One Year Blogiversary

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One year ago today at 3:38 pm I published my first blog post. I’m not sure why I started a blog. One of my former students and friend Ken Ristau had mentioned his blog and I had looked at it on occasion, but it was more of an impulsive move that led me to create Codex Blogspot a year ago today.

In the year I have made some 335 posts (not quite once a day) on subjects ranging from Dead Sea Scrolls to ancient toilets, Jesus junk to inscriptions, Hebrew language to Hebrew tattoos. Since 7 July 1005 (when I added a site meter), I have had more than 40,000 visitors; my average for the last six months is around 200 visitors per day.

I have to say that I have very much enjoyed the blogging experience. I have enjoyed the camaraderie between bloggers and the relationships I have developed with others.

In honour of my blogiversary, I think I will put together a “Best of Codex” post to highlight what I think some of my best posts have been. So stay tuned.

I look forward to see what the next year will bring.

Thank you for taking the time to visit!

D’oh! 40,000th Visitor is Lost! New Contest for 40, 444th Visitor.

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D’OH! I am so sorry!
Doh!

OK, let me explain. My wife left yesterday to go to Indonesia for business (she works in international adoptions), so I am single-parenting it for a week. As it turns out, I didn’t have a chance to check my blog statistics yesterday, and guess what? I missed identifying who my 40,000th visitor was!

Today when I checked I was already at 40,200+ and my basic Site Meter account only provides details for the last 100 visitors. I even upgraded to a pay Site Meter account thinking that I may be able to gain access to past visitors — but unless I am missing something, it can’t be done.

What this all means is that I am not able to award a free book to my 40, 000th visitor. I am very sorry. So, instead, I will award the 40,444th visitor. As I write this the visit count is 40,219. That means that by Monday there will be a winner, so stay tuned.

Again, apologies to (un)lucky number 40,000!


“Tell-A-Friend about Codex” Contest Winner

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I apologize that I didn’t get around to announcing this earlier (I’m not sure what I was thinking when I said I would announce the winner on my actual birthday! I ended up being a bit busy!), but I have picked a winner in my “Tell-A-Friend about Codex” Contest.

The way the contest worked is that all you needed to do is either email a friend about Codex: Biblical Studies Blogspot and tell them to visit or post a similar note on your blog, and then let me know about it by carbon copying me the email. The contest closed on my birthday (April 1st). To pick the winner, I wrote down all the submissions on a piece of paper and picked one out of a hat (actually it was a tupperware bowl). Well, enough with the preliminaries… the winner is…

Scott Bailey

As it turns out, Scott, is a student at Taylor University College just entering his second year of studies. He is a bright student with all the makings of a good biblical scholar, so I am delighted to award him a book in the area of biblical studies or Hebrew language.

Now, just in case some skeptical souls in the blogosphere think the fix was in (especially considering the shadow of doubt on my integrity lingering as a backlash to my perfectly excecuted April Fool’s Day joke! :-)), let me assure you that the draw was done above board. Scott had the advantage of having more than one entry because he emailed (spammed?) quite a few people about the contest. Either way, it saves me shipping charges, so I am happy!

40,000th Visitor Contest

While one contest is now over, don’t forget about my 40,000th Visitor Contest. As I have done in the past with my 10,000th visitor (see here), whoever happens to be my 40,000th visitor will also be a winner! There is not much you can do but visit here often and perhaps even read something! Once I have hit the 40,000 mark, I will blog the time and location of the lucky visitor and then they can contact me via email and verify with their IP address.

If I have done my math right, I shoud reach the 40,000 mark within the next few days. To be fair, I have changed my site meter icon so that no one knows how close lucky number 40,000 is.


