger over it till you get it! You will get it!”
Over the past few years, I have flipped through the book a few times and noted how my perspective on critical scholarship has shifted from cynicism to gratefulness. It is certainly true that the more you study, the more you learn. But ironically, at the same time, you find out how much more there is to know. Your questions multiply; your world is enlarged at a rate greater than the rate of your growth. This is a good problem. The questions are no longer “their questions,” they’re yours. Because I now understand where the questions of a book like FPTT are coming from, what I once considered “overly critical” and “skeptical” I now consider thoughtful.
This evening, I returned to FPTT and greatly benefited from it. As research for an exegetical paper, I reread Rikk E. Watts’ “Immanuel: Virgin Birth Proof Text or Programmatic Warning of Things to Come (Isaiah 7:14 in Matthew 1:23)?” I found his discussion of the Immanuel passages in Isaiah immensely helpful and concise, his understanding of Matthew’s use of Isaiah 7:14 very persuasive. I’m thankful I kept the book, but I’m even more thankful for Paula Qualls and the many professors like her that God has placed in my path. They get the credit for my benefit from books like this. I ran into her a couple years ago at SBL and was thrilled to see her. In that moment, I wasn’t able to put into words exactly why.
I benefit from critical scholarship because I’ve had teachers who insisted that I wrestle with it. Most importantly, they were teachers who modeled the humility and grace necessary to engage an opinion that one might initially find irritating. In dealing with our emotional, often ill-informed reactions, Dr. Qualls always responded with the utmost patience. She responded to angry tones firmly, but sympathetically and always respectfully. She was leading us into the deep end and teaching us to swim, while we were kicking and screaming–at least I was. She never “went off” on us, though I’m sure there were times we deserved it. This is the type of education that makes one not only a better scholar, but a more virtuous person. For this, I’ll eternally be grateful.
I could tell similar stories about each of the professors with whom I studied at Gardner-Webb: Ron Williams, Eddie Stepp, Joe Collins, Kent Blevins, Perry Hildreth, Alice Cullinan, and Danny West. They all deserve accolades. Since graduation, I’ve always spoken well of my experience at Gardner-Webb. They taught us to think and to engage the text. Whether or not we agreed, they always respected good arguments made from the text.
I’m happy to say I’ve encountered the same type of merciful, patient professors at SBTS, but that is another post. For now, suffice it to say that I am exceedingly blessed to study with gracious, patient professors like Jonathan Pennington, Peter Gentry, Charles Halton, Russell Fuller, Kevin Smith, Jim Hamilton, Stephen Wellum, Tom Schreiner, and several more.
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A Benefit of Blogging and Tweeting
We frequently hear about the perils of social media. I want to point out one benefit. Regularly blogging and tweeting thoughts about Scripture helps one overcome the fear of publicly taking a stand.
As I begin to think about a potential blog post or compose a new tweet, I frequently feel a bit of fear. It’s very much like the fear I feel as I labor over a paper for a seminar. What will they think? Can I really make a good argument for this position? Can I support this from Scripture? Am I being too critical? Have I eliminated all those pesky typos? It’s a good fear, but it can be paralyzing. The secondary literature is endless. There is always someone out there who has read the Bible more, who knows the languages better, and has been active in your field longer. At some point, you have to stop the research and put pen (or keyboard) to paper (or pixels). At some point, the nuancing must come to an end, and your position must be stated.
The only way to overcome this fear is to speak up and try to humbly learn from critiques. Social media offers us the opportunity to rehearse the process of overcoming anxiety and speaking up.
Perhaps in a couple hundred more tweets and fifty or so more blog posts I’ll get up the nerve to post my paper from last semester’s Septuagint seminar. 
O’Connor on Music and Canaanite Poetry
As in contemporary discos, so in contemporary descriptions of Canaanite poetry, much is done under the cover of music that is amusing but not entirely licit. Music, when used in describing poetic systems, is a way of covering over variations in verse. This is not to say that music has no place in the description of verse, merely that it can never have an integral place.
Michael Patrick O’Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1997), 40.
“As in contemporary discos…”
At the Intersection of Life and Study
Three (mostly) unrelated, practical thoughts.
Coiling
At Educational Resources, we teach students to make vivid mental pictures of the material they read. This concept is foundational to the way we teach reading comprehension. Some time ago, an eleventh grader and I were reading Genesis together. When we came to 4:7, I asked him, “What do you see when you read the words ‘sin is crouching at the door’?”
He said, “I see a snake curled up, ready to strike.”
I’d never made that connection. Very insightful, Mason.
Cursing
Exegesis of Isaiah + a long shift at Olive Garden every Friday and Saturday night = colorful applications of the text.
Last night, this verse came to mind on more than one occasion:
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, putting forth darkness for light and light for darkness, putting forth bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. – Isaiah 5:20
If poor tipping is not an example of injustice, then I don’t know what is. With your ink pen, you say to good service, “Evil.” You give bitter wages, and you sour sweet dispositions. There will be judgment. If it’s true that we will give an account of every careless word (Matthew 12:36), how much more every careless deed?
