New book!

Today we start The Development of God in the Old Testament. It's not totally new, being published in 2017, but it's new in the sense that I've finally finished Standing in the Breach. Here's the first excerpt:

[T]hree characteristic elements of the biblical conception of divine and human justice can be identified. (1) Divine justice as communion between God and humanity is unpredictable and elusive but can nevertheless be experienced. (2) The human experience of injustice does not preclude communion with God and does not absolve one of the social responsibility to act justly toward others. This focus by Gen 4 on the explicit question of justice is also reflected in the earliest Jewish and Christian reception of the narrative: the Wisdom of Solomon characterizes Cain as the archetype of the unjust person (ἄδικος, Wis 10:3), and in the New Testament Abel serves as the archetype of the just person (δίκαιος, Matt 23:35 par. Luke 11:51, Heb 11:4). At the same time, the story of Cain and Abel points to the destructive potential of unequal economic relations, which within the Old Testament is further criticized in the prophetic books (cf. Isa 5:8–24, Mic 2:1–3), yet without legitimizing violence on the part of the disadvantaged. (3) As the figure of Noah demonstrates, actions and behaviors befitting communion with God and with fellow humans are not impossible but are the exception.—The Development of God in the Old Testament, page 33

<idle musing>
Two things jump out: (1) the destructive potential of economic relations, but without legitimizing violence on the part of the disadvantaged. As I told my kids when they were growing up, "Violence is never an option." It just isn't the Christian way—but neither is complacency. (2) "actions and behaviors befitting communion with God and with fellow humans are not impossible but are the exception." Unfortunately, that's been my experience, too. Including my own actions over the years : (

Let's see what else this little book can tell us…
</idle musing>

New book from Carta

I just received a new book from Carta, Jerusalem:

In the Master's Steps: The Gospels in the Land
R. Steven Notley
Carta, Jerusalem, 2015
88 pages, English
ISBN: 9789652208514
Price: $25.00

Description: This volume, the first of four in The Carta New Testament Atlas, is about recent advances in history, geography, toponomy, and archaeology, the tools necessary to shed fresh light on the Gospels.

According to the forward, parts of it are extracted from The Carta Bible Atlas, but I haven't had a chance to see which ones.

I have looked it over, and as usual, it is up to the high standards that Carta has for its products. The maps are clear and crisp, the choice of photos is excellent. And the parts of Steven's commentary that I have read are good. I specifically looked over Chapter 7: Jesus and the Myth of an Essene Quarter in Jerusalem, which appears in The Sacred Bridge as Excursus 22.1. I haven't, however, compared them, so I don't know to what degree they overlap. Further, I have the original 2006 edition, not the updated 2014 one, so even if I did compare them, it wouldn't say much.

Here's the Table of Contents:
Preface
Chapter 1: The Birth of Jesus and the Flight into Egypt
Chapter 2: The Ministry of John and the Baptism of Jesus
Chapter 3: The Travels of Jesus
Chapter 4: The Sea of Galilee: Development of an Early Christian Toponym
Chapter 5: The First Century Environs of the Sea of Galilee
Chapter 6: The Last Days of Jesus
Chapter 7: Jesus and the Myth of an Essene Quarter in Jerusalem
Chapter 8: The Arrest and Death of Jesus
Chapter 9: From the Empty Tomb to the Road to Emmaus
Index

As you can see, it covers the whole of the Gospels. According to the back of the book, the second volume will be Jerusalem City of the Great King, volume three will be From Jerusalem to the Ends of the Earth: The Spread of the Early Church, and volume four will be Armageddon & The Apocalypse: Mapping the End of Days.

If you are looking for an atlas that covers just the Gospels, then this would be it. Even if you owned the shorter abridgment of The Sacred Bridge, Carta's New Century Handbook and Atlas of the Bible, you would benefit, as it doesn't include the excursus (what's the plural of excursus? Isn't it fourth declension? If so, it would simply be excursūs...).

In the mail

I don't usually get unsolicited books in the mail—well not anymore. When I worked at Eisenbrauns, I got plenty! So it was a nice treat to open the Post Office box yesterday and see a copy of Goldingay's The Theology of the Book of Isaiah from InterVarsity Press.

