Here are some recent bits of news that I found mildly interesting:

• The media magnate, TravelVideoTV has a popular summary of recent archaeological discoveries in Israel here. Methinks they are trying to drum up some travel business.
• Pierce Brosnan Out As James Bond, 007. That’s too bad; I think he was my favourite Bond since Sean Connery.
• Ancient Treasure Unearthed in Bulgaria. Archaeologists have unearthed about 15,000 tiny golden pieces that date back to the end of the third millennium B.C. — a find they said Wednesday matches the famous treasure of Troy.
• Fisherman dies chasing fish that stole his pole. An amusing headline for a sad story.
• Pope forgets to bless pilgrims. I guess everyone forgets things sometimes.

My agnostic brother (or is it atheist?) sent me this tongue-in-cheek write up from The Onion; here is an excerpt:

Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New “Intelligent Falling” Theory

KANSAS CITY, KS—As the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools continues, a new controversy over the science curriculum arose Monday in this embattled Midwestern state. Scientists from the Evangelical Center For Faith-Based Reasoning are now asserting that the long-held “theory of gravity” is flawed, and they have responded to it with a new theory of Intelligent Falling.

“Things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational force, but because a higher intelligence, ‘God’ if you will, is pushing them down,” said Gabriel Burdett, who holds degrees in education, applied Scripture, and physics from Oral Roberts University.
…

Now, for the record, I am agnostic on the issue of intelligint design. I am no scientist. That being said, I do believe that to read the Scriptures as scientific is to mis-read them. While this would preclude most forms of young earth creationism, it leaves open the possibility for intelligent design, theistic evolution, evolutionary creation, or other non-concordist theories — and I’ll let the scientists debate the plausibility of each of these options.

Strap on your sword and sandals, VCI Entertainment has just released Epics of the Old Testament. This Old Testament Collection includes four great titles never before available in DVD format: Great Leaders of the Bible, Joseph and His Brethren, Saul and David, and Jacob the Man who Fought with God. It even includes a bonus feature: Genesis!

The four films here are great examples of sword & sandal epics (which means they are entertaining but certainly did not win any awards!). Joseph and His Brethren is pretty good (It’ll be interesting to see if include the seduction-attempt scene in this version, as it is missing from other copies). Great Leaders of the Bible is perhaps the best in the set, while Saul and David is alright. I haven’t seen Jacob the Man who Fought with God. The box-set also includes a film called Genesis. This could be the 1964 film directed by Michael B. Druxman, though I am not sure.

You can purchase the box set (Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com) or buy them individually:

• Jacob, The Man Who Fought with God [I Patriarchi della Bibbia] (Director: Marcello Baldi, 1963).
  Buy from Amazon.ca: VHSor DVD | Buy from Amazon.com: VHS or DVD
• Joseph and His Brethren (Director: Irving Rapper and Luciano Ricci, 1960).
  Buy from Amazon.ca: VHS or DVD | Buy from Amazon.com: VHS or DVD
• Saul and David (Director: Marcello Baldi, 1964).
  Buy from Amazon.ca: VHS or DVD | Buy from Amazon.com: VHS or DVD
• Great Leaders of the Bible (Samson and Gideon) [Grandi condottieri I] (Director: Marcello Baldi, 1965).
  Buy from Amazon.ca: DVD | Buy from Amazon.com: DVD

For more movies relating to the Hebrew Bible, see my Old Testament on Film pages.

My friend Jim Linville at the University of Lethbridge up here in sunny Alberta has launched a new web forum on the Hebrew Bible called “Palimpsest: Conversations on the Hebrew Bible.”

The aim of the forum can be best represented by quoting from its “Manual of Discipline” or general guidelines:

Palimpsest is hosted by the University of Lethbridge and is open to the wider internet community for the open and free exchange of ideas within the broad scope of the critical interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. It is, therefore, open to the scholar, the student and others interested in the biblical texts and the academic work done on it.

It is about the Bible as a collection of ancient writings whose first relevance is in the ancient world in which it was produced. Within that framework, discussions are welcome on a myriad of topics: from the historical to the very literary, from positing new theories to brainstorming on an issue, or commenting on published work.

On the other hand, Palimpsest is not about theology, the confrontation of “faith” and “science” in evaluating the veracity of biblical texts, or the Bible as the property of modern religious groups. Of course, Palimpsest is also not about belittling other people’s religion or dismissing any perceived category of scholarship or intellectual thought!

Scholarship progresses both through constructive criticism and co-operative brainstorming. This forum is intended to be a venue for both avenues. Although there is no “peer-review” of posts on this forum, posters should conduct themselves according to the standards of academic integrity and honesty in place in refereed journals. We expect all posters to help maintain a friendly atmosphere even in the midst of disagreements and to avoid making any kind of inflammatory, insulting, or discriminatory comments. Misrepresentation of other people’s views (e.g., the straw man fallacy) is to be avoided as is the dismissing of other’s work because of their real or perceived religious, ideological, political, or national affiliations.

In general, it is hoped that Palimpsest can grow successfully without having to define a lot of specific rules. The Administrator reserves the right to review all policies and to implement new formal rules in response to unacceptable behaviour, and suggestions by the membership. Your input and comments are more than welcome!

There are a number of interesting forum areas set up within it, like biblical interpretation, history of Israel, Pedagogy, Reference and Review, and even an “Odds and Sods” section for more humorous posts (I definitely won’t be posting there! :-).

