The Journal of New Testament Studies has made some of its articles for free for a limited time

This is a good opportunity to get hold of of scholarly articles. This offer will not last for ever, but will end at the end of the year.

So, go to the address by clicking here.

This is the first article I've got from the website, and it's extremely important and interesting. Click to find out what it is here.

Itinerary for the Society for New Testament Studies in Perth, Australia

Seminars

1. Christliche Literatur des späten ersten Jahrhunderts und des zweiten Jahrhunderts / Christian Literature of the late first century and the second century

   Conveners: Prof. F. Prostmeier, Prof. W. Pratscher and Prof. J. Kelhoffer. Terminates in 2014
   Wed: Wilhelm Pratscher (Vienna), "Motive paulinischer Theologie im 2. Clemensbrief"
   Thu: Ferdinand R. Prostmeier (Freiburg): "Geistig-soziale Milieus des Diskurses über "Religion" in der frühen Kaiserzeit"
   Fri: Vicky Balabanski (Adelaide) "Cosmological categories and the writings of Ignatius of Antioch: Reflections on Trallians 5 and Ephesians 19"

2. The Dead Sea Scrolls in Relation to Early Judaism and Early Christianity (5*)

   Conveners: Prof. J.J. Collins and Prof. J. Frey. Terminates in 2013.
   This seminar will meet jointly with Seminar 5 (Johannine Writings) in 2013.
    
   Wed: Harry Attridge (Yale): “The Making of Disciples: Predestination in the
   Scrolls and the Fourth Gospel”
   Thu: Hermann Lichtenberger (Tübingen):”Tempel und Tempelmetaphorik
   in Texten vom Toten Meer und im Johannesevangelium”
   Fri: John J. Collins (Yale) and Jörg Frey (Zürich) will each present a review
   of the book by Mary L. Coloe / Tom Thatcher (eds.), John, Qumran, and the
   Dead Sea Scrolls. Sixty Years of Discovery and Debate, SBLEJL 32, Atlanta: SBL 2011

3. [The Greek of the New Testament]

   Conveners: Prof. C. C. Caragounis and Prof. J. W. Voelz. Terminates in 2014.
   This seminar will not meet in Perth.

4. Inhalte und Probleme einer neutestamentlichen Theologie

   Conveners: Prof. C. Landmesser and Prof. M. Seifrid. Terminates in 2014.
   
   Wed: Brendan Byrne, S.J. (Melbourne): "Jerusalems Above and Below: Revisiting the Hagar-Sarah Allegory (Gal 4:21—5:1) and Paul’s View of Non-Messianic Judaism"
   Thu: Dorothy Lee (Melbourne): "Law, Grace and Truth: The Symbolic Role of Moses in Johannine Christology"
   Fri: Brian Rosner (Melbourne): "Paul and the Law: A Hermeneutical Solution to the Puzzle"

5. The Johannine Writings (2*)

   Conveners: Prof. M. Gruber and Prof. Ch. Karakolis. Terminates in 2015.
   This seminar will meet jointly with Seminar 2 (Dead Sea Scrolls) in 2013. Sign up for Seminar 2.

6. The Jewish World in New Testament Times (11*)

   Conveners: Prof. S. Freyne, Prof. J.W. van Henten, Prof. W. Horbury. Terminates in 2013.
   This seminar will meet jointly with Seminar 11 (Jewish Theologies). Sign up for Seminar 11.

7. The Origins and Development of the Jesus Tradition

   Conveners: Prof. T. Holmén and Prof. S.E. Porter. Terminates in 2017.
   
   Wed: Michael F. Bird (Melbourne): “Why the 'Jesus Tradition'? Its Purpose and Preservation”
   Thu: Craig L. Blomberg (Littleton, Colorado): “When Occam's Razor Shaves Too Closely: A Necessarily Complex Model of the Development of the Jesus Tradition”
   Fri: Paul Foster (Edinburgh): “Memory, Orality, and the Fourth Gospel: Three Dead-Ends in Historical Jesus Research”

8. The Mission and Expansion of Earliest Christianity

   Conveners: Prof. Eugene Eung-Chun Park, Prof. Paul Trebilco, and Prof. Gosnell Yorke. Terminates in 2015.
    
