As a Driven Leaf was just recommended to me by Amazon.com. I read the book a few years ago and loved it. It’s historical fiction and follows the apostate Rabbi Elisha ben Abuyah through his life in the late first century CE. Rabbis Akiva, Yohanan, Joshua, Eleazar, and Beruriah all pop up in the narrative as Elisha struggles with his identity within Judaism and the Hellenized Near East, and what to do when the Romans come down hard on his family, friends, and community of faith. It’s a phenomenal read and it asks some very important questions. Check it out if you’re so inclined.
Monthly Archives: September 2009
Biblical Studies Carnival XLVI
Biblical Studies Carnival 46 is up at Hebrew and Greek Reader. Loads of good stuff, including a carnival-related header. Check it out.
Biblioblog Top 50
Whoa! I’m all the way up to 6th! How exiting for me! I assume there’s a monetary award of some size waiting for me, right?
Bob Cargill on BCE/CE vs. BC/AD
Bob Cargill has an article up on Bible and Interpretation discussing the need to abandon the BC/AD designations in favor of the more handy BCE/CE. I, for one, am in perfect agreement, but I’d like to add a couple things Bob does not discuss.
First, most people don’t even use the AD designation correctly to begin with, so it seems odd to me to be dogmatically opposed to abandoning it. The year is supposed to follow AD, not the other way around. It’s AD 1314, not 1314 AD (didn’t you see Braveheart?).
Second, the designation is not an anti-Christian or atheist propaganda campaign. It was not invented by scientists, the Chinese, the Russians, or the Jews. It was invented by Christians in 17th and 18th century Europe. In Latin it is Vulgaris Aerae, and it was used to distinguish the calendar of the common folk from the regnal calendars of royalty. It has been in use for centuries by Christians and others. It is completely harmless, and its use helps to foment a little more unity and respect in a very globalized academic and ecclesiastical community (an ideal with which no one should be at odds). I agree with Bob that it’s irrational to oppose it.
Mark Goodacre on Bible and Interpretation
Mark Goodacre has a brief article on Bible and Interpretation discussing the use of internet resources. He urges us to not to dismiss the internet as a forum for academic discussion and plugs NT Gateway. Check it out.
Discovered: Nero’s Revolving Restaurant
An AP article (through Yahoo here) mentions that a part of Nero’s banquet hall in Rome was unveiled today by archaeologists that was built partially on a mechanism that revolves in order to imitate the earth’s rotation. Interesting.
Discovered: Roman Statues in Capri’s Blue Grotto
According to this Discovery Channel article, several first century CE Roman statues were discovered underwater on the Italian osland of Capri. The Blue Grotto was Tiberius’ old swimming hole. The statues depict different Roman deities, like Triton in the photo above.
SBL Affiliation Clarified
The SBL Affiliation roundup has been updated. Mark Goodacre mentions a SBL affiliation-related note in the SBL Newsletter, and Jim West provides a short note of clarification in regards to the SBL Affiliation:
The Society of Biblical Literature’s recent decision to grant affiliate status to an informal grouping of SBL members who blog on biblical studies has generated several questions and issues that the SBL would like to clarify.
1. Who are “bibliobloggers” and are they an organization?
“Bibliobloggers” is a loose term used to describe the over 300 people who blog about the Bible; half of that number are SBL members. Up until this point, these bloggers have had no formal organizational structure, but have met informally and held discussions at the SBL annual meeting. The affiliate agreement was initiated by SBL executive director, Kent Richards and Jim West, a biblioblogs site administrator and SBL member.
2. Why did SBL make the affiliate agreement?
The SBL was in the process of having internal conversations about the potential of the internet and blogs in particular to communicate scholarship and organizational info among our members, and possibly beyond. It seemed wise to look to our members who were already using the technology and savvy about its uses; perhaps there were ways to learn from them and encourage internal discussion of issues related to blogs?
It came to our attention that a group of SBL members who blog were already convening at our annual meeting, but had to go off-site for group discussions. The SBL decided to offer affiliate status so that these SBL members could meet on-site at the Annual Meeting, free of charge, just as other affiliates, such as the Homiletics or Adventist societies do.
3. Is SBL endorsing the academic quality of all ‘biblioblogs’?
Just as with any affiliate status, the SBL neither affirms nor endorses the internal content of the affiliate. What the SBL does is to provide free meeting space and the opportunity to hold sessions. However, the hope is that this affiliation will increase member awareness of blogs as a means to engage others, thoughtfully and responsibly, on the topic of biblical studies.
4. Will bloggers now make use of their affiliate status to propose sessions or section units at the Annual Meeting? And if so, who will be responsible for reviewing their proposals?
Yes, as affiliate members, bloggers who are SBL members may propose sessions. Robert Cargill is the program unit chair, and the steering committee includes, April DeConick, Stephanie Fisher, Mark Goodacre, Christian Brady, Michael Barber, and Jim West. The steering committee will be responsible for reviewing all proposals.
SBL Affiliation Update
For anyone who is interested, I’ve updated my SBL Affiliation roundup with a recent addition by Jim Linville. Jim explains that he’s kinda on the fence on the matter, so I’m going to group him with the cautious, undecided, and overly diplomatic.
New Journal of Hebrew Scriptures Article
I just received a notification about a new JHS article by Karolien Vermeulen entitled To See or Not To See: The Polysemy of the Word עין in the Isaac Narratives (Gen 17–35). It’s an interesting article. I’m used to seeing polysemy discussed in a context of Classical or New Testament literature, but not as much in relation to the Hebrew Bible. This is a good read. Check it out.
