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So you want to be a scholar?

I suppose this is a compliment to an earlier post, "Why a PhD?". D. A. Carson gave the following (excellent!) advice to those who might have an inclination toward scholarship at the conference, "The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor." [You can access video/audio of Carson's address and video/audio of Piper's address, both worthy of your time].

The following list is taken from my own notes.

1. Don't just be a 'quarter-master' (i.e., scholar)
2. Beware the seduction of applause.
• It can come from an academic direction (academic peer approval vs. Divine approval).
• It can come from the conservative constituency of your friends ("I'm more conservative than you are.")
3. Fight with every fiber of your being the false dichotomy of 'devotional study' and 'objective study'.
• Be devout in your most critical, detailed exegesis.
• Never develop an upstairs-downstairs mentality.
4. Never forget that there are people out there for whom Christ died.
5. Happily recognize that God distributes different gifts to various pastor-scholars.
• Rejoice even more at scholars who are more productive than you are.
• Learn from those who have gone ahead of you to be strategic.
6. Recognize that students don't learn everything you teach them.
• Ask, "What do they really learn in terms of life-long commitment." 
• They learn what I'm excited about. 
7. Make the main thing the main thing - teaching students the 'how' not just the 'what' - don't just know what is right, but where in the Bible it comes from.
8. Pray and work for a scholarly vision beyond that which is offered by publishers.
• Don't get owned by publishers!
9. Love the church.
10. Avoid 'lone-ranger' scholarship.
• Francis Bacon said, "Reading maketh a full man; speaking maketh a quick man; writing maketh an exact man." You want to collaborate with others who read; speak with them, and write in their presence.
11. Be at least as interested in the work of others as your own.
12. Take the work seriously but not yourself.

The Gospel of Mark

I recently ran across a blog post by Dr. Mark Goodacre discussing his view that the Centurion's cry in Mark 15:39 is a sarcastic one, intending to say something like, as Dr. Goodacre put it, "Huh, truly this fellow as a son of God!"? This 'ironic' interpretation is supported positively in the article--that is to say that it doesn't seem to be Dr. Goodacre's purpose to offer criticism against the alternative (popular) view at this point.

Whatever the centurion meant, irony is present. That a centurion would utter a genuine confession that Christ is the Son of God carries a certain 'shock value' for the reader. Alternatively, that a centurion would mock Christ with sarcasm with an 'unwitting proclamation of the truth' (to use the words of Cranfield, St Mark, 460) is equally shocking.

There is little doubt that Mark loves irony. One example I enjoy is in Mark 6. After crowds are amazed at Jesus' teaching (6:2), Jesus is amazed at the unresponsiveness of crowds in his hometown (6:6). Mark weaves this theme of 'amazement' through his Gospel to create irony [See: Dwyer, "The Motif of Wonder in the Gospel of Mark," JSNT, 57 (March 1995), 45-59).]

The amazing rhetoric throughout the Gospel of Mark testifies to its unity in composition and (in my view) its veracity. In regard to rhetoric and narrative coherance, I have found Timothy J. Geddert's commentary on Mark to be helpful. It is by no means technical, but I have not found a comparable commentary that exposes the narrative coherance of Mark.

By the way, have you reflected on the content of the centurion's statement? Are you shocked? Isn't that what Mark intended? What did Mark hope his readers would leave his narrative thinking? Believing? Doing? Do you suppose Mark would be dissapointed in your response?

Vote and Pray or Pray and Vote

I must admit, I hesitate to write any sort of political post because such a post is not the nature of this blog.  In any case, the upcoming election for president of the U.S. seems to be significant.  While I'm not excited about either candidate, one of the two quite frankly troubles me.  Obama's stance on issues of abortion and life is absolutely appalling.  Not many want to discuss this, however.  

The following article is worth a look:  Obama's Abortion Extremism.  

Here's the author's bio: Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He is a member of the President's Council on Bioethics and previously served on the United States Commission on Civil Rights. He sits on the editorial board of Public Discourse.

Be careful little lips . . .

James 1:19 - "Therefore, my beloved brethren, let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to get angry."

Speaking of 'slow to speak', here are a couple of links relevant to the pros and cons of 21st century (cyber) communication.  First, a helpful blog post entitled "Shallow Knowledge" deals with the way we learn.  As a Bible/Greek student, I find this post highly relevant to Bible Software programs as well.  Second, "John Mark Reynolds, public speaker and director of the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University," addresses the problems of internet discourse and what bloggers can do to raise the level of conversation on the internet in this mp3.  

The cliff notes: It seems that for the first time in history, we have a form of communication which is both highly informal and highly permanent.  Our 'online' conversations may be with us forever, viewed by anyone (friend or enemy), and left in an obscure corner of cyberspace without any good context.  

