Acts and More

There seems to be a growing movement to use ‘Judaeans’ to translate Ἰουδαῖοι in the New Testament and other ancient writings (e.g. Josephus), influenced particularly to Steve Mason’s key article, ‘Jews, Judaeans, Judaizing, Judaism: problems of categorization in ancient history’, Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Period 38 (2007) 457-512. Here’s a fascinating piece by Adele Reinhartz responding to this view and arguing for the continuing use of ‘Jews’—well worth reading.  

Here’s a very nice tribute and set of memories of Rod Decker, who died recently. Rod was a lovely man and a fine teacher and writer on Greek. I’m looking forward to seeing his introductory Greek grammar and his 2-volume handbook on Mark when they appear later in the year.

The sad news has come today that Rod Decker has died after quite a long illness with cancer. Here’s the note from his wife. Rod is a lovely man and fine scholar (verb tense carefully chosen, as Rod would always have insisted): his introductory Greek grammar and his Baylor Greek Handbook on Mark (in 2 volumes) were his final major projects and they will be out later this year. We thank God for him and send much love to his family.