We are delighted to announce a fully-funded PhD scholarship in New Testament studies in our Centre for the Social-Scientific Study of the Bible at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, starting in October 2017. Come and work with two from me, James Crossley, Chris Keith and Chris Meredith (OT/HB scholar just joining us from the University of Winchester)—this will be fun! Details on our website, here. Deadline for applications is 7 November 2016. Let us know if you’re interested!
I’m looking forward to the paperback edition of this book (£95 in hardback—ouch!) so that I can learn from it. Kate Cooper of Manchester University, in the meantime, has provided us with a very helpful review here which summarises the central thesis of the book well, and hints at some of the key implications for reading the New Testament—thanks!
I was thinking I’d write a review/summary of the BBC show In the Footsteps of Judas, shown on BBC1 on Good Friday—but Ian Paul has done such a good job that I’ll simply point you to his blog on the show. In sum: a very worthwhile show with good scholars (Simon Gathercole, Helen Bond, Joan Taylor, Anthony Cane, Peter Stanford) and a good presenter holding the thread together (Kate Bottley, of Gogglebox fame). Well worth an hour of your time—still available for another 25 days on iPlayer here.
Here’s a fine review/response to R. Scott Gleaves’ book Did Jesus Speak Greek? by my friend Will Ross. Will is a fine Septuagintalist, working on a Cambridge PhD at present, and has very helpful things—in agreement and in dispute—to say on this book, which revisits the debate over the language(s) which were around in first-century Palestine and (thus) the probable language(s) which Jesus himself spoke. Well worth reading.
Here’s the third of the series of interesting interactions of scholars with my colleague Chris Keith over his excellent book Jesus against the Scribal Elite (first here and second here, plus my original review here). This time Chris Skinner engages with the book and focuses on issues around criteria for authenticity, and the offensiveness of suggesting that Jesus was illiterate to his (generally highly literate) followers today. Chris Keith provides a feisty and clarifying response. Worth a read!
