Yes!

I found out that I recently won the following books from a giveaway (with the lofty title, "The Amazing T&T Clark Book Giveaway of 2014") by the folks over at The Jesus Blog (+ T&T Clark):

(1) Maurice Casey, Jesus: Evidence and Argument or Mythicist Myths? (March 2014)

(2) Chris Keith and Anthony Le Donne editors, Jesus, Criteria, and the Demise of Authenticity (August 2012)

(3) Helen Bond, The Historical Jesus: A Guide for the Perplexed (May 2012)

This is an area of NT studies that continues to spark interest for me, so I'm very happy to add them to my library collection. Thanks to Chris, Anthony, and T&T Clark for this generous giveaway. If you haven't checked out The Jesus Blog yet, go take a look now here.

Say it ain't so!

Google Reader is coming to an end! It has been my go-to website to read all the blogs I subscribe to as an RSS-feed reader... What other programs are out there that are worth using??

HELP.

HT: Google Blog

New Google Reader

For my more tech-savvy friends, how do you 'share' stuff that you read on Google Reader now with the people you orig. had listed as being able to read whatever it is you 'shared'? I usually share stuff that I find interesting with my wife and now that ability seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur with this "new" change (seems more confusing and aesthetically-deficient to me)...

HELP!

UCLA and manuscripts

Just found out today that my alma mater, UCLA, now holds the largest repository of Ethiopic manuscripts in North America. Some excerpts of this article:

he UCLA Library has acquired the largest private collection of Ethiopic manuscripts and scrolls in the U.S., given by Gerald and Barbara Weiner. Together with the library's existing collections, this gift makes the UCLA Library the leading repository for Ethiopic manuscripts in North America. A classical Semitic language, Ethiopic is used as the liturgical language of the Christian church in Ethiopia. Dating from the 18th to the 21st centuries, the collection of 137 bound manuscripts and 102 scrolls is particularly rich in elaborately illustrated liturgical texts. Highlights include a late 19th/early 20th-century version of the Gospels containing 78 miniatures; a 19th-century "lives of the saints" with 40 miniatures; a 20th-century compilation of a table blessing and miracles performed by Jesus with 37 miniatures; and a 20th-century collection of prayers with an image of John the Evangelist and 26 miniatures.

"Words cannot express our deep thanks to Jerry and Barbara — first, for building this gorgeous collection, then for giving it to us," said UCLA University Librarian Gary E. Strong. "These extraordinary items, noteworthy both for their research value and their beauty, will be of great interest to students and scholars, as well as to the extensive Ethiopian community in Southern California." ...

To see more, go to the UCLA newsroom here.

HT: PaleoJudaica.com

Welcome to the blogosphere

I would like to give a shout-out to my fellow Dukie and friend, Ross Jahnke to the blogosphere. He's just about finished with his Th.M at Duke Divinity School and I've enjoyed the numerous conversations we've had this past year (and sad that him and his wife will be moving away so soon!). He just started a new blog here, called Ross Jahnke: sharing half-baked reflections from a Christian life. A modest blog title for a very smart fellow! Please drop by his blog and say hello if you get a chance!

Radio silence

To my readers:

Apologies for the lack of any posts lately! Finals are coming up and I have two big (or three I guess if you count something I've been working on for journal submission since last semester) papers as we approach the end of this semester. Duke likes to assign a ton of reading and it's been super busy, so please excuse the infrequency of posts. I'm hoping to have more collected thoughts over the summer, so we'll talk more then. I'm glad that my first year at Duke is almost over and if you're wondering what my Fall schedule might be like, this is the tentative outlook:

OT in NT seminar
Learning Theology with CS Lewis
Intro to Aramaic
History: Between Augustine & Anselm
Christian Scripture & Ethics

Hopefully it'll end up being a great semester. Wish me well for the upcoming finals week!

A reading program for the new year?

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful weekend with family and friends, as we kick off another new year. I recently came across a blog that has created a chart for reading these two volumes in one year!

The two volumes of the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. The first volume contains apocalyptic literature (e.g. 1 Enoch) and various testaments (e.g. Testament of Moses) and the second volume contains expansions of OT and legends (e.g., Letter of Aristeas, Joseph and Asenath, etc.), wisdom/philosophical literature, prayer/psalms/odes, and fragments of lost Judeo-Hellenistic works (e.g. Ezekiel the Tragedian). Today and tomorrow is only the introduction in the first volume and the intro to 1 Enoch, so why not go here, and get started on a new reading program for 2011?

Happy New Year!

Blogging and the 'biblioblog' dilemma

There's been some recent discussions here, here, and here about what biblioblogs should and should not be doing, and with the proliferation of blogs, one might be inclined to quickly remove a blog that has not posted anything recently regarding biblical studies. Unfortunately, I think I fall under that category, and I hope my readers have not removed me from their feeds! With graduating two months ago, to wedding planning, to moving, etc., there's been absolutely no time for me to really think about anything interesting in biblical studies, so apologies to my readers if they've been seeing a huge drop-off in anything interesting lately. I hope as I enter back to school in the Fall at Duke, I'll have some more interesting thoughts, but until then, bear with the random musings!

Spend your $... on me, for you?

On the widget below, I have a few recommended books that I think every Christian would benefit from. So go ahead and spend your money to buy these great books for yourself! As a caveat, I want to let you know that it is through something called "Amazon Associates," and I do receive some small compensation! But, if you are planning on buying these books anyway, why not spend some $ on me, for you?

I am planning to update the list every few weeks, so go ahead and buy it! And if you really insist on buying these books without spending it on me, I would still be very happy that you bought them so please go ahead and buy them at a bookstore of your own choice!