I'm adding it to my stack of books to read. Now that summer is almost here and the cabins are picking up, I probably won't get to it immediately, but it looks very interesting. Goldingay is a good scholar and he knows Isaiah well...

Good stuff

I've been woefully behind in mentioning a few books that I've received recently. I won't have time to read them for at least another month. Between the cabins, getting the garden ready for winter, and editing/proofreading work, and sneaking a hike or two in, there isn't much time left for reading.

Anyway, a long, long, long time ago (July, I think), Adrianna from InterVarsity Press sent me a copy of Atonement and a copy of Incarnation by T.F. Torrance. I'm really looking forward to reading these...look for snippets to begin appearing later this fall.

Much more recently—in fact, just last week—Bobby K. from Hendrickson Publishers sent me a copy of Unholy Allegiances by David deSilva. This looks really good. Here's part of the blurb on the book:

This is a truly unique book that studies Revelation by (1) stating the context in which it was written (Roman Asia in the first century), (2) noting why John wrote what he did to the church, and (3) powerfully applying John’s message to the church today. It is concisely written and carries a genuine spiritual message.

And, earlier this week, Jeremy from Baker Academic sent me a copy of Bonhoeffer the Assassin?. This one piqued my interest when I saw it in the Baker catalog earlier this year. Here's the blurb from the book:

Most of us think we know the moving story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life--a pacifist pastor turns anti-Hitler conspirator due to horrors encountered during World War II--but does the evidence really support this prevailing view? This pioneering work carefully examines the biographical and textual evidence and finds no support for the theory that Bonhoeffer abandoned his ethic of discipleship and was involved in plots to assassinate Hitler. In fact, Bonhoeffer consistently affirmed a strong stance of peacemaking from 1932 to the end of his life, and his commitment to peace was integrated with his theology as a whole.

We'll see...I'd love to believe them, being a person of nonresistance myself and liking Bonhoeffer's theology.

Oh, and much earlier, Jeremy also sent me a copy of Cook and Holmstedt's Beginning Biblical Hebrew which has an integrated reader. Well, actually the reader is more a graphic novel than anything. They use their insights from linguistics and second language acquisition studies and attempt to bring them to bear in teaching Biblical Hebrew. Good stuff...

Basics of Biblical Aramaic

I recently received a copy of Basics of Biblical Aramaic by Miles van Pelt (thanks Jesse!). It is the most recent contribution to Zondervan's biblical languages series.

It would be easy to point out the places where I would have done things differently, but first let's see what van Pelt aims to do and if he succeeds:

This grammar was not written for Aramaic scholars or for students interested in comparative Semitic grammar. Rather, the purpose and design of this grammar is to provide the average student with a working knowledge of the Aramaic language appearing in the Old Testament. It was written for those students who desire to study, teach, and preach faithfully from those portions of the Bible that appear in Aramaic. (page x)

I kept reminding myself of this paragraph as I read through the grammar. It is not fair to evaluate a textbook on the basis of what I would have done; I'm far more interested in comparative Semitics and historical grammar than the average student :)

As far as layout, the book is 8.5 x 11 inches and the text is large enough that even my eyes could easily read it. The tables are well laid out and clear. The use of footnotes for interesting, but not essential, information is good, allowing the interested student to obtain more background.

The book assumes the knowledge of biblical Hebrew; there are repeated comparisons to how biblical Aramaic is/is not like Hebrew. Here is where I would have brought in some comparative Semitics and historical grammar to explain the ש/ת interchange, as well as other consonantal differences. He does mention the Canaanite shift, which is good. But, again, I reminded myself of his purpose paragraph. The average student would probably be more confused than helped.

He begins with the nominal system, including particles, conjunctions, and prepositions, and then proceeds to present the verbal system, beginning with the Peal and then giving the derived stems. There is a great deal of emphasis and explanation of weak verbs, which is very helpful when you consider that the majority of the verbs in biblical Aramaic are weak.