   Wed: Eugene Eung-Chun Park (San Anselmo, CA): “The itinerant philosophers in the Cynic literature and the Galilean wandering missionaries in the Gospel of Matthew”; respondent: Manabu Tsuji (Hiroshima)
   Thu: Eric Wong (Hong Kong): “Mission – The Reception of Paul in the Synoptic Gospels”
   Fri: Mark Keown (Auckland): "Paul's Vision of Evangelisation and the Church: Taking the debate forward"

9. Christian Apocryphal Literature

   Conveners: Prof. T. Nicklas, Prof. C.M. Tuckett and Prof. J. Verheyden. Terminates in 2015.
   
   Wed: Francis Watson (Durham): “Harmony or Gospel: On the Genre of the Diatessaron”
   Thu: Majella Franzmann (Perth): “Johannine Material in the Manichaean Psalm Book”
   Fri: Claire Clivaz (Lausanne): “New Testament Apocrypha and the Emergence of the New Testament Canon. A Research Project by Tobias Nicklas and Claire Clivaz”

10. Social History and the New Testament

    Conveners: Prof. H. Löhr, Prof. M. Öhler, and Prof. A. Runessen. Terminates in 2014.
    
    Wed: Albert Harrill (Columbus OH):“Ethnic Fluidity in Ephesians”.
    Thu: Kathy Ehrensperger (Lampeter): “Shared Culture and Diverse Ethnic Identities: The Pauline Discourse of Israel and the Nations”
    Fri: Anders Runesson (Hamilton ON): “The Impact of Ethnic Identity on Theology and Salvation in Matthew’s Gospel”

11. Jewish Theologies and the New Testament (6*)

    Conveners: Prof. J. Herzer and Prof. G. Oegema. Terminates in 2014.
    This seminar will meet jointly with Seminar 6 (Jewish World).
     
    Wed: John J. Collins (Yale): "The Law of Moses and Jewish Identity in the Second Temple Period"
    Thu: Dieter Sänger (Kiel): "Man ist, was man isst. Speisegebote und jüdische Identität in Joseph und Aseneth"
    Fri: Roland Deines (Nottingham): "Righteousness in the Psalms of Solomon: Reading the Psalms of Solomon as a Book"

12. Reconsidering Literarkritik of the Pauline Letters and its Impact on their Interpretation

    Conveners: Prof E-M. Becker and Prof. R. Bieringer. Terminates in 2015.
    The seminar will focus on 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, and Philippians.
    
    Wed: Geoffrey Dunn (Brisbane): "The Letter 'Credebamus post' from Boniface I or Leo I?"
    Thu: Malou Ibita (Leuven/Manila): “The Story of Paul and the Corinthians’ Ongoing Reconciliation:
    A Narrative-Critical Reading of 2 Corinthians 1-7”
    Fri: Sean Winter (Melbourne): “Re-framing the Unity Debate: The Rhetorical Situation of Canonical 2 Corinthians”

13. Matthew in Context: an Exploration of Matthew in Relation to the Judaism and Christianity of its Time

    Conveners: Prof M. Konradt, Prof. W. Kraus and Prof. W. Loader. Terminates in 2015.
      
    Each paper addresses the issue: What light does Matthew’s use of Mark in relation to the topic throw on Matthew’s theological location?
    Wed: Boris Repschinski (Innsbruck): “Ethics and Law”; respondent: Roland Deines (Nottingham).
    Thu: Edwin Broadhead (Berea): “Discipleship and Ecclesiology”; respondent: Amy-Jill Levine (Vanderbilt).
    Fri: Wolfgang Kraus (Saarbrücken): “Matt 16:21 – 18:35”; respondent: David Sim (Melbourne).

14. Papyrology, Epigraphy and the New Testament

    Conveners: Prof P. Arzt-Grabner and Prof. J.S. Kloppenborg. Terminates in 2013.
     
    Wed: Peter Arzt-Grabner (Salzburg): “The Date of Jesus’ Birth and of His Death: a Contribution from Papyrology”; respondent: Helen Bond.
    Thu: Scott Charlesworth (Sydney): “A Thoroughly Literary Text: the Greek Papyri of the Gospel of Thomas”; respondent: James Harrison.
    Fri: Giovanni Bazzana (Harvard): “Legal Terminology and Violence in Q. The Contribution of Documentary Papyri”; respondent:Christina M. Kreinecker.

15. Reading Paul’s Letters in Context: Theological and Social-Scientific Approaches

    Conveners: Prof. William Campbell and Prof. Michael Bachmann. Terminates in 2013.
     
