Here I will give two rather humorous stories (at least to me) connected with my work as the administrative assistant for the revision of the Revised Standard Version. In that capacity I was, of course, present for the various deliberations of the committee. Among the many issues they discussed was what to call the new revision. Ultimately it stood in the tradition of the “Authorized Version” – the technical name of the King James Version. In 1881, the KJV underwent an “official” revision (i.e., authorized by the ecclesiastical authorities who owned the copyright) in the Revised Version. Its committee received a lot of flak for the changes it made. Even though it was an English revision, there were several Americans who were on the committee. As part of their terms of involvement, they agreed not to publish an American version of the translation (making changes as they saw fit and bringing spelling and punctuation into conformity with American usage) for 20 years; and so in 1901 was published the American Standard Version. As I mentioned [...]

A CONTINUATION OF MY POSTS OF MY RELATIONSHIP WITH BRUCE METZGER I served as one of the secretaries for the NRSV, as explained in my as explained in my post of Sept. 16th, for a couple of years. It was not onerous work and was quite a privilege to be able to associate with some of the greatest biblical scholars and Semitic philologists of the time. I was, of course, a complete nobody. Some of the members of the committee treated me (and the other secretaries) as complete nobodies (these tended to be the less qualified and more insecure members of the committee; I won’t name names!); others treated me (and the others) in a dignified and respectful way, realizing that we were, after all, just graduate students, but knowing that we were advanced and heading into academic careers of our own. When I graduated from my PhD program I was teaching part time at Rutgers, but I did not have a full time, tenure-track position there.   It was a slightly oppressive situation, as adjunct [...]

Reminder!  This Saturday, September 18, I will be giving a lecture with Q&A on the book of Revelation; I'm calling it "Expecting Armageddon: What the Book of Revelation Reveals."  Wanna come? The event is a fundraiser (not for the blog, but) for my Department of Religious Studies, which is trying very hard to sustain its work in training graduate students.  My own students are becoming experts in the kinds of things I do, engaging in serious research in the study of the New Testament and the history of early Christianity, teaching important aspects of the field to undergraduate students, and communicating broadly this kind of knowledge to broader audiences in the population at large. It is very important work, not just for the graduate students themselves but for the people they do and will teach and reach, as we try to keep the public educated in what we actually know based on scholarship on these issues of broad importance.  But we are having trouble providing students with the funds they need to complete their training. [...]

  Here I continue with another reminiscence of my interactions and relationship with my mentor, the great textual scholar Bruce Metzger.  This one has always struck me as a bit humorous. *************************** In almost (but not absolutely) all PhD programs in this country, the doctoral candidate has do an “oral defense” of the dissertation.  If s/he successfully defends, the PhD is then granted.  Here at UNC, the defense is conducted in front of the five-person dissertation committee, all of them experts on one or another aspect of the work.  Everyone on the committee has carefully read the dissertation, and the defense is designed to see if, well, the thesis is defensible. In other words, faculty members do not hold back but probe deeply into the work to see if there are any flaws in it.  If a student fails the defense, s/he has to revise the dissertation and try again.  Even if it is considered passable, revisions of some sort are often considered necessary. If you're interested in the blog, why not join?  It costs [...]

In case you didn't notice or inadvertently dropped it from memory or ... whatever:  I'd like to remind you about the fundraiser this Sunday (August 29).  I hope you can come!  Here's the announcement: ********************* Whatever our political positions, most of us are distraught about the situation in Afghanistan.  It will almost certainly get worse.  As a result of the crisis, relief agencies there are under enormous pressure, more than in a very long time. One of the charities supported by the blog is Doctors Without Borders, one of the truly great organizations in our world.  They are staying in Afghanistan for now (and hopefully for a long time) and their hands are incredibly full.  Naturally, they are desperate for additional resources (just look them up in relation to the situation there, and you can get some reports). We will be doing a blog fund-raiser for Afghanistan relief, this Sunday.  I will be giving a lecture and we will be taking voluntary donations of any amount, in hopes of raising substantial funds.   Every donation will [...]