Of interest to those engaged in the recent discussion on the Biblical Studies list on history of Israel scholarship, there is a subsection in the History of Israel area entitled, “The State of the Guild.” It’s description is as follows:

Is there hope of a unified voice on how to disagree politely? What action, if any, is justified against authors or publishers who rely on invective or ad hominem attacks on other scholars? Or is everything fine? Are the scholarly societies helping or inadvertently censoring the free flow of ideas? What are the boundaries of the scholarly approach?

I encourage you to check this new forum out.

Last Friday Logos posted the Blass-Debrunner-Funk Greek grammar to their prepublication page. This will be the first electronic edition of this grammar and, in reality, the first and only advanced reference grammar for Greek available on any of the Bible software platform. Kudos to Logos.

And if you’re lucky, if you order yours soon, you can get free Logos icon stickers!

The Jesus-Image pierogi that Michael Turton and Jim West posted about a bit ago has sold. The Associated Press reports that GoldenPalace.com, an Internet casino known for its collection of oddities, has paid $1,775 USD for the pierogi.

I wonder what it would taste like with some sour cream and onions? “Divine” I bet, or perhaps “heavenly” (haha… I kill myself!). (Just last weekend my family and I went to a friend’s for an absolutely wonderful homemade Ukrainian dinner complete with pierogies and sausage. None of them looked like anyone but perhaps the Pillsbury Dough-boy!)

What film Jesus do you think the pierogi looks like?

I now have my personal office library entered into a bibliographic management program (EndNote). My Teaching Assistant started working on it while I was on sabbatical and just finished it. Fortunately, she was one of the summer Admissions workers at Taylor and had a bit of time to work on it during office hours over the summer. I have been wanting to have an up-to-date record of my books for a while, so I am very thankful that it is now finished (of course, the challenge will be making sure to add new books to it!)

The grand total is 1748 books.

I’m not sure how this number compares with other professors of a similar stage in their career (I have been teaching full-time for eight years), but it seems like a lot. My wife says it is far too many (Having an office at work and a professional development fund to buy books with has been very very good for my marriage!), while new students always ask, “Have you read them all?” (to which I reply, “Yes, most of them twice or three times”).

There are a number of books in my library that elicit fond memories — some for sentimental reasons, some because they have been influential, and some because I bought them for a steal! The oldest book in my library (and one of the sentimental ones) is a 1879 copy of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and the Holy War that was my grandfather’s. One of the few books my wife has bought me is B.S. Childs’ Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments (OK, I think I may have bought it and let her wrap it up!). I also have a number of books autographed by my former professor, mentor, and friend Dr. Stanley Grenz, whose untimely death earlier this year was a great loss for the community of faith.

In regards to good deals, I first need to thank all the book review editors who have given me the opportunity to review some very expensive books for scholarly journals. Some great deals include my copy of Alfred Rahlfs’ Psalmi Cum Odis which I bought for a mere pittance at a used bookstore in Toronto, as well as a number of books which I purchased from my former professor Peter Ristau (much to the chagrin of his son, Ken Ristau, who eventually followed in his father’s footsteps — too late to get any books, however!).

My best deal — and one that I am still very proud of — is my purchase of a full set of Karl Barth’s magisterial Church Dogmatics in pristine condition. While it is now available for $500 USD in paperback from Amazon.com, I purchased my hardcover set for $200 Cdn from a pastor (which is about $166 for my American readers; ₤92 for my UK readers, and €€135 for my European readers — sorry to rub it in).

I have reorganized and made some minor updates my Resources Relating to the LXX pages. The reorganization was necessary for a future expansion of the resources.

Another noteworthy Septuagint-related news item is that there are more provisional editions of the New English Translation of the Septuagint uploaded on the NETS website.

Who is your favourite film Jesus? The Arts & Faith website is taking a poll. So far it appears that Jim Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ, 2004) is leading the way at 28%, while Robert Powell (Jesus of Nazareth, 1977) and Enrique Irazoqui (Il Vangelo Secondo di Matteo, 1964) are close seconds at 14% and 12 %, respectively.

There are many great Jesus films and they all have different strengths and weaknesses. While I find it difficult to name a favourite screen Jesus, I would have to say that my personal favourite is probably Colin Blakeny (Son of Man, 1969). He’s not that popular in the polls however — he has a mere 2% so far.

I probably like Blakeny more because he is so atypical and off-the-wall. One of my favourite lines from Son of Man is where Blakeny’s Jesus is asked about whether or not they should pay taxes (Matt 22//Mark 12//Luke 20). He responds, “You give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and you give to God what belongs to God — and shut up!” Another great scene is where Jesus is giving the Sermon on the Mount. The scene is hard to describe, but it brings out the shock value of Jesus’ teaching to love one’s enemies.

Update: Mark Goodacre at NT Gateway has posted some of his thoughts on his favourite Jesus. He likes Caviezel and parts of Willem Dafoe’s Jesus in Last Temptation of Christ, Jeremy Sisto’s Jesus (1999) and Ted Neeley’s Jesus Christ Superstar. I too liked Sisto and Neeley, but I found it very difficult to watch Willem Dafoe as Jesus. He just conjures up too many other roles for me to appreciate his performance (ditto for Harvey Keitel as Judas).