    Wed: William S Campbell (Lampeter) "Theological and Social-Scientific Perspectives on 'Being in Christ'"
    Thu: Kar Yong Lim (Malaysia): "Paul's 'Remembering the Poor' as Ritual in the Corinthian Letters"
    Fri: Andrew Clarke (Aberdeen): "The Locus and Scope of Paul's Apostolic Authority"

Top scholars including N.T. Wright headed to Australia in July

From Eternity Newspaper

NEWS | Sophie Timothy

Thursday 4 April 2013

Writer and popular New Testament theologian N.T. Wright will be among hundreds of scholars visiting Perth in July for the largest gathering of New Testament specialists ever to be held in the southern hemisphere.

It will be the first time the Society for New Testament Studies has met in Australasia, and a number of local scholars have been selected to present papers alongside their international counterparts.  Among them are Ridley Melbourne’s Principal Brian Rosner (formerly of Moore College, Sydney) and Theology Lecturer Mike Bird (previously of Queensland Theological College).

Mike is currently working on a New Testament Introduction co-authored with N.T. Wright and he’s organised for N.T. Wright to spend a week in Melbourne before heading to Perth.

N.T. Wright will speak at three public conferences in Melbourne during the week of July 16-20, the first of which will be held at Ridley, where he will speak on “Paul, Jesus, and the Mission of God’s People”, while the second conference is based on his new book: “Paul and the faithfulness of God”. He’ll then finish his visit to Melbourne with some filming and a two-day conference for the Uniting Church of Australia on “Wisdom’s Feasts” before leaving for Perth.

N.T. Wright is a Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and was the Bishop of Durham until 2010.  Not afraid to challenge the status quo, N.T. Wright has made ripples in evangelical circles in the last 20 years by questioning the reformed/traditional understanding of the relationship between salvation and the law in the Apostle Paul’s writings. This so-called “New Perspective” aims to take into account a more positive view of Jewish beliefs at the time of Christ. The traditional view is seen as oversimplifying their relationship to God, as based on keeping the law. The most outspoken critics of the New Perspective include John Piper and D.A. Carson. It is a topic which will no doubt be canvassed during Tom’s time in Melbourne.

Accreditation vs. Non-Accreditation: What Constitutes Actual Scholarship?

A very interesting blog entry about what constitutes proper scholarship, and where do you get good degrees from.

Some people get Ph.D.'s without ever knowing Greek, or Hebrew, or any theology at all. Christian History is unknown to them.

This is a good podcast by B.E. Lewis where you can hear good opinions about what constitutes a good accredited degree.

Listen to it!!

If you fall asleep during the day, don't worry, it's natural

If you ever felt guilty for feeling sleepy in the middle of the day, feel no longer like that.

New studies have found that sleeping 8 hours is abnormal!!!!

It happens to all of us, you wake up in the middle of the night and try desperately to get back to sleep but instead toss and turn until the alarm goes off. Rather than it being simply symptomatic of a stressful work week, science suggests you might be experiencing a throwback to a default pattern of human slumber. According to mounting research, the concept of a solid eight hours sleep is a fairly recent phenomenon and it's likely that our ancestors enjoyed "two sleeps" of shorter duration, separated by time awake, as opposed to one sustained period.

 And it seems like it has not only being an abnormal practice, but a relatively new invention:

Roger Ekirch, a professor in the Department of History at Virginia Tech and author of At Day's Close: Night in Times Past, has found a wealth of evidence to suggest that the single sleep is a modern occurrence, with "first" and "second" sleeps considered the norm since the beginning of human civilisation.

To back this up, this is seen that in history, we have not follow a set pattern of sleeping, not even in the Bible!!!

Though it's an alien concept to us today, references to two sleeps can be found as far back as the Old Testament and Homer's Odyssey, and, more recently, in Don Quixote and Charles Dickens's Barnaby Rudge. The period between the two wasn't always a solitary affair, with people gathering to talk, have sex or visit the neighbours. But, the introduction of affordable light sources – from candlelight to public oil lamps – blurred the distinction between daytime and night-time activities and sleep patterns soon followed.

And blame it on the French for introducing late night partying:

It was the Parisian nobles and courtiers of the 1630s and 1640s who were the first to popularise the concept of expanding one's activities into the night as a sign of wealth, prestige and exclusivity – beginning the modern pattern of compressed sleep with one block of rest from about midnight until about 8am.

So, if you wake up in the middle of the night, don't feel guilty, accept it, and make a note to sleep, if you can, at least 1 or 2 hours after work, before going to sleep for good. I've been trying this lately, and has worked. Now, I don't have to feel guilty about it!!

If only I could convince my wife and kids about it!!