This evening Butler University became to a new chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Theta of Indiana. One colleague from my department spearheaded the application process, while another was elected to be an officer in the new chapter.

I'm a complete outsider to the Greek systems, having studied in the UK, and so it was nice to have a chance to be present at an event like this.

The ceremony was followed by our annual Celebration of Scholarship and Creativity.

This evening Butler University became to a new chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Theta of Indiana. One colleague from my department spearheaded the application process, while another was elected to be an officer in the new chapter.

I'm a complete outsider to the Greek systems, having studied in the UK, and so it was nice to have a chance to be present at an event like this.

The ceremony was followed by our annual Celebration of Scholarship and Creativity.

This evening Butler University became to a new chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Theta of Indiana. One colleague from my department spearheaded the application process, while another was elected to be an officer in the new chapter.

I'm a complete outsider to the Greek systems, having studied in the UK, and so it was nice to have a chance to be present at an event like this.

The ceremony was followed by our annual Celebration of Scholarship and Creativity.

This evening Butler University became to a new chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Theta of Indiana. One colleague from my department spearheaded the application process, while another was elected to be an officer in the new chapter.

I'm a complete outsider to the Greek systems, having studied in the UK, and so it was nice to have a chance to be present at an event like this.

The ceremony was followed by our annual Celebration of Scholarship and Creativity.

This evening Butler University became to a new chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Theta of Indiana. One colleague from my department spearheaded the application process, while another was elected to be an officer in the new chapter.

I'm a complete outsider to the Greek systems, having studied in the UK, and so it was nice to have a chance to be present at an event like this.

The ceremony was followed by our annual Celebration of Scholarship and Creativity.

This evening Butler University became to a new chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Theta of Indiana. One colleague from my department spearheaded the application process, while another was elected to be an officer in the new chapter.

I'm a complete outsider to the Greek systems, having studied in the UK, and so it was nice to have a chance to be present at an event like this.

The ceremony was followed by our annual Celebration of Scholarship and Creativity.

This evening Butler University became to a new chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Theta of Indiana. One colleague from my department spearheaded the application process, while another was elected to be an officer in the new chapter.

I'm a complete outsider to the Greek systems, having studied in the UK, and so it was nice to have a chance to be present at an event like this.

The ceremony was followed by our annual Celebration of Scholarship and Creativity.

This evening Butler University became to a new chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Theta of Indiana. One colleague from my department spearheaded the application process, while another was elected to be an officer in the new chapter.

I'm a complete outsider to the Greek systems, having studied in the UK, and so it was nice to have a chance to be present at an event like this.

The ceremony was followed by our annual Celebration of Scholarship and Creativity.

This evening Butler University became to a new chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Theta of Indiana. One colleague from my department spearheaded the application process, while another was elected to be an officer in the new chapter.

I'm a complete outsider to the Greek systems, having studied in the UK, and so it was nice to have a chance to be present at an event like this.

The ceremony was followed by our annual Celebration of Scholarship and Creativity.

The computer of my dreams may not exist, but I think I've found one that comes close. The Asus T91MT is a netbook that converts into a tablet. It seems great in terms of portability, use for typing, use for reading, as well as web browsing and e-mail and everything else one wants to do on a computer or mobile device. And it has a steady state drive (although one can go with a larger capacity hard drive if one prefers).
For me, typing and reading are key uses, which makes anything smaller less appealing, since typing with one's thumbs may be useful in certain circumstances, but if you're writing a paper or article, I think the "inconvenience" of having to pull a device out of a backpack or briefcase rather than a coat pocket is more than counterbalanced by the convenience of a larger keyboard.
Here's a review that focuses on features of interest to academics, such as reading and annotation of pdfs, or grading electronic assignments:

I had to share this commercial (HT Clayboy):

I took a trip to Best Buy yesterday to look at netbooks and ebook readers. The Sony ereader they had was not functioning - not a great advertisement for the device. But I was impressed by how much smaller netbooks have become than they were even the last time I looked at them.
Browsing online, I came across some that are even smaller than the ones on display at the store. The Sony VAIO for instance. But the smallest there is, I believe, is the Umid mbook. I had never even heard of them before, but they seem to offer what many of us have long dreamed of: a full-fledged computer that fits in one's pocket.

Has anyone ever come across these before? I'm sure they have advantages and disadvantages to them (especially if one has to get used to typing with one's thumbs - but it may be possible, if not always convenient, to type in the conventional fashion on the mbook's tiny keyboard). But they certainly seem worth mentioning here and talking about, given our recent discussions about ideal devices. It may not be ideal, but it certainly seems to represent an interesting step in a certain direction!

Those of us who teach Biblical Studies at some point mention the site of the second Temple. Usually we struggle to find points of comparison - such as "approximately x number of football fields."

I don't know why it never occurred to me to do what one student did for a presentation yesterday:



She took a map of the Butler University campus and drew a dashed line indicating the size of the temple complex. Inspired!

