Hebrew Bible Archive
May 2, 2008
Isaiah 38:9-20: An Abnormal View
Warning: Please don't take this post too seriously. It is little more than a thought experiment. Like many things I do here, I am playing around with an idea. As such, you will see even more than my usual amount...Read all of "Isaiah 38:9-20: An Abnormal View"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:46 PM
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May 1, 2008
Biblical Studies Carnivals 29 is Up
At 12:01 AM on May 1, and no later, Jim West posted the May, 2008, Biblical Studies Carnival. It is one of the best so far. Academic study of the Bible is a growing enterprise in the blogosphere and the...Read all of "Biblical Studies Carnivals 29 is Up"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:30 AM
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April 25, 2008
On The Boundaries of Ancient Hebrew "Writing"
As part of his series on Isaiah 38:9-20 John Hobbins took occasion to review the occurrences of מכתב in ancient Hebrew. In addition to Isaiah 38:9, he cites Exodus 32:16 (twice) and Deuteronomy 10:4 where the authors makes a distinction...Read all of "On The Boundaries of Ancient Hebrew "Writing""
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:55 PM
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April 15, 2008
A Complete Course
Kevin Wilson at Blue Cord and Charles Halton at Awilum are reflecting on how and what to teach in a Hebrew Bible survey course. Their thoughts provoked nostalgic memories. Gerald Larue at USC taught the only Hebrew Bible survey course...Read all of "A Complete Course"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:55 AM
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April 11, 2008
David Noel Freedman
Many bloggers have already reflected upon the death of David Noel Freedman. He died April 8th. Freedman was one of those giants of 20th century biblical studies who continued to make very significant contributions to his last days. The list...Read all of "David Noel Freedman"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:27 PM
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April 5, 2008
The Hermeneutics Quiz
A few months ago, Scot McKnight published one of the stranger quizzes I have seen in some time. He called it "The Hermeneutics Quiz" and said, "This quiz is designed to surface the decisions we make, perhaps without thinking about...Read all of "The Hermeneutics Quiz"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:26 PM
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April 3, 2008
The Real Biblical Studies Carnival XXVIII Is Up
Chris Weimer has posted the real Biblical Studies Carnival XXVIII at Thoughts on Antiquity. Nothing fishy and little Zwinglian about this attempt. Chris has done a great job of bringing together a diverse set of posts from last month. These...Read all of "The Real Biblical Studies Carnival XXVIII Is Up"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:06 PM
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April 1, 2008
My April Fools Day Came March 31
And my computer played that April fools joke on me at the Society for Biblical Literature, Pacific Coast Regional meeting. I planned to use projected slides to supplement my presentation. I made sure everything was working correctly before the session....Read all of "My April Fools Day Came March 31"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:01 AM
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March 29, 2008
Off to SBL Pacific Coast Regional Meeting
Tomorrow and Monday, I will be at the joint West Coast meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature, American Schools of Oriental Research and the American Academy of Religion at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. My heathen readers have...Read all of "Off to SBL Pacific Coast Regional Meeting"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:00 PM
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March 18, 2008
277 Pages of Text and Not a Single Index
I just received and started reading Scott Noegel's Nocturnal Ciphers: The Allusive Language of Dreams in the Ancient Near East. Nocturnal Ciphers The Allusive Language of Dreams in the Ancient Near East American Oriental Series - AOS 89by Scott B....Read all of "277 Pages of Text and Not a Single Index"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:11 PM
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March 5, 2008
Reducing Moral Turpitude and Making My Life Easier at the Same Time
I just received my very own copy of A New English Translation of the Septuagint. And so far I'm delighted. Since I started my retraining program about three years ago, I'm quite happy in my progress with Ugaritic, Akkadian and...Read all of "Reducing Moral Turpitude and Making My Life Easier at the Same Time"
Posted by Duane Smith at 1:50 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
March 3, 2008
Biblical Studies Carnival XXVII Is Up
Head over to Kevin Wilson's Blue Cord and check it out. Kevin has done a great job pulling together the best academic posts from February....Read all of "Biblical Studies Carnival XXVII Is Up"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:59 AM
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March 1, 2008
On The Latest Seal du Jour
Again, I'm late to the party. Several bloggers have already commented on the 8th century BCE seal recently discovered by Reich and Shukron in the City of David area of Jerusalem. This seal has been much discussed on the ANE-2...Read all of "On The Latest Seal du Jour"
Posted by Duane Smith at 2:46 PM
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February 11, 2008
Still Another Opinion Against the Wall
Like Darrell Pursiful and Suzanne McCarthy, I'm not sure if this is for real or a parody. But then it's often hard to tell genuine belief from parody. Darrell, correctly noting that this preacher has strayed more than a little...Read all of "Still Another Opinion Against the Wall"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:06 PM
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February 3, 2008
Building A Semitic Tree
I'm thinking of attempting to construct a phylogenetic tree for a set of Semitic languages using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. This is the same statistical approach that Atkinson et al used in the paper I discussed yesterday. It is...Read all of "Building A Semitic Tree"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:42 AM
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February 2, 2008
How Are New Languages Formed?
