Eerdmans have recently published a new volume by David Penchansky entitled Understanding Wisdom Literature. This is a book which examines the biblical and post-biblical wisdom literature and raises questions and issues which are sometimes uncomfortable but are nonetheless (or perhaps I should say “are thus”) important. Below is my review of Penchansky’s book. [scribd id=94409490…
Category: qohelet
why all is not fleeting in qohelet/ecclesiastes
Translators and scholars have long debated the best translation for the term הבל (hebel, traditionally “vanity”) in Qohelet (Ecclesiastes). The term refers to vapour, something intangible, but is almost always used metaphorically in the Hebrew Bible. Now rather than discuss all possible meanings, in this post I’d like to examine one particular proposal: that הבל…
yabt (yet another bible translation): the common english bible
The Common English Bible has been completed, the result of an impressive array of scholars, with admirable goals. A page comparing it with the NRSV and NIV is available here. Some brief and very initial observations based primarily on a few passages I like to check follows.
niv 2011/tniv and ecclesiastes 11:1–2
John Hobbins raised the 2011 NIV’s rendering of Eccl 11:1–2 (although it really just retains the TNIV’s translation and so isn’t a new feature of this translation). The 2011 NIV/TNIV render these verses as follows: Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return. Invest in seven ventures, yes, in…
kirk patston on ecclesiastes
A friend of mine who pastors a church asked my opinion of Kirk Patston’s interpretation of Ecclesiastes which he had promulgated in a series of talks at the Katoomba Easter Convention in 2009. I hadn’t heard them, but did find a copy of some talks he had given at SMBC which were based on his…
now’s the time to buy!
For all of you who’ve been holding off buying a copy of The End of Wisdom, now’s the time to buy. Eisenbrauns have a great sale on an array of titles including The End of Wisdom, and for international customers, shipping is half price!
washington on the end of wisdom
A new review of The End of Wisdom has recently appeared in RBL. I felt that the review, by Harold C. Washington, warranted a few comments. Washington’s words are block-quoted and italicised, followed by my own comments. The “end” of wisdom in the book’s title signifies not wisdom’s aim but its demise. This is not…
reviews of The End of Wisdom
There have been a few reviews of The End of Wisdom to date, and so I’m going to take this opportunity to make a few comments about them (to see some of them you can click on the book to the right to go to Eisenbraun’s page which includes some extacts). First, a couple of…