I'm not still watching the winter Olympics anymore, which is too bad because it's about the only guilt-free TV I can watch. I feel edified, somehow, even if I'm watching 15 back to back runs of 4 man bobsled, where the only difference I can see is the paint job and the number at the bottom of the screen when each team finishes.

I do have to say that the Olympics—and somehow this seems especially true of the winter Olympics—are less exciting now that the Cold War is over. Maybe this is just because the first Olympics I watched were in the twilight of that era and I'm nostalgic for my youth. But somehow the geo-political tension just wasn't there for me when Russia lost their bronze medal match in ice hockey, or even when Japan stood over America and Russia on the podium for women's figure skating.

Tags: Humor

I don't suppose you've ever been sitting at home on an evening, quietly reading away, when you're struck by the urgent need to read part of Jubilees. That's exactly what happened to me last night, and I was pleased to find Peter Kirby's Early Jewish Writings online, disappointed that his link to the text had rotted, but was happy again to find a different host of the R. H. Charles translation. (The advantage of this site over the link provided on Wikipedia, which appears to be the new destination for Kirby's link, is that it has page numbers, so can be cited in a pinch.)

My emotions have stabilized this morning, back at my desk, now that I have have the O. S. Winermute translation (in Charlesworth, Vol 2) for comparison. Still, I feel somewhat chastened at the thought of: (a) the link rot I must have caused when I rashly deleted my old blog at the start of this month, and (b) the upkeep involved in making a good web page. Kirby's page is still an impressive online resource, but the internet is a volatile medium. And given the limits of public domain, understandably even with translations of ancient texts, online resources like these are almost invariably out of date.

Ah, the joys and perils of the world wide web.

Tags: PhD

A piece from Slate skewers corporate blogging. I recognize that there are several reasons for blogging, but I thought glamorizing and formalizing the time a person spends not working were near the top of the list. The blogging-for-profit motive is almost antithetical to the genre.

Tags: Blogging, Humor

Carla informs me of two upcoming Enoch events (posted on g-megillot), both involving Gabriele Boccaccini.

First: "A New Generation of Enochic Studies," at the University of Michigan, May 2-4, 2006

Second: The Fourth International Enoch Seminar, in Camaldoli, Italy, July 9-11, 2007

I wouldn't be able to make the first (if it's even open to me), but the summer following sounds like a great reason to go back to Italy. I would be excited to hear from anybody attending the U Michigan conference in a few months.

Boccaccini's recent work with Enoch is turning out to be a hot potato, it seems. Two titles of his are on my current reading shelf as they pertain to the Enochic Judaism course I'm auditing this semester:





Tags: PhD

My copy of the new Nickelsburg/VanderKam translation of 1 Enoch arrived in the mail this morning, just in time to reread The Book of the Watchers (chapters 1-36) before my course in Enochic Judaism at 2.00 pm.



Jim Davila mentioned the translation recently (here). Grant Macaskill (lecturer for Enochic Judaism) has been showing us marvelous things out of Nickelsburg's 1 Enoch commentary (Hermeneia, 2001), but until I get a bit more serious about working on 1 Enoch, this volume remains out of my price range. The paperback will be a good substitute for the meanwhile.

So far, I like the headings that outline the text according to the authors' analytical readings. It makes it easy to find my way around as I'm getting to know the text. Also, the cover photo of 4QEn^c i 6 looks really good next to my new copy of Rosenthal's Grammar of Biblical Aramaic, which I'm also finding my way around in at present, and which features a photo of 4QDan^b.

Tags: PhD

That last post was pretty long, which might mean it was a waste of time considering the fact that almost nobody's reading my resuscitated blog yet. But I guess it's OK if somebody's cyber-thoughts remain private for once.

Anyway, the site that hosts the Scott Swanson article (cf. the long post) has more than just the one piece. There are several other resources on typology.

Bible Research is edited by Michael Marlowe, self-described as "theologically … conservative and Reformed." I consider myself neither, but there appear to be enough points of contact with my understanding of biblical theology that I shall have a second look. Some other night.

