Category Archives: Reviews & Notices

Latest in the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures

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There is a new article uploaded to the most recent Journal of Hebrew Scriptures:

  • Aron Pinker, “Nahum and the Greek Tradition on Nineveh’s Fall,” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 6 (2006) Article 8.
    Abstract: Greek tradition does not provide consistent and reliable evidence that an unusual inundation contributed to the fall of Nineveh. The Babylonian chronicles do not mention such an extraordinary event nor have archaeological excavations at Nineveh produced any evidence in support of such notion. Nineveh’s topography precludes the possibility of significant flooding by the Khosr canal. The various verses in Nahum that have been construed as supporting flooding in Nineveh find a reasonable figurative interpretation within a contextual scheme that does not involve flooding. The notion that Nineveh was captured through flooding should be discarded.

There are also a number of new book reviews uploaded:

If interested, I would especially encourage you to take a look at the reviews of Waltke and Rendtorff.


Ben Zvi in Latest RBL (18 July 2006)

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BenZvi_Hosea.jpgI have not been posting the weekly Review of Biblical Literature publications lately, but I did want to note a rather thorough and positive review of a recent book by one of my colleagues from the University of Alberta in the 18 July edition:

Ehud Ben Zvi, Hosea (FOTL; Eerdmans, 2006).
Read the review by Laurie Braaten.
Buy from Amazon.ca | Buy from Amazon.com

Here is an excerpt from the review:

Over the centuries, the task of making sense of the book of Hosea has not only been difficult but has also has sparked much controversy in the interpretive communities. Ben Zvi has made an enormous contribution to Hosea studies and the understanding of this enigmatic prophetic book. His readings of Hosea are arguably cutting edge and deserve the careful attention of those who wish to keep current in Hosea studies and recent methods of interpretation. I found here much to employ in my future work. Likewise, as the methods Ben Zvi advocates are further refined by the academy, his work will undoubtedly be viewed as an enduring contribution to this endeavor.


Forthcoming Hebrew Language Resources

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There are a number of resources for learning Biblical Hebrew about to be published. Whlie I have not had the chance to look at any of these works, the first two books certainly fill a need for students of intermediate Hebrew — especially if they want to work on their own.

Chisholm-IntHebrew.jpgA Workbook for Intermediate Hebrew
Robert B. Chisholm
Kregel, August 2006.

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Designed to engage the Hebrew text and reinforce patterns and principles of Hebrew grammar and syntax, this resource expertly guides intermediate Hebrew students. Answers to all questions are provided, and both a useful parsing guide and glossary are also included.

Practioc-GradedReader.jpgGraded Reader of Biblical Hebrew: A Guide to Reading the Hebrew Bible
Miles V. Van Pelt, Gary D. Pratico
Zondervan, August 2006.

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Designed for the student who has completed a year of elementary Hebrew, or the pastor or scholar whose language skills have diminished due to lack of use. A structured introduction to the reading of biblical Hebrew texts. Through these readings, you will be able to review basic Hebrew grammar, become familiar with issues of intermediate grammar, and gain confidence in handling the Hebrew text. The readings chosen for inclusion, which are arranged generally in order of increasing difficulty, span the whole of the Old Testament and represent some of the most important Old Testament texts from the standpoint of biblical history, theology, and exegesis. The many notes that accompany the text include information on grammar, exegetically significant constructions, vocabulary words, idioms, bibliographic information, and more. Parsing exercises are included with each reading, and there is room to write your own English translation.

Fuller-Hebrew.jpgInvitation to Biblical Hebrew: A Beginning Grammar
Russell T. Fuller and Kyoungwon Choi
Kregel, August 2006.

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A tested approach to learning biblical Hebrew in an ideal package for the first-year Hebrew student. This clear, accurate, and pedagogically sound textbook emphasizes the basics: Hebrew phonology (sounds) and morphology (forms). This grammar does not use jargon or technical language, but uses terms easily understood and remembered so biblical Hebrew can be used with regularity and authority.

For more grammars and other language resources, see my Biblical Hebrew Resources page.


Revised Septuaginta Soon to be Published

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Wieland Willker on the Text Criticism list has alerted us to a revised edition of Rahlfs Septuagina to be published later this summer by the German Bible Society. The revision was done by Robert Hanhart and includes over a thousand minor corrrections and supplements to Rahlfs’ edition.

Rahlfs-Hanhart_LXX.jpgHere is the information from the German Bible Society:

Septuaginta (Das Alte Testament Griechisch)
Edited by Alfred Rahlfs
Editio altera (= 2., durchgesehene und verbesserte Auflage),
Edited by Robert Hanhart
12 x 18.4 cm
LXXIV + 2127 pages
ISBN 3438051192
€ 46.00

In an article published by Robert Hanhart last year (“Rechenschaftsbericht zur editio altera der Handausgabe der Septuaginta von Alfred Rahlfs” Vetus Testamentum 55 [2005] 450-60), it was made clear that this would only be a minor revision that will leave Rahlfs’ base text substantially intact.

This new “Rahlfs-Hanhart” edition will be out in July 2006.


New Book: The Dead Sea Scrolls: What Have We Learned?

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DSS_WhatLearned.jpgI am quite excited about this new book on the Dead Sea Scrolls:

The Dead Sea Scrolls: What Have We Learned?, Eileen M. Schuller (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2006; Buy from Amazon.ca | Buy from Amazon.com).

Dr. Eileen Schuller is Professor of Religious Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She is a long-time member and former President of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies and one of the leaders in translating, editing, and publishing the Dead Sea Scrolls. She has published a number of excellent works and was an associate editor of The Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Oxford University Press, 2000; Buy from Amazon.ca | Buy from Amazon.com). Most importantly, Schuller is a careful, balanced, scholar.

The blurb from the publisher has this to say about the work:

Beginning with the question, What have we learned from the Dead Sea Scrolls after 50 years of study, this book does not intend to present brand new discoveries, but rather presents a discovery made 50 years ago that everyone has heard at least something about already, and so takes the reader through the past 50 years decade by decade, highlighting key evenets and accomplishments in scrolls scholarship. The core chapters concentrate on a specific area where the scrolls have made a distinctive contribution in how we think about key questions in the development of early Judaism and early Christianity. In each chapter a few specific passages are discussed, so that the reader can become familiar with the actual text of the scrolls themselves.

The only thing I don’t get about the blurb is that it talks about the discovery made 50 years ago; the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947 — doesn’t that make it almost 60 years ago?

Here is the table of contents for the book:

  1. Fifty Years Plus: A Survey Decade-by-Decade
  2. What Have We Learned About Scripture?
  3. What Have We Learned About Prayer and Worship?
  4. What Have We Learned About Women?
  5. Looking to the Future

This would be an excellent companion to one of the standard introductions to the Dead Sea Scrolls (See my “Annotated Guide to the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls” for more resources).

Oh, yeah, did I happen to mention that Eileen Schuller was my examiner for my doctoral comprehensive on the Dead Sea Scrolls and is on my dissertation committee?