24: Jack is Back!

As you could probably gather from my Third Annual Ralphies Post, I don’t watch much TV. When I do get into a show, I am rather religious about it. So far this year I have been watching Battlestar Galactica faithfully and catching the occasion episode of House. But tonight, Jack is Back! The two hour, two day, season premier of 24 begins tonight on Fox and I already gave notice to my wife that she will be tucking in the kids tonight (and tomorrow night as well).

Jack is back. Sweet.

UPDATE: I just noticed that Mark Goodacre has linked to a news article that sees Jack Bauer as a Christ figure:

What would Jack do? Tune in to ’24’
TV: Watch for a miracle as Christ-like parallels continue in premiere

This is even better. Now I can appease my conscience by telling myself I am doing research for my religion and popular culture class!


Form Critical Approaches to the Psalms Post Gunkel

There have been many modifications and refinements of the form critical method since Gunkel (for a summary of Gunkel’s approach to the Psalms, see my previous post A Form-Critical Classification of the Psalms according to Hermann Gunkel).

Many problems still remain with the form critical approach to the psalms. Recent literature has definitely exhibited more caution about the specific social and cultic settings proposed for the psalms. While earlier form-critical work has continued to be useful — if not essential — to recent psalms scholarship, its usefulness is found in the literary and stylistic features that it highlights, as well as its broad suggestions about situations in life.

Wisdom in the Psalms?

The mouths of the righteous utter wisdom,
and their tongues speak justice.
The law of their God is in their hearts;
their steps do not slip (Ps 37:30-31).

A persistent problem that has continually dogged the form-critical approach to the psalms is the lack of agreement on certain forms. No where is this disagreement felt more than with the wisdom psalms (although Royal psalms would be a close second). Norman Whybray has even refered to the task of identifying wisdom psalms as “making bricks without straw.” While Gunkel’s (Introduction to Psalms; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com) characterization of wisdom psalms as having a didactic intent and personal and individual expressions of experience has generally been accepted by scholars, as well as his identification of Psalms 1, 34, 37, 49, 78, 105, 106, 111, 112, and 127 as wisdom psalms, no two scholars are in agreement that these are the only criterion and even on what psalms are wisdom psalms! Other criterion include: learned authorship, specific stylistic features (such as “better than” sayings, numerical sayings, adress to sons, alphabetic compositions, extensive use of metaphors, etc.), common motifs, a mood of private devotion and piety, and a concern for order. This has led some scholars, such as Norman Whybray and Roland Murphy, to identify many more wisdom psalms in the Psalter. In contrast, James Crenshaw (The Psalms: An Introduction [Eerdmans, 2001], 87-95; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com) questions the very category of wisdom psalms. He notes:

I do not see any profit in attributing such psalms to the sages when we know so little about the authors and their social contexts. Perhaps we should limit ourselves to what can definitely be affirmed: some psalms resemble wisdom literature in stressing the importance of learning, struggling to ascertain life’s meaning, and employing proverbial lore. Their authorship and provenance matter less than the accuracy and profundity of what they say (p. 94).

Here is a listing of wisdom psalms according to some recent scholars:

Gunkel/Begrich: Psalms 1, 37, 49, 73, 91, 112, 127, 128, 133.
Murphy: Psalms 1, 32, 34, 37, 49, 112, 128 (and wisdom influence in Psalms 25, 31, 39, 40, 62, 92, and 94).
Kuntz: Psalms 1, 32, 34, 37, 49, 112, 128, 133.
Whybray: Psalms 8, 14, 25, 34, 39, 49, 73, 90, 112, 127, 131, 139.

Laments Post Gunkel

As noted above, there have been many refinements of Gunkel’s approach to the psalms and the laments — as the most popular type of psalm found in the book of Psalms — has received its fair share of attention. Some of the most significant changes in the interpretation of the individual laments since Gunkel have centred both on his description of their structure (Formensprache), as well as his reconstruction of their putative setting in life (Sitz im Leben).

By and large, Gunkel’s formal treatment of individual laments has been accepted by most scholars with only minor changes, most of which consisted of refinements or elaborations of the various components that make up the lament. For instance, Westermann, in his Praise and Lament in the Psalms, fleshed out the “lament proper� in lament psalms by identifying its three main constituents which varied in importance at different times:

  • the complaint against God,
  • the psalmist’s lament over personal suffering, and
  • the complaint against those who oppose him, i.e., the enemy.

A more extensive refinement on Gunkel’s classification has been offered by Craig Broyles in his Conflict of Faith and Experience in the Psalms. He has suggested a further division of the individual laments into complaints (psalms where Yahweh is accused of wrongdoing on behalf of the psalmist) and pleas (psalms where the Yahweh is not responsible but is appealed to for help). While this distinction is helpful, at times the distinction between the two categories is ambiguous. It does highlight, however, an important question about the primary nature of the lament and related issues of nomenclature (e.g., should the genre be labeled laments or complaints, etc.; see my post on Laments, Complaints, Prayers, Pleas, or Petitions?).

One component of the individual lament that has received a fair amount of attention is the “certainty of hearing� that often occurs near the end of lament psalms (though not necessarily). What has attracted the attention is the sudden change in mood from despair to confidence. For example, in the ending of Psalm 6, the psalmist declares (seemingly) out of nowhere that Yahweh has heard his supplication:

Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
The Lord has heard my supplication;
the Lord accepts my prayer.
All my enemies shall be ashamed and struck with terror;
they shall turn back, and in a moment be put to shame (Ps 6:8-10).

The most common explanation of this sudden shift is related to seeing a cultic setting behind the psalm in which a priest delivers an oracle of salvation that promises Yahweh’s response between the lament proper and the words of confidence. This view was advanced and solidified by Bergrich, who drew a number of parallel expressions between the lament psalms and the salvation oracles in Second Isaiah, and attempted to reconstruct what the oracle of salvation would of looked like. The biggest weakness with this view is that there are no extant salvation oracles in any lament psalms, and if this was the common practice, the reasons for omitting the oracle are not clear. Others have tried to explain the phenomenon by appealing to an inward psychological process whereby during his prayer the psalmist either recalls God’s past faithfulness or comes to grip with his situation and moves on, or recalls his faith in God the divine warrior. While there may be some vestiges of a cultic action behind the shift in tone, the notion of recollection of Yahweh’s past deeds or some similar faith-oriented explanation is just as if not more likely.

