Gospel of Mark Reference Books

Because I stay a week ahead doing Sunday School Notes, I had to go ahead and order some reference books for next quarter. For those interested, my commentary sources will be:

Mark: NIV Application Commentary by David Garland

Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary by Ben Witherington III

Gospel of Mark: New International Greek Testament Commentary by R.T. France

Also featured will be:

Rabbinic Commentary on the New Testament: Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke by Samuel T. Lachs

New Testament Text and Translation Commentary by Philip Comfort

The Source New Testament by Ann Nyland

These, together with the usual antique sources and perhaps some things from archive dot org and google books. Be prepared for much longer notes than in the Psalms.

Studying the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonicals/Anagignoskomena

Whew! What a mouthful that title is. I got all the titles from the Wiki page on “Apocrypha”, which links helpfully to “Biblical Apocrypha” and “Deuterocanonical Books”. What you will get out of reading those three articles at its most basic is that one person’s apocrypha, etc. is another person’s holy writ. There is no totally agreed upon selection of Old Testament apocrypha, our subject in this post.

Some brief definitions:
Apocrypha:That hidden away. Originally things were hidden because they were too esoteric for the average joe.  Later the idea became that these things were hidden because they were false, or at least questionable.

Deuterocanonical: of the second canon. The first canon are the universally received books of the Hebrew Tanakh or Protestant Bible. The division was cooked up during the sixteenth century during the debates on Old Testament canon revolving around the Council of Trent.

Anagigoskomena: things read. This fits the classic idea that these books not found in the Hebrew Tanakh are to be read as instruction, devotion, and example, but not to establish doctrine. This is a distinction practiced by some Roman Catholic authorities before the Council of Trent, the Anglican Church, and at least part of the Orthodox church.

Oh, and while we’re on the subject, the Jewish reaction to these eighteen books is interesting. Most of them were never considered part of Jewish scripture, but over the centuries many rabbis have been very interested in some of them (Sirach/Ecclesiasticus in particular). Much of the material might have entered Jewish consciousness more through oral sources as the actual documents, for the details in the various Maccabees and Judith (who somehow along the way got associated with Hanukkah) stories in Jewish literature don’t necessarily match those in the actual books.

Those of you whose religious tradition accepts the importance of these books will have to bear with me now as I make a very short case for Protestant/Evangelical study of them, all of which most people have probably heard before. Nevertheless, in short, the reasons are three:

1. Tradition: Protestantism didn’t spring from nowhere. These books and the debate about them are part of the history and foundation of the various Protestant denominations. Studying them makes one more aware of his roots and his extra-denominational Christian fellows’ viewpoint.

2. History and historical background: 1 Maccabees in particular is a main source of the history of the intertestamental period, and even the mangled history in some of the books point to actual events. Likewise even those apocryphal books which are regarded as historical fiction still serve as background to the thought and culture of the bible, as a number of the books were plainly popular in the Second Temple period, based on discovered remains of copies.

3. Theology:  Religious cultural background, in short. What people were thinking and writing in the times that lead to our New Testament. These books are a distinct Jewish part of that thought process from roughly 300 BC to 100 AD. There’s plenty more books, including a mountain of Greco-Roman ones and what are termed apocrypha and pseudepigraphia to form that background of thought, but these apocrypha are the most familiar in style and content of the lot.

There, having laid out all that background, I can now get to the real point of this post: What’s an easy way to study the “Apocrypha” in the internet age?

1. Try the resources listed on one of my most popular blog posts, about electronic apocrypha and pseudepigraphia, unsurprisingly. Add to that a trip to e-Sword Users where you can get “A Catholic Commentary on Scripture” and “Haydock Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859″ for esword 8.x and 9.x.

2. Buy a bunch of books. Lock up your wallet and credit cards, this gets expensive fast:

a. Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical Editions of the Bible:

1. NRSV with Apocrypha: The standard bearer, with the most complete selection of apocrypha in its day.

2. ESV with Apocrypha: A reader’s edition of the popular conservative formal translation with the addition of the same apocrypha as the NRSV.