The Real Seal: Hezekiah Royal Bulla Impression

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The royal seal impression that I used as the basis for my April Fool’s Day post (ain’t Photoshop just amazing?!), is actually an impression of a bulla belonging to Hezekiah king of Judah. The bulla is part of the Kaufman collection and is published in Robert Deutsch, Biblical Period Hebrew Bullae. The Josef Chaim Kaufman Collection (Archaeological Center: Tel Aviv, 2003; Buy from Amazon.com). The image is reproduced with permission:

Hezekiah_bulla.jpg

As can be seen from the image, the black clay bulla is in a very good state of preservation. It measures 13.2 x 11.9 x 3.8-1.9 mm, while the seal impression measures 11.9 x 9.9 mm. On the back of the bulla a papyrus imprint is clearly visible along with a groove left by the chord that tied the scroll. The seal was likely set in a bezel of a ring, as is clear from the groove around the edge of the seal impression.

Hezekiah_bulla_tracing.jpg

The seal, as can be seen from the line tracing above, is dominated by a royal emblem, what Deutsch considers a two-winged sun disk. The inscription is found above and below the emblem and reads:

לחזקיהו ×?×—/×– מלך יהדה

[Belonging to] Hezekiah, [son of] Ahaz, King of Judah.

For those unfamiliar with the script, here is a key from Deutsch’s volume:

HebAlphabet.jpg

The provenance of the seal impression is unfortuantly unknown, though there is no good reason to doubt its authenticity. There are actually four royal bullae beloinging to Hezekiah, impressed by three different seals, in the Kaufman collection.


Biblical Studies Carnival IV in Online at The Busybody

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After I recovered from my 40th birthday bash (with the time change, it ended up being a very late night/morning! :-)), I was pleased to notice that Loren Rosson III has uploaded Biblical Studies Carnival IV at The Busybody. Loren does an excellent job highlighting some of the best blog posts in academic biblical studies from the month of March. I encourage you to take a close look at the posts that he notes. Well done, Loren!

Biblical Studies Carnival V will be hosted by Kevin Wilson at Karamat in the first week of May, 2006. Look for a call for submissions on his blog sometime in the middle of April.

Submissions for blog entries posted in the month of April should be emailed to biblical_studies_carnival AT hotmail DOT com, or entered via the submission form at BlogCarnival.com. For more information, consult the Biblical Studies Carnival Homepage.


The Fool is Forty

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Tyler-5days.jpgSome forty years ago today, Dr. R. Winters (who evidently had a healthy sense of humour) performed a scheduled C-section on my mother the morning of April 1st, 1966 at the Royal Alexandria Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. At approximately 8:21 am, I was brought into this world, preordained to be the fool that I am today. I weighed in at 6 lbs 2 ozs and was 20.5 inches long and was by and large healthy — except for one brief notation in my rather sparse baby book (I was the last of four kids) that I will not disclose publicly! If the picture to the right is any indication, I was a stern lad — perhaps I was a bit perturbed about being given such an ignoble birthday! Sure, they say that they needed to do the C-section as soon as possible — they could of least waited until after twelve noon to make the cut! That’s OK, I’m not bitter. Really…

Well, some forty years later I can look back on my life and realize that I have been blessed. I have a wonderful family, including three great kids and a lovely, long-suffering, wife (suffering for about twenty one years to be precise!). I love my work (the piles of grading I have been creatively neglecting notwithstanding) — especially my colleagues and students. Never in a million years would I have thought I would be a religion and theology professor at a Christian college!

Life is good. Thanks for reading.

הודו ליהוה ×›×™ טונ ×›×™ לעול×? חסדו


“David King of Judah” Seal Uncovered (April Fool’s Day 2006 Post)

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N.B. This is a post I wrote for April Fool’s Day 2006 (April 1st). To set the record straight in case anyone was fooled, there was no “David King of Judah” seal discovered from Eliat Mazar’s (note spelling) Jerusalem dig. The actual seal below is a doctored image of a royal seal impression of Hezekiah from the Kaufman Collection. I left a number of subtle (perhaps too subtle for some!) hints that the post was a hoax: (1) the spelling of Haaretz and Mazar’s name; (2) the plene spelling of “David” in the seal; and (the most obvious) (3) the tag “AF’s Day.” If I offended anyone by my April Fool’s Day prank, then I am sorry. I meant it to be a joke and I hope everyone — even those fooled — may take it in the spirit in which it was intended — and I promise to only do it once a year! (and hey, what do you expect? I was born on April Fool’s Day!).

