the end is near!

In less than a week we will be back in Canada. As a family we have enjoyed our time in England immensely, and for me it has been a productive year academically. My thesis is shaping up nicely, though much work still remains. A submission and viva date sometime during this next academic year is likely.

The next few days will be spent saying goodbyes, and packing up far too much stuff in far too few containers. Blogging has been light, and will certainly continue to be light over the next week or so. Once we are settled in back home I hope to return to more regular blogging.

And half-hearted apologies to those who read the title of this post and hoped for some inspired prophetic apocalypse... :-)

tyler williams blogger of the month

Tyler Williams, blogging at Codex Blogspot, is blogger of the month over at Biblioblogs.com: Blogger of the Month for May 2006. Be sure to check out a great interview with a great blogger who's also a great guy... even though he has that little problem of cheering for the wrong Alberta hockey team... which is a little difficult for me to say now with his team on the brink of the Stanley Cup Finals, and mine playing golf somewhere in Florida...

happy birthday, amelia!

A very happy 8th birthday to our sweet Amelia! You are growing into a wonderful young lady, and we love you very much!

latest review of biblical literature

Mark Goodacre has noted all the latest New Testament-related reviews at RBL: Review of Biblical Literature. Of special interest:

Harrill, J. Albert, Slaves in the New Testament: Literary, Social, and Moral Dimensions
Reviewed by Bruce Malina and John Pilch

Smalley, Stephen S., The Revelation to John: A Commentary on the Greek Text of the Apocalypse
Reviewed by Chris Smith

latest novum testamentum

The latest issue of Novum Testamentum is online for subscribers: Volume 48, Number 2, April 2006. Contents include Virginia Sandiyagu on heteros and allos in Luke-Acts, Robert Matthew Calhoun on ek pisteōs eis pistin in Romans 1:17, and Pier Franco Beatrice on the Gospel according to the Hebrews in the Apostolic Fathers.

a brit at duke

Mark Goodacre has some good reflections on his first year at Duke University: A Brit at Duke: Reflections of an Alien Professor. It is especially interesting to read his reflections alongside my briefer thoughts about my more limited experience working the other way, coming from North America to Britain. Mark's experiences and those of his family generally have been a fascinating antithesis to our own experiences this year...

rosson's unpapal conclave on the historical jesus

Loren Rosson has conducted an interesting experiment, following J. P. Meier's idea of an "unpapal conclave" by surveying representatives of various faith/non-faith perspectives on a variety of questions of historical Jesus studies: Meier's Unpapal Conclave: An Experiment.

The consensus results are, in many ways, unsurprising from such a diverse cross-section:

We agree that he was baptized by John; that he was an exorcist-healer; that he was sexually ascetic; that he was a prophet (whether apocalyptic, messianic, social, or some combination thereof) who expected something rather dramatic to happen soon (i.e. the coming kingdom of God); that he called twelve special disciples; that he said a lot of memorable things which continue lending themselves to a variety of interpretations (especially the parables); that he engaged in disputes over the Torah, temple, and taxes; that he was killed by the Romans (in collaboration with the Judean elite) in Jerusalem during passover as a political troublemaker; that the synoptic gospels and Paul's letters are good ways of getting to Jesus.

Stephen Carlson, another participant, notes further on the results: "The upshot is that it is easier to get agreement about what Jesus said and did rather than what he meant by those words and deeds."

As Loren notes, the results could have been expanded (or at least different) if the group actually got together to discuss the issues and to hammer out a consensus document. The results would also undoubtedly be different if other individuals were chosen as representatives of the various perspectives--scholarship is done by individuals, not by representatives of communities, and no two scholars from any of the faith/non-faith perspectives would agree on all the issues as if providing an inevitable, static representation of a community perspective. Still, it's an interesting experiment that is worth a read by anyone interested in historical Jesus studies.

latest currents in biblical research

The latest issue of Currents in Biblical Research is now online: 1 June 2006; Vol. 4, No. 3. Items of interest include John Dennis on "Jesus' Death in John's Gospel," Thomas Phillips on "The Genre of Acts," and Hannah Harrington on "Purity and the Dead Sea Scrolls."

latest expository times

The latest issue of the Expository Times is online: 1 June 2006; Vol. 117, No. 9. There are several interesting items, including Paul Foster on Quadratus and Rosemary Fletcher on the Epistle of James and Buddhism.

nash mvp again

Steve Nash has proven the first time was no fluke. The Canadian point guard from Victoria, B.C., has won his second straight NBA Most Valuable Player award. This year the Suns lost some key players, yet Nash still led his team to the Pacific Division title, increasing his scoring, rebounding, and shooting percentage in order to make up for these absences, while still leading the league in assists.

alas, it was not to be

Even Oilers fans were cheering for them. If the Calgary Flames had won last night, it would have been the first playoff Battle of Alberta in fifteen years. Alas, it was not to be.

Calgary played a disappointing game seven and lost to the better team last night. And it seems as though all the remaining teams in the Western Conference have stolen a page from Calgary's 2004 Stanley Cup run--all the bottom seeds (5-8) have defeated the top seeds (1-4). Meanwhile, in the East, all the top seeds are waiting.

Sigh...

biblical studies carnival v

Kevin Wilson at Blue Cord has done a fine job of collecting the best in biblioblogging for the month of April: Biblical Studies Carnival V.

latest review of biblical literature

Although Mark Goodacre is back at it, posting all the latest New Testament-related reviews, I'll keep on highlighting the ones of interest to me as they come out. I do know that there are people who read this blog who neither subscribe to the RBL email nor read other biblioblogs, but who may still be interested to see the titles of new reviews in case one should catch their interest. Also, I like to have these on my blog for future reference (I search my own blog frequently for items of shadowy remembrance).

Keck, Leander E. Romans.
Reviewed by James Dunn, Sigurd Grindheim, and James Miller

Miller, Patricia Cox, ed. Women in Early Christianity: Translations from Greek Texts.
Reviewed by Lynn Huber

edinburgh textual criticism conference

Michael Bird and I were both at the day conference last week at New College, Edinburgh, but it was another Michael that took good notes on the sessions and has provided some excellent summaries. The conference was focused on the new Nestle-Aland (28th edition) Greek New Testament and the text critical work being done in preparation for this edition. Here are Michael Leary's summaries over at Ekthesis:

• Day Conference on TC and the NA Text (1 of 3)
• Day Conference on TC and the NA Text (2 of 3)
• Day Conference on TC and the NA Text (3 of 3)