3. New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS): Recent translation of the Greek OT, which includes the standard apocrypha, thus doubly useful for apocryphal study and examining the OT translation the apostles used.

4. The Apocrypha translated by Edgar Goodspeed: One of the first twentieth century modern english translations of most of the apocrypha, and one of the more easy to read.

5. New Living Translation Bible, Catholic Reference Bible: Out of print but still often available used or in bookstore backstock, this is probably the easiest to read translation of the various apocryphal books (together with Today’s English Version, aka the 6.  Good News Translation, Catholic Edition (GNT)), but not officially approved by the Roman catholic hierarchy. My leather-like edition has cross-references, a small concordance, and a useful verse finder for topics in the front.

7. The Parallel Apocrypha: Out of print, pricey but still available used and lurking in bookstore corners. This is your one stop multiple translation source, including Greek, KJV, Douay, Knox, TEV, NRSV, NAB and NJB. It also has very interesting and useful essays about the apocrypha and various churches’ views on them preceding the actual apocrypha that I used to craft the introductory part of this blog.

“Okay”, you say, “but what if I want to do more than read these books? What if I want to actually study them a bit?”

That’s where study bibles come in, along with a couple of one volume bible commentaries:

8.  New Interpreter’s Study Bible (NRSVA): fast becoming the new scholarly standard. Available in several bindings.

9. Harper Collins Study Bible(NRSVA): The gold standard of the Nineties, revised in 2006. Several bindings available.

10. New Oxford Annotated Bible: Multiple editions, including a forthcoming fourth edition any second now. Not only in NRSVA but also an older 11. RSVA version.

12. New Jerusalem Bible: A Roman Catholic translation, noted for its literary style and in this edition, loads of short but very pointed and useful study notes.

13.  Harper Collins Bible Commentary: Another standard updated. Based on the NRSVA’s fuller canon.

14. Oxford Bible Commentary: Large in size as well as scope, this is Oxford’s answer to the Harper Collins and the next competitor:

15. Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible: One of the latest of these scholarly one volume heavyweights, Eerdmans’ claim to uniqueness is that it also adds commentary on 1 Enoch to the apocrypha.

16. New Jerome Commentary: An increasingly dated Roman Catholic standard work that includes much material about specific Roman catholic thought about the bible, along with the more standard scholarly commentary.

“Yes”, you add,”but what if I want to actually study these apocrypha in depth? What then?”

Well, first you cry. See the price for one paperback commentary set here for why. The Anchor Bible commentary series is no better alternate, financially.

However, there is a less than optional alternate. Yes, e-books from the internet for free! They’re outdated,  and they use the KJV or the Revised Version for base text (some original translations are in there, but they’re still bible English, if you know what I mean). But they do really dig into the text and they are free (can’t say that too often).

So without further ado, here are the e-books I found on the Apocrypha for your amusement and edification. (At last! The real reason for this already over-long post!!)

17. The Story of the Apocrypha: Edgar Goodspeed, American translator of the Apocrypha, gives a brief overview of the Apocrypha including previous translations and summaries of each book’s contents. Almost new by archive standards.(1939)

18. Readings from the Apocrypha: A “greatest hits” selection from the various apocryphal books in the KJV translation.(1922)

19. An Introduction to the Books of the Apocrypha: Now we start the serious scholarly tomes. Relatively new for archive books (1935)

20 and 21. The Apocrypha and Pseudepigraphia of the Old Testament edited by R.H. Charles: vol 1: Apocrypha; vol 2: Pseudepigraphia. The same volumes as on my other blog post, but added here individually. A standard work still, I believe.(1913)

22. Lange’s Commentary on Holy Scriptures vol. 15: The Apocrypha: 1873, but it’s huge, with small print, and free.

23.  Holy Bible(KJV) with Revision and Commentary-Apocrypha: vol. 1 and vol. 2: Addition to the Speaker’s Commentary (1888)

24. 1 Maccabees: Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (1897)

25. The Apocrypha: Greek and English in Parallel Columns: For the hardcore researchers and Greek students wanting something less familiar than the New Testament to work with.(1871)

26. The Apocryphal Books of the Old and New Testament: A bonus; this is a brief layman-friendly summary of the apocrypha of both testaments.(1908)

And finally, if you want to read the bible through in a year with the apocrypha included, you can find several useful reading plans for this here, courtesy of Kevin Edgecomb and Esteban Vazquez. You can use the NRSVA or the ESVA for the whole bible, or the NETS for the OT alone.