Tags: PhD, Figura

I was digging around for full bibliographic information and found what I needed in a footnote on this page, an article by Scott Swanson asking why evangelicals are still asking if they should reproduce the exegesis of the NT. This has been an important question for Chris Seitz, and I'm somewhat familiar with the issues because of the Scripture and Theology seminar he facilitates here at St Andrews.

Swanson has read fairly widely on the question (hence I found the bib. data I needed). I'm not surprised to find R B Hays' Echos of Scripture coming into the discussion, especially given Swanson's conclusion. I must say I'm disappointed that Childs has not been considered, however. I'll try to explain why he should have been.

Swanson's view comes through clearly towards the end of the essay.

Many who would admit that we can reproduce the NT writers' exegesis of the OT, nevertheless hesitate to recommend that we do so, fearing past abuses. But why must we fear that this is warrant to find anything anywhere in Scripture? What it is warrant to do is to find Christ in the OT exactly as the NT does (emphasis added). We have clear guidelines and safeguards …

Insofar as my own PhD research is aimed at a positive reappraisal of typological exegesis, this line of argument catches my attention. If I'm honest, I might have tried to argue something similar about a year ago. My view after spending time with Childs, however, is that figural reading today cannot mean simply repristinating the NT's exegetical method.

For one thing, what of the inner hermeneutic of the OT? Michael Fishbane's important Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel (OUP, 1985) comes to mind. If the assumption is that if the Bible exegetes a certain way, we can too, why should we only tune in to the way the NT exegetes scripture? This is either a form of Marcionism, or an over-simple view of the complexity of the OT material. Inner-biblical exegesis is a highly complex phenomenon. Adopting it again today would require something a good deal more complex than what Swanson suggests. He concludes:

Why then do evangelicals continue to produce so many excellent textbooks and studies on hermeneutics, with yet hardly a word on how students should learn biblical interpretation from the practice of the apostles? Why do we still often speak of the NT "use" of the OT? Those NT writers do not see themselves as only "using" or "applying" or "appropriating" the separate meaning of the OT for their new circumstances. They proclaimed what it meant (emphasis added). That meaning was what the Lord himself had explained to them (Luke 24:27) and opened their minds to understand (v. 45) concerning himself. It was the meaning which was in all the Scriptures (v. 27), and which must find its fulfillment in him (v. 44). Dare we say that we have not been foolish and slow of heart to believe it?

The Emmaus Road text is certainly relevant and important, but it seems to me that the view that scripture has just one meaning, and that it's meaning is plain, fails to do justice to what Luke 24 suggests about the relationship of OT and NT scripture for Christians today. (Is the tone of these concluding paragraphs, after so many careful footnotes, what makes the position rhetorically evangelical in the end??)

I guess I have two points. One, as I've tried to state, if you want inner-biblical exegesis, it's more complex to get up and running than this. Two, and this is what I've learned from Childs, and also Seitz, if inner-biblical exegesis is to be somehow normative or binding on us, how is extracting it from NT or OT or both different from creating a new canon within the canon? This time it's not God's saving acts in history, but God's hermeneutics in history. The remarkable thing here is that more people than Swanson move in this direction. Cf. the more prominent NT scholars Francis Watson and Richard Hays.

And with that contentious suggestion, I'll stop my oversized response to Swanson. It's ten years late, I know, but the issue remains quite current.

Tags: Canon, Figura

Adriel often meets with international students on Saturday nights, so I sometimes spend them at work. Tonight I'm plowing through some bibliography entries, always slow-going. I'm mining them from David Stern, Parables in Midrash: Narrative and Exegesis in Rabbinic Literature (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991).

Stern mentions Isaac Heinemann, who he says is the first modern to critically (rather than dogmatically) examine midrash. The analysis is found in his Darkhei HaAggadah (The Methods of Aggadah). I'm having trouble locating the volume but at least found a web page all about Heinemann, by Marc Bregman. (Looking at the rest of his faculty web page, I see he links several other online publications.) I'll need to get my hands on the Heinemann study at some point…

Tags: Midrash

are finally online. Take a look…

While I'm at it, here's the bunkhouse where we stayed, and here's a map with links to places on the island.

