Archive for January, 2006

Jeremy over at Parableman has posted a very good survey of commentaries on the Book of Psalms. Based on his comments, he appears to be coming from a moderate evangelical viewpoint and doesn’t have much patience for speculation in regards to the Sitz im Leben of individual psalms or conjecture for the redaction and compilation of the book of Psalms.

There are a number of good commentaries on the Psalms that he does not include in his survey, including the following which I think are worth of mention:

• Davidson, Robert. The Vitality of Worship: A Commentary on the Book of Psalms. Eerdmans, 1998. Buy from Amazon.ca | Buy from Amazon.com
• Eaton, J. H. The Psalms: A Historical and Spiritual Commentary with an Introduction and New Translation. T & T Clark, 2003. Buy from Amazon.ca | Buy from Amazon.com
• Gerstenberger, Erhard. Psalms: Part 1: With an Introduction to Cultic Poetry. Forms of the Old Testament Literature. Eerdmans, 1988. Buy from Amazon.ca | Buy from Amazon.com
  Gerstenberger, Erhard. Psalms, Part 2, and Lamentations. Forms of the Old Testament Literature. Eerdmans, 2001. Buy from Amazon.ca | Buy from Amazon.com
• McCann, J. Clinton. Psalms. New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 4: 1 & 2 Maccabees, Job, Psalms. Abingdon, 1996. Buy from Amazon.ca | Buy from Amazon.com
• Schaefer, Konrad. Psalms. Berit Olam. Liturgical Press, 2001. Buy from Amazon.ca | Buy from Amazon.com

For a complete listing of commentaries on the book of Psalms, see my Old Testament Commentary Survey.

I came across this absolutely horrendous rendition of “O Holy Night” (right-click to download for your listening pleasure!) on a humour blog that I often frequent (The Sneeze).

Now, I will be the first to admit that despite my Welsh heritage, I can’t sing (and my family will confirm this fact will far too much vigor) and I doubt that I could do a better job than this poor sap. But, I do know my limitations and I am never under the illusion that I can sing and I would certainly never record myself singing for on audition tape as this fellow did!

Take a listen and let me know what you think — can you do better?

Happy 2006 everyone! I truly wish everyone the best for this upcoming year.

I was pleasantly surprised (tickled pink, actually) to see Loren Rosson at The Busybody and Christopher Heard at Higgaion interact with my “Happy New Year — Qohelet Style” post.

Loren, in his post “The Wisdom of Ecclesiastes,” translates my post so to speak “in terms to which non-deists can relate,” while Chris — the equally if not even more estimable scholar of the Old Testament Hebrew Bible — offered some excellent critiques of some aspects of my interpretation in his post “On Ecclesiastes.”

While I don’t have the time right now to fully respond to Chris’s comments (new semester starting and all!), I will say that he may have caught me red-handed in a hermeneutical jump in regards to “life under the sun,” but I will maintain that הבל hebel is a terminus technicus of sorts for Qohelet and therefore a specialized meaning within the book is not out of the ordinary.

So, in the words of “The Governator” (who according to this Bible Code will be re-elected in 2006), “I’ll be back.”