NET Bible and Kindle: Now Better Together

Originally only available in noteless text form, the Kindle Net Bible is now available with notes and a working hyperlinked table of contents for books and chapters, according to Todd Lingren at bible dot org.

The direct Amazon download page for the Kindle NET Bible with Notes and working links is here.

Now I must go repent of coveting my neighbors’ Kindle.

Pocket Bible of Choice

The winner is this one, which is jacket pocket sized, attractive, and has a font that is quite readable for its size.

Why the NRSV with Apocrypha Compact? If I were being snarky I would say because it has something to offend everyone. Reams of Protestants and Jews don’t like the inclusion of the Apocrypha; Almost no denomination entirely likes the inclusive language and translation choices; Orthodox like the reliance on the Septuagint in the OT, Jews dislike the same. And so on.

But if you want to talk to Roman Catholics and Orthodox, you’ve got to have those pesky Apocrypha in some form. And if you’re doing serious bible study, you need them for the cultural background to the NT and the cross-references.

In short, I see this as the most useful Bible translation in a small size I could find. And did I mention it’s dark blue with silver edges and pretty?

It’s true I have entirely too many copies of NRSV bibles, but outside of finding a good cross referenced edition, this should about do me in that translation. If the NET folk want to get busy and produce a NET with the fuller NRSV apocrypha, I’d gladly adopt that, but that doesn’t seem likely to happen soon. Thus, this is the one I go with.

So while the summer months are questionable, in the fall and winter at least, whenever I have a jacket or overcoat on, this book is going with me from now on. I wonder if  it qualifies as “something sensational to read”?

Some Bible Study Books for the Original Language Impaired

Basically here are resources for compare and contrast.:

Parallel Bibles:

1. Essential Evangelical Parallel Bible: Two formal translations (NKJV, ESV), a middle translation (NLT 2) and a paraphrase (Message) in one big volume.

2. Today’s Parallel Bible: Two formal translations (KJV, NASB), two dynamic (NIV, NLT)

3. Evangelical Parallel New Testament: Out of print,  but the motherlode of recent translations: NKJV, ESV, HCSB, NIV, TNIV, NLT, NCV, Message

New Testament Textual Criticism:

1. NET Bible: The footnotes cover differences in translation in detail. Problem is the notes range from layman friendly to rather scholarly.

2. New Testament Text and Translation Commentary: Philip Comfort’s one stop eight hundred page discussion of why English translations of the NT often differ.

Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical Editions:

1. NRSV with Apocrypha: The standard bearer, with the most complete selection of apocrypha in its day.

2. ESV with Apocrypha: A reader’s edition of the popular conservative formal translation with the same apocrypha as the NRSV.

3. New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS): Recent translation of the Greek OT, which includes most of the standard apocrypha, thus doubly useful for apocryphal study and examining the OT translation the apostles used.

Useless Entertainment Roundup

So I finished reading Eight Lives Down(salty language alert!) and The Apostolic Fathers and the New Testament. Two thumbs up for both.

Seeing as we are studying Psalms this new quarter in Sunday School, I’ve taken up Emmanuel Tov’s Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible again. It doesn’t seem so scary as last time.

I’m still on my Japanese jidaigeki kick in DVDs, but I’m about to switch over to the two Ghost in the Shell tv series.The two newest American Doctor Who releases are about to reach my door. And I’m contemplating an episode a day of Discovery Channel’s A Haunting in preparation for Halloween.

Oh, and did I mention I hanker to listen to some Celtic fiddle again? Amazon MP3 has quite a selection.

Now, how will I find time to work and do Sunday School notes with all this going on?