Tags: Personal

In downloading software updates for my key applications, I discovered that Mellel has supported Spotlight searches since November 2005. I don't know how I missed it, but you can bet I'll be using the feature from here on out. If you use Mellel and Spotlight, be sure to install the Mellel Spotlight plugin.

If you're wondering how all this can make your life easier, see my software for research page, which has been updated slightly in light of the Mellel plugin.

Tags: Mac

Adriel and I took advantage of a long weekend (for her work) and drove to the Isle of Skye, the largest of the Hebrides. We had beautiful weather on the drive out, but the island was storm-beaten for our one full day there. We still ventured out, and got very wet and muddy. Even so, it was clear to us that the island offers dramatic scenery and is ideal for hiking excursions, even perhaps in strong wind and rain if one has the proper gear (we didn't quite).

As a result of the inclement weather, we spent longer than usual reading in the hostel. I read up on the Hebrides, and I now have it in my head that I want to visit the uninhabited Island of St Kilda. Anybody want to come?

Photos of the trip—though probably few and overcast—are soon to come.

Tags: Personal

Today I posted a summary of Chapter 2 of my thesis, Georg Steins’ Intertextual Alternative to Brevard Childs [page no longer exists, but see research overview now; —DRD, 07.2007], along with some implications of my results for future research.

As I added the links, I kept wondering about the wisdom of making my work so public at this point in time. Does it matter that this site says "© 2006 D. R. Driver" at the bottom of every page? Am I vulnerable for criticizing well-established scholars in an informal context? I'm not exactly handing out my work, but I am making the scope of my research relatively plain. I would welcome any comments on this issue.

Adriel asks me why I care to put all this info online in the first place. Am I compensating for the insecurity brought on by a slowly receding hairline?

Oh, and so that I can have your feedback, I've enabled comments through HaloScan. (For now at least. I did see Davila's warning.)

Tags: PhD

Yesterday saw the start of a new semester. Technically I'm not taking classes anymore, so this matters somewhat less to me than to the undergrads all around me. But I will be auditing two courses this spring.

First, I'll sit in on Dr Grant Macaskill's class on Enochic Judaism. (Grant was, until recently, a fellow post-grad here at St Andrews. He's now a post-doc. No page yet on the college web-site.) That's on Mondays.

Second, I start Biblical Aramaic with Dr Davila (of PaleoJudaica fame). The first meeting is today, Tuesday.

Wednesdays are for postgraduate seminars. In the Scripture & Theology seminar (Dr Elliott at the helm) we start by looking at the text and reception of the Holiness Code (especially Leviticus 18). In the second part of the semester we'll probably take a look at Hans Urs von Balthasar’s The Glory of the Lord VII: The New Covenant.

The rest of the time I'll be reading Childs, reading up on midrash (whatever that often vague term might mean), and working on the Hebrews conference (I just posted some minor updates to that site). I'm not tutoring this semester, though. Should be busy enough without it.

Tags: Personal, PhD

I was able to use allforms, a free service, to get the contact page up and running. I've tested it, and it works this time.

I confess I don't know exactly what category to put this in. Humor is closest for me, but for Todd, who hosts RaptureReady.com, the issue is deadly serious. If he finds this post, I hope he'll pardon my impiety.

The site's content is extensive, so I'm not sure how to describe it briefly. I might recommend visiting the Rapture Index for a start. Todd applies his own calculus to the signs of the times, and then generates an index of the rate at which we're hurtling towards a pre-trib rapture. On 30 January, for instance, there was a net change of +1 on the rapture index, for a score of 158. Thus we're still well above "Heavy Prophetic Activity" in the "Fasten Your Seat Belts" zone, which has no ceiling.

