• First, the goal shouldn’t be to blog the entire meeting. That, obviously, would be a bit too much. I would think that all of the major presentations should be covered (e.g., the presidential address) as well as some of the more controversial papers. In addition, some editorial pieces may be worthwhile, especially since this will be the first SBL without the AAR.
• Second, in addition to the type of posts noted in the first point, the SBL Meeting Blog should also serve as an ongoing “carnival-like” repository of links to SBL-related discussions going on in the blogosphere. Thus, someone could keep and eye out and put together a daily round-up of links. Even better, bloggers could be asked to email a trackback url to the editor of the SBL Meeting Blog when a relevant post is uploaded.
• Third, perhaps a regular podcast from the SBL meeting could be arranged and distributed via the SBL Meeting Blog. This could include interviews with some SBL bigwigs, discussion of controversial papers, or just general impressions of the meeting.

If these are the sort of things the SBL Meeting Blog would cover, then the blog would need to be a team blog with different disciplines represented and perhaps an overal editor/organizer. Then we could assign certain bloggers to cover certain papers and topics, etc. Of course there would have to be some technical details worked out; first and foremost the question of where the blog would be located and what blogging platform would be used (WordPress is my vote). Leonard wants this as part of the SBL Forum, though I am not sure if their server has blogging software capability (I assume it probably does, though I am not sure if it is a unix based server or not).

At any rate, those are some of my ideas. I now open up the comments for a discussion on how best to blog the SBL annual meeting. What say you?

Here is the full table of contents of the June-July 2007 (vol. 5, no. 6) edition:

In the Public Sphere

• How A Hurricane Made Me a Better Archaeologist by Michael M. Homan

In the Profession

• Zimri Briefly, Brightly King: The Strange Story of Israel’s Shortest-Reigning King, 1 Kgs 16:8-20 by Robin Gallaher Branch

Reviews

• Scriptural Education and Entertainment: Evangelism, Didacticism, and Satire in Graphic Novels (Part 2) by Dan Clanton

Society News

• The Bible and Critical Theory – Special Offer for SBL Members

Letters to the Editor

• Books for Jewish Studies to China by Terje Stordalen

Opinions

• Response to Avalos by J. D. Walters

Obituaries

• Brevard S. Childs (1923-2007)
• Rev. Robert North, S.J. 1916-2007
• Michael Patrick O’Connor, 1950-2007
• James F. Ross, 1927 – 2007

Another worthy initiative that the SBL is venturing into is developing a collection of syllabi related to biblical studies. This sounds much like the resources that the Wabash Center offer, but restricted to biblical studies. Finally, there is a brief note on the discovery of King Herod’s tomb.

Here is the full table of contents of the May 2007 (vol. 5, no. 5) edition:

In the Public Sphere

• Herod’s Tomb Discovered at Herodium
• Discovering Babylon: The Opportunities, Challenges and Irresistible Potential of Video Games as an Educational Medium by Alice Petty

In the Profession

• The Wired Scholar: Five Free Tools You May Not Know About by Danny Zacharias

In the Classroom

• Killing a Dead Language: A Case against Emphasizing Vowel Pointing when Teaching Biblical Hebrew by William P. Griffin

In Popular Culture

• Scriptural Education and Entertainment: Evangelism, Didacticism, and Satire in Graphic Novels (Part 1) by Dan Clanton

Society News

• SBL Collection of Biblical Studies Syllabi
• SBL Endorses Resolution Calling for the Safeguarding of Archaeological Sites in Iraq

News

• Recent Articles of Interest
• Society Initiatives Featured on Capitol Hill by Joel LeMon

Letter to the Editor

• In Response to McMurry
• Teaching the Bible in Public Schools
• In Response to Propp
• In Response to Chancey
• In Response to van Wolde

Here is the full table of contents of the April 2007 (vol. 5, no. 4) edition:

In the Public Sphere

• Mike McCurry on Faith and Politics

In the Profession

• The Anthropology of Biblical Archaeology by William H. C. Propp
• Scenes From a Conference by Rex Sayers

