Comments Off on Audio from talk on Old Testament violence at Holy Ghost For those who were interested, below is a link to the audio from my talk on violence in the Old Testament this past Monday at Holy Ghost. It’s very echo-y since it was in the parish hall and the train passed twice, but you should be able to hear it okay.
(right-click/ctrl-click and choose “save link as …” to download)
The idea of starting a forum scares me a little bit because I do not know how much work it would be for me to moderate. But, I’m thinking about adding one. I just noticed that it was actually an option that through BlueHost I can use SimpleScripts to add bbPress (put out by WordPress) to my site. I thought it would be nice to have a place for people who use my site to interact with one another more, rather just randomly in the comments section of my blog. I also thought it might provide a bit more fodder for my blogging because I could see what types of questions users were asking then maybe respond here or point blog readers to the questions, so that they might offer a bit of helpful discussion.
So, I guess my question is: Have any of you ever worked with an online forum? Is it more trouble than it’s worth? Or, does it add a cool extra element of interaction to a site? …
Comments Off on #1 Old Testament Site … Mine! Apparently, I have the #1 Old Testament site on the entire internet … at least according to Jim West. And, isn’t that really the only thing that matters? 😉 Whether or not he is right about my site, he is right about one thing. If our blogs don’t contain a bit of self-effacement “we take ourselves too seriously and no one else takes us seriously at all- and rightly.”
Me not taking myself too seriously:
Do You Read Joel’s Blog? Of Course You Don’t …
HERE is a link to PodBible.com a project associated with Tim Bulkeley among others. It is by far one of the best free audio Bible sites online. There are a number of exceptional things about it, but one really sticks out. There are free audio Bible downloads of a modern translation. As I have stated on the audio Bibles page of my site, most of what you are going to get in terms of free audio Bibles online is going to have a catch. If you are able to download it all, then it is likely going to be an old, out-of-copyright text. Or, if you want to listen to a modern version, you are going to be tied to listening to it online through streaming. Pod Bible looks like it is going to give you a modern translation that you are able to download. Some of the features like Bible60 are going to be great, but they are still a work in progress. Yet this should not stop you from clicking over to the site and checking everything out.
If you like free stuff, don’t forget to sign up for my e-mail list and my RSS feed. You’ll find out about all kinds of free stuff like in these Related Posts and more:
16 Free New Testament Commentaries
Complete Set of Free Biblical Commentaries
Free Mini-course – The Bible and History
Free Book on Genesis by Gary Rendsburg
Free Introduction to Ezra-Nehemiah
Here is Ralph Klein’s summary of Isaiah 50.4-9 (today’s Old Testament reading) from chapter 5 of his book Israel in Exile:
50:4-9. In this poem the servant commits himself to his vocation even in the face of opposition. Like the servant of the first poem (42:3), and like Yahweh himself (40:29-31), the servant helps and sustains those who are weary (v. 4). He is not rebellious (cf. Jer. 1:6-7; Ezek. 2:8) but voluntarily accepts physical abuse (v. 6) and expresses his absolute confidence that Yahweh will finally help him. In fact, he resolutely challenges his opponents (cf. Jer. 1: 17-18; Ezek. 3:8-9), since he knows that Yahweh is the final and only arbiter of his case (vv. 7-9; cf. 49:4). Whether the servant here is Second Isaiah or the ideal Israel, his open ear contrasts with the deafness of empirical Israel (48:8). The verses that immediately follow the servant poem continue the description of fidelity under pressure. Yahweh’s servant trusts in God even when he walks in darkness. That was Israel’s vocation in the uncertain days of exile. Meanwhile, the unfaithful opponents of the servant show no such trust. They kindle torches and are sentenced to lie down in torment (vv. 10-11).
Many of the chapters of Klein’s book can be found free HERE. They are scattered, but if you use the “find” function (apple + ‘f’ on a mac), you can just type in Israel in Exile to find the chapters.