Bock

Off to ETS and SBL Nov 17

If you wonder why there has been so little on the blog lately, let me explain. (1) The election drowned out everything. There has been little religious news lately other than the old announced archeological find here and there. Most news time has been spent on the lection and its aftermath. (2) The Evangelical Society meetings and the Society of Biblical Litrature meetings are over the next week.

If you wonder why there has been so little on the blog lately, let me explain. (1) The election drowned out everything. There has been little religious news lately other than the old announced archeological find here and there. Most news time has been spent on the lection and its aftermath. (2) The Evangelical Society meetings and the Society of Biblical Litrature meetings are over the next week. This is a busy time of year. In my case, especially busy because I have 5 presentations at ETS. Two of these relate to books: Dethroning Jesus and Use of the OT in the NT (Three Views). The other three are tied to the use of Acts or history, the nature of orthodoxy in the first few centuries, and some key text critical issues in the gospels (like the wording of Mark 1:1). Need less to say the preparation for this has had me busy, as has (3) an article on the Bible and Ethics. I have read three really good books on this topic: Hays, Moral Vision of the NT, Burridge, Imitating Jesus, and Stassen and Gushee, Kingdom Ethics. Ethics is one of those areas we do not disuss as much as we should. Each of these books has strengths and weaknesses. All of them needed to be written. So if you are looking for soem readign that will get you thinking about how we live, these works do nicely,

5 Comments

  • Jay

    Archeology
    Do you have any comments regarding NOVA’s “Buried Bible Secrets” documentary that was televised this week? Thanks

  • Jay

    Archeology
    Ok , that’s fine. The film made the following points listed below. From what I understand, archeological discoveries (especially relating to the Bible) can be given various interpretations….and one’s attitude toward the Bible affects interpretation greatly. I am interested in learning more about the claims…perhaps you can steer me to a source that has a more balanced and/or ‘conservative’ perspective on this documentary or on the issues brought up? It would be appreciated! Thanks.

    • The Old Testament was written in the sixth century BC and hundreds of authors contributed.
    • Abraham, Sarah and their offspring didn’t exist.
    • There is no archaeological evidence of the Exodus.
    • Monotheism was a process that took hundreds of years.
    • The Israelites were actually Canaanites.

    • bock

      Archaeology dlb

      Jay:

      I am not an OT expert, but you might check work by John Walton, Kenneth Kitchen, and James Hoffmeier. Walton’s book is Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament.  Kitchen’s is On the Reliability of the Old Testament. Most of Hoffmeier’s material are specific articles on the Exodus. He grew up in Egypt and knows the context. What the views expressed on the special seem to articulate has been called the "minimalist" school of Old Testament studies where the bulk of the Old Testament is either seen as creative myth or only gets somewhat historical in the latter periods from the exile and beyond.

      dlb