The Israeli newspaper Haarets reported this morning a significant discovery among the Eliat Mazur’s Jerusalem “City of David” archaeological dig (for more on some other discoveries from the same dig, see my posts here, including my posts on the Yehukal Seal also discovered at the site). It appears that a bulla/seal was recently discovered among the excavation remains from last summer. Most significantly, it was discovered among the rubble from the part of the excavation that she has identified as the remains of a 10th century royal palace.

The clay seal impression measures about 12 mm by 10 mm and is in a remarkably good state of preservation. The centre of the seal has what appears to be a two winged sun disk, which is probably some sort of royal emblem. The article has a good image of the seal along with a great line tracing:

David_Bullae.jpg

David_Bullae_tracing.jpg

The inscription is on two lines (above and below the sun disk) and reads in a clear paleo-Hebrew script: לדויד ישי מלך יהדה “[Belonging] to David, [son of] Jesse, King of Judah.”

This find is highly significant for a number of reasons, not least being that it appears to have been found in situ in the building Mazur has been excavating and thinks is King David’s palace (at least it was discovered among the rubble from that part of the excavation). While it is too early to speculate, it seems to me that the so-called “minimalists” will have a hard time denying this clear reference to what must be the biblical David.


Thank you for your prayers for Tim!

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Great news this morning!

Tim Bauslaugh has been discharged from University of Alberta hospital as of 10:45 am this morning. Tim is staying in Edmonton for a couple days and then will be going back to Washington State. Subject to how he is feeling, Tim is even planning on coming to chapel this Thursday (March 30) to express his thanks and offer a song of praise to the Lord.

God is gracious!


Giveaways Galore!

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In a previous post (One Year Blogiversary & 40,000th Visitor Contests), I highlighted some contests I am holding as my 40th birthday, 40,000 visitor, and one year blogiversary are all fast approaching (one week from today I will be 40! Wow!).

While my visitors per day average has gone up, I’m not sure if I will make 40,000 by April 1st. While I have received quite a few entries to my “Tell-a-Friend about Codex” contest, the more the merrier! Here are the rules about how to enter:

  • Email a friend about Codex: Biblical Studies Blogspot – whether about the blog in general or about a particular post that you liked — and tell them to visit. The email should say something about my blog (â€?It’s the greatist thing since sliced breadâ€?) and include the url to the blog (http://biblical-studies.ca/blog). Here’s the catch: you need to CC me the email at “contest[at]biblical-studies[dot]ca.â€? The cc’d email will constitute your entry. (Remember to CC me or I won’t know you entered.)
  • Then after 12 noon on my 40th birthday (April 1, 2006, MST), I’ll pick an email completely at random from the cc’d emails sent to the above address and, presto, that individual will be the lucky winner. (Don’t worry, these emails will only be used to pick and contact a winner of this contest. I promise.)

So get those emails going! And remember to tell them to visit us here at Codex! Feel free to email as many friends/enemies as you want or have — multiple entries are more than welcome! (BTW: email lists will only count as one person!)

In addition, a post on your blog with a trackback or a link back to this entry or this blog will also constitute one entry. All you need to do is email me at at “contest[at]biblical-studies[dot]ca� and let me know about the post.

In addition, the 40,000th visitor to my blog will also win!

Gee… I sure am generous in my old age! 🙂

Blog Design and Monitor Resolutions

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I received a comment from a reader about having trouble reading my blog due to pictures getting in the way of the text. I assume this is due to my new blog design that includes a sidebar on both sides of the text as well as his or her monitor size and resolution.

I knew the new design would be better viewed with 17′ monitors with higher resolutions, but I figured it would affect few readers. While the vast majority of my readers use monitors with resolutions of at least 1024 x 768, there are still 12-13% who are viewing the blog on monitors with resolutions of 800 x 600. If you are one of those individuals, please let me know how the blog looks and whether viewing it is a problem with the new design. I will seek to rectify the problem as soon as possible.

Any and all comments are welcome!