Be careful little lips what you say!

List of Helpful (or free) Resources

This is a rough draft which will probably be trimmed up a bit.  Some of the resources are less helpful than others but may be free to access.  

*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*

Journals (compiled by the Divinity School at Vanderbilt)

The Bible Today. 

The Bible Translator. 

Biblica. 

Biblical Interpretation: A Journal of Contemporary Approaches. 

Biblical Research. 

Biblical Theology Bulletin. 

Biblische Zeitschrift. 

Cahiers De Biblia Patristica. 

Catholic Biblical Quarterly. 

Elenchus Bibliographicus Biblicus. 

Ephemerides. 

Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses Elenchus Bibliographicus. 

Etudes Bibliques. 

Expository Times. 

Foundations and Facets Forum. 

Havard Theological Review. 

Horizons in Biblical Theology. 

Index to Book Reviews on Religion. 

Interpretation. 

Journal of Biblical Literature. 

Journal of New Testament Studies. 

Literature and Theology. 

New  Testament Studies. 

New Testament Abstracts. 

Novum Testamentum. 

Religion Index One. 

Religion Index Two:Multi-Author Works (Rit). 

Religious Index Two: Festschriften 1960-1969. 

Religious Studies Review.

Review and Expositor. 

Revue Biblique. 

Rhetorica:  A Journal of the History of Rhetoric. 

Semeia. 

Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers. 

Tyndale Bulletin. 

Vetus Testamentum. 

Zeitschrift Fur Die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft Und Die Kunde Der Alteren Kirche (Znw).

 

*Excerpted a Vanderbilt Divinity School bibliography, revised 2003.  [http://divinity.library.vanderbilt.edu/bibliographies/new_testament.pdf]

 

 

Misc. Resources for NT studies:

 

Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt (ANRW – “The Rise and Decline of the Roman World).  This is actually a series of books which contain various essays by experts on the subject.  It contains articles in English among other languages.  You may be able to search the index here: http://www.uky.edu/AS/Classics/biblio/anrw.html.   Also, Rodney Decker has a running bibliography of relevant articles within this series.  You can retrieve this as a .pdf file at: http://www.ntresources.com/documents/ANRW_bibliog.pdf

 

Australian Biblical Review.  Table of Contents and book reviews available at website. [http://www.fbs.org.au/abr.html]

 

*The Bible and Critical Theory.  Published online. [http://publications.epress.monash.edu/loi/bc/index.html]

 

*Biblica.  Full text .pdf files available. Published by the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome [http://www.bsw.org/project/biblica/].

 

*The Denver Journal.  Published by Denver Seminary.  Available online. [http://www.denverseminary.edu/resources/the-denver-journal/]

 

*Filología Neotestamentaria.  Volumes 7-19 available online. [http://www.bsw.org/project/filologia/index.php]

 

*Journal of Biblical Literature.  Quarterly publications can be accessed online as far back as 2003.  [http://www.sbl-site.org/publications/journals_JBL_backissues.aspx]

 

*Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism.  Current year available online; past years available in print through Sheffield press.  RSS feed available.  [http://jgrchj.net/home].

 

Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum (SEG).  Bibliography of Greek inscriptions updated each year. 

 

* = Available online in part or whole.

 

Web Resources

http://www.ntresources.com Many resources from Dr. Rodney Decker.  Very useful.

 

http://www.NTGateway.com Mostly links and references for New Testament studies.

 

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu  Texts, maps, and archeology.

 

http://www.tlg.uci.eduThesaurus Lingua Graecae.

 

Duke Papyrus Archive: http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/papyrus/.

 

Oxyrhynchus Papyri.  Online at: http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/POxy/papyri/the_papyri.html

 

Pseudepigrapha online at: http://ocp.acadiau.ca/

 

List of Papyri links at: http://members.tripod.com/~papyri/links-2.html - Collections.

 

Images of inscriptions at http://epigraphy.packhum.org/inscriptions/ (Packard Humanities Institute – PHI).

 

Bibliographic Information:

The Denver Journal publishes a NT Bibliography every year. [http://www.denverseminary.edu/article/new-testament-exegesis-bibliography-2008/]

 

Glynn, John.  Commentary and Reference Survey.  Grand Rapids: Kregal, 2007.  Very useful.

 

Bibliography from Vanderbilt Divinity School, revised 2003.  [http://divinity.library.vanderbilt.edu/bibliographies/new_testament.pdf]

Free Resource

I have subscribed (via RSS) to a great online journal.  Check it out if you haven't already.  Much of today's scholarship is becoming available via the web or digitization.  I'm sure there will be disadvantages to this trend, but in the mean time, our self-expectations in scholarship must rise with the opportunities that we now have.