Kevin Edgecomb has created a new email list for those interested in discussing academic biblical studies called biblicalia. This list is a companion piece to his relatively new blog biblicalia.
For more information about this new discussion list you can read Kevin’s blog entry here; or you can sign-up directly at Yahoo!.
Another good — and at times controversial — email list for those interested in discussing the academic study of the Bible is the Biblical Studies list moderated by Jim West.
The Logos Bible Software Blog has an interesting post on performing syntactical searches in the Hebrew Bible with their Andersen�Forbes Analyzed Text of the Hebrew Bible (A-F) database. Unfortuantly, A-F is only currently available as part of their Logos 3.0 beta version (and I am not sure I want to install a beta version!). Here is the link:
It is quite exciting to see a number of new syntactical tools for study of the Hebrew Bible. Now there is not only the Stuttgart Electronic Study Bible for Logos (see my blog post here), there is this new Andersenâ€?Forbes database. טוב מ×?ד
Ben Witherington offers some excellent guidance on blog posting etiquette (“blogiquette” anyone? How’s that for a neologism!). He proffers a rudimentary set of rules for bloggers to consider before they post: On Speaking Privately in Public — on Blogs
Here is an excerpt where he states his premise:
Doubtless most of us have been there. You are stuck in an airport waiting for a flight, and at least four or five private conversations are going on around you. Now its one thing when the other person is there and you are talking to them. That’s all fine. But suppose you are in a quiet space, like some airports have set up for laptop users and the like— and someone breaks out the cellphone and begins talking at the top of his or her voice? This is having a private conversation in public, in a manner that is rude and obnoxious, ignoring and being oblivious to the fact that there are others around who might not want to hear what is being said. Though we have all endured this in one form or another, we now have a new form of public rudeness of this sort– on blogs.
Witherington provides some excellent rules of thumb to consider before you click the “publish post” button. That being said, the analogy between overhearing a private conversation in public breaks down since blogs are not really public in the same way as a conversation in a public place. While anyone may read a blog, to do so they have to decide to go to URL to read it. If you don’t like what someone says in their blog, you can just not go there.
Nonetheless, an excellent post for all to consider.
At my wife’s beckoning, I had to take a quick break from my marking (have I mentioned how much I love marking…) to clear the corpse of a mouse from a trap. Mouse number three has felt the cold hard steel of my expandable trigger mouse trap.
This infuses the traditional “T’was the Night before Christmas” poem with new meaning: “all through the house not a creature was stirring living, not even a mouse”!
Stay tuned for some more mouse facts as soon as I finish grading… the end is nigh!
This was recently posted on the ANE list. Good food for thought, IMHO.
I have for some time been concerned about the character of the discussion on [insert academic forum of your choice here] as is typified in this string (and so many others). I’ve spent much of my life hanging around academia. I went to grad school for 20 years at three institutions. I finished two masters degrees and a terminal degree. I put a couple of decades into research. I’ve taught for a decade, and I’ve attended a lot of conferences. Through the years, I’ve met a lot of people with doctorates and lesser degrees. I’ve met a lot of teachers and a few real scholars. One thing that I’ve learned through the years is that real scholars are usually humble and gentle people. They are low key because the evidence drives them to it. Real scholars understand how weak any case is and how limited any grasp of the evidence can be. I’ve also met a great many people who try very hard to make other people think that they are smart. They are wannabees no matter how their resumes may read and no matter what status they may have grabbed for themselves. I’ve seen some wannabees treated with a level of respect that borders on awe because of their sales skills, while I’ve seen some real scholars largely ignored because they don’t try to sell themselves.
– Rodger Dalman (reproduced with permission)