Since Gunkel’s time there is also a new appreciation for the individuality of each psalm (though it should be noted that as is often the case, it was Gunkel’s students, and not Gunkel himself who applied form-criticism too rigidly). Because form-critical descriptions tended to focus on what is generic and not what is specific, earlier form criticism often resulted in a psalm’s individuality to be glossed over. This new concern is due in part to the renewed interest in Hebrew poetry, and in part to dissatisfaction with the large collection of psalms that didn’t fit neatly into any one genre. What is clear, however, is that a psalm’s internal poetic structure needs to be determinative in breaking down a psalm into stanzas, etc., rather than a predetermined generic mold.

Most of the debate since Gunkel has focused on the Sitz im Leben of the lament psalms, and, on a more theoretical level, on the relationship of Sitz im Leben to form. To a large extent, the discussion of the setting revolved around the identity of the “I� and the enemy in the laments. The debate surrounding the identity of the “I� in the psalms has its roots before Gunkel with the work of Smend, who argued that the “I� in many psalms is not an individual but a personification of the community. Gunkel, and Balla in accord with him, argued that this may be the case when a connection is made explicit (e.g., Ps 129; though I understand the liturgical reference to Israel in the first verse as redactional), and appealed to “Jeremiah’s confessions� and the psalms that seem to make a distinction between the psalmist and other Israelites (e.g., Ps 35) to support the view that the “I� is an individual.

A modified version of Smend’s view has been resurrected in the last century with the work of Birkeland (a student of Mowinkel). He argued in two publications that since the enemies are clearly foreign nations in communal laments, and the enemies in individual laments are describe with similar terms, and are even at times explicitly identified as foreign nations (see Ps 9), then the only logical conclusion is to maintain that the enemies in individual laments are also foreign nations. This view presupposes that the “I� in virtually every individual lament (Birkeland has been rightly criticized for his unequivocal statements) is a representative of the nation, likely the king, which would make them royal psalms. Mowinckel, who had originally maintained (in his Psalmenstudien) that the Sitz im Leben of the individual laments was a healing ritual in which the psalmist would go before the priest in the temple and ask for healing (This view was based on Mowinckel’s understanding of the enemy as the “worker of evil�, i.e., a sorcerer who is responsible for the psalmist’s illness), was partially convinced by Birkeland. Mowinckel’s modified view, as found in his The Psalms in Israel’s Worship, distinguished between personal psalms of lamentation with sorcery and a healing ritual as their setting, and national psalms of lamentation in the “I-form.� The notion that the “I� is the king representative of the nation has also been argued recently by John Eaton (Kingship and the Psalms [SCM, 1975]; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com) and Steven Croft (The Identify of the Individual in the Psalms [Sheffield, 1987]; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com), though neither of them are as dogmatic or extreme as Birkeland.

Other settings that have been proposed for the individual laments include a juridical setting in which the psalmist, who had been unjustly accused, would flee to the temple to undergo a trial in order to clear his name (e.g., Beyerlin). He would then pray the psalm to encourage Yahweh to adjudicate a fair judgment. Along a similar vein, Delekat proposed that the laments were originally inscriptions left in the temple by those seeking refuge. Attempts have also been made to understand the enemies in light of socio-economic conditions within Israelite society. Gerstenberger has argued that the context for the laments may be the postexilic family clan, rather than the temple, and that the enemies may often be from within the clan (see his Psalms: Part 1: With an Introduction to Cultic Poetry [Eerdmans, 1988; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com). The laments, then, would be used in a ritual to restore harmony to the clan and rehabilitate the individual. The late Gerald Sheppard takes a similar view, arguing that that laments were read aloud in the temple and were meant to be overheard by the enemies (members of the ruling class?), thereby exposing them to the community and perhaps leading them to repentance.

All these proposed settings for the individual laments have some merit, though it seems more likely that a multiplicity of situations lie behind the laments. There are a number of psalms in which the setting appears to be one of illness (though Mowinckel’s understanding of the “doer of evil� as a sorcerer was clearly overstated, as he himself eventually admitted). Ps 6 has already been mentioned, and there are many other psalms that make reference to the psalmist’s pain and wounds (e.g., Pss 13; 38). But there are also psalms in which there appears to be a juridical setting where the psalmist is pleading his innocence, e.g., Pss 4, 5 (what the specific setting is, however, can only be answered with speculation). There are also psalms in which the enemies do seem to be equated with foreign nations (though it is not clear to me that this means that the “I� in the psalms therefore needs to be a king or ruler), and others where the enemies appear to be from within the same group. And finally, there are also many laments (the majority?) in which the enemy appears to be a personal enemy of the psalmist who poses a real (or perceived; cf. Keel) threat to the poet.

The point that I’m making is that it is not necessary — or even desirable — to try to find “the� Sitz im Leben of the laments. And even if there was one original setting for them, I think that it is unlikely that we could determine it with any certainty. This is because of the stereotypical and formulaic nature of much of the descriptions in the laments. The situation of the psalmist and the nature of his trouble is never specified and can often fit a variety of contexts. Therefore to try to limit the setting of the laments moves against the direction in the psalms themselves. From a slightly different angle, modern folklore studies have also underscored the fact that the interaction between the performer, his material, and his audience is often quite complex and cannot be understood in simple one-to-one terms. The notion that a genre has a one-to-one connection with a single setting is not born out by the evidence. Even a genre like a hymn, which most would place in the cult, is equally at home in a variety of contexts as history and usage has proven (e.g., Gerstenberger, who places many in the context of synagogal worship). Moreover, while there is likely an original oral (and cultic) background to the lament psalm, at some time they were written down and transmitted throughout the community and used again and again by different people in different contexts. Quite opposite to the notion that something was lost by writing it down, the stereotypical character of the laments (and the psalms in general) allowed for diverse and rich usage. Some laments may even have been composed in such a general way so that they could be used in a number of different personal situations.

This is a perspective that Patrick Miller has done a lot to advance, and I think that he is essentially correct (see his Interpreting the Psalms [Fortress, 1986; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com). The open-endedness of the laments make them fruitful quarry for theological reflection. As Miller has argued, this open-endedness allows the laments to be appropriated by people in all sorts of different situations within and without the community of faith. This, however, does not mean that one should not attempt to determine some of the possible settings of the laments. Some knowledge of their setting helps us contextualize our theological reflection and ground it in human experience.

