There have been a number of posts recently lamenting the ridiculously excessive pricing of some books from certain publishers. The volume linked above costs $329.99 US (about $390.00 AUS). It is 360 pages, so not too short, but nonetheless very, very expensive. Apparently it is print-on-demand. So if I had a PDF of the book…
rtl support in snow leopard
Well, Snow Leopard (MacOS X 10.6) is finally out, so it is time to see how it handles right-to-left languages (I’m primarily interested in Hebrew). Apple’s own claim is this: For languages that are written right to left, such as Hebrew and Arabic, Snow Leopard now elegantly handles mixing in left-to-right text. It also has…
of mustard seeds and inerrancy
I recently came across Wayne Grudem’s attempt to reconcile his doctrine of inerrancy with NT report of Jesus’ claim that the mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds (Matt 13:31–32; Mark 4:31–32). It is part of a larger series of three talks he gave on the subject of the doctrine of inerrancy which are…
speaking tenderly — or not?
I have an abiding interest in the significance of the historical, social, cultural, and linguistic context of biblical literature for understanding its meaning. As such, I was compelled to grab a copy of The Social Sciences and Biblical Translation (SBL, 2008) (available from many places, including Eisenbrauns). There’s much of interest in the slender volume,…
a model prayer?
This prayer shows that the predilection for self-interest expressed in some streams of modern christianity is nothing new. It is a prayer of one John Ward, M.P., from 1727: O Lord, Thou knowest that I have nine houses in the city of London, and that I have lately purchased an estate in fee simple in…
sutherland to surf 2009 results
Last weekend I ran in the 2009 Sutherland to Surf, an 11km “fun run” (or walk) from Sutherland to Wanda beach. I’ve not run in a fun run before, so I learnt a thing or two this time around. This included: An overcast morning in late July in Sydney can be quite cool. The apparent…
preaching and prophecy
There has been something of a tendency among some to equate prophecy and preaching or evangelism. Two prominent Sydney Anglicans, Phillip Jensen and Kel Richards, make a passing comment indicating that they approve of this equation in this talk (something like 160MB which could’ve been a 6MB MP3 file had they been more considerate). Ironically…
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…
ambiguity, inference, and judges 1:19
Christopher Heard recently posted a brief discussion of Judges 1:19. Here’s that verse from the NRSV: The Lord was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain, because they had chariots of iron. The point under discussion is whether this verse is restricting…
why i will be upgrading to snow leopard
Well, there are a number of good reasons, but looking through the list of enhancements is this one long overdue feature: Bidirectional text. For languages that are written right to left, such as Hebrew and Arabic, Snow Leopard now elegantly handles mixing in left-to-right text. It also has a split-cursor option that shows the appropriate…