Mark Goodacre, Associate Professor of New Testament in the Religion Department at Duke University, has made a couple of blog posts (here and here) as well as a podcast on the topic of the "mark of the Beast". The blog post contains the following video clip:
(via Peter Head) The Oxyrhynchus Papyri
(vol 73), includes a manuscript fragment of the 1 Peter (P. Oxy 4934). The content of the frament appears to be 1 Peter 1.23-2.5 & 7-12. The date of the fragment is late 3rd century to early 4th. (To link to the Oxychynchus website and info - with high and low res images - click here.)
Mike Heiser, over at The Naked Bible, makes some good points on how to approach the Bible in terms of it's own cultural and historical context. Here's an excerpt:
One of [my] responders [accused] me of being extrabiblical in my approach to Romans 5:12.
Actually, I’m being explicitly biblical, since I refuse to
de-contextualize the Bible in favor of rendering interpretations that
are comfortable, or that are European, American, or anything else
besides the original culture in which the Bible was inspired. My
approach yields something that not only gets Jesus off the hook (still
unaddressed, I remind you all), but makes sense within the ancient
cultural situation. Here’s the bottom line: The Bible is NOT to be
interpreted through the grid of modern culture or our own cultures
which are modern. It is to be interpreted in light of the context in
which it was given. If anyone has any interest in getting to what the
text meant when God inspired its creation, THAT is the proper method —
not appealing to 16th century Europeans or anyone else outside the
divinely chosen cultural context. The latter is to recreate or filter
the Bible in or through our own image.
As a part of John Anderson's posts on "What Kind of God Do You Believe In", he also includes a link to this Brueggemann interview with David Felten as part of the video series "Living the Questions":
As a side note, you can also see my advisor and professor Brandon Scott at PTS interviewed as part of the same series and talking about "Christianity's Betrayel of Jesus", here:
John Anderson, over at Hesed we'Emet, has put up a very interesting couple (series?) of posts concerning the concept(s) of God in the Hebrew Scriptures and in relation to the NT and Jesus (here and here). Here's a few excerpts in which he quotes Brueggemann and Fretheim:
God is, to my eye, quite unpredictable. Walter Brueggemann has argued as such:
In its core testimony, Israel has uttered [YHWH] as a
God who is straightforward in dealing with [YHWH's] partners. In
Israel’s cross-examination, [YHWH] emerges not only hidden as in wisdom
theology but also on occasion as devious, ambiguous, irascible, and
unstable . . . . These voices of witness, nonetheless, constitute a
part of Israel’s countertestimony, and while these texts are commonly
disregarded in more formal theology, they are important data for our
understanding of who [YHWH] is said by Israel to be (Brueggemann, Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy, 359).
Preconceived notions of God that one brings to a text are ultimately
unhelpful if used as a grid within which the text must fit tidily. It
won’t fit. Indeed, the text should not be expected to conform. Nor
should God. Fretheim writes:
God’s appearance in human form reveals God’s
vulnerability . . . . It suggests an entering into the life of the
world that is more vulnerable, where the response can be derision (see
Gen 18:12-13) or incredulity (Judg 6:13-17). It is to put oneself
concretely into the hands of the world to do with as it will. It is
revealing of the ways of God that the word is enfleshed in bodies of
weakness within the framework of commonplace, everyday affairs, and not
in overwhelming power. For, even in those instances where the
vestments of God’s appearance are threaded with lineaments of power,
they clothe a vulnerable form. There is no such thing for Israel as a
nonincarnate God (106).
Baruch Halpern, Chaiken Family Chair in Jewish Studies at Pennsylvania State University, is spot-lighted in a brief Discovery Channel piece on forgery experts: http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/cool-jobs-forgery-expert.html
Today at sundown begins Tisha B'Av in the
Jewish world--the ninth of the month of Av on the Jewish calendar. It is a day of
mourning and fasting.
Historically, several horrible tragedies have
happened to the Jewish people on this day. The first Temple was
destroyed by the Babylonians on the 9th of Av in 586 B.C.E. Herod's
Temple, the second Temple, was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. on
this day. The Bar Kochba rebellion against Roman rule was crushed in 135 B.C.E. on Tisha B'Av, and a year later what remained of the Temple mount was plowed up by the Romans.