The grammar section ends with paradigm charts before launching into the reading section. The book includes all the Aramaic sections of the Hebrew Bible, complete with extensive annotations. The annotations include things like identifying a difficult to figure out root, metathesis, idiomatic phrases, etc. The strange thing about the reading section is that the order of pages is English, not Aramaic. You start reading on the left hand page, then proceed to the right, and turn the page as if it were English. I'm not sure what the logic of that is. I would think that the page order would be Aramaic, but that is a minor quibble.

The book concludes with a dictionary, based on HALOT, with one-two word glosses. Adequate for reading the passages, but for more extensive background, HALOT or BDB should be consulted.

What do I think of the book? As one who learned biblical Aramaic via the “here's a text, lexicon, and Rosenthal, now read it!” method, this book is a vast improvement. I suspect a highly motivated individual could teach themselves Aramaic using it—as long as they already know Hebrew. The explanations are clear enough and the notes in the reading will keep you from getting discouraged.

In answer to the opening question, did he succeed in doing what he set out to do? I would answer, "Yes, he did." As I mentioned, the layout is attractive and the explanations are good. As anyone who has ever taught a language will tell you, there is no perfect first year grammar for any language—except the one you write yourself! If I were to teach biblical Aramaic, I would probably adopt this book, but assign background readings in Rosenthal's A Grammar of Biblical Aramaic. Of course, if someone were to create an immersion course in Aramaic, that would be best!

It finally arrived

And it only took 90 years!

That's right, the last volume of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary is actually in the warehouse! It just arrived this morning. Here's photographic proof:

It's real!

Lots of things are real, but this one is special to me. I attended the University of Chicago back in the 1980s (remember those days?) as a Ph.D. student. One of the languages I took was Akkadian (some would say it took me...). And, the foremost tool that I had on my desk was the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary. It wasn't complete at the time, so the other lexicon was the Akkadisches Handwörterbuch (how's your German?). Now, 22 years after I finished my classroom work and 90 years after its inception in 1921, the final volume—Chicago Assyrian Dictionary U/W—is shipping from the printer next week. Long journey, lots of people, lots of file cards. Pretty cool stuff!

I never worked for the CAD, but I did work for the related Chicago Hittite Dictionary Project, so I know a bit of what the CAD involved. But, the corpus of Hittite texts is miniscule compared to the corpus of Akkadian texts! Our file cabinets only took up one wall of an office; theirs took up almost an entire floor!

So, congratulations to the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary Project and all its many employees over the years.

UPDATE: Chuck Jones, long-time archivist at the OI, has collected some interesting stuff here on the CAD.

Nice thought from a new book

I was looking over forthcoming book today, The Land of Canaan and the Destiny of Israel, and ran across this wonderful set of lines:

Several rabbis emphasized that the Torah is not an exact reflection of God’s values. The following passage in y. Mak. 2.6 is illustrative:
שאלו לחכמה חוטא מהו ענשו? אמרה להם, “חטאים תרדף רעה” )משלי יג, כא(. שאלו
לנבואה, חוטא מהו ענשו? אמרה להם, “הנפש החוטאת היא תמות” )יח’ יח, ד(. שאלו לתורה,
חוטא מהו ענשו? אמרה להם, יביא אשם ויתכפר לו. שאלו לקב″ה, חוטא מהו ענשו? אמר להם,
יעשה תשובה ויתכפר לו.
They asked Wisdom, “What is the sinner’s punishment?” She said to them, “Evil pursues sinners” (Prov 13:21). They asked Prophecy, “What is the sinner’s punishment?” She said to them, “The soul that sins shall die” (Ezek 18:4). They asked Torah, “What is the sinner’s punishment?” She said to them, “Let him bring a guilt offering and be atoned.” They asked the Holy One, blessed be he, “What is the sinner’s punishment?” He said to them, “Let him repent and be atoned.”

