I thought I'd post two items that I have my ancient Israel class read each year. Both are from V. Philips Long's important book, The Art of Biblical History. The first is the book's introduction, which uses a painting and its interpretation as an analogy to the...
textual criticism
The (Bart) Ehrman Project
I heard today about a new website just starting up that seeks to address the various claims of New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman. I've blogged about Bart Ehrman before, so in case you don't know who he is, go here (you'll have to scroll down and through some pages to...
SBL and Logos Bible Software’s New Edition of the Greek New Testament
Well, the cat's out of the bag now, so I can blog this. Logos Bible Software (my employer) and the Society of Biblical Literature have announced the release (next month at the SBL conference) of a new edition of the Greek NT. (Free print copies will be handed out at...
New Testament Manuscripts: Resources
I get questions now and again (on this blog or The Naked Bible) about ancient manuscripts of the New Testament and textual criticism. Personally, this is a favorite topic. I thought I'd post something about resources in that area (all of the titles below lead to...
British Library to put Greek Manuscripts Online
Pretty cool -- read about it here. Here are some excerpts: The British Library said Monday that it was making more than a quarter of its 1,000 volume-strong collection of handwritten Greek texts available online free of charge, something curators there hope will be a...
A Head Start on the Septuagint Issue
After a few more posts on Genesis and creation we'll jump into the LXX, as the minority requested. I've decided to assign some reading for that, so everyone is somewhat on the same page by the time we get there. Here are 33 pages from Jennifer Dines' excellent...
Another Thoughtful Critique of Bart Ehrman’s “Orthodox Corruption of Scripture”
Some careful analysis here by Rafael Rodriguez, courtesy of the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog. And you know what makes his critique so enjoyable? He applies logic. Think of that! I once said in a doctoral seminar that I thought a course in logic should be a...
Now Jesus Didn’t Die on a Cross…or Did He?
A nice treat for us -- some scholarly paleobabble! Readers may have seen or heard the "news" that, according to scholar Gunnar Samuelsson, the gospels do not say Jesus died on a cross. This, my friends, is either a good example of sophistry or yet another reason to...
How Can You Be a Textual Critic and Not Lose Your Faith?
This is something I never struggled with, primarily (I guess) because I never bought into seeing inspiration as an event vs. a process ruled by providence. But some people do, so here's a link to an interview with a real life textual critic. (Point: Many scholars in...
Does Higher Criticism Attempt to Destroy the Bible?
This link will lead you to what is actually Part IV of a series of posts over on Scotteriology. I think the discussions are worthwhile, though I may not agree in all respects with the way things are articulated. Granted, I think certain critical approaches lack...
Want to Study How the Church Fathers Cited the Bible?
Then I highly recommend this post for its description of an important online resource for just this purpose. It's excellent. Editor's note: resource mentioned can be found here: Home • BiblIndex
Bad Day for Vatican Conspiracists: 80,000 Manuscripts to Be Digitized
Just when you were almost convinced that the Vatican wasn't asleep at the switch in its herculean effort to keep its ancient manuscripts secret. Bummer. You can read about the initiative here. Oh, wait . . . I'll bet that all these years they've been busy pulling...
Mark Goodacre Podcast on Q
Here's a treat--Mark Goodacre's summative thoughts on Q (a hypothetical source behind the Synoptic gospels of Matthew and Luke). Mark is skeptical of Q and has written much on the subject.
Get the Entire Gottingen Septaugint for 90 Percent Off
That's right. No kidding. For those who know don't know what the Göttingen LXX is, it's the premier critical text edition of the Septuagint. There are 24 volumes in print, each of which go for $150 or more in print. That's $3600 for the set. Plus it's in electronic...
Mark Goodacre Podcasts on the Synoptic Problem
Check out Mark's podcasts on this notorious and fascinating issue. One is an overview of the synoptic problem; the other is on the question of Marcan priority.