In 1290 King Edward I signed an edict compelling the Jews to leave
England, and on this day in 1492 the Jews were forced from Spain. From the perspective of some, the
outbreak of World War I took place on Tish B'Av, which
many Jews consider to begin a long period of suffering for them (marked
by pogroms and mass executions in Russia, Poland, and other Eastern
European countries) that culminated with the Holocaust of World War 2.
Others date the eve of Tisha B'Av 1942 as the beginning of the mass deportation began of Jews from
the Warsaw Ghetto, en route to Treblinka.
Interestingly, well before many of the modern tragedies, the rabbis held that Tisha B'Av
was marked as a day of tragedy for the Jewish people by God because of
the Israelites' refusal to enter the Promised Land on the 9th of Av in
Numbers 13-14. According to the Talmud, God declared: "You wept without
cause; I will therefore make this an eternal day of mourning for you." (B. Ta'an, 29a)
As
part of the commemoration of this day, from sunset on the 8th of Av to
the appearing of the stars in the evening of the 9th, many practicing Jews
(if their health permits) fast from both food and water, taking baths,
shaving, or wearing makeup. They even fast from studying Torah. It is a
day of mourning--they do no ordinary work and keep themselves from
smiling, laughing, and idle conversation. The book of Lamentations is
read in the synagogue and the prayers of mourning are recited.
During
this time Jewish people are also encouraged in their remembrance of
suffering to also think about its causes, spurring them to consider how
they can work towards tikkun olam...the
repairing of the world. Many Jewish materials from the medieval Period
maintain that the Messiah would be born on this day.
Mourners Kaddish
Glorified
and sanctified be God's great name throughout the world which He has
created according to His will. May He establish His kingdom in your
lifetime and during your days, and within the life of the entire House
of Israel, speedily and soon; and say, Amen.
May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.
Blessed
and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored, adored and
lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, beyond all the
blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that are ever spoken in
the world; and say, Amen.
May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us
and for all Israel; and say, Amen.
He who creates peace in His celestial heights, may He create peace for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.
It looks like things are slowing down, and I'll be able to start posting again. I know that excites the two or three of you that check in here.
Here are some items that I would have blogged about if I had been blogging:
New Hebrew Bible in the Works
The Oxford Hebrew Bible " . . . will be a new critical edition of the Hebrew
Bible featuring a critical text, apparatus, and text-critical
introduction and commentary." Hugh Williamson comments on it (and gives a good background to the present situation) here.
Codex Sinaiticus
As was announced by multiple news agencies, the complete Codex Sinaiticus is now online. Daniel Wallace provides good bit of information about Sinaiticus and the unfortunate mis-information that has surrounded the launch of the site.
Cool Opportunity To Help With Greek NT MSS Check this out . If you have the skills, this would really be a cool and serving way of moving MSS studies forward.
Mount Zion Excavations
James Tabor provides some very exciting bits of news concerning "spectacular finds" from the recent excavations on Mt. Zion. He writes the following concerning one of the finds:
A stone vessel with an ancient inscription of ten lines written in an
archaic Jewish script. Such stone vessels were used in connection with
maintaining ritual purity related to Temple worship, and they are found
in abundance in areas where the priests lived. We have found a dozen or
more on our site over the past three years. However, to have ten lines
of text is unprecedented. One normally might find a single name
inscribed, or a line or two, but this is the first text of this length
ever found on such a vessel. We have shared high-resolution photos with
various epigraphic experts in Jerusalem who are working together to try
and decipher this text. It is written in a very informal cursive hand
and is quite difficult to read.
Well...it's happening really soon. It's only an hour and a half move, but it's still a move. Why does our house have so much crap? I'm thinking we should buy a winnebago and never have to pack again.
h B'Av, which
many Jews consider to begin a long period of suffering for them (marked
by pogroms and mass executions in Russia, Poland, and other Eastern
European countries) that culminated with the Holocaust of World War 2.
Others date the eve of Tisha B'Av 1942 as the beginning of the mass deportation began of Jews from
the Warsaw Ghetto, en route to Treblinka. 
