"I Don't Like Candy Corn"

Gerald Sheppard Festschrift

 

I heard from Randall Heskett this weekend that he has in hand the first extant copy of the Gerald Sheppard Festschrift, and that it will be available at the SBL meetings in Atlanta next month. This is great news; to see the volume on the T&T Clark Site, click here. I contributed an essay, and am greatly looking forward to seeing the other contributions:

Section I: Hearing the Word of God Through Historically Dissimilar Traditions
Walter Brueggemann - Priests for the Kingdom—Two Priesthoods for Two Regimes
Erich Zenger - “If You Listen to My Voice …” (Exod. 19:5): The Mystery of Revelation
Randall Heskett - Deuteronomy 29–34 and the Formation of the Torah
John E. Harvey - Jehoiachin and Joseph: Hope at the Close of the DtrH
Robert R. Wilson - Scribal Culture and the Composition of the Book of Isaiah
Paul D. Wegner - Seams in the Book of Isaiah: Looking for Answers
Stephen L. Cook - An Interpretation of the Death of Isaiah’s Servant
James D. Nogalski - Micah 7:8–20: Re-evaluating the Identity of the Enemy
Norman K. Gottwald - Social Drama in the Psalms of Individual Lament
W. Derek Suderman - Are Individual Complaint Psalms Really Prayers?: Recognizing Social Address as Characteristic of Individual Complaints
David John C. Zub - God as the Object of Anger in the Psalms
Peter Enns - The Contribution of Ecclesiastes to Biblical Theology
Pedro Zamora - The Daniel and Qohelet Epilogues: A Similar Editorial Activity? (Qohelet 12:8-14 and Daniel 12:1-13)
Frank D. Macchia - Justification by Faith: A Case of Hearing the One Gospel Through Historically Dissimilar Traditions
Michael T. Dempsey - Divine Action and Biblical Interpretation: How the Ordinary Words of Men and Women become the Living Word of God in Scripture
Section II: Additional Studies
Marion Ann Taylor - “Cold Dead Hands upon Our Threshold”: Josephine Butler’s Reading of the Story of the Levite’s Concubine, Judges 19–21
Marvin A. Sweeney - The Portrayal of Assyria in the Books of Kings
Jennifer Pfenniger - Speaking or Smouldering Lips in Song of Songs 7:10 (Eng. 9)?
David G. Meade - Ancient Near Eastern Apocalypticism and the Origins of the New Testament Canon of Scripture
Robert C. Fennell - In the Bosom of the Beloved Disciple: The Fourth Gospel’s Narrative Openness to Readers

Videos from Fox-5 News

Videos from Fox-5 News, Reporting on the fiery destruction of the Virginia Seminary Chapel and including interviews with Dean Ian Markham:

The Chapel’s Miriam Window

This homemade video may help us remember the beloved "Miriam Window" from the Virginia Seminary Chapel. The video highlights the Hebrew Inscription on Miriam's sash, which quotes Exodus 15:21.

The Miriam Window from the VTS Chapel

One Last Video of the Chapel Fire…

The Seminary Chapel, which was consecrated in 1881, was largely a wooden structure, so the flames moved quite quickly.

 

Catastrophic Fire at Virginia Seminary Chapel

Many warm thanks for all the messages that I, and the Seminary, have received conveying concern and support and care! The VTS Chapel is now on Facebook: click here.

Here is an excerpt from Prof. Bob Prichard’s reflections on the loss of our chapel, published online today:

There were, however, many things that were lost in the fire.  What I will most miss are those reminders of generations of outgoing students who served in foreign mission.  Three particular elements come to mind:  1) The altar rail, made from wood brought from Liberia, where John Payne (VTS 1836) served as the first bishop.  2) the stunning Tiffany Windows in the liturgical North transept, depicting Paul making a case for the Gospel before King Agrippa and Queen Bernice, they were given by Mrs. Henry B. Gilpin in thanksgiving for the life of William Cabel Brown (VTS 1891) who went from Virginia Seminary to serve as one of founder of the Episcopal Church in Brazil.  3) The window over the altar depicting Christ’s Great commission with the inscription “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel.”  A gift of Mrs. S. F. Houston of Philadelphia, it has inspired generations of worshippers.

In the near future, we will be without a chapel.  It is likely that we will return to our historic practice of dedicating an alternative space as a “prayer hall” in which worship can be held.  This is not the first time that Virginia Theological Seminary has been without a chapel.  Our first chapel building (1839-40) fell into such disrepair during and after the Civil War that it was finally condemned for use in 1879.  The current building was not completed until 1881.  In the intervening years, members of the community continued, however, to gather for prayer and continued to prepare themselves for service to Christ in the world.

More on the fire catastrophe

 

Dean Markham's Interview on the Fire this Afternoon

Fire at Virginia Seminary!

A catastrophic fire that started about 4 PM today has destroyed our seminary chapel. Your prayers are requested. No one appears hurt or injured at this time.

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Scribes in Mesopotamia

Professor Theo van den Hout discusses early Mesopotamian scribes in this neat Video. It contains a very hands-on demonstration of how scribes produced the wedge-shaped characters of cuneiform writing using a stylus on leather-hard clay:

Harry Potter Pot-Luck and Movie Night at VTS

 

Neat Link: NET Bible Maps

I had an inquiry recently about good electronic maps available for parish Bible study. I've posted a bit on this before: click here and here. However, in previous posts I have not mentioned the NET Maps site (click here), which is actually quite extensive and worth bookmarking. The site includes a helpful index of site-names, and a good number of maps both traditional and satellite-based (from ROHR). These maps in turn are hyperlinked to the Google map system. All in all, this is a rich and generous resource to be aware of. It is of special interest when you are away from you laptop and using a smartphone, since at the moment there are no very good Bible-map apps available at the iTunes app store. The only Bible-map that I have on my iPhone besides a link to the NET-Maps is the Manna Maps Bible Study Set within the Olive Tree Bible app. These Manna Maps are nice looking Bible maps to show to folks asking questions on the fly, but they are not indexed or hyperlinked in any way.

3,200-year-old Chariot Wheel Linchpin

A 3,200-year-old round bronze tablet with a carved face of a woman, found at the El-ahwat excavation site near Katzir in central Israel, is part of a linchpin that held the wheel of a battle chariot in place, according to Oren Cohen of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa. Since such linchpins were rare and associated with high-ranking Egyptian or local rulers, this new understanding of this carving may support the theory that the El-ahwat site is actually Harosheth Haggoyim, the home town of Sisera, as mentioned in Judges 4-5.

Credit: Moshe Einav, University of Haifa Courtesy of the University of Haifa

How Popular is the iPhone?

I came across some very interesting data on the present popularity of the iPhone on the Bill-Shrink blog (click here for the original post).

Egypt Unearths 4-Foot-High Statue of Amenhotep III, Tutankhamun's Grandfather