The Big Brown Truck Brings Didache

The latest UPS delivery was a mere two books, but there was nothing mere about the titles:

The Didache, Hermeneia Commentary, by Kurt Niederwimmer

The Didache: Faith, Hope, and Life of the Earliest Christian Communities, 50-70 C.E., by Aaron Milavec.

Niederwimmer is a traditional sort of commentary, and for many the leading commentary on this part of the Apostolic Fathers. Though with the mass of work going on in researching the Didache, it’s 1993 date is making it seem dated already.

Milavec’s book gives the impression of needing to reverse the parts of it’s long title for strict accuracy.  It is also considered THE book on the Didache by many– not the least because of its nine hundred plus page length!–  but it is made up of commentary sections and “excurses” in greyed blocks. It also spends no little time speaking of modern day issues along with interpretation of the text, which annoyed a few reviewers.

Next up for me will be Psalms commentaries for the next quarter’s Sunday School lessons.

Is this the Universal Punchline in Biblical Studies?

Or is it instead:

HT: Jim West

From the Big Brown Truck

Recent UPS deliveries include:

The Letter of James, Anchor Bible Commentary, by Luke Timothy Johnson

The Letter of James, Pillar New Testament Commentary, by Douglas Moo

The Epistle of James, New International Greek Testament Commentary, by Peter Davids

So there’s the list of commentaries for the next round of Sunday School Notes, through August. I’ve gotten so used to Ben Witherington III’s commentaries I may go ahead and get his James volume, too.  I’ve very little clue about Psalms commentaries for the quarter afterward, as they are either unrecommended or multi-volume.

Also from the big brown truck are some Apostolic Fathers:

Ignatius of Antioch, Hermeneia Commentary, by William Schoedel

Shepherd of Hermas, Hermeneia Commentary, by Carolyn Osiek

I will likely order Kurt Neiderwimmer’s The Didache to polish off my Apostolic Fathers commentaries (I can’t get into Apostolic Tradition or 1 Enoch 1 that much).

And in DVDs I received

Doctor Who: Attack of the Cybermen

Doctor Who: The Rescue/The Romans

I will likely soon order The Call of Cthulhu, which mixes my interests in horror and silent film. Of course, there are also Criterion re-releases I’m thinking about upgrading as well, but DVDs, like books, are so many, and time/money so slight….

More Books on Southern Baptists

About a year ago I posted some suggestions for books for and about Southern Baptists.

Again this year, just after the SBC annual meeting, I offer three more book suggestions on my denomination for your perusal, one edited and one authored by Union University President David Dockery and one theology:

Southern Baptist Consensus and Renewal: Dockery wrote this in 2007?. It is a call for unity among Southern Baptists, with chapters organized on brief expositions of the past, the current situation, and the needs of the future. Chapters include topics like Southern Baptist Identity markers (Scripture, Missions, Cooperation), Exposition of  Southern Baptist Consensus Theology, Worship, Education,  History of Southern Baptist Theology, and Qualities needed in Future SBC leaders.

Southern Baptist Identity: This is just out, and I’m about halfway through the book. This Dockery-edited collection of essays focuses on how the SBC has operated in the past and how it should operate in the future.  The essays focus on how the SBC can keep their –often out of touch with the larger culture– theology while meeting to challenges of the future. Fifteen essays from leading voices in the SBC, many of whom also contribute to the following book.

A Theology For the Church: This is edited by Daniel Akin, with chapters written by leading Southern Baptists, many of whom also contributed to “Southern Baptist Identity”. David Dockery co-authored chapter 3 on Special Revelation. The book is a systemic theology on the standard topics: Revelation, God, Humanity, Christ, Holy Spirit, Salvation, Church, Last Things, and a final section extolling the need for pastors to be theologians. Each section is organized around four questions:

What does the Bible Say?

What has the Church Believed?

How do the Doctrines Fit Together?

How do the Doctrines Impact the Church Today?

At  over 900 pages this is more a reference work than a straight read through book. And there is surely something in so large a work for everyone to disagree with. (Trinity as Model for Marriage? Get Outta Here!) But it is the most recent, multiple authored Southern Baptist theology out.

So there are three more to keep you busy and better informed about Southern Baptists!