The last of the three papers that I wanted to edit and publish is about the exodus of Israelites from Egypt and their subsequent conquest of Canaan. I uploaded it to Academia as usual. It is the paper that I wrote for Old Testament background class, which was my last and definitely one of the best. The professor has presented us with very well organized and intriguing data. I don't think that it's my professional bias speaking out of me. It was really interesting.
My Paper on the Logic of 1 Corinthians 11:2-16
<personal INFO – CAN BE SKIPPED>Ok, I'm back. The last six months were extremely exhausting. In order to avoid one extra year of my masters studies, I had to take four classes in five months. This is comparable to a full time student's plan. I also had to teach a new course on the Corinthian letters (but NT is not my area of expertise!) and to go on missions trip to Bosnia and on business trip to Missouri. My life was adventurous. And extremely stressful. My wife Anička [Anitschka] was lion-hearted as usual, but still I hope that we'll have a substantial rest this summer.
My second son was born in the beginning of this month. We named him Saul. Saul Buban. He's big, beautiful, and a very good boy. He hates to be alone and to be hungry, which makes us both happy (because we like to be with him) and even more busy. Our older son is doing well too.</personal>
So much for personal info. I have three papers from the last semester to edit and publish on Academia.edu. I'll start with the one that I did for NT exegesis class. It's aim is to expose the logic of 1 Corinthians 11:2–16. These are the most salient points of my exegetical proposal.
Two Of My Recent Papers on Academia.edu
Deer 🐖 readers of this blog, sorry for not posting anything since the Deluge or so. I've been busy going to Romania on Christmas, writing two super duper papers (see bellow), taking care of my wife who's eating for two again and interpreting for my dean from CTS during his lectures on our bible school and last, but not least at all, preparing to teach The Corinthian Letters, which only two weeks ago was totally out of my area of expertise.
Backgrounds, Exegesis and Theology in a Hermeneutical Framework?
In these days I look forward to spend another academic year as a masters student at Continental Theological Seminary. My experience there has been so far personally refreshing and intellectually stimulating. It has also brought about a number of adventures, which would otherwise be avoided during my daily routine, such as catching up on paper deadlines, paying insane dues and combining all kinds of transportation.
The Documentary Hypothesis and the Composition of the Pentateuch (book review)
Every generalisation can be met by a counter-generalisation. More important is the concrete investigation of the text.
—Umberto Cassuto in The Documentary Hypothesis
Umberto Cassuto (1883–1951) was a Bible scholar of Jewish origin. He was born in Florence, where he had spent most of his life and where he had taught Hebrew and literature in the University of Florence, when he had to move to Israel because of anti-Semitic laws imposed in 1938. His natural erudition in biblical Hebrew and the fact that he could see and study the Aleppo codex before it lost considerable portion of it's pages, makes him an impressive savant on the field of the textual criticism. And the fact that he was able to challenge the Documentary Hypothesis (henceforth DH) as an (to a large extent) impartial researcher and argued for literary unity of the Torah, transforms him into a refreshing exception in a long line of scholars who accepted basic propositions of the DH with but a little critical considerations.
My Paper on Historical Criticism
I feel compelled to present you with another paper that I wrote last semester. It's full title is The Historical Critical Approach: It's Definition, Reception, and Significance and you'll find the paper on Academia.edu. It was written for OT Exegesis class. My assignment was to define and evaluate historical critical method. I took advantage of this homework to cover many issues and thus to develop preliminary research for my thesis. Issues I attempted to cover and things I wanted to say are probably too many for a paper like this. But as I said, it's for a higher good.
Hilastērion and Faith in Romans 3:21-26
I returned from my last course at CTS this last Thursday late at night, just a couple of days before these terrible attacks. This time, the course was focused on New Testament exegetical methods. The professor has presented some enjoyable material. Was only my Greek a little bit better, I would enjoy the course even more. But it wasn't. And as I was exposed to delicacies of diagrammatical analysis, I found my preparedness wanting, as also all of my classmates did. I hope I'm ever gonna catch up on killer Greek like this! (But Hebrew is first. So one step at a time.)
One particular homework that we were assigned to do was to prepare an exegetical sermon. I picked up Romans 3:21–26 for my homework, which is probably one of the hardest passages for exegesis ever. I won't share the whole sermon, just the most salient points with particular reference to the word hilastērion in Romans 3:25.
It’s exactly when
… it all looked exceedingly grim
in the meanest din
between devil and his twin
you were kindly redeeming my sacrament of sin
as I exercised the whim
you were hidden in
it's exactly at the moment of my foulest lust
for the things unjust
infirmities of the past
you became my very very own inconoclast
as my time was being sowed
you were reaping rust
it's exactly on the fracture between you and me
between burning tree
and his fantasy
you were tightly seizing me by letting me be free
as you left the Plato's cave
I went to meet Thee
Give up on Logos Bible Software
It happened again. A guy from Logos contacted me yesterday and asked if I want some of their packages. I use to ignore such e-mails and trash them or even mark them as spam, but these Logos people are always so kind and their approach is so warm, personal and caring that I chose to spend approximately 15 minutes by formulating this kind of response (see below). I like what Logos is doing and I do know some people who had spent thousands of dollars in Logos, but there are features and circumstances about the whole thing that I find so much… discouraging. This is what I replied to the guy (his name has been changed).
Evangelical Faith and the Challenge of Historical Criticism (book review)
This book was published by Baker Academy in 2013 (ISBN 978–0–8010–4938–5). It is a collection of essays by a number of progressive evangelical authors edited by Christopher M. Hays (Seminario Bíblico de Colombia, New Testament) and Christopher B. Ansberry (Oak Hill College, Old Testament). The main purpose of the book is stated in it's title: To find out how historical critical approach to the Bible challenges evangelical faith. Or to put it another way, to explain current state of historical criticism, as adopted by progressive evangelicalism, in its furthest theological consequences.