Nevertheless, this isn’t the only sin perpetrated in the fast-paced environment of a Saturday night at the OG. You can read my confession at the end of this post.
Comforting
At church this morning, we sang a song that brought to my mind Jesus’ encouragement for us to “consider the lilies” (Matthew 6:28). The image stuck with me as the lyrics rolled on. I pictured Jesus saying these words, pointing to the blooming flower. When you think about this portion of the Sermon on the Mount, in what tone do you hear Jesus speaking? Granted, the Sermon is not monotone. But here, as he addresses the anxious, how do you picture his eyes? Squinted? Furrowed brow? When we read the Gospels, too often we hear the voice of an irritated Jesus. If you know the least bit about counseling anxious souls, you know that barking logic at them, speaking out of anger and frustration with their weakness, accomplishes nothing good. Surely Jesus, Matthew’s sage, knows this, too.
Someone once said the eyes are a window to the soul. With a smile and bright eyes full of hope, love, and maybe a little amusement, Jesus says, “Consider the lilies! They do nothing but sit there, yet look at how wonderfully the Father takes care of them. Look how he feeds the birds! Aren’t you worth more than birds?! How much more will he take care of you?”
There is a loving God who stands outside both our struggle and the broken world, yet he can relate (John 1:14 ; Hebrews 4:14-16). He sees us as we are and yet provides.
Unicode Combos for Common Apparatus Symbols
Here are a few more Unicode combinations for symbols commonly found in an apparatus:
These are just a few I’ve used in papers and notes. Rodney Decker has much more info on the ins and outs of Unicode here. See my previous post for more info on how to create these symbols in Word. Don’t forget about macros! Using a macro, with one key stroke you can type the combination, hit “alt + x”, change the font, etc.
Throw this information in a note file; you never know when you might need it. 
UPDATE 5/7/12:
Unicode combos for all Hebrew letters, vowels, accents, etc. can be found in this chart.
Patrick Schreiner posted a list of symbols used in the NA27 and Editio Critica Maior. The second column has the unicode numbers in it.
Creating the Samaritan Pentateuch Symbol in Word
Through much googling and a few conversations on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, I finally figured out how to type the symbol used in BHS (et al.) to refer to the Samaritan Pentateuch.
There are two things you need: the Unicode combination and a font that will display this symbol.
- The unicode combination is 214f
- The Apparatus SIL font will display the character. It is downloadable here.
Once you have installed the font, in a Word document type “214f” and then hit “alt + x” to create the symbol. Initially, you will see a box, denoting the fact that your default font doesn’t properly display the symbol. If you highlight the box and change the font to Apparatus SIL, the symbol will display correctly.
Thanks to Bryan Lilly for finding the Unicode combination for me.
Echoes of Cain in the Prophecy of Isaiah
When I read Isaiah 1, I can’t help but hear echoes of the story of Cain. I’m sure this has everything to do with the fact that I have been thinking and posting about Genesis 3-4 lately. Hear me out, and let me know what you think. First the text, and then an explanation.
Doing and getting “good” (טוב; red text): The context of Isaiah 1:18ff. is similar to that of Genesis 4:6ff. In both passages, God addresses the guilty party. In both passages, the terms of law are stated similarly–the combination of the אִם conditional clause and the טוב root.
Spilling blood (דם, yellow text): In Isaiah 1, the hands of the people of God are said to be “full of blood.” Cain washed the blood off his hands, yet it cried out to the Lord from the ground.
Murder (הרג ,רצח; green text): This makes explicit that the bloody hands of Isaiah 1 are those of a Cain-like, murderous people.
How/Where (אי ,איכה; purple text): The connection here is more clear in Hebrew, but still, some might think it a stretch. To me, this expression resonates with Genesis 4 more loudly than any of the others, besides the טוב connection. In a previous post, I mentioned the similarity between Genesis 3:9 and 4:9. After Adam sinned, the Lord asks, “where are you (איכה)?” After Cain killed his brother, the Lord asks, “Where is Abel (אי הבל)?” So when I hear אי in Genesis 4, I think of איכה in Genesis 3. Though איכה is usually translated “how” in Isaiah 1:21, in light of the previously mentioned connections, when I read איכה in Isaiah 1, I recall the violence of Genesis 4.
What does all this matter? Hearing the echoes of Cain in Isaiah 1 adds another layer of richness and meaning to both Isaiah 1 and the story of Cain in Genesis 4. Violence, no less than that of Cain, crouches at the door. You don’t have to slash someone with a knife to be in Cain’s predicament. Turning a blind eye to “justice and righteousness” will suffice (Isaiah 1:21-23).
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The earliest manuscript of the Gospel of Mark?
According to Daniel B. Wallace the earliest manuscript of the Gospel of Mark has been discovered (see “Ehrman vs. Wallace: Round Three”). He writes the following in reference to a recent debate he had with Bart D. Ehrman:
“We have as many as eighteen second-century manuscripts (six of which were recently discovered and not yet catalogued) and a first-century…
