Gabriel's Revelation

Today's New York Times contains an article by Ethan Bronner, Ancient Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection :

"A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days."

According to a translation of the tablet by Israel Knohl, the text relates a vision of the archangel Gabriel who speaks of the resurrection of a messiah after three days, a motif previously not attested prior to Jesus.
See Knohl's article: Israel Knohl, "'By Three Days, Live': Messiahs, Resurrection, and Ascent to Heaven in Hazon Gabriel," Journal of Religion 88, no. 2 (April 2008):147-158.

Here's a summary of some of the discussion and links to articles, posted by Jim Lauer:

Hershel Shanks noted that the first English publication of the tablet appeared in an article “A New Dead Sea Scroll in Stone?” by Dr. Ada Yardeni in the January/February 2008 BAR. The Hebrew and English texts of the tablet are linked at the BAS website at http://bib-arch.org/news/dss-in-stone-news.asp .

In addition, as also circulated on Dr. Jack Sasson’s Agade list, in that article, Dr. Yardeni described the 3-foot-by 1-foot stone inscribed with a lengthy text that she would refer to as a Dead Sea Scroll had it been written on leather. A photo of the stone appears in the issue; for the transcription of the Hebrew text go to
< http://bib-arch.org/news/dssinstone_hebrew.doc >; for an English translation, go to < http://bib-arch.org/news/dssinstone_english.doc >.
Yitzhak Sapir noted that an April 4, 2007 Nfc Hebrew-language article about the Cathedra article mentioned by the Times (in which Ada Yardeni and Binyamin Elitzur analyzed the tablet), could be read at http://www.nfc.co.il/Archive/001-D-127652-00.html?tag=11-28-43 (or http://www.nfc.co.il/Archive/001-D-127652-00.html ). He also noted that through links in the Nfc article a PDF of the Yardeni/Elitzur Cathedra Hebrew article (no. 123, Nisan 5767, pp. 155-166) could be read at http://www.nfc.co.il/uploadFiles/138240993022919.pdf and a drawing and a Hebrew transcription of the tablet could be viewed at http://www.nfc.co.il/uploadFiles/848324000835419.pdf . See

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ANE-2/message/8651 and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biblical-studies/message/18003

As some may remember, I circulated an April 20, 2007 Ha’aretz article by Prof. Israel Knohl (”In three days, you shall live”) in which he discussed the tablet and his book and his theory, mentioned in the Times article. The article may be read at

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=850657 [English]
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=850111 [Hebrew]

Henry Chadwick - Historian of Early Christianity

Henry Chadwick, a British historian of early Christianity died last month on June 17. See his obituary in the New York Times. The church was (and continues to be) well-served by his work. The quotation attributed to him in the Times obituary is worth noting:
“Nothing is sadder than someone who has lost his memory, and the church which has lost its memory is in the same state of senility.”

WorldCat Collection Analysis, John Calvin, and ATLA

I'm back from a few days in Ottawa at the ATLA (American Theological Library Association) Annual Meeting. Ottawa is a great city, with good public transportation and a tremendous network of bike paths along rivers and canals and throughout the city. I rented a bike and managed to ride about 80 miles during the four days I was there.

This has little to do with theological reference, but my presentation (with Terry Robertson from Andrews University) was an introduction to and analysis of WorldCat Collection Analysis, a tool designed to help librarians evaluate library collections. I'm posting a link to my PowerPoint (creatively entitled WorldCat Collection Analysis) for the benefit of those who attended the session and may have dozed off during the presentation.

While we're distributing our PowerPoint Presentations, a couple of years ago my colleague Paul Fields and I gave a presentation at the same conference with the engaging title: Bibliographic Resources for the Study of John Calvin. More interesting presentation, I thought, but not nearly as well-attended as the WorldCat Collection Analysis session this year.

Researching Christian Reformed Church History

Researching Christian Reformed Church History

The year 2007 was the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of the beginnings of the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC), the institution that founded and supports Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary. The denomination chose "Grace through Every Generation" as the theme for celebrating this anniversary. A number of books have been published recently about the history of the CRC; here's a sampling of them:

• Grace through Every Generation: The Continuing Story of the Christian Reformed Church, by Scott Hoezee Grand Rapids: Faith Alive, 2006. BX6819 .N7 H64 2006 Download the 1st chapter of this book.
  
• Henry J. Kuiper: Shaping the Christian Reformed Church, 1907-1962, by James A. De Jong (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007) BX6843 .K85 2007
• Son of Secession: Douwe J. Vander Werp, by Janet Sjaarda Sheeres (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006) BX6843 .V36 S54 2006

Our research guide to the History of the Christian Reformed Church provides an introduction to handbooks, guides, indexes, and bibliography for the researcher, as well as links to the Heritage Hall archives, digital resources, and useful databases, such as the Christian Reformed Church Periodical Index and the Christian Reformed Ministers Database.

Oxford Scholarship Online and Cambridge Companions

At Hekman Library we're trying out electronic book resources:

Oxford Scholarship Online, which now contains about 2000 recent Oxford University Press titles. Check it out. I'm interested in your comments.

• Do you find the format easily searchable?
• Do you find the format easy to read? How well can you browse through a book?
• What would it be like if Hekman Library purchased these books only as e-books?

Begin with the search screen below, or use the link above to find a listing of books in your area of interest. The site should recognize computers in Calvin's IP range for full-text access.

Cambridge Companions:
The Cambridge Companion series has hundreds of books of essays which survey various topics in Religion and Literature. Try it out here.

The Pope Is Coming

On Tuesday the Pope Benedict XVI flies into Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland and begins a six-day visit to the U. S.
For wise commentary about potential media coverage of this papal visit read this March 29 column in the NY Times by Peter Steinfels. Steinfels comments on the the cliched breathlessness with which the media covers events like this, and the difficulty the press has in reporting on any serious religious leader. He identifies 5 important aspects of the Pope Benedict's trip that ought to be seriously considered:

• The pope's appearance at the U.N.
• His encounter with American Catholicism.
• The perspective he will offer on Catholic education and identity at a meeting with Catholic educators.
• His interactions with leaders of other religions and Christian denominations.
• His skill in navigating the partison politics of the current U.S. presidential campaign.

Steinfels also notes the irony that some of the least examined spoken words of the pope in the coming week will be those most important to him: the words of the mass.