This rabbinic text presents a scene in which a theological question (What is the punishment of the sinner?) is posed to the three biblical personifications: Wisdom, Prophecy, and Torah. After each personification offers its answer, usually with a biblical quotation, the question is then presented to God, who offers an answer not contemplated by the biblical personifications. God, the talmudic passage implies, cannot be fully captured in the biblical passages that speak of his ways. God’s transcendence always remains higher than the biblical theologies captured by the text. What is more, the different sections of the Bible (Wisdom, Prophets, Torah) present divergent approaches to the theological issue that is raised. It is thus acknowledged that the Bible is a theologically diverse collection of works that reflects various perspectives on central theological issues. No single biblical statement can therefore be taken as anything more than an incomplete and partial reflection of the biblical witness as a whole, which is itself an incomplete reflection of God’s ultimate truth.—The Land of Canaan and the Destiny of Israel, pages 386-387

<idle musing>
I really like this part: "No single biblical statement can therefore be taken as anything more than an incomplete and partial reflection of the biblical witness as a whole, which is itself an incomplete reflection of God’s ultimate truth." We can't put God in a box—not even a biblically sized one! As a friend of mine says, "God is a whole lot bigger and a whole lot more complicated than we think." And Amen to that!
</idle musing>

Are we sure that's what we want?

I get many, many, many catalogs as a bookseller. The titles sometimes make me angry, sometimes make me laugh, sometimes I want to cry. But, every now and then, one makes me go, "Are you sure that's what you want?" Such was the case today. I received a catalog from STL Distribution which included Husbands, Wives, God: Introducing the Marriages of the Bible to Your Marriage.

Now, aside from the questionable hermeneutics, think of the marriages in the Bible. Which of those would you want to model your marriage after? Abraham and Sarah? Really? Have your wife call you brother...I don't think so. Isaac isn't any better. And, don't get me started on Jacob, to say nothing of Hosea and Gomer. Of course, those are old covenant marriages—how about the New Testament? Ananias and Sapphira? At least they agreed!

No, the Bible isn't about good marriages—or any marriages. It is about a God who became flesh and dwelt among us, died for us, and was resurrected that we might live a new life to his glory and praise through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us. Now, that is a story I can endorse whole-heartedly!

Barclay Newman's revised Greek-English Dictionary

A Concise Greek English Dictionary of New Testament
Revised Edition

by Barclay M. Newman, Jr.
German Bible Society, 2010
xi + 220 pages, English and Greek
Cloth, 5 x 7
ISBN: 9781598566499
List Price: $34.95
Your Price: $31.46
www.eisenbrauns.com/item/NEWGREEKE2

Barclay Newman's revised Greek-English Dictionary arrived today. It was slated for a December release, so this is two months early. I was curious what the revisions were, so I thumbed through it. The most obvious change was the addition of roots in parentheses after a word and the splitting of the root from the prefixes; it reminded me of An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon. Personally, I like it, although others may not. As long as one doesn't try to use the root to shoehorn the definition, I find knowing the root of a word helpful; that is one feature of the middle Liddell I always liked.

The preface states that they checked the definitions, modifying some and clarifying others. In my quick review, I only noticed that some Greek phrases where the Greek had been abbreviated were now written out in full. The dictionary part itself is only 2 pages longer than the original version, so the revision couldn't have been too extensive.

They did add an appendix of sorts, "A Sampling of Some Greek NT Words That Share Similar Meanings." The preface warns it is incomplete, "more in the style of an enchiridion than an exhaustive study." The sampling is in English alphabetical order, a total of 67 English headings. I'm not sure what to make of it. It could be useful, but I fear that people who don't understand Greek might use it incorrectly. But then there is that danger with any tool.

Those who like the original dictionary will doubtless like this one and find it an improvement. Those who don't like the original will find little to dissuade them from their dislike. It is still a very concise dictionary with glosses and minimal context for those glosses. But, that is what it was designed as. Anyone wishing to gain a better understanding of a Greek word should always consult a larger lexicon with references and contexts to understand the semantic domain of the word.

New book

I just received

The Filioque
History of a Docrinal Controversy
by A. Edward Siecienski
Oxford University Press, April 2010
368 pages, English
Cloth
ISBN: 9780195372045
List Price: $49.95
Your Price: $44.96
www.eisenbrauns.com/item/SIEFILIOQ

I can't wait to read it! I think it will jump to the head of the line of books I'm trying to read. Thanks to Jennifer at Oxford for it!

