A Bit More on Khirbet Qeiyafa

You’ve probably already seen this essay in the Jewish Chronicle, but as it contains this delightful snippet I simply have to (re)iterate its existence:

Garfinkel is bold in his pronouncements against the school of archeologists skeptical that the Bible left behind a chronologically reliable physical trail of evidence.  He argued that the Elah Fortress, located in the Elah Valley near the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh, is an important new weapon in the ongoing discourse.  “It’s telling them that they are wrong,” he says. “A certain amount of the biblical tradition indeed preserves historical stories and historical events. This is the first time in the history of the archeology of Israel that you have a fortified city dated to the time of David.”  Even in Jerusalem, he says, there is no clear physical record of what occurred in the 10th Century BCE, when David and later his son Solomon were said to have ruled. In large part that’s because the city, inhabited continuously since David’s time, is extremely difficult to excavate.  “No archeological site gave you such a clear picture about the Kingdom of David” as this one, he told the JTA after hiking down from the site.  But Israel Finkelstein, a Tel Aviv University archeologist and author of “David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible’s Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition,” disagrees.  “David and Solomon were historical figures, but we have to look at every piece of evidence very carefully,” he says, crucial of the rush to make conclusions on a site that he says is indeed important for understanding more about the time.  Finkelstein, a father of the scholarly group that is skeptical that the biblical narrative can be proven through archeology, thinks it’s too early to say whether the city was in fact Judean. He suggests it is even more likely a Philistine city because of its physical proximity to Gath, a major Philistine town and according to the Bible, Goliath’s hometown.

“Father Finkelstein”.  It does have a ring to it… {emphasis in bold mine}.

The ‘Cunei-forum’

Via Jack Sasson

We would like to invite scholars and students in ANE studies and related fields to the “Cuneiforum” (http://www.dur.ac.uk/banea.2009/Cuneiforum.htm) of the annual meeting of the British Association of Near Eastern Archaeology (BANEA) held at the Durham University, 8-19 January 2009.

The Cuneiforum, which will take place on Saturday January 10th, will be divided into 2 two-hour sessions:

In the first session colleagues will have an opportunity to present recent research. This session is traditionally informal and will be chaired by Magnus Widell (Liverpool). If you are interested in contributing to this session, please contact Magnus Widell (m.widell@liv.ac.uk) as soon as possible.

The second session will be a thematic session chaired by Christina Tsouparopoulou (Berlin) and Jacob Dahl (Oxford). The title of this session is “Tablets as objects: their physical characteristics and links to administrative practices.” If you are interested in contributing to this session, please contact Jacob Dahl (jacob.dahl@orinst.ox.ac.uk) or Christina Tsouparopoulou (ct272@cam.ac.uk).

The Auto Bailout Rises from the Dead?!

It seems leading Senators have come to an agreement concerning a bailout for the auto industry after all.  I hope the full Senate votes it into oblivion where it belongs.  But of course if it’s a stupid idea, they’re bound to pass it.  Like they did the 700 billion dollar bailout that has achieved absolutely nothing but to drive us further into debt.

An auto industry source said the deal would use money from the $25 billion Congress made available to the automakers in October for fuel efficient vehicle programs. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has adamantly opposed using this money for anything but its intended purpose. To attempt to please Pelosi, under this deal, the Congress would come back in January and replenish the fund for fuel efficient vehicles. This deal could potentially put Pelosi in the difficult position of either caving in or being responsible for killing the bailout. She is scheduled to talk to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid shortly.

What simpletons these politicians are.  Why do we ever vote for any of them?

Live Blog of An ASOR Session on Khirbet Qeiyafa

By one Owen Chesnut.  Note the smarmy comment (if correctly transcribed) by Dever.  What a dolt.  I will note that it must have been a very brief question and answer period.  Similarly, other smarmy comments were made during the session itself by at least one of the presenters and the audience must well have been quite odd.

