October 2009 Hebrews Carnival

The book of Hebrews has been getting considerably more attention this past month.

We begin with some book reviews:

Rafael Rodriguez continues his posts on Gabriella Gelardini's edited volume, Hebrews: Contemporary Methods--New Insights, with a reflection and review of Scott Hahn's essay, "Covenant, Cult, and the Curse-of-Death: Διαθηκη in Heb 9:15-22." In a second post, More on Hebrews, he reviews essays by Gelardini, Ellen Aitken, Knut Backhaus, and Benjamin Dunning. I share his skepticism about Aitken's reading of Hebrews. He finishes his review with some comments on Pamela Eisenbaum's and James Millers' essays.

Rafael now has begun a review of Barry Joslin's, Hebrews, Christ, and the Law: The Theology of the Mosaic Law in Hebrews 7:1-10:18.

Diglot has a review on Faithful to the End: An Introduction to Hebrews through Revelation by Terry Wilder, J. Daryl Charles, and Kendell Easley. He also reviews Ben Witherington's Letters and Homilies for Jewish Christians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on Hebrews, James and Jude.

Next we turn to the text of Hebrews:

Peter Head continues his posts on textual criticism of Hebrews in P46 with some notes on Hebrews 2:9.

Tommy Wasserman notes the registration of the newly-discovered Hebrews fragment as P126.

Wasserman also draws attention to an article by Martin Karrer on Hebrews and the LXX (Karrer has also written a two-volume commentary on Hebrews in German).

Next we consider specific passages on Hebrews:

William Varner ponders whether the the author of Psalm 8 (quoted in Hebrews 2) had Jesus in mind or whether Jesus is the fulfillment of the psalm in the sense he is the ultimate human being.

Jason quotes a passage from William Lane on Hebrews 2:14 regarding the devil and death.

Ken Schenck resumes his explanatory notes with posts on Hebrews 2:9-18, Hebrews 10:1-18 and Hebrews 10:19-39.

William Watson Birch has a discussion on the meaning of archegos (author) in Hebrews 2:10 and 12:2 in one of his discussions about Jacob Arminius' theology.

Joel Watts offers a comparison of translations on Hebrews 6:1-18.

Peter Lopez offers his study notes for Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 7. He also gives his reflections on Week 4, Week 5, and Week 6 of his Bible Study.

Stuart Mizelle revisits Hebrews 10:24, offering his own rendering of the verse.

Rick Saenz discusses the word peitho in Hebrews 13:17 and concludes that the word in context means more than to obey your leaders, but also to have confidence in them and to trust in them. Alan Knox concurs. See his older post, Obey and Submit?.

Finally, we conclude with some general reflections on Hebrews:

Clifford Kvidahl, in his post, Come, Let Us Go to the Wilderness, relates his view that the author "wanted his readers to see themselves as members with OT Israel in their wilderness journey." Could this be the reason why the author focuses on the tabernacle rather than the temple? In a second post, Faith in the Wilderness, he considers the placement of the faith chapter within the overall presentation of Hebrews.