In other news, grass is still green.

A few minutes ago, I created and shared a new iFlipr deck titled “Semantic Biblical Hebrew: Faces.” I intend to expand the Semantic Biblical Hebrew library of iFlipr decks over the course of this year. I hope you enjoy the first one, which focuses on facial features.

I’m very sorry, podcast enthusiasts, but I’m still having trouble with my voice. I think I’m getting over this flu, cold, or whatever-it-is, but I’m still not speaking well enough to feel good about recording the next podcast episode. Teaching class—well, the parts where I have to talk—has been difficult this past week. When my voice gets back to normal, I’ll resume production promptly.

Episode 5 of the Higgaion Podcast continues Michael Heiser’s introduction to the divine council. In this segment, Michael takes up the problem of relating the divine council concept to our tradition of describing ancient Israelite and Judean religion as “monotheistic.”

Should you prefer to listen without going through iTunes U, you may download the file directly and copy it to your favorite MP3 player, or listen right now using the embedded player below.

Please note that for the time being, in spite of Mark Goodacre’s vote to the contrary, I’ve decided to stick with the relatively low-quality monophonic output in deference to listeners who have limited bandwidth or who have to “pay by the K” for downloads. I plan to review this decision frequently, however, and I’m always open to your feedback on this question. (That’s a pun. Get it? Audio quality … feedback … never mind.)

Over the weekend, a proliferation of “Bible blog” badges popped up, mostly on blogs run by someone named Jim. I don’t think I’ve seen such rapid evolution since my last run-in with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

In the midst of all this grand entertainment, has anyone (else) noticed that the manuscript pictured on all these badges isn’t a biblical manuscript? No, my friends, all these “Bible blog” badges superimpose their message over a picture of the Temple Scroll, to which nobody today (as far as I know) ascribes religious authority. The operators of the “Believer’s” blogs and “Secular” blogs are equally non-religious with respect to the document shown in the badge. It’s like rai-ee-ain on your wedding day!

Dear friends, colleagues, and other interested parties (I’ll let you decide into which category you fall): I was unable to publish Higgaion Podcast 5 as scheduled yesterday, and couldn’t get it out today, either. I have been trying to fight off a cold or flu—and failing. My voice has been distorted for the last couple of days, and today my throat hurt so bad I couldn’t teach my classes. I will get back on schedule as soon as I’m able to record the necessary narrations.

Go read Art Boulet’s post on three things that bother him about “narrative analysis” of the Pentateuch—and stick around into the comments for my long rejoinder. Join the conversation over on Art’s blog, finitum non capax infiniti.

Just under twenty times in the Tanakh—I could have written “in the Former Prophets” if not for two verses in Chronicles—a writer uses the phrase “from Dan to Beer-sheba” (מִדָּן וְעַד־בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע) to Israel’s geographical territory. In Judges 20:1—and only in Judges 20:1—the author adds a ל before the מן, and adds “and the land of Gilead” (וְאֶרֶץ הַגִּלְעָד) to the entire phrase. I suppose I could go look this up in a commentary, but it’s late at night and I’m at home. Anybody have any idea why this should be so—why this verse, and this verse alone, adds an explicit inclusion of Transjordanian Israelite territory to the standard formula?

Genesis 1 portrays God as the cosmic king. But what’s a king without a court? In episode 4 of the Higgaion Podcast, Michael Heiser drops by to introduce listeners to the divine council.

Should you prefer to listen without going through iTunes U, you may download the file directly and copy it to your favorite MP3 player, or listen right now using the embedded player below.

If want to put Saul on a timeline—whether you regard that timeline as historically accurate or merely as a model of a story’s internal chronology (much as one might do with a television show set in our own present)—how do you represent that? And how might one label the alternatives? As Claude Mariottini recently discussed, the problem arises from what appears to be ancient damage to the text of 1 Samuel 13:1. In the aforementioned post, Claude surveyed various alternatives—the NRSV, NIV, NET, NASB, NEB, JPSV, Modern Reader’s Bible, KJV, and ASV each offer a translation that differs from all the other translations mentioned!

The fine folk who produce Accordance knew full well that many arguments could surround any choice made when assembling a biblical timeline. In the Accordance Timeline module, the developers decided to provide two timelines, one labeled “Conservative” and one labeled “Critical.” Saul’s case, however, confounds such categorizations.

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