Biblical Studies Carnival #222 for November 2024

Welcome to the Biblical Studies Carnival for November 2024. I spent a week in San Diego attending dozens of papers and meetings (along with several dinners, etc.) As always, I have a wonderful time, eat too much, and buy many books. But the world of BiblioBogging goes on….so here is my list of the best of November 2024.

Since he loves the Xmas season so much, Jim West will host the carnival for the holidays. A brand new host, Reuven Chaim Klein, will post the January 2025 carnival on February 1, 2025 on his blog, The Rachack Review. As I always say, I am looking for hosts for early 2025. Contact me via email, plong42@gmail.com if you would like to discuss hosting.

SBL 2024 in San Diego

Nijay Gupta offered a short report from SBL 2024 (San Diego).  James McGrath has a recap with details from several of the study groups (and quite a few pictures). Christian Brady reflects on his service to SBL as he completes his second three-year term on the SBL council. You can download the app and read the paper abstracts if you didn’t attend the conferences. Greg Lamb posted his reflections on Academia, with the subtitle “Tangible Trends of the SBL/IBR/AAR Meetings of 2019 and 2024.”

Christoph Heilig has a detailed discussion of the Paul within Judaism section, The Future Past of Paul within Judaism: How It Will Have Become a Successful Paradigm (If It Will Have). “I have never witnessed an SBL session that sparked so many subsequent discussions throughout the rest of the meeting, nor one where there was such universal agreement that the field cannot continue with business as usual after it.” Helig wants to see a stronger commitment to the actual interpretation of Pauline texts (and, at times, other Jewish texts).

I sat in on the Historical Paul section, which featured a series of papers entitled “Paul within Judaism within Acts.” Essentially, “What can Acts contribute to Paul within Judaism studies?” For many SBL Acts scholars, the answer is “not much,” primarily because of the assumed second-century date for Acts. However, the “Paul within Judaism within Acts” does not yet have much to say about historical Paul because traditional Acts scholars tend to consider Paul a prototypical convert (from Judaism to Christianity). But this is highly anachronistic (both in terms of what Judaism and Christianity mean, as well as importing modern ideas of conversion onto Paul’s experience.

Old Testament

James Squires posted a lengthy reflection on Jeremiah 33:14-16 “I will cause a righteous branch to spring up for David,” as a reading for Advent.

Heather Anne Thiessen (the hermeneutrix) studies Ruth 4:9-17 then reflects on the passage.

Rabbi David J. Zucker, Isaac Knows He Is Blessing Jacob: Who Is Really Being Deceived?

David Toshio Tsumura, “BR’ in Gen 1:1.” SBL 2024 Session (S23 220)

Nehama Aschkenasy, Rebecca, Excluded from Isaac’s Plans, Makes a Tragic Mistake

What kind of king is Jesus in John 18 and Daniel 7? Ian Paul connects these two passages (with some Revelation sprinkled in).

Trevor Bryce, The Last Days of Hattusa: The mysterious collapse of the Hittite empire.

Allan R. Bevere, To Reform the Nation: Explanatory Notes on 2 Kings 23:1-14.

Gard Granerød, “How Tall Is the God of the Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple? Computing Yahweh’s Stature.” Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament (November 2024): 1–24.

Hans E Kristensen, “Assessing the Historical Reliability of the Hebrew Bible Comparing the Bible to Extrabiblical Sources.”

Bob MacDonald has been working through the Psalms on his blog, Dust. Use the sidebar since the posts are not in canonical order. If you have not read Bob’s musical observations on the Psalms, you should spend some time on his blog. Quite remarkable.

New Testament

Edmon L. Gallagher, Paul and the Septuagint Canon: What do the apostle’s quotations of the Septuagint tell us about his view of the Old Testament canon?

Ian Paul asks, Is Mark 13 about the end of the world and Jesus’ return?  “In Acts 2.17–21, Peter appears to understand what is going on in front of him in exactly the same words that Jesus uses in Mark 13.24 and following—all happening within the life of that generation.” (spoiler alert: there is some already /not yet in this answer).

Peter Goeman, at The Bible Sojourner, asks, “Were Levites Allowed to Own Land? A Look at Acts 4:36-37.”

Michael Wilson wonders, “Who was Ananias?”

Michael Bird was in Philippi.

jayman777 at Biblical Scholarship posted a collection of translations of the late fourth-century Syrian bishop Apollinaris of Laodicea, Comment on Matthew 27:5, the death of Judas. Apollinaris quotes Papias to justify harmonizing the accounts of Judas’s death in Matthew and Acts.  There is a wealth of these kinds of posts on Jayman777’s blog, so maybe bookmark this one for further reading.

