Although this is definitely going to be a commercial for my upcoming online class (January 8 – February 18, 2012), I promise there will be some entertainment and inspiration in this post. For starters, how do you like the title of the post as an example of truth-in-advertising? Shouldn’t more companies come right out and say it like that, “Go to the movies, but make sure it is our movie you go to see”?
The fact is, taking a class is the last thing most of you feel you have time to do. But consider this, an online class is really made up of a lot of the things you already do:
- Watch some YouTube videos. ✓
- Read the Bible. ✓
- Read a few chapters of an academic book. ✓
- Argue about something on a blog (or lurk). ✓
- Once every six weeks write a short, 1200-word essay. ✓
What? You don’t regularly do all those things? Okay, we to be fair, you probably do at least three out of the five, right? So why not do all this and increase your learning ten-fold by taking my F102 Survey of Apostolic Writings Course, Online via MJTI? No college degree needed to take this class. Here are the topics we’ll cover and you can always order the books early and start reading way before class starts: Continue reading →
The Jewish Annotated New Testament
My copy just came Second Day Air from Amazon. Wow. I am one of the first few hundred people to have the JANT (except those who got review copies from the publisher, but disclosure: I paid full price for my copy.
What’s so exciting about this book? Two words (well, one of them is hyphenated): Amy-Jill Levine. Yeah, Brettler is okay, definitely a capable scholar. But Amy-Jill is a rockstar (see my post by that name after last years Society of Biblical Literature meeting).
Amy-Jill Levine is the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University and her part in JANT is larger than Brettler’s (she wrote the commentary on Luke as well as an essay, “Bearing False Witness: Common Errors Made about Early Judaism”).
Let me give an overview of the Jewish Annotated New Testament (JANT) and share a few highlights. I only had a few hours to look at it for this review, so my strategy was to read some select parts to give you an idea what is here and how strong or weak some of the particular offerings of JANT are). Continue reading →