Paul Post of the Week 6/7 – 6/13

Paul Post of the Week 6/7 – 6/13

This week I am doing the unthinkable.  Yes, I have chosen a post that is not directly related to Pauline studies.  I am so impressed with Mark Goodacre’s new NT Pod podcasts that I must mention them.  Although, Goodacre has only posted one podcast thus far, it is excellent.  The audio quality and presentation are top notch.  More importantly, the podcasts provide useful scholarly level information.  Goodacre’s first podcast covered the genealogy in Matthew’s gospel and provided a number of useful nuggets of information.  He states that his podcasts will be 6 minute long, which is perfect for anyone looking for a snippet in their down time.  As a commuter I am hoping I can resist the urge of listening to them instantly and save a few of them for one of my many long commutes up to UCLA.

On a separate note, how does one go about changing the name of a theory.   Whenever,I present the alternatives to Q to students I discuss the Farrer-Goulder theory by stating that it is currently being championed by Mark Goodacre and then provide a plug for his book, The Case Against Q.  Isn’t it about time we made this process simpler and called it the Farrer-Goulder-Goodacre theory?

Another interesting post this week, in fact a Paul post, is by Michael Bird titled Reading for a Romans Course.  In this post Bird lists the five books he would place on a reading list for Romans.  I have often had similar thoughts and would certainly agree that The Romans Debate should be on any such list.  Bird places Moo’s commentary on his list.  While this is certainly an excellent choice, for my courses I am considering requiring that the students buy different commentaries.  I would  have a list of five to ten works depending on the book and then divvy them up between the students.  While this would be more difficult to assign readings and such, I feel that the students would feel more responsible for their material.  They would have to thoroughly understand the position of the commentator they are reading in order to adequately present their commentator’s work to the class.  I should of course state I am envisioning a seminar course.

 

Paul Post of the Week

Paul Post of the Week 5/31/09 – 6/6/09

This week’s Paul Post of the Week comes from the Cafe Apocalypsis.  Jason Meyer began his multi-part series on Galatians 3:10 and “works of the law”, based on research from his forthcoming book The End of the Law: Mosaic Covenant in Pauline Theology.  This week Meyer provided three posts on this topic: defining works of the law, a brief history of past approaches, and an assesment of these approaches.  Meyer’s posts provide an excellent summary of where other scholars stand on this issue and begin to address Meyer’s contribution.  The abundance of footnotes in his posts are quite helpful and I look forward to further posts in this series.

 

Paul Post of the Week

Paul Post of the Week 5/23 – 5/30/09

This week I have chosen Nijay Gupta’s post Bookstore page added as the Paul Post of the Week.  Although the title does not promise greatness, the post is incredibly useful.  Within his Amazon.com bookstore page, Nijay has reviewed a great many commentaries.  Commentary reviews by academics are always useful and unfortunately not abundant. 

D.A. Carson has his thorough book New Testament Commentary Survey but it is certainly colored by his strong opinions.  Another excellent resource for commentary information is Best Commentaries.com which assigns each commentary a number and ranks them for each book of the bible.  Unfortunately, there is not a review for each commentary beyond the basic attributes of the commentary.   In fact, Best Commentaries.com assigns Anthony Thiselton’s amazing 1 Corinthians commentary a 6.5, which is simply unforgivable.  I too have provided my insight into which commentary I would purchase for a my personal library if I could only have one from each of Paul’s letters.  I will be expanding this entry into a more thorough review and ranking of all the major academic commentaries of Paul’s letters in the near future.

 

Paul Post of the Week

Paul Post of the Week 5/17 – 5/23

This week certainly saw a number of thought provoking posts. 

Daniel Kirk in his post New Perspective and Romans 13 asks if the New Perspective alters our interpretation of Romans 13:1-4.  He asks does the  ”does the admonition to be subject to governing authorities fit within this larger framework, where rejection of a nationalized messiah means a reorientation away from expectation that the Messiah’s job is to unseat the geo-political ruler who rules over Israel?”   This is certainly an interesting question.  I have often pondered this passage myself and have been unable to decide which of the proposed interpretations  is most convincing.  Is Paul, by co-opting imperial cult language attempting to undermine the authority of the Roman Empire?  It also seems entirely possible that with the relative safety brought about by the Roman Empire and Pauls’ notion of an imminent eschatology that he would encourage fellow believers not to cause trouble with the authorities. 

While not a specifically Paul post, Michael Bird and Craig Keener have provided an excellent article on the value of the generalist in Biblical Studies.  Pat McCullough and Mark Goodacre both provided their reflections on the notion of the generalist vs. the specialist.  This is a topic I find quite interesting and will be posting on later in the week.

As always, if I have overlooked your post do not take offense simply add it to the comments of  this post.

 

Paul Post of the Week

Paul Post of the Week 5/10 – 5/16

This week I decided to highlight three Paul Posts of the Week.

Scot McKnight continued his many part series on the New Perspective this week at Jesus Creed.  McKnight has already provided 6 posts in this series and has me wondering how many more are remaining.  We can all hope that this series continues for a few more weeks at least.

Michael Bird at Euangelion posted Centrum Paulinium and the Mother of Paul’s Theology in which he discussed the two ”mothers” of Paul’s theology.  Bird concludes that both mission and eschatological concerns are the driving forces behind Paul’s theology.

Finally, Rick Brannan at PastoralEpistles.com finished his work on 2 Timothy this week and has provided the fruits of his labor in the form of a PDF file.  Thanks for all the hard work Rick.

As always, if I missed any other posts that should have been included, add them to the comments section.

 

Paul Post of the Week

Paul Post of the Week 5/3 – 5/9

Well, not to steal the thunder of the wonderful Biblical Carnival, but I have decided to add a new feature to my blog.  Every Sunday I will highlight the most informative Paul posting that I encountered during the past week.   I am sure to miss many excellent posts so please forgive me if I have overlooked yours.  If you have a post that you would like to highlight for the week that I overlooked, feel free to leave a comment with the link so that others do not make the same mistake!

This week I direct your attention to Scot McKnight, at Jesus Creed, who posted a series on the New Perspective.  The New Perspective is certainly one of the most important and heated issues in Pauline studies.  McKnight’s first post was an excellent introduction to anyone seeking information about the roots of the term and its importance in the field of Pauline studies.  He includes a brief history of the New Perspective including important works, individuals, and even pictures of some of the most influential scholars.  I highly recommend it for anyone needing a brief, yet informative, introduction to the New Perspective. 

While not new this week, The Paul Page is another excellent resource for anyone interested in a deeper analysis of the New Perspective.  It includes articles (most of which can be read in their entirety on-line), book reviews, and links to other resources.