For more thought on Lament psalms and their place in the church, see my post, The Costly Loss of Lament for the Church.


McDonald on the Biblical Canon

Danny Zacharias has an interesting interview on the canon of the Bible with Lee Martin McDonald over at Deinde. The interview revolves around the recently published third edition of McDonald’s book, The Biblical Canon: Its Origin, Transmission, and Authority (Hendrickson, 2007; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com). The interview is interesting, though I wish McDonald would have expanded on some of his views of the orgin and role of the LXX for canon studies!

McDonald also edited a collection of essays with James Sanders that is also essential reading for those interested in questions of canon: The Canon Debate (Hendrickson, 2002; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com).

Some other books on the question of canon include the following:

  • John Barton, Holy Writings, Sacred Text: The Canon in Early Christianity (Westminster John Knox, 1998; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com)
  • Roger Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church (Eerdmanns, 1985; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com)
  • Hans Freiherr von Campenhausen, The Formation of the Christian Bible (Translated by J. A. Baker; Fortress Press, 1972; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com
  • Christine Helmer and Christof Landmesser, eds., One Scripture or Many? Canon from Biblical, Theological, and Philosophical Perspectives (Oxford University Press, 2004; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com
  • Martin Hengel, The Septuagint As Christian Scripture: Its Prehistory And The Problem Of Its Canon (Baker, 2004; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com
  • Bruce M. Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance (Oxford University Press, 1997; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com)
  • Andrew E. Steinmann, The Oracles of God: The Old Testament Canon (Concordia Academic Press, 1999; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com

Of the above I would wholeheartedly recommend Hengel and the Helmer and Christof Landmesser volume, though all of them are worthy of reading.


HBRW WTHT VWLS (Hebrew Without Vowels)

When I am teaching about the Hebrew Bible, the fact that Hebrew was originally unpointed often comes up. And at that point I will provide some sort of example with English, such as the title to this post: HBRW WTHT VWLS.

Well, Mississippi Fred MacDowell (that’s a great name!) over at English Hebraica has an interesting post entitled, “Ravens and Arabians: Hebrew with and without points in English,” in which he provides an example where the English and Hebrew actually coincide; here’s an excerpt:

This interesting book, The Parchments of the Faith by George Edmands Merrill published in 1894 by the American Baptist Publication Society, does the best job I’ve ever seen of it because it combined words in English as they would be in Hebrew (“and the ravens” are three words in English, but just one, וה×?רבי×?, in Hebrew–“nd th rvns” less accurately shows what Hebrew is like than “ndthrvns”). In addition, the vowel letters are formatted the way nekkudot are, dotting the consonants.

This is a great example; take a gander at it.


Biblical Studies Carnival – Best of 2006

Welcome to the Biblical Studies Carnival Best of 2006 post. In what I hope will become an annual event, this special edition of the Biblical Studies Carnival will showcase some of the best posts in the area of academic biblical studies of the past year. For each month, one post will be highlighted as the best, though I will also note significant runners up.

The criteria for selection includes, but was not limited to, the following:

  1. To keep the review manageable, a post needed to have been noted in a previous Biblical Studies Carnival to be eligible.
  2. Posts must exemplify high academic standards and creativity.
  3. Posts that elicited significant discussion and among other bloggers were favoured.
  4. I have also tried to spread out the awards, both in terms of sub-disciplines, but also in terms of individuals.
  5. Also, while this is not ideal, only posts with working links were included (this eliminated some excellent posts that have went the way of the dodo bird. Note the bloggers: if you choose to discontinue blogging, why not keep your blog online for the sake of posterity?)

While I have chosen some posts as the best of a particular month, I should note that all of the posts mentioned are worthy of reading. In fact, I would encourage you to browse back into the Biblical Studies Carnival archives (see links below) since virtually all of the posts mentioned in any given Carnival are worthy of perusal.

January

Danger, Loren Rosson! In my mind, the best post for the first month of the year was Loren Rosson’s “Dangerous Idea� meme over at his blog, The Busybody. Inspired by a list of ideas contributed by leading scientists to The Edge magazine, Loren ushered a call to other bloggers to come up with their own Dangerous Ideas in Biblical Studies. Loren provided five “dangerous ideas� in the field of biblical studies — ideas which may well be true (or have arguably valid reasons for being true) but many people would prefer they not be true — in his original post. He then brought together A Dozen Dangerous Ideas based on his own ranking of the “dangerous ideas� submitted by other bloggers.

Phil Harland’s history of Satan series over at Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean is also worthy of mention. These devilishly delightful posts deal with the development of the character of Satan throughout literary history. Another post that generated a fair amount of discussion was Tyler Williams‘s Old Testament/First Testament/Hebrew Bible/Tanak: What’s in a Name? at Codex.

February

While February is the month of love, one of the most popular (and discussed with some 77 comments) posts in this month didn’t concern cupid, but rather concerned contentious biblical passages. The best post for this month goes to Ben Witherington and his “Literal Renderings of Texts of Contention — 1Tim. 2:8-15.” Ben does an excellent job highlighting some of the issues surrounding the interpretation of 1 Tim 2:8-15 and concludes with this excellent advice which we would all do well to heed:

The only proper hedge against misuse of such controversial texts like this is careful detailed study of the text in its immediate context, in the context of the Pastorals (noting for example how elsewhere in these documents Paul talks about older women who are mature Christians doing some teaching), in the context of Paul’s letters in general, and in the context of Ephesus and the social world to which these words were written.

Other “lovely” posts from February include Brandon Wason‘s post on Love in the New Testament at Novum Testamentum, as well as Jim Davila‘s tribute to Professor Emeritus Robert Wilson (a.k.a. “R McL Wilson” a.k.a. “Robin”). Professor Wilson celebrated his 90th birthday in February 2006 and Jim covered the birthday celebrations over at PaleoJudaica. The party was a suave affair with such scholars as Professor Richard Bauckham, Professor Einar Thomassen, and Dr. Bill Telford speaking.

