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theLAB

The Logos Academic Blog

The OUP Handbook Interviews: Timothy Lim on the Dead Sea Scrolls

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The Oxford University Press Handbooks are renowned as go-to volumes for students and scholars alike when embarking on research in new topics, or for seasoned scholars who desire efficiency when seeking to grasp the essential bibliographies for any number of issues within biblical and religious studies.

The second interview in our series is with Timothy Lim, Professor of Hebrew Bible & Second Temple Judaism at the University of Edinburgh, and editor of The Oxford Handbook of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

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African Hermeneutics: Extensive Interview with Elizabeth Mburu

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I recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Elizabeth Mburu about her fascinating book on biblical interpretation, African Hermeneutics (Hippo Books/Langham Publications). In this groundbreaking work, she lays out a fresh interpretive methodology, rooted in the rich soil of the African experience. I highly recommend our readers get a hold of this book and digest it slowly, even as the work is a delight to read thanks to her considerate prose.

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The Cliffs of דֹּבֵר: Steep Interpretive Differences in the Book of Jonah

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by Philip Morrow

Many of us know Jonah as the story of a rebellious prophet and a repentant people. We know its protagonist is no hero, acting in defiance of God’s will. Looking closer, even the pagan characters appear more devoted to Israel’s God than His own messenger. But each reader of this story will walk away with a different impression of just how stark these contrasts are. There are just enough gaps in the story to make it a dangerous one, as the interpreter is tempted to retell it with commentary on Jonah’s psychology. For many, Jonah seems to rebel in fear (1:3), repent under distress (2:2–9), and eventually relapse into unjust anger (4:1). For others, he is obstinately merciless all the way through (4:2–3) and even the sincerity of his prayer is questionable (2:10).1

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How to Get an Advanced Bible Degree for Free

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by Ryan Lytton

Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them. Proverbs 4:5.

Wisdom and understanding are everywhere available but are nevertheless ostensibly rarely found. A student of the Word must be diligent in their search but there are least two problems in their way:

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Demons, DSS, and Jesus: Psalm 91 and the Need for Text Critical Pastors

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by Donald McIntyre

Textual criticism is a hot topic among biblical scholars. The views on the discipline’s profitability span the extremes of being of crucial importance for serious scholarship and the opposing view of being hostile towards the revered doctrines of inerrancy and the sufficiency of Scripture.

Textual criticism of the Old Testament is perhaps a greater challenge than that of the New Testament due to the distance between the manuscripts extant and the proposed dates of authorship. However, this article seeks to show why text criticism is important for biblical scholars and exegetes of all persuasions.

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Hearing the Scripture Reader’s Voice: Biblical Performance Criticism in the Classroom

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Biblical performance criticism is a methodology based on the assumption that much of the literature collected in the Bible represents oral performances that were at one time either told from memory or presented as prepared readings before audiences.1 The performance critic studies the biblical writings as oral performances with the aim to uncover certain conventions of orally performed texts—features often neglected when employing other biblical critical methodologies.

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Academic Jobs in Biblical Studies and Theology: Mar 23 – Apr 21, 2020

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This past month (yes, it’s been that long) has been consumed by worries about the pandemic and hours spend indoors resisting the temptation to binge on Netflix. Yet there are still jobs being advertised around the world for those in biblical studies and theology. So take heart, friends, and look at the list below as a sign of hope and human resilience. Happy hunting.

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Red, Red Wine: Connecting Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary and Biblical Archaeology

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One of the key elements for teaching any language is culture. Indeed, many students put themselves through the rigor of grammatical analysis mainly in hopes of getting to the promised land of cultural understanding. Yet in teaching biblical languages we sometimes forget this. How can Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary by Conceptual Categories help students make connections between biblical language and the cultural world of ancient Israel?

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Dueling Professors?

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An Example of Co-Teaching as a Means of Modeling Interdisciplinary Dialogue

Eric J. Tully | Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

One of the challenges in Christian higher education is navigating the tension between various fields of study. Christian institutions should have an inherent unity that comes from our faith and mission, but there is often a basic fragmentation that reflects the academic guilds in which we have been trained and now participate.

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Andrew Abernethy on “What Makes a Good Biblical Scholar?”

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What makes a good scholar? One’s tendency in answering this question is to describe a scholar in her/his own image, with her/his own particular interests.

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