A closer analysis of the net increase shows two factors, both related to the Hamas election victory. Under index 21, Anti-Semitism, we're told that "The Hamas win has increased the threat to Israel." Thus +2. On the other hand, the same event downgraded index 30, The Peace Process, by one point.

Of the 45 specific indexes some are surprising. Number 34, The Antichrist, dropped because of the French vote against the UN constitution. Also, 32, The Mark of the Beast, reports that "the U.S. Patriot Act has failed to get enough votes for extension." Both point to a willingness to depart from blind support of the Bush administration and the war effort. This challenges the view of some left-leaning reporters on the religious right (such as Jeff Sharlet) that American fundamentalism means warmongering and thirst for empire.

Yet Todd also shows strains of Bush support. Another page worth visiting, The Mr. Antichrist Evil Pageant, lists several hopefuls, such as Mikhail Gorbachev (former leader of the former Soviet Union??), Kofi Annan, and even Prince Charles and Prince William (who graduated St Andrews just last year—this is getting very close to home). George Bush and Tony Blair also appear. However, Bush "made the list simply because he is the current acting (sic) U.S. President." And Blair "is mostly regarded as a light weight contender."

But zeal for politics and the end of the world have been difficult interests to reconcile for American Christians of Todd's stripe since the rise of dispensational theology.

If it turns out that Todd is right after all, there's helpful material for people who weren't ready, such as Oops, I Guess I Wasn't Ready and the Post Rapture Survival Guide. Being faithful at this stage will probably involve getting martyred, but perhaps there will be time to appreciate the humor intentionally posted on RaptureReady, like The Resumé of Jesus Christ. This, we're told, is "humorous but yet true." Probably like most ostensibly humorous things from within such a point of reference.

Tags: Humor

I've just discovered that my contact form does not work with the .Mac server. I know a work around, which I'll implement soon. Sorry, though, if you sent a message to me in the last few days. I did not receive it.

While I'm at it, I've had to restructure a few things. The paths won't be the same as they were at the end of last week. You probably won't notice unless you subscribed to the RSS feed, or bookmarked a page (of course the base URL remains the same, though).

Those of you who noticed my post on blogspot (Carla) no doubt had me at the bottom of an RSS feeder somewhere. If you're still interested, it is now possible to subscribe to this blog now. Just click here, or follow the link on the sidebar.

Carla, I entirely take your point about these pages feeling a bit clinical. Any further suggestions? I still appreciate the general CSS layout. Maybe I could tweak the colors and redo the header. But that might not be enough.

UPDATE: I rearranged the structure of files on this site, which means the address for the RSS feed changed once again. Sorry. The above link has been corrected. I'm done changing this type of thing, I think.

I've decided to give the web presence thing a second go. One year ago I started blogging on blogspot, but for whatever reason that effort petered out. The last entry listed the offerings at our last IWER meeting, perhaps leaving the impression that whisky had got the better of me. Perhaps it has.

Since I've stopped blogging, though, I've wondered if a site that features more permanent content might better suit my habits. I'm not a blogging polymath like Jim Davila, after all.

Look for more content in the days to come. I may be able to start blogging again, too, though no promises.

I'm making an effort to read everything Childs ever wrote. It's a challenge akin to reading all of Barth, or the whole of Hebrew Scriptures in Hebrew.

Thus far I've read everything from 1958 through 1979 (the year of my birth, incidentally). There are of course a variety of themes which will have to be summarized in my next chapter, but thanks to a gift of an article from Don Collett, I believe I have discovered a key influence on his early work, one that thus far has gone undiscussed in the literature.

I don't want to publish my discovery online before I get a chance to write it up, but if you're interested you can email me at drd4 @ st-andrews.ac.uk to discuss it. Or if you live in or near St Andrews, take me out to coffee.

By the way—view Childs' impressive bibliography on this very site.

Tags: Childs, PhD

Can't remember the details of the episode with Onan (Genesis 38)? Try this punny summary, which borrows banking terminology:

Onan refused to make a deposit, so God penalized him for an early withdrawal.

Tags: Humor