Whatever our political positions, most of us are distraught about the situation in Afghanistan.  It will almost certainly get worse.  As a result of the crisis, relief agencies there are under enormous pressure, more than in a very long time. One of the charities supported by the blog is Doctors Without Borders, one of the truly great organizations in our world.  They are staying in Afghanistan for now (and hopefully for a long time) and their hands are incredibly full.  Naturally, they are desperate for additional resources (just look them up in relation to the situation there, and you can get some reports). We will be doing a blog fund-raiser for Afghanistan relief, this Sunday.  I will be giving a lecture and we will be taking voluntary donations of any amount, in hopes of raising substantial funds.   Every donation will go in toto directly to Doctors without Borders. The lecture is blog-related rather than crisis-related, since that is what I know about and is also why most of you are here.   It's an intriguing topic, [...]

A NEW BLOG FEATURE! I’ve decided to try something new on the blog today.  I’d like *your* view about something, your honest opinion based on serious expertise or complete non-expertise. For this new feature, which I’m calling “What Do You Think?”, I will NOT be responding to comments/questions, I’ll simply be posting them, without making a reply, comment, question, or anything else to, so you can express yourself and have others can see your views.  (As always, I will not be posting comments that are rude to others or irrelevant to the question – for example, castigations of particular politicians that many but not all of us may despise, on one side of the political chasm facing us or the other. [!])  Others of course can comment on your comment as they choose -- and I hope they do.  I'll be listening in.  For my own fun, education, and edification! If this turns out to be a nice feature for the blog, I’ll do it again later. Here is the issue that I would like [...]

I regularly get comments on one of my posts from a member who is having some kind of technical problem -- for example, only part of the post shows up for them, or they can't seem to access something etc.  (Other people have problems with what I actually *say*, but that's a different matter....).   Sometimes there are indeed technological problems that arise.  What to do? The VERY BEST thing is to contact our help staff.  I won't get to your comment a day or so later, and the problem is almost always individual, not system wide.  So there's not much I can do to help in response to a comment, even if I did have the wherewithall to deal with the technological details.  (As Groucho once said, Why a four-year-old child could understand this ...! Run out and find me a four-year-old child, I can't make head or tail of it.”) So, are you haveing a problem? Click on HELP and contact support.  Someone will get in touch and figure it out for you. If there are even [...]

Are you interested in joining a Blog Book Club (the BBC)?  We’re going to give one a try!  This will function as a fund-raiser for the blog.  This first BBC will involve three meetings over the course of three weeks, discussing one of my books and a published (unfavorable!) response to it. I will be joining participants in the third meeting for a Q&A about it all. The first week all participants will read and discuss my book Misquoting Jesus.  This is my best-selling book and probably my most controversial (which has always struck me as odd, since to my knowledge there isn’t any factual misinformation in it!)  There were five books written to counter  it! The second week participants will read and discuss one of the counter-books, Misquoting Truth: A Guide to the Fallacies of Bart Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus, by Timothy Paul Jones. The third week everyone will join a Q & A, as we discuss the matter among ourselves, with questions from you and attempts to answer them from me. How’s it sound?  [...]

Are you on the blog?  Do you live in the U.K.?   Well lucky you!   A group of blog members who came to a London Blog Dinner last month have decided to host a UK Zoom meeting among themselves, to discuss topics of mutual interest.  For and by Brit Bloggers!  It is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug 10, 2021, 8:00 pm (London time). The organizer is Angus Nisbet.  If you need additional information, you can reach him here:  [email protected] Below are the topics and the Zoom link to join.   English members only please.   Enjoy! Topics for discussion Should we throw the Bible out with the bathwater? Revelation Heaven & Hell Jesus - a failed apocalypticist? Zoom Details: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86859219342?pwd=SHlyMnBDNlV5MTFZNnIzQjhXenBJUT09 Meeting ID: 868 5921 9342 Passcode: 605295   ******************************************************************************************************************** This message may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient please inform the sender that you have received the message in error before deleting it. Please do not disclose, copy or distribute information in this e-mail or take any action in relation to its contents. To do [...]