Strange book description

As I've mentioned many times, I get lots of book catalogs—I'm a book buyer, after all! Well, today I got a catalog from a well-known distributor, displaying their wares. I happened to glance at the description of a book with a strong dispensational, pre-tribulational, Israel of now is the Israel of prophecy, Iraq is the source of all evil, etc., viewpoint. After a paragraph describing the way the end will come, they ended with these sentences:

With the Kingdom's inauguration will come a cessation of global hostilities. Peace alas!

<idle musing>
Bad proof reading, or Freudian slip?
</idle musing>

Thought for today

I was reading this morning in Reading Joshua as Christian Scripture and ran across this:
“...during the Enlightenment there was a shift away from the classic Christian paradigm of ‘faith seeking understanding’ to one of ‘faith requiring justification’.”—Reading Joshua as Christian Scripture, page 32, footnote 73

<idle musing>
That really struck me. I believe he is correct; we feel the need to defend faith, rather than allowing our faith to lead us into understanding. Sad loss on our part.
</idle musing>

New books

I just received a new book from Hendrickson Publishers, compliments of Bobby (thanks!).

Vines Intertwined
A History of Jews and Christians from the Babylonian Exile to the Advent of Islam
by Leo Dupree Sandgren
Hendrickson Publishers, 2010
xxiv + 835 pages, English
Paper, 6 x 9
ISBN: 9781598560831
List Price: $34.95
Your Price: $29.71
www.eisenbrauns.com/item/SANVINESI

This is a monster of a book, size-wise, and it even includes a CD in the back with the text of the book in PDF format! At the price, how can anybody not pick this up if they are interested in the subject matter?

I have no idea when I will get around to reading this, but when I do, you will hear about it :)

Talking about size and good deals reminds me, this just arrived late last week:

The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha:
Apocalypic Literature and Testaments
2 volume set
Edited by James H. Charlesworth
Hendrickson Publishers, 2010
1056 pages, English
Paper, 6 x 9.25 inches
ISBN: 9781598564891
List Price: $69.95
Your Price: $39.87
www.eisenbrauns.com/item/SETCHAOLDTES

Another great deal! Sure beats the hardcover price...now all I need is the time to read them all!

The Christian life

I've been reading the autobiography of our Staples delivery man, Facedown. He had a rough upbringing and even after becoming a Christian had some issues to work through. But, one thought keeps recurring over and over in the book, this particular version is from page 255:

I knew for certain hope was attainable, not by anything I could do, but I learned the priceless commodity of truth.

I knew there was healing in repentance.

I knew I would never be alone as long as I walked with God.

I also knew there was a force out there ready to perch on my shoulder and take me down. It happened every time I wasn't moving forward, learning from and depending on and trusting in the God who showed me mercy.

<idle musing>
I think that about sums up the entire Christian life.
</idle musing>

They just keep following me home

They leap off the shelf into my cart a few times a year. Once they do that, you just have to buy them and bring them home. And, once they are home, you just have to use them. There's just no way around it.

And, it happened again last weekend. I was minding my own business when this cookbook just jumped off the shelf and into my hands. It even had the gall to open up to a herb cheese bread! What could I do? I had to buy it! And, once purchased, I had to try it. Not content to tempt me with the cheese bread, it also contained a recipe for soft pretzels. How could I resist? So, Sunday evening, our house had the fragrant aroma of baking bread. The pretzels were good, but the herb cheese bread was phenomenal. I substituted oregano for the rosemary they called for; Debbie doesn't like rosemary. It will become a common bread around our house...

What cookbook is it, you ask? Why, The Old Farmer's Almanac Everyday Cookbook, of course. I'm sure Debbie and I will be trying more recipes from it soon :)

The advantages of being chosen

Somehow this missed being posted last week, so enjoy it today, instead:

“To be sure, there are benefits to being specially loved and blessed by God, yet it becomes clear throughout the biblical story that the people of Israel are often less than excited about their special relationship to YHWH. They are led into a wilderness, encounter lack of water and food, and often complain that it was better to be slaves under Pharaoh. While we might be quick to condemn Israel in this, it may also be instructive simply to allow the story to communicate what it does. Israel did not find it being a possession of YHWH particularly easy or advantageous. By and large, the people of Israel do not seem to recognize the gift that YHWH is giving to them because their life now has very high expectations...Life would probably be easier without such obligations. To maintain otherwise reads against the thrust of the story as the Bible presents it.”—Chosen and Unchosen, page 173