I'm grateful to Richard Beck for highlighting Paul's own words on an important subject. Paul is famous for his emphasis on faith, and much contemporary Christianity follows his lead on this point.

Yet when it comes down to it, Paul says that there is something more important than faith - more important even than the sort of faith Jesus talked about as capable of moving mountains:

If I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing...And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13).Richard's own conclusion is likewise worth quoting:

The defining criterion of Christianity isn't faith. It's love.

I'm not entirely certain what the story behind this video is, but one thing is certain: it fits into that category I'm interested in of religion and science fiction:


HT Open Parachute

I put the "x2" in the title of this post to indicate that we not only had a double episode for the season premiere, but (at least) two different realities the stories of which are unfolding.

The best bits of dialogue in the premiere came from the man in black, having taken the form of John Locke. It was good to hear "officially" that he was in fact pathetic and used by other forces - although as I rewatched part of season 5 recently, it became clear that when one watches already knowing what would be revealed in the final episode, John is indeed being manipulated so that his identity can be stolen. But even more important were moments in the discussion with Ben. When Ben asked "What are you?" he was told that this entity is not a "what" but a "who." When Ben said "You're the monster" the reponse was "Let's not resort to name-calling." And perhaps most significantly was the statement that the smoke monster/man in black, unlike John Locke, wants to go home. What could that mean? Perhaps that beneath the island are the remains of a spacecraft that crashed long ago. Whether the smoke monster is simply one of its inhabitants or an intelligent bit of advanced technology, perhaps he has been stranded here for millennia. This would make a wonderful parallel to the story told over the course of the show - we focused on the survivors of the crash of Oceanic flight 815, and all the while this was a smaller part of a longer story about crashing and being marooned, unable to return to one's home and family.

Perhaps Jacob is, like Richard, just a human whose life was extended indefinitely by the island's power, perhaps by the influence of the man in black himself. In Jacob's case, however, it happened much earlier - presumably in the era of Hellenistic Egypt, given his penchant for using hieroglyphs and Greek.

I think the missing coffin is going to be significant, because it means that when they find it, we can get Jack and perhaps others on a flight with the coffin and perhaps find that familiar results ensue. But if the island is underwater in this timeline, then it would seem that there is no island for them to go to. And then we might ask what the effects may be of the Others, the Dharma Initiative, the smoke monster and Jacob all being sunk into the sea. Maybe that's the reason this parallel story is being told: to show how the island's destruction would affect the human race and the planet as a whole.

Elsewhere, DocArtz is trying to match up the alternate realities and figure out just how many we are dealing with (there's also a recap). Paul Levinson has also blogged about the season premiere. And IO9 quotes a nice interview with the producers that highlights the significance of the underwater island in that timeline - the characters who formulated the bomb plan were focused on resetting their own histories, but didn't ask what else might be affected. There's also a discussion of time travel without LOST in view, and even a comparison of me to various characters on the show!

A verse was mentioned in class today that seems to me to have a direct bearing on the date of Leviticus. Jeremiah 7:22 reads "when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices." This seems at first glance to provide fairly straightforward evidence that the Levitical code had not been made part of the Pentateuch and attributed to Moses at this time. This would agree with the dominant scholarly view that the Priestly material dates from the exilic or post-exilic period.
I can, however, think of another possible interpretation of Jeremiah 7:22, namely that there were already those who claimed that laws about sacrifice had been given through Moses, and Jeremiah simply disagreed with them. Jeremiah seems to have been willing to deny the divine origin even of longstanding laws and customs.
In either case, it is striking how the NIV adds the word "just" so as to negate the meaning of the verse. Rather than wrestle with the text as it stands, the translators "know" that God did give such commands at the time of the Exodus, and therefore they felt free to change the meaning of what Jeremiah said. Once again I ask, how can tampering with the text constitute a means of defending its inerrancy?
What do others think? How relevant is Jeremiah 7:22 to the date of Leviticus? And how do you feel about the NIV's tampering with the text's meaning?

Of course, the most exciting fast-approaching important event is the LOST season premiere tonight. But I thought that some readers who are prone to forget other important dates might appreciate a reminder that Valentine's Day is also drawing near.

The photo on the right is of a cupid that lost track of the date. You've been warned. Presumably there is no need to explain who shot him...

Those looking for a Biblical studies/ancient world gift for the occasion may want to take a look at Steve Caruso's Syriac hearts. And we're all looking forward to this year's Valentine's Day poems and other offerings from Eisenbraun's. I've always wanted to submit something but have never found the time. But who knows - there are still ten days left before this year's deadline!

A press release has been posted on Butler University's web site about my appointment to the Clarence L. Goodwin Chair of New Testament Language and Literature, and so I thought I'd share it.

Biblical Studies Carnival XLX has been posted at Abnormal Interests.