March

I found it difficult to pick a clear winner for the month of March, so I am declaring a tie between three posts on the complex relationship between early Christianity and the Torah: James Crossley‘s Christian Origins and the Law, Michael Bird‘s Jesus and Torah: 4 Theses, and Loren Rosson‘s Jesus and Torah.

A close second for the month is Alan Bandy‘s series of interviews over at Café Apocalypsis with scholars about faith-based and secular scholarship, including interviews with Michael Bird, Craig Blomberg, Darrell Bock, Peter Bolt, James Crossley, Philip Davies, Craig Evans, Mark Goodacre, Andreas Kostenberger, Scot McKnight, and Peter Williams. Also worthy of mention are the trio of posts on the canon of the Hebrew Bible entitled, Loose Canons: The Development of the Old Testament Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 by Michael Barber of Singing in the Reign (I really like the title of the series!)

April

For the month of April I am tempted to give the top honours to my April Fools Day‘s post on the imaginary King David Seal uncovered in the excavations of Jerusalem — especially since it was declared “the best entry of the month” by the Carnival host. That being said, I just can’t bring myself to declare it best post of the month (I still have occasional pangs of guilt for being so deceptive). The royal seal impression I used as the basis for the foolish post was an impression of an unprovenanced bulla belonging to Hezekiah king of Judah found in the Kaufman collection (see here for my post on the actual seal).

Since we’re on the topic of unprovenanced artifacts, in the month of April several different people blogged about Larry Stager’s “Statement on Unprovenanced Artifacts,” including PaleoJudaica’s Jim Davila, Duane Smith at Abnormal Interests, and Chris Weimer at Thoughts on Antiquity. The statement by the Harvard professor responds to the restrictions by the American Schools of Oriental Research and the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) on publishing and studying (in public presentations) unprovenanced artifacts. You can read the full statement here, as well as a small correction and AIA’s response.

Not to forget, the best post of the month is Phil Harland‘s post, “Judas Iscariot as the “good guyâ€??: The Gospel of Judas.” This is a well-written and informative post about the Gospel of Judas (or should I say, the Al Minya Codex?).

May

One of the highlights of the month of May was Loren Rossen’s unpapal conclave on the historical Jesus over at The Busybody. Loren takes up John Meier’s suggestion in A Marginal Jew that an “unpapal conclaveâ€? should be locked away “until [it] had hammered out a consensus document on who Jesus was and what he intended in his own time and place.â€? The results may be found here, here, here and here. While I am reluctant to award a second “best of” to any one blogger, in the words of the Carnival host Ben Myers, this was “a brilliant example of the way contemporary scholarship can creatively utilise the possibilities of cyberspace.” It was clearly the best of May. Well done, Loren!

June

With summer approaching and many students looking forward to the end of the school year, Duane Smith took us all back to school with his posts on How to Recognize a Scribal School (see also Part 2, and in later months, Part 3 and Part 4). In these posts, which I declare the best for the month of June, Duane looks at the comparative evidence for scribal schools in the ancient Near East and then extrapolates how one would recognize a scribal school in Iron Age Jerusalem, if indeed there was one. There is nothing abnormal about these posts, except perhaps for their excellent depth and research.

Other noteworthy posts include James Snapp‘s post on large numbers in the Bible at Evangelical Textual Criticism (Responses by P.J. Williams then James Snapp followed by Williams and finally Kevin Edgecomb), and Jeremy Pierce‘s query, “What Happened to Eleazar’s Line?” Finally, prompted by a post by Mark Goodacre, Michael Bird‘s post on Christianities and Judaisms at Euangelion is also a must read about “complexity and accordance” in early Christianity.

July

Top honours for the month of July go to Kevin P. Edgecomb‘s translations of St. Jerome’s Prologues from the Latin Vulgate. In a series of posts at biblicalia, Kevin provided English translations of the Prologues to Genesis, Joshua, Kings, Paralipomenon/Chronicles, with others to follow in later months. Most of these, for one reason or another, have either never appeared in English before or haven’t been translated recently or very well. The project is pretty much finished now and Kevin has helpfully posted a page including all his translations of the Vulgate Prologues, with notes giving biblical and other citations, alternate renderings, indications of difficult passages, and a few explanatory notes, along with a short introduction and bibliography. Thank you for your original translation work, Kevin.

Some runners up for the month of July include Tyler Williams‘s series on Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible at Codex, Rick Brannan‘s delightful Opposite Day post at ricoblog that engendered a number of responses, as well as Ben Myers‘s explosive One Book Meme that is probably still making its way around the blogosphere! (A Google search for the exact phrase “One Book Meme” produces thousands of results). Finally, Matthew Thomas Hopper at Historical Jesus and Paul has done us all a service with his series on ginomai in Paul: Parts One, Two, Three, and Four.

August

The dogs days of summer brought a number of interesting posts in biblical studies. These included Michael Pahl‘s initial post in a blog commentary on 1 Thessalonians, Stephen Carlson‘s conclusion to his nine-part evaluation of Scott Brown on Morton Smith’s motives, Ben C. Smith‘s posts on Canonical Lists at Chris Weimer’s Thoughts on Antiquity, and Davide Salomani‘s note on Q and the Beelzebul Story.

One of the best posts of the month, however, was Chris Heard‘s response to De La Torre’s Ethics Daily essay on “the sin of Sodom.â€? Chris notes the following about Genesis 19:

The mob’s intention to inflict male-on-male rape on Lot’s visitors has nothing to do with sexual desire or sexual gratification. There is no hint here of homosexuality in the modern sense of “sexual orientation.â€? The crime has nothing to do with preferring sex with males over sex with females…. They [the mob] chose sexual violence as the means of their cruelty, to be sure, but their motive was to assert social dominance over the newcomers.

Well done, Chris.

September

“In the beginning” of the month there were a number of interesting posts on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil by Stephen Cook at Biblische Ausbildung (see also his follow-up posts here and here) with a response by Chris Heard of Higgaion fame. Other great posts include Simon Holloway‘s post on the mysterious Writing on the Wall in the story of Daniel 5 over at דבר ×?חר (dawar acher, literally “another interpretationâ€?), Mark Goodacre‘s post Does Galatians post-date 1 Corinthians? which started a flurry of blogging activity on Pauline chronology, Kevin Wilson‘s post “A Farewell to the Yahwist?,” and even Troels Myrup Kristensen‘s fascinating post on the cult of the severed head.