<idle musing>
Sounds only too familiar, doesn't it? As long as we think we have to maintain the obligations, it is way too difficult.
</idle musing>

Review of Chosen and Unchosen

Chosen and Unchosen
Conceptions of Election in the Pentateuch and Jewish-Christian Interpretation
Siphrut: Literature and Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures 2
by Joel N. Lohr
Eisenbrauns, 2009
xviii + 254 pages, English
Cloth, 6 x 9 inches
ISBN: 9781575061719
List Price: $39.50
Your Price: $35.55
www.eisenbrauns.com/item/LOHCHOSEN

Chosen and Unchosen is the second book in the new Eisenbrauns series Siphrut: Literature and Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures. The book is a revision of Lohr's doctoral dissertation, but it doesn't suffer from dissertationitis—the tendency to footnote every other word and repeat the same thing 27 times. Indeed, it is a good read, although slow going at times because of the content.

The book is divided into two sections: section one (about 1/3 of the book) is devoted to an overview of Christian and Jewish work on election in the last 50 years. The second section is a close reading of four sections of the Pentateuch where the chosen encounter the unchosen. Lohr chose the Abimelech/Abraham story, Pharaoh's daughter, Balaam, and Deuteronomy 4, 7, and 10, which features the herem, or ban.

The section on Pharaoh's daughter saving Moses is a textbook example of what a close reading should look like. Lohr picks up details that most interpreters miss; the story is richer after reading Lohr's exposition.

Balaam has suffered some bad press in the history of interpretation, including inner-biblical interpretation. Lohr seeks to read the Numbers account of Balaam on it's own terms, ignoring the later interpretation as much as possible. The result is a prophet who knew and feared God; a prophet who dared to stand up against a king and bless Israel when he had every reason not to. If we did not know the later history of Balaam, how he ended up betraying Israel into sin, we would never guess that he would die the death he did at the hands of Israel. I would say that this is the strongest section of the book and worth the cost of the book by itself. I will never read the Balaam story in Numbers the same.

Turning to Deuteronomy, Lohr confronts the issue of herem head-on. While you have to admire someone who is willing to take on the challenge of explaining herem (the ban) and trying to understand it, it still is less than satisfying. Despite an excursus and an appendix, I felt like he could have said more. Lohr himself admits that herem makes no sense to the modern mind. In my opinion, this is the weakest chapter. I would like to have seen him develop Deuteronomy 10 further, with the stranger dwelling among Israel and how that affects the unchosen theme. But, in the introduction he said this was but a first step in exploring the ramifications of being chosen and unchosen. As a first step, it is admirable.

On the whole, this book is well worth reading, especially the chapters on Pharaoh's daughter and Balaam. The weakest chapter, Deuteronomy, perhaps couldn't have been written any other way; there is just too much happening in Deuteronomy 10 to easily distill it down. Indeed, whole books have been written, and even they fail to do it justice.

Balaam

“Balaam, a foreign prophet, clearly knew the God of Israel, and the text reveals no discomfort with such an idea. Perhaps this is instructive for contemporary life when one encounters people outside the 'chosen'—outside one's community of faith.”—Chosen and Unchosen , page 199

<idle musing>
Interesting thought, isn't it? "The text" can be dangerous to our preconceptions, can't it?
</idle musing>

Slaves to whom?

“The Israelites are not 'freed' in the exodus, but in a sense, simply change ownership: they become 'slaves of God.'”—Chosen and Unchosen, page 76

<idle musing>
I think this is something we forget; Paul talks about the same thing in the New Testament. We are not our own; we were bought with a price.

Americans don't like that kind of talk! We're "the land of the free" after all! Right...free to sin; free to be moody and mean; free to gossip and talk behind each others backs. Oops, that isn't sin anymore; we've defined it away—of course, that also means we don't need repentance anymore, nor a savior. Kinda lonely out there, isn't it, being your own savior and all?
</idle musing>