Monthly Archives: February 2011

Nice Look for The Oxford Handbook of the Reception History of the Bible

Judging The Oxford Handbook of the Reception History of the Bible by its cover, this volume looks very fine indeed (cover photograph by Sam Fentress). The book’s blurb contains a very good description of reception history, which is worth a read. It’s … Continue reading

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Filed under Books on Reception History, King Og, Sculpture

New online version of Liddell-Scott-Jones (LSJ)

Following five years of hard work, “The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) is proud to announce the release of a new online version of Liddell-Scott-Jones (LSJ), the premier lexicon for classical Greek.” Subscribers have access to the full LSJ. But even … Continue reading

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Filed under Ancient Greek, Greek Giants

Renaming Negro Mountain more sensitively… as Mount Goliath?

Maryland State senator, Lisa Gladden has proposed a bill to rename Negro Mountain. She wants the mountain to be named after the Negro in question, who according to various traditions was either an African-American by the name of Mr. Nemesis … Continue reading

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Filed under Goliath

Historical Interpretation and Literary Interpretation: Is there any common ground?

In an essay with that title, John Barton – who has written many very worthwhile things on the same topic - describes the impasse this way: There is thus no way, at the theoretical level, in which older and newer-style critics can even … Continue reading

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Filed under Ancient Jewish texts, Goliath

Cryptozoology (including Gigantology): Where Did All The Giants Go?

Cyriaque Lamar (io9) provides a very brief introduction to cryptozoology, the search for (and mistaken discovery of) monsters and Giants: Cyriage Lamar, ‘Where Did All The World’s Giants Go?’, io9, 20 February 2011. h/t: James McGrath

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Filed under Cryptozoology

Angels Fall… for Lynx Deoderant

Doug Chaplin (Clayboy) alerts us to a Lynx deoderant advertisement which, in its adaptation of the fallen angel myth, changes the gender of the transgressors from male to female angels. In the advertisement, female angels drop from the skies, swarm in on an unsuspecting male Lynx-deoderant-wearer, and throw down … Continue reading

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Filed under Advertisements, Fallen angels, Genesis 6.1-4

The Women Seduce the Angels: Genesis 6.1-4 in Two Christian Versions – T. Reuben and The Almighty Bible

The curious incident which is narrated in Genesis 6.1-4 makes ‘the sons of God’ responsible for making off with some eye-catchingly beautiful human women, and having some (implicitly) transgressive divine-human sex: And the sons of god saw that the daughters of man were good. And … Continue reading

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Filed under 1 Corinthians 11.10, Comic books, Fallen angels, Genesis 6.1-4, Heroes / Gibborim, Nephilim

Theology as Dissonance Reduction: Hinckley G. Mitchell’s conclusions from 1910

“I have long had a suspicion that Christian theology, from the Urgemeinde on, has been an extended exercise in dissonance reduction.” – Jim-bob Soon after pondering Jim-bob’s comment, I was reading an article in The Harvard Theological Review from 1910 … Continue reading

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Filed under Ancient Jewish texts

Naming Your Penis, Biblically

David Rosenthal and Saryn Chorney have recently published a helpful guidebook to help you name your penis: The Penis Name Book: A Guide to Naming Man’s Best Friend (Adams Media, 2011). Biblically inspired names more than hold their own in … Continue reading

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Filed under Goliath, Guidebooks, Literature

Black Goliath – Bigger than The Brown Hornet

At Comics 101, Prof. Scott Tipton provides a fine history of one of Marvel’s lesser-known superheroes, Black Goliath. It seems that towards the end of Black Goliath’s comic-book appearances, even the artists realized that giving him the name of the … Continue reading

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Filed under 1 Samuel 17, Comic books, Goliath