While I found it difficult to pick a top post for this month, I’m giving top nods to Chris Heard‘s thorough sixteeen-part review of Simcha Jacobovici’s documentary The Exodus Decoded. The series started in Septermber and finally concluded in December. While not everyone will agree with all of Chris’s criticisms, on the whole he did an excellent job revealing the problems with Jacobovici’s theories. Jacobovici must have nightmares about such reviews! (If only future documentaries will be done any better!)

October

Stephen Cook over at Biblische Ausbildung produced a three-part series of posts the question of myth in the Hebrew Bible (see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) where he disagrees with recent proposals that the opening chapters of Genesis are indeed myth (make sure to note Robert Holmstedt’s comment to the third post). In addition, the post 10 Propositions on Violence in the Old Testament over at Mined Splatterings is worthy of a gander, as is Tyler Williams‘s post The Costly Loss of Lament for the Church.

Best in show for October, however, goes to Mark Goodacre for his posts arguing his view that the apostle Paul lost his battle for the churches in Galatia: see his Paul’s lack of travel plans, Paul’s loss of Galatia I, and the summary post Paul’s loss of Galatia II.

I should also mention James Crossley‘s interesting series at his blog Earliest Christian History on “Why Christianity Happened,” summarizing the chapters of his book by the same name (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4).

November

The best post for the month of November, in my estimation, is Stephen Cook‘s posts on the Imago Dei. His six-part series on the image of God at Biblische Ausbildung is well worth your time — you can view them all here.

Other posts worthy of mention include James Tabor‘s post on the discovery and examination of the latrines at Khirbet Qumran in his post Breaking News from Qumran (The Qumran latrines received quite a bit of attention among bloggers; see the posts by Claude Mariottini and Tyler Williams, to name a few), Chris Heard‘s post on When did Yahweh and El merge?, Simon Holloway on the linguistic dating of the Bible, Mark Goodacre on the question of whether or not the Galatians were already circumcised (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and Part 7), as well as Michael Pahl‘s continued work on 1 Thessalonians, including a useful bibliography.

In the field of biblical studies November is known for the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. Many bloggers posted on the conference — whether something about their approach to the meetings, their presentations, their reflections after the conference was over. See Jim West’s thorough coverage of posts in his Biblical Studies Carnival post. Worthy of mention, however, are Danny Zacharias‘s “Confessions of a SBL Virgin” (see also Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4) at Deinde and the “biblioblogger” podcast from SBL over at Targuman.

December

Finally we come to December. Since the most recent Biblical Studies Carnival covered this month, I will only highlight what I thought was the best post of the month: Kevin Wilson‘s “Priests and the Pentateuchâ€? over at Blue Cord. In this post, Kevin explores the question of the relationship between the pentateuchal sources and the history of the priesthood and suggests — rather provocatively — that the P source may in fact be one of the earliest sources to the Pentateuch, rather than the latest (Wellhausen says, Nein!).

In Conclusion…

Well, that about does it for this year in review. Feel free to leave a comment if you disagree with any of my selections or if you want to highlight another worthy post that I may have overlooked.

In addition, I encourage you to take a look back to previous Biblical Studies Carnivals:

  • Biblical Studies Carnival XIII (Tyler F. Williams, Codex: Biblical Studies Blogspot – January 2007)
  • Biblical Studies Carnival XII (Jim West, Dr Jim West – December 2006)
  • Biblical Studies Carnival XI (Michael Pahl, The Stuff of Earth – November 2006)
  • Biblical Studies Carnival X (Phil Harland, Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean – October 2006)
  • Biblical Studies Carnival IX (Stephen Carlson, Hypotyposeis – September 2006)
  • Biblical Studies Carnival VIII (Kevin Edgecomb, Biblicalia – August 2006)
  • Biblical Studies Carnival VII (Chip Hardy, Daily Hebrew – July 2006)
  • Biblical Studies Carnival VI (Benjamin Myers, Faith and Theology – June 2006)
  • Biblical Studies Carnival V (Kevin Wilson, Blue Cord – May 2006)
  • Biblical Studies Carnival IV (Loren Rosson III, The Busybody – April 2006)
  • Biblical Studies Carnival III (Rick Brannan, Ricoblog – March 2006)
  • Biblical Studies Carnival II (Tyler F. Williams, Codex Blogspot – February 2006)
  • Biblical Studies Carnival I (Joel Ng, Ebla Logs – April 2005)

Upcoming Biblical Studies Carnivals

Biblical Studies Carnival XIV will be hosted by Chris Weimer over at Thoughts on Antiquity in the first week of February, 2007. Look for a call for submissions and nominations on his blog soon.

Submissions (which should be blog entries posted in January 2007) for the next Biblical Studies Carnival may be emailed to biblical_studies_carnival [AT] hotmail.com or entered via the submission form provided by Blog Carnival here.

For a full listing of past and future Biblical Studies Carnivals, as well as other valuable information about the Carnival, please consult the Biblical Studies Carnival Homepage.


Biblical Studies Carnival XIII

Welcome to the thirteenth Biblical Studies Carnival! This edition marks one full year of Biblical Studies Carnivals (BSC) since they were resurrected in February 2006. (Now, I know I said I would also include a “Best of 2006” portion with this Carnival. As this Carnival edition grew, I decided that I would post the “Best Of” separately. Stay tuned for that post in the next few days.)

Biblical Studies blogging appears to be alive and well (I note over 70 posts in this edition). There were a lot of interesting articles posted in the month of December 2006, many of which are detailed below. In preparing this Carnival (which took much longer than anticipated!), I also noticed the large number of inactive “biblioblogs” in my rss reader. That being said, for every dormant blog, there appears to be two new ones starting up!

Well, enough with the opening pleasantries. Let’s see what December 2006 brought us in terms of academic Biblical Studies in the blogosphere.

‘Tis the Season

Since this BSC covers the month of December, I figured it would be appropriate to begin with some festive posts.

There were a number of posts dealing with elements of the biblical Christmas story. Darrell Pursiful presented a series of posts answering the question, “When Was Jesus Born?” over at Dr. Platypus. The first post, Herod’s Death, tried to ascertain the date of the death of King Herod. Other posts include “Why December 25th?,” “Zechariah’s Priestly Service,” “The Date of Jesus’ Birth,” “The Star of Bethlehem,” and “The Census.”