At Behind the Gospels, John Nelson asked, Was Jesus an Apocalyptic Prophet? He begins with Mark 13:30, “This generation will not pass away…” and later he answers three common objections. These posts cover some of the same ground as Tucker S. Ferda, Jesus and His Promised Second Coming: Jewish Eschatology and Christian Origins (read my review here).

Καταπέτασμα (Scribes of the Kingdom) contributed an excellent piece on Judah’s kinsman redeemer: Israelite solidarity in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

B. J. Oropeza, How Did the Romans First Come to Believe in Christ?

Marg Mowczko asks, “Who is God’s Servant in Romans 13:4?”  She concludes: “Paul was not asking the Roman Christians to unnecessarily submit to foolish or harmful leadership. Nevertheless, he wanted the Christians to be compliant with Roman authority so that they could avoid wrath, violence, and persecution. Paul understood the political tensions of his time.”

Ian Paul gets us ready for Christmas with Jesus was not born in a stable—and it really does matter!

Brian Small has quite a few posts on Hebrews this month—plenty of new publications on Hebrews.

Cornelis Bennema, “Volition in the Johannine Writings.” Pages 163-177 in Aspects of Soteriology in John and Paul. Ed. Jan G. van der Watt, Jos Verheyden and Jörg Frey. WUNT 529. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2024.

Adam Renberg continued a series on Mothers of the Church. This time, Adam comments on Egeria. Be sure to read this if you only know Egeria from her pilgrimage.

Loren T Stuckenbruck, “Can Psychiatry and Demon Texts of the Gospels Be Placed in Meaningful Conversation with One Another?” (SBL 2024 paper).

Corey M. Marsh, “The Paradox of Pain in John 21:15–19: Glory by Following Jesus through Suffering.” Paper from Johannine Literature Section at the annual ETS meeting in San Diego, 2024.

Digging for Truth Episode 246, New Evidence for Where God Struck Down Herod Agrippa. With guest Todd Bolen.

Book Reviews

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein at The Rachack Review reviews Divine Doppelgängers: YHWH’s Ancient Look-Alikes, edited by Collin Cornell (Eisenbrauns, 2020). He concludes, “This book presents a thought-provoking exploration of the relationship between the God of the Bible and the deities of the Ancient Near East… As an Orthodox Jew, I appreciate the respectful and scholarly manner in which these thorny issues are handled, even if the answers are not always clear-cut or even acceptable to me.”

David deSilva, Ephesians. NCBC, Cambridge, 2022. (Reviewed by Spencer Robinson).

Francis M. Young, Doctrine and Scripture in Early Christianity. Eerdmans, 2023. (Reviewed by Jim West).

Brant Pitre, Jesus and Divine Christology. Eerdmans, 2024. (Reviewed by Phillip J. Long)

Andrea L. Turpin revisits Jesus and John Wayne in light of the recent election. So did Jacob Randolph

Kavin Rowe, Method, Context, and Meaning in New Testament Studies and Studies in Luke, Acts, and Paul. Eerdmans, 2024. (Reviewed by Phillip J. Long)

Candida Moss, God’s Ghostwriters: Enslaved Christians and the Making of the Bible. Little, Brown and Company, 2024. (Reviewed by Ben, The Amateur Exegete)

Robert M. Bowman Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski, The Incarnate Christ and His Critics: A Biblical Defense. Kregel Academic, 2024. (Reviewed by Phillip J. Long)

James McGrath interviewed Garrick Allen, Words Are Not Enough: Paratexts, Manuscripts, and the Real New Testament (Eerdmans 2024).

Françoise Briquel Chatonnet and Muriel Debié, trans. by Jeffrey Haines, The Syriac World: In Search of a Forgotten Christianity. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2023. (Reviewed by Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent).

Christopher Edwards, Crucified: The Christian Invention of the Jewish Executioners of Jesus. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2023. (Reviewed by Mark Goodacre, SBL, San Diego, 2024, Early Jewish Christian Relations)

Passings

Tony Campolo died on November 19. Steve Rabey posted an assessment of Campolo’s career at the Baptist News. Rabey worked with Campolo on his memoir, Pilgrim: A Theological Memoir, due February 2025 from Eerdmans. Here is a news article by Bob Smietana on Campolo.

David Yoon, In Memoriam: Barbara Aland (2024).

Jim West remembers J. Cheryl Exum and Willam Fulco.

Oddities

Relatives of Bonhoeffer ‘Examining’ Legal Action Against Eric Metaxas for ‘Lies’ About Them

Jim West does not like it when churches cancel Wednesday night services before Thanksgiving. Not one bit.

New Exhibit of Megiddo Mosaic at the Museum of the Bible.  I wonder…are they real? Listen to a podcast from the Bible and Spade in the Mosaics.

Like a college freshman, a megachurch pastor plagiarized another serial plagiarizer. Don’t they know ChatGPT works better, and it is harder to get caught?