Still More on Zincirli

What, you ask, is Zincirli?  Is it a new bio-fuel car being produced by America’s big three automakers in hopes of staving off their inevitable demise?  Is it a new brand of hat that scholars will be sporting in Boston at the SBL?  Is it a new holiday coffee at Starbucks?  Surprisingly, it’s none of those things.  Chip Hardy not only knows what it is, but he’s very smitten of it and offers a bit more information and further linkage to the newest Zincirli discovery here.

The Latest in the Review of Biblical Literature

A few noteworthy items include

Bob Becking
From David to Gedaliah: The Book of Kings as Story and History, Reviewed by Marvin A. Sweeney

Roland Boer, ed.
Bakhtin and Genre Theory in Biblical Studies, Reviewed by Timothy J. Sandoval

Richard A. Horsley
Scribes, Visionaries, and the Politics of Second Temple Judea, Reviewed by Lester L. Grabbe

Paul Joyce
Ezekiel: A Commentary, Reviewed by Corrine Carvalho and Steven S. Tuell

David R. Nienhuis
Not by Paul Alone: The Formation of the Catholic Epistle Collection and the Christian Canon, Reviewed by Patrick J. Hartin

The Latest Scam Aimed at Churches

In the last couple of weeks we’ve received several calls here from people claiming to have ‘visited the Church’.  Sometimes the line runs ‘You remember us, I’m Dan, we have two girls.  We visited in your church a couple of weeks ago.’  The number that crops up on caller ID is always out of State and the scam always concerns some emergency situation.  They have ‘no where else to turn’ so can the Church ‘wire money to them so they can buy a bus ticket to get back home’.  Of course ‘as soon as we return we will repay the money’.

Don’t fall for it, if you are unlucky enough to receive one of these calls.  It is a scam aimed at Churches and preying on innocent victims who may actually believe that the person calling has indeed been a visitor.  Larger churches where visitors come and go with regularity are of course more subject to the scam since what Pastor is it that can recall the names of every visitor?

Don’t ever wire money to anyone for anything unless you know the persons involved intimately.  Thieves are afoot and it’s only going to get worse as the economy continues to crash.

Martin Shields’ Guide to Gematria

No, really.

Gematria is the calculation of numerical values of words based on the assignment of values to the letters used to write the words. The obvious example of the use of gematria in the Bible is in Rev 13:18 where we are told: “let the one who has insight calculate the beast’s number, for it is man’s number, and his number is 666″ (i.e. ο εχων νουν ψηφισατω τον αριθμον του θηριου, αριθμος γαρ ανθρωπου εστιν, και ο αριθμος αυτου εξακοσιοι εξηκοντα εξ, English from NET).

Fun stuff and he even includes a gematria calculator.  Enjoy.

James Crossley’s Traveling Road Show

James informs us that he’s performing a public lecture this evening titled What New Testament Studies Could Be Doing but Isn’t.  I don’t know what his answer might be but here’s mine: ‘focusing less on modern scholars and more on Reformation theologians whose insights were surpassingly superior to 95% of their modern counterparts’.  Yes, NT Wright, I’m looking at you…  Calvin was a far better exegete…  Anyway, here’s the promo photo of James posing somewhere in the UK on his way to Church I suppose…

What Exactly is it that Obama Is Going to Change?

It certainly isn’t much, if his picks for Cabinet and White House staff positions are any indication.  In fact, it looks like politics as usual on the horizon. 

President-elect Barack Obama promised the voters change but has started his Cabinet selection process by naming several Washington insiders to top posts. Obama is enlisting former Senate leader Tom Daschle as his health secretary. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a well-known Washington personality, seemed more likely than ever to be his secretary of state. Clinton is deciding whether to take that post as America’s top diplomat, her associates said Wednesday. Obama is ready to announce that his attorney general will be Eric Holder, the Justice Department’s No. 2 when Clinton’s husband was president. Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff, is another veteran of the Clinton White House.

Mind you, Clinton did a better job than Bush has done; but Obama is apparently simply going to be Clinton II.  Which, of course, is no surprise at all since politics and politicians change in the same measure that a leopard does its spots.  So here we go again…