Moving from when Jesus was born to where was he born, Todd Bolen has an interesting post discussing the mistranslation of Luke 2:7 as “No Room in the Inn.” According to Todd, it would be more appropriate to render this verses as “guest room” and highlight that it was not that Joseph and Mary were late getting to Bethlehem and there was no more room for them; it was that they were rejected by their extended family.

Steven Cook over at Biblische Ausbildung has an excellent series of posts on his SBL tour of biblical themes in the National Gallery of Art Collections. While his first post was in November, the rest have been in December and are fair game for this Carnival. His second post, “Isaiah 1:3 and the Creche Scene,” examines Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi’s Adoration of the Magi (ca. 1440/60 CE) where the focus is not the NT nativity scene of Mary and Jesus, but rather, an ox and an ass. According to Steven, this emphasis comes from Isaiah 1:3, in which God complains, “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” His second post continues the nativity emphasis with his discussion of Petrus Christus’s Nativity (1450 CE). Again, Steven highlights a number of allusions to the OT in the painting. Quite fascinating.

On a related topic, Charles Halton has a post on Virginity in the Bible where he argues that both the Hebrew betulah and the Greek parthenos have similar semantic ranges (women who are of marriageable age who may or may not be virgins) and that reasons for one’s belief in the virgin birth must lie elsewhere.

You may also want to check out the posts by Wayne Leman on “Advent Translations” over at the Better Bibles Blog (see here, here, here, here, and here).

There have also been some posts looking at the significance of Christmas from different perspectives. Leo over at Beyond the Wardrobe examines the significance of Philippians chapter 2 for Christmas in his post, “What if you had no reputation?” Meanwhile Tyler Williams of Codex fame, examined Christmas from the perspective of the Johannine literature in his two posts on “Christmas According to John, Part 1 and Part 2.

Finally, if you want the “The Gospel Truth About Christmas” then check out Michael Barber‘s post here.

The Nativity Story

This Christmas season saw the release of the major biblical epic, The Nativity Story. Naturally, this film received quite a bit of attention from bloggers. The best stop for all you could ever want in relation to this film is certainly Matt Page‘s super Bible Films Blog. Check out his Nativity Story Central Page for an index to his posts and external links. Also make sure to check out Matt’s own review.

In regards to reviews by actual New Testament scholars (!), there have been a number of reviews. Ben Witherington has a positive review, as does Scott McKnight, while Mark Goodacre’s is perhaps a bit more critical in his review (see also his more polished SBL Forum review).

Other reviews may be found on Reasoned Audacity and Allthings2All.

Hanukkah/ Chanukah

REB Chaim HaQoton presented an interesting post on Hanukkah entitled, “Rock of Ages” over at REB HaQoton.
Let’s end the review of festive posts with one that is more tongue in cheek: Tyler Williams‘ “‘Tis the Season to be Tacky: Jesus Junk and Christian Kitsch 8 – Merry Kitschmas!

Language and Translation

If you are in the process of choosing a Bible translation you may want to check out the post “On Bible Translation” at realmealministries.org. You may also want to look at Eddie Arthur‘s post “Which Bible Should I Use?” over at Kouya Chronicle.

Those interested in the development of the Hebrew language will want to check out the discussion between Duane Smith and Charles Halton. The discussion started in connection with Duane’s post over at Abnormal Interests on “Illiteracy in Antiquity,” which was then followed up by his post “Is the Canaanite of the Amarna Letters a Precursor of Biblical Hebrew?” This was responded to by Charles at Awilum.com in a post asking the question, “Did Hebrew Evolve from Late Bronze Age Canaanite?” For the record, neither think that Classical Hebrew simply developed out of Canaanite. Whew! I was worried!

For those interested in Hebrew, make sure to check out the regular posts by Dave on Balashon – Hebrew Language Detective. For instance, for the month of December he posted on a number of words related to Hanukkah, such as “Chanukah” (Hanukkah), “makabim” (Maccabees), “leviva” (latke), as well as the Yiddish word “dreidel.”

Finally, prompted by a post by Tyler Williams, Simon Holloway has an interesting post on the differences between Biblical, Rabbinic, and Modern Israeli Hebrew: “Israeli vs. Hebrew: a Contemporary Linguistic Debate.”

Archaeology and Geography

Ken Ristau of anduril.ca fam) wrote some reflections on his six-week participation in the Renewed Tel Dor Project this last summer. The Tel Dor excavations were renewed in 2003 and are directed by Ilan Sharon (Hebrew University) and Ayelet Gilboa (University of Haifa).

Kevin P. Edgecomb over at biblicalia takes on those who would deny legitimacy to the practice of “biblical archaeology.” He argues that “Biblical Archaeology” itself, properly defined, is a perfectly legitimate practice.

Moving on to archaeology (im)properly practiced, Chris Heard finished up his thorough extensive comprehensive all-encompassing and somewhat scathing 15-part review of Simcha Jacobovici’s The Exodus Decoded (which is now available for purchase from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com).

Old Testament/Hebrew Bible

In the Old Testament category, Rey over at The Bible Archive surveys the different interpretations of The Sons of God in Genesis 6. While the different views all have some merit, Rey notes that no matter which one you lean towards the reason for the flood is the same: the wickedness of humanity.

Moving from the sons of God to the sons of Aaron, Kevin Wilson over at Blue Cord has a post musing about the history of the priesthood in ancient Israel. His post, “Priests and the Pentateuch” explores the question of the relationship between the pentateuchal sources and the history of the priesthood; Wilson suggests — rather provocatively — that the P source may in fact be one of the earliest sources to the Pentateuch, rather than the latest (Wellhausen says, Nein!). Also of note is Kevin’s in-depth multipart review of the latest SBL Symposium series volume, A Farewell to the Yahwist? The Composition of the Pentateuch in Recent European Interpretation, edited by Thomas B. Dozeman and Konrad Schmid (Society of Biblical Literature, 2006; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com).

Simon Holloway has a nice explanation of the ambiguities of interpreting Deuteronomy 21:22-23 in his post, “Insulted by God?: The Anatomy of a Genitive,” while Harvey Bluedorn presents The Sabbath Syllogism over at Trivium Pursuit.

