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Treasures of the British Library (and British Museum)

Treasures of the British Library (and British Museum)

Yesterday my family and I took a day trip to London. One of our goals was to spend some time in the British Museum, esp. to view the BM exhibition, Faith after the Pharaohs (£10), and the British Library, esp. to view the free Treasures of the British Library exhibition. The BM’s Faith after the Pharaohs featured a number… Continue Reading

Remembering I. Howard Marshall (1934-2015)

Remembering I. Howard Marshall (1934-2015)

For the past many days, memories of I. Howard Marshall have been shared by many (see, e.g., Mark Goodacre’s post and Steve Walton’s post). I particular enjoyed watching snippets of Marshall’s past lectures, like these. My own interactions with Prof Marshall came late in his life. Dr Terry Wilder, a former student of his, introduced us… Continue Reading

What You Publish Online Is NOT Forever

What You Publish Online Is NOT Forever

A myth is often repeated that what one publishes on the web is permanent. But like any medium, it is anything but permanent. (It would be fun to go just 20 years into the future and see what we have). Digital media are especially susceptible to corruption and deletion. Sometime in 2005-06, I started blogging… Continue Reading

Earliest Draft of King James Bible ‘Discovered’

Earliest Draft of King James Bible ‘Discovered’

Jeffrey Alan Miller, assistant professor of English at Montclair State University, was trying to determine what Bible translation translator Samuel Ward was using in one of Ward’s early 17th century notebooks. Soon Miller realised the notebook, previously described as “verse-by-verse biblical commentary” was actually part of Ward’s work as one of many KJV translators. Miller summarises his research in… Continue Reading

Early Christian Texts for the Current Multi-faith Context

Early Christian Texts for the Current Multi-faith Context

Larry Hurtado has provided a summary of his and other’s contributions to a conference in Leipzig. In summarising his own contribution, I found the following interesting: For some 15 centuries, Christian theology has basically been an “in-house” discussion, Christian theologians arguing with one another.  And the key starting points have been theological developments of the 4th… Continue Reading

List of 1123 Greek Mss. at British Library

List of 1123 Greek Mss. at British Library

Get the spreadsheet here (.xlsx file). From the British Library: The completion of the third phase of the Greek Manuscripts Digitisation Project is as good a time as any to release to this world a handy spreadsheet containing details of the Greek manuscripts held by the British Library. The spreadsheet includes a brief description of the… Continue Reading

J. B. Lightfoot Manuscripts

J. B. Lightfoot Manuscripts

Ben Witherington talks here about his discovery of many unpublished commentary manuscripts by J. B. Lightfoot that Witherington discovered at the Durham Cathedral library while on sabbatical at St John’s College, Durham University (where I work, as it happens). Some of this material is found in the notes of Witherinton & Still (eds.) Acts of the… Continue Reading

Old Commentaries are Concise

Old Commentaries are Concise

I was just referencing Ernst Haenchen’s The Acts of the Apostles (transl. from 1965 German edition) and reminded once again of how concise some of the older commentators can be. It is refreshing, really. It is for this reason I still prefer to consult I. Howard Marshall’s (1978) commentary on Luke often–He can say in half as many… Continue Reading

New College, Edinburgh: An American Link

New College, Edinburgh: An American Link

In the evenings I have begun reading New College Edinburgh: A Centenary History (1946), which I picked up at an Edinburgh book sale last year (a gem, I’ll say). I was interested to learn that in setting up the college in the mid 19th century, Revd. Dr. Cunningham, one of four early professors involved, was sent to America to survey… Continue Reading