One highlight I’m anticipating is a two day bike ride with my brother, from our childhood home to the Oregon coast. Might look something like this:

Moses receiving the Law on Sinai, from Jesus. Winchester Bible, 12th century.

Bucur, who pays an evident debt to Jon Levenson’s wonderful Sinai and Zion (1985), concentrates on the refraction of Sinai and Zion through Mt. Tabor, particularly in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. Here’s what he says about Sinai and Tabor:

It is now clear that, for an important segment of patristic exegesis, the Transfiguration is not only a vision that the disciples have of Christ, but, so to speak, a vision of a vision—a vision granted to Moses and Elijah, witnessed to by the disciples—and that Moses and Elijah appear on Tabor, beholding Jesus, because they have gazed upon him before on Sinai. In fact, the exegetical connection between Sinai and Tabor is also reflected in the readings assigned for the Feast of Transfiguration: the texts selected to explicate Christ’s appearance on Tabor are Exod 24 (the anthropomorphic appearance of the Lord to the 70 elders on Sinai), Exod 33 (“the promise”), and 3 Rgns/1 Kgs 19 (Elijah at Horeb).

— B. G. Bucur, JTI 4/1 (2010): 38.

The article is accompanied by some wonderful illustrations, presented online by Eisenbrauns. I hope future issues of JTI make more use of this feature.

— David Lincicum, Paul and the Early Jewish Encounter with Deuteronomy (WUNT II/284; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010), p 198

— David Lincicum, Paul and the Early Jewish Encounter with Deuteronomy (WUNT II/284; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010), pp 61–62

The chapters that follow examine the footprint of Deuteronomy:

• at Qumran;
• in Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha;
• in the works of Philo;
• in Paul’s letters;
• in the works of Josephus;
• and in later trajectories of interpretation (Sifre and Targums).

The project was done under Markus Bockmuehl at Oxford, and it is well worth reading.

“But the Internet has been very good to me. It’s informed my creativity and aesthetics, it’s benefited me professionally and personally, and for every moment it steals, it gives back a hundred delights. I’d no sooner give it up than I’d give up fiction or any other pleasurable vice.”

—Cory Doctorow (@doctorow), via @ayjay

Smart advice follows in the rest of the piece.

The Epistle to the Hebrews and Christian Theology
MacDonald, Nathan, Richard Bauckham, Daniel R. Driver and Trevor A. Hart, editors
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2009 pp. xvii + 456. $36.00

Description: The second annual St. Andrews Conference on Scripture and Theology brought leading biblical scholars and systematic theologians together in conversation, seeking to bridge the growing gap between these disciplines. Reflecting the convergence of the Old Testament’s cultic theology, Hellenistic ideas, and early Christian thinking, the epistle to the Hebrews provides a perfect foundation for this fruitful dialogue. / The contributors examine a number of key theological themes in the letter to the Hebrews: the person and nature of the Son, his high-priestly work, cosmology, the epistle’s theology of Scripture, supersessionism, the call to faith, and more. Unlike many modern treatments, this substantial volume considers Hebrews in both its ancient context and against our modern backdrop. / Edward Adams, Loveday Alexander, Harold W. Attridge, Richard Bauckham, Markus Bockmuehl, Daniel Driver, Douglas Farrow, Trevor Hart, Richard B. Hays, Stephen R. Holmes, Morna D. Hooker, Edison M. Kalengyo, Mariam J. Kamell, Bruce L. McCormack, Nathan MacDonald, I. Howard Marshall, R. Walter L. Moberly, Carl Mosser, Mark D. Nanos, Nehemia Polen, John Polkinghorne, Ken Schenck, Oskar Skarsaune, Daniel J. Treier, John Webster, Ben Witherington III, Terry J. Wright.

Subjects: Bible, New Testament, Hebrews and Catholic Epistles, Hebrews, Literature

NY Times: Doomsayers Beware, a Bright Future Beckons

“Forget wars, religions, famines and poems for the moment,” Dr. Ridley writes. “This is history’s greatest theme: the metastasis of exchange, specialization and the invention it has called forth, the ‘creation’ of time.” You can appreciate the timesaving benefits through a measure devised by the economist William D. Nordhaus: how long it takes the average worker to pay for an hour of reading light. In ancient Babylon, it took more than 50 hours to pay for that light from a sesame-oil lamp. In 1800, it took more than six hours of work to pay for it from a tallow candle. Today, thanks to the countless specialists producing electricity and compact fluorescent bulbs, it takes less than a second.

This is no momento mori. The reviewer, quoting the author again:

“Prosperity spreads, technology progresses, poverty declines, disease retreats, fecundity falls, happiness increases, violence atrophies, freedom grows, knowledge flourishes, the environment improves and wilderness expands.”

Um, yes. Erewhon.