Moving to the Psalms and poetic literature, Ancient Hebrew Poetry examines the poetry and form of Psalm 6, while those interested in ancient Near Eastern and biblical proverbs will want to check out a new blog entitled “Beginning of Wisdom.” This blog is a father-son effort by Eisenbrauns acquisitions editor, John Cook and his son Colin. Inspired by the Latin Proverb of the Day blog, they hope to post on the wealth of proverbs from the ancient Near East. It will mostly post proverbs from the Hebrew Bible, but will eventually include some Aramaic proverbs from Ahiqar, and aphorisms from the Babylonian and Egyptian wisdom writings.

Dave Beldman at tolle lege has a post on the place of the Elihu speeches in the book of Job that is worth reading.

The prophets received short shrift this month, though Dr. Claude Mariottini over at his eponymous blog posted on “Jonah and His God,” where he highlights Jonah’s rebellion, the brutality of the ancient Assyrians, and the compassion of Jonah’s God.

Intertestamental/Second Temple/Apocrypha

Jim Davila at PaleoJudaica responds in some length to an online essay by one Uri Cohen that seeks to rehabilitate Herod the Great and present him as a Palestinian Arab. Jim’s final assessment is worth citing in full:

Cohen appears to be inviting modern Palestinian Arabs to claim Herod as one of their own. I suppose they can have him if they want him. His Judaism credentials are debatable too and I don’t imagine many Jews would mind sharing him. But the historical links to modern Palestinians are tenuous and the historical analogy to the present strikes me as weak. Be that as it may, if Palestinians want to adopt Herod, they will need to accept the existence of the Second Jewish Temple, whose renovation and rebuilding was his greatest achievement.

Read the whole post here.

Over at Tony Chatrand-Burke‘s Apocryphicity, there is an interesting post on the Gospel of Judas: “Gospel of Judas Opens Old Wounds” by guest blogger Pierluigi Piovanelli from the University of Ottawa. The post explores some issues surrounding the publication of the Gospel of Judas and suggests, among other things, that it would be better to refer to this ancient manuscript as the Al Minya Codex.

The Dead Sea Scrolls have also received some attention this month. Peter Kirby posted an important notice about the Open Scrolls Project at his blog, Christian Origins. This project aims to bring the Dead Sea Scrolls online, available for free. This is an important project and if you want to find out more or be involved, check out this website: http://www.openscrolls.org.

New Testament

Michael Barber over at Singing in the Reign has continued his series on “Jesus and the Restoration of the Davidic Kingdom” while Richard H. Anderson presented his first post in a new series on stewardship with “Why two different Greek words for steward?” over at dokeo kago grapho soi kratistos Theophilos.

Chris Tilling at Chrisendom has continued his extensive summary and review of Richard Bauckham’s latest book, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (Eerdmans, 2006; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com). Richard Bauckham also responds to some of Chris’s reflections, so there is an interesting dialogue developing.

Moving to the Pauline letters, Michael Pahl continued his “blogentary” on 1 Thessalonians at The Stuff of Earth with his post “1 Thessalonians 1:1 – Text and Translation.” Over at PastoralEpistles.com Rick Brannan informed us of some major changes to his site, while at Ricoblog he posted a translation and some notes on Colossians 4:2-18.

Jeremy Pierce presents a review of commentaries on I Peter I Peter Commentaries posted at Parableman.

Turning from the NT literature to the NT world, the discovery of the apostle Paul’s tomb hit the news in December. Jim Davila at PaleoJudaica covered the discovery, as did Todd Bolen here and here. Some others who noted it include Claude Mariottini, Mark Goodacre, who also posted on the original discovery way back in February 2005.

Biblical Theology

Jim West has a running commentary on Joseph A. Fitzmyer’s forthcoming book on the messiah, entitled The One Who Is To Come (Eerdmans, 2007; Preorder from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com), which will whet your appetite for the book. (You may also want to check out Jim’s interaction with Stephen Cook‘s The Social Roots of Biblical Yahwism (Brill, 2005; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com).

Patristics and More

Phillip Snider over at hyperekperissou hosted the first ever Patristics Carnival in December. The Carnival covers blog posts that focus on Patristics, including textual studies of a patristic writer, translations of the patristic writer, historical research on the patristic period, reflections on the connections of the Church Fathers to today, influence of patristic authors in theological writing, among other things.In addition, he has begun a “Patristic Roundup” which is a weekly update of blog posts that deal with patristics. Check out his roundups for the weeks of December 6-13 and 21-27.

Rick Brannan at Ricoblog has also continued his random, unscheduled posts on the Didache with an interesting post on “How to Pray” (Didache 10).

On Our Discipline

In regard to the field of biblical studies, Philip Davies wrote a guest column over at Jim West’s blog reflecting on November’s Society of Biblical Literature meeting in Washington. His observations rang true to me; I especially liked his description of the SBL as “a discotheque without the music.”

January’s SBL Forum went online in December. It included an interesting review of the NIV True Images: The Bible for Teen Girls (Zondervan, 2003; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com) by James G. Crossley of Earliest Christian History blog fame (For an index of January’s SBL Forum posts, check out Tyler Williams’ post here).

Well, that wraps up this edition of the Biblical Studies Carnival. Stay tuned for the Best of 2006.

Upcoming Biblical Studies Carnivals

Biblical Studies Carnival XIV will be hosted by Chris Weimer over at Thoughts on Antiquity in the first week of February, 2007. Look for a call for submissions and nominations on his blog soon.

Submissions (which should be blog entries posted in January 2007) for the next Biblical Studies Carnival may be emailed to biblical_studies_carnival [AT] hotmail.com or entered via the submission form provided by Blog Carnival here.

For a full listing of past and future Biblical Studies Carnivals, as well as other valuable information about the Carnival, please consult the Biblical Studies Carnival Homepage.


Third Annual Ralphies – Second Annual Codex Edition (Best of 2006)

Welcome to the Third Annual Ralphies — Second Annual Codex Edition. Following the example of Ed Cook (see his posts on music, film and books), traditionally a number of other bloggers follow suit and offer their own “Ralphies.” This year Mark Goodacre and Chris Brady has thus far compiled (or at least started to) some of their favorite music, books, and films of 2006.