While one can often trace the evolution of a given language over long periods of time, individual languages like Hebrew and Aramaic seem to have come into history like Athena, full grown from the head of Zeus. With only a...Read all of "How Are New Languages Formed?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:38 PM
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January 29, 2008
The Game Is On
Jim West and Claude Mariottini are playing a lively game of Minimalist-Maximalist. I am not allowed to be a full participant in this game nor do I have any real desire to play. Therefore, I may not fully understand the...Posted by Duane Smith at 10:53 AM
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January 18, 2008
Things That Gods Hate
Jim West thinks Malachi 1:2-3 is "the hardest verse in the whole Bible" to "assimilate or comprehend." I guess he means assimilate into his theology. He has problems with YHWH hating Esau. Well, perhaps Jim should turn to Ba'al who...Read all of "Things That Gods Hate"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:59 PM
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January 17, 2008
On The Seal du Jour
I was going to write a long post on the "Persian-era seal found in Jerusalem’s environs," as Chris Heard calls it. But Chris at Higgaion already wrote the post I had hoped to write. He even did the tracings I...Read all of "On The Seal du Jour"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:39 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
January 14, 2008
On Wells and Walls
Although it's over two months away, I'm putting the finishing touches on my paper for WECSOR. One of those finishing touches involves working through a short paper by Samuel Iwry. Iwry suggests that the Hebrew expression מַשְׁתִּין בְּקִיר, "pisser against...Read all of "On Wells and Walls"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:02 PM
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January 9, 2008
In Which I Offer a Modest Suggestion
Jim West has written "What A Biblioblog Isn’t." Jim is reacting to posts by April DeConick at The Forbidden Gospel Blog and Christian Brady at Targuman. Jim makes the point that he and Chris Tilling do not "somehow mystically control...Read all of "In Which I Offer a Modest Suggestion"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:40 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
More Abnormal Interest in the Hebrew Paragogic Nun
Those with truly abnormal interests may recall Charles' post at Awilum on a paper by Steven Kaufman. I responded to Charles' post with a few of my own observations. Now Peter Bekins at Balshanut has taken up this issue. Peter...Read all of "More Abnormal Interest in the Hebrew Paragogic Nun"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:45 AM
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January 3, 2008
Biblical Studies Carnival XXV is Up at Targuman
Like I said, "Biblical Studies Carnival XXV is Up at Targuman." Christian Brady has done a great job pulling together the best of the December posts on the study of the Bible. He did this despite the fact that a...Read all of "Biblical Studies Carnival XXV is Up at Targuman"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:40 AM
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December 14, 2007
The Priestly Benediction as a Beefed Up Letter Opening
The other day I was wondering if the so called Priestly Benediction in Numbers 6:22-26 might have its origin in epistolary address and greetings formulas. Well, I still haven't found any secondary sources that address this possibility. If you know...Read all of "The Priestly Benediction as a Beefed Up Letter Opening"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:28 PM
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December 11, 2007
Is the Book of Numbers Still In the Torah?
Ever since John Hobbins posted a somewhat critical review of Ziony Zevit's recent paper "Scratched Silver and Painted Walls: Can We Date Biblical Texts Archaeologically?" and Jim West wrote an even more critical post on John's post, I've been thinking...Read all of "Is the Book of Numbers Still In the Torah?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 4:02 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
November 30, 2007
Tyler Williams Needs Help!
Please help Tyler with this month's Biblical Studies Carnival. He is willing to pick up a bouncing ball for us but he also needs our help. You should submit your nominations for the Carnival, including your own posts, at BlogCarnival.com...Read all of "Tyler Williams Needs Help!"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:09 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
November 28, 2007
Whence Came Hebrew?
Anson Rainey kindly sent me a copy of the paper he presented at the Society of Biblical Literature meeting in San Diego, "Redefining Hebrew - A Transjordanian Language." Unfortunately, I was unable to hear his paper at the meeting. This...Read all of "Whence Came Hebrew?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:37 PM
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November 23, 2007
On Reading Papers
I listened to about forty papers at the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting and in all but one of them the presenter read from a manuscript. Some presenters read their papers well; some did not. Because of this, I...Read all of "On Reading Papers"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:43 PM
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November 20, 2007
The Big Biblical Hebrew Problem
On a couple of occasions during the Society of Biblical Literature meeting I was involved in discussions of technology improvements with regard to integrating Hebrew or Greek words and phrases into our otherwise English manuscripts. The older more mature of...Read all of "The Big Biblical Hebrew Problem"
Posted by Duane Smith at 4:44 PM
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November 13, 2007
There's More to San Diego Than Biblical Literature and Zoos
Those of you who will be attending the Society of Biblical Literature meeting in San Diego starting this coming Saturday are well aware of the occasions to renew friendships, the endless papers, the opportunities to learn, the endless papers, the...Read all of "There's More to San Diego Than Biblical Literature and Zoos"
Posted by Duane Smith at 2:08 PM
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