The Potato Head brothers explain Markan priority

Who should you turn to if you need to understand important biblical concepts? The potato head brothers, of course. So, here they are explaining Markan priority and what it means for biblical studies.

HT James McGrath

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Flotsam and jetsam (7/1)

• Bob Cargill has an article on “The Misuse of Archeology for Evangelistic Purposes,” arguing that biblical scholars have a responsibility to refute quickly the pseudo-scientific claims that people make for ideological or moneymaking purposes. (HT Jim West)
• Internet Monk discusses Jesus junk – all that stuff you find in some Christian book stores (assuming that you ever actually enter such stores). He argues that Christians buy Jesus junk for three reasons: safety, religiosity, and guilt.
• Paul Helm has posted the third article in his series on Kevin Vanhoozer’s Remythologizing God. He also discusses Vermigli’s use of Aristotle in developing his view of human action and responsibility through the concepts of voluntariness and ignorance.
• Kevin DeYoung offers a quote from Timothy Ward’s Words of Life rejecting the idea that we should understand Scripture through an analogy between incarnation and inspiration.
• James McGrath has begun his review of The Historical Jesus with a discussion of Robert Price’s Christ-myth perspective. As expected, he offers an interesting review that points out some fundamental weaknesses in any such position.
• Evangelical Textual Criticism points out a new journal, Student Journal for New Testament Studies, that looks like it could be a good resource to keep an eye on. Those of you doing NT studies may want to check out the submissions guidelines and consider submitting something.

Flotsam and jetsam (6/10)

• Kenton Sparks discusses the doctrine of inerrancy. Specifically, he looks at the problem or conflicting moral standards in the Bible – e.g. Jesus’ love ethic vs. OT commands to kill everyone. And, he argues that this is not simply a problem generated by modern sensitivities and that these are problems that cannot simply be set aside by conservative theologians.
• Last Seminary offers a very list list of articles dealing with unity and diversity in the New Testament. (HT Nick Norelli)
• In a NTY op-ed piece, Tony Judt discusses six cliches that make it difficult to talk intelligently about the Israel situation. I thought this was a very helpful article for clarifying some of the rhetoric that often gets thrown around in the discussion.
• Claremont Seminary decides to become “the first truly multi-faith seminary in America.” I can understand the idea of a multi-faith religious studies program, but a multi-faith seminary? That seems like the final result of a mindset that thinks theology and ministry have almost nothing to do with each other.
• And, in honor of Brian LePort (aka Arius), here’s James McGrath’s attempt to put Arius’ theology to music, in keeping with Arius’ own practice.

Best journals in New Testament studies

Evangelical Textual Criticism has posted a ranking of the top journals in New Testament studies by compiling the results of three separate rankings. If you’re interested in New Testament, this could be a helpful list as you decide which journals you should be keeping your eyes on.

HT: Exploring Our Matrix