What follows is my own list. While I have tried to honour Ed’s template, I find it difficult to narrow lists like these down to one top pick, so I have includes some runner-ups.

Best SONG of the year: Hmmm.. this is a tough one. I, like Ed, quite like Gnarls Barkley‘s Moby-esque song “Crazy” (From St. Elsewhere; Watch on YouTube; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com), though I’m not sure it is quite “Song of the Year” material. The same goes for the new U2 song (with Greenday), “The Saints Are Coming” (From U218 Singles; Watch on YouTube; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com), as well as The Killers song “When You Were Young” (From Sam’s Town; Watch on YouTube; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com).

tunstall.jpgWhile this may surprise some, my best song for 2006 is KT Tunstall‘s “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” (From Eye to the Telescope; Watch on YouTube; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com). This is a very catchy song, though what makes me pick it as my best of 2006 is my respect for her musical abilities. Make sure to watch the live version.

The best Canadian song of the year is the Barenaked Ladies, “Easy” (From Barenaked Ladies Are Me; Watch on YouTube; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com).

Best CD of the year: While all of the songs noted above are on good albums, I would probably have to vote for The Killers, Sam’s Town as my best of 2006 (Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com) since there are a number of excellent songs on the CD.

Best MUSIC VIDEO of the year: I really like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers video for “Dani California” (From Stadium Arcadium; Watch on YouTube; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com). Watching it is a flashback through all the rock and roll fads from the 50’s to today — and the song isn’t half bad as well!

the_departed.jpgBest MOVIE of the year: This is always tough one for me. Like Ed, there are many movies I enjoyed (e.g., Nacho Libre, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, X-Men: The Last Stand, Mission Impossible III, Flags of Our Fathers, and even Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby was worth watching just for the “Dear Lord Baby Jesusâ€? scene!), but they’re not really “Film of the Year” material.

In terms of movies released in 2006, my vote for best movie of 2006 would be The Departed (Martin Scorsese; IMDB; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com). This is a great gangster film and all of the actors had great performances, especially Jack Nicholson. Second runner up would be Casino Royale (Martin Campbell; IMDB), which did for Bond what Batman Begins did for the Batman franchise last year.

Honourable mention goes to Thank You for Not Smoking (Jason Reitman, 2005 [I watched it in 2006]; IMDB; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com). In addition, I found Blood of My Brother: A Story of Death in Iraq (Andrew Berends, 2005 [I watched it in 2006]; IMDB; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com) to be quite interesting for its portrayal of life in Iraq.

Best KID’s MOVIE of the year: I tend to watch a lot of kid’s films with my children, so I thought I would add this category. It would be easy to pick Cars (John Lassiter; IMDB; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com), Over the Hedge (Tim Johnson; IMDB; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com), Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (Carlos Saldanha; IMDB; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com), or even Curious George (Matthew O’Callaghan; IMDB; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com).

Instead of any of those movies, I’m picking Hoodwinked! (Cory and Todd Edwards; IMDB; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com) as my favourite kid’s movie of 2006. I found this deconstruction of Little Red Riding Hood quite amusing. While some have slammed its animation as cheap, I kind of like the minimalist CGI animation — after all, it is supposed to look like a cartoon isn’t it?!

Worst MOVIE of the year: This is an easy one for me this year. I mistakenly rented Black Dahlia (Ulli Lommel; IMDB) thinking it was Brian De Palma’s The Black Dahlia (IMDB; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com). Never before have I appreciated the significance of a definite article! Lommel’s film was a B-film at its worst. Calling it a “B-film” is an insult to other B-Films! This straight -to-DVD movie truly was one of the most vile, disgusting films I have ever (partially) viewed. I didn’t finish watching it and was quite appreciative when the video store let me exchange it for a different video free of charge.

Best TV SHOW of the Year: Since we are talking about the entire year, I have to include 24 (Fox) as one of the best shows on television. I am looking forward to January 14, 2007 when this year’s season begins. That being said, top honours goes to Battlestar Galactica (SciFi). I love science fiction and I find this new series quite well-written.

protest_against_god.jpgBest NONFICTION BOOK of the year: This is a tough one since I have read quite a few non-fiction books this year. My top pick is by fellow Canadian, William S. Morrow. His book, Protest Against God: The Eclipse of a Biblical Tradition (Hebrew Bible Monographs 4; Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2006; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com) is a fascinating study of why the biblical tradition of lament or protest against God was suppressed and marginalized.

While I can’t say that I have read it cover-to-cover, the top biblical commentary in 2006 is Ralph Klein’s commentary, 1 Chronicles (Hermeneia; Fortress, 2006; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com). This is a superb commentary on this often neglected biblical book.

If I look outside my primary areas of research, then I would pick U2 by U2 (HarperEntertainment, 2006; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com) as one of the best of 2006.

Best FICTION BOOK of the year: I haven’t read a tonne of fiction this year, but I would say that Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt: A Novel (Knopf, 2005 [I read it in 2006]; Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com) was one of my favourites (see my post on it here). I also read a number of novels by Dean Koontz, which I found to be guilty pleasures.

Well, that’s about all I can muster right now, so I’ll see you at next year’s Ralphies!


My Messy Desk

I have inherited my father’s messy desk. When I was in my teens, I actually bought my father a little plaque that read, “A Clean Desk is the Sign of a Sick Mind.” (When my father died, I looked everywhere for the plaque, since I figured that I could use it for my own desk! For those wanting to see a picture of my desk, see my previous post on this subject here)

The New York Times has an article that highlights the benefits of mess. The article, “Saying Yes to Mess,” is written in response to the “National Association of Professional Organizers” (!) dubbing January “Get Organized Month.” Here’s an excerpt:

An anti-anticlutter movement is afoot, one that says yes to mess and urges you to embrace your disorder. Studies are piling up that show that messy desks are the vivid signatures of people with creative, limber minds (who reap higher salaries than those with neat “office landscapes�) and that messy closet owners are probably better parents and nicer and cooler than their tidier counterparts. It’s a movement that confirms what you have known, deep down, all along: really neat people are not avatars of the good life; they are humorless and inflexible prigs, and have way too much time on their hands.

This is exactly what I have always believed! Sweet… now I don’t have to bother clearing off my desk!

(HT Ian’s Messy Desk)