In the Classroom

• Bible Courses in Public Schools: SBL’s Response to a Growing Trend by Mark A. Chancey
• Worshiping in Ignorance by Stephen Prothero

On Location

• On Location at the 2007 American Oriental Society Meeting by Jack M. Sasson

In Translation

• Language of Sentiment by Ellen van Wolde

First, there is a lengthy response by James Tabor to the articles by Jodi Magness and Christopher Rollston. Tabor’s article, Two Burials of Jesus of Nazareth and The Talpiot Yeshua Tomb, primarily deals with Magness’s criticisms, though he also addresses Rollston’s questions surrounding the identification with the family of Jesus of Nazareth.

Tabor also helpfully offers some comments about the nature of the debate and some suggestions for future research:

The nature of the question, with its theological and emotional overtones, coupled with the way the issue was put before the public and the academy (i.e., through a documentary film and a trade book) has understandably galvanized the responses into “yes” or “no,” (mostly “no”), when reasonable alternatives might be “possible but uncertain,” to even “probable but not certain,” but in any case a call for further investigation. I will make some suggestions at the end of this piece regarding directions for future research.
….
Taken as a whole it seems to me that this tomb and its possible identification with Jesus and Nazareth and his family should not be dismissed. The evidence from the gospels I have surveyed, coupled with the cluster of significant names that fit our hypothetical expectations for a posited pre-70 Jesus family tomb, is strong, and should be further tested. Of course, if the ossuary inscribed “James son of Joseph,” is added to the cluster, and the evidence for that possibility is unresolved at this point, the correspondence would be all the more striking. What is needed is further work on the epigraphy, expanded patina tests, further DNA testing if that is possible, and since the tomb in 1980 had to be excavated so quickly, but now has been located, a fuller archaeological examination of the site itself.

Tabor also has a response to the letter to the editor by Jonathan Reed.

The other article added to the SBL Forum is by Stephen J. Pfann. In his article, “Mary Magdalene is Now Missing: A Corrected Reading of Rahmani Ossuary 701,” Pfann offers an alternative analysis of the “Mariamene the Master” inscription. He argues the inscription reads “Mariame and Mara” and suggests the ossuary contained the bones of at least two different women — neither of being Mary Magdalene.

James Tabor has a response to Pfann’s new reading of the inscription on his Jesus Dynasty blog. Tabor consulted noted epigrapher Leah Di Segni and she writes: “I well remember that, while here and there I had some suggestions about interpretation of a particular form (for instance, Mariamenon being an hypochoristic form of Mariam), I could not but confirm all his readings. I have not changed my mind now.â€? I encourage you to read his whole post, “Leah Di Segni on the Pfann “Correctionâ€? of Rahmani.”

Now that the initial buzz surrounding this “Jesus tomb hypothesis” seems to be dying down a bit, I hope that there will be some more fruitful academic debate surrounding the tomb and ossuaries — and I think that these Forum articles are a good start.

Here is the full table of contents of the March 2007 (vol. 5, no. 3) edition:

In the Public Sphere

• Has the Tomb of Jesus Been Discovered? by Jodi Magness
• Prosopography and the Talpiyot Yeshua Family Tomb: Pensées of a Palaeographer
  by Christopher A. Rollston
• Two Burials of Jesus of Nazareth and The Talpiot Yeshua Tomb by James D. Tabor
• Mary Magdalene is Now Missing: A Corrected Reading of Rahmani Ossuary 701 by Stephen J. Pfann

In the Profession

• Welcome to the Biblical Studies Carnival by Tyler F. Williams

In the Classroom

• Faith and the Discipline in the Classroom: A Crucial Dialectical Relationship by J. Bradley Chance

In Popular Culture

• The Wright Stuff?: Scholars Discuss “Mere Christianity” at SBL Annual Meeting 2006 by Christopher B. Hays
• Biblical Graphic Novels: Adaptation, Interpretation, and “Faithful Transfer” by Terry Ray Clark

Society News

• NEW FROM SBL PUBLICATIONS: The Dead Sea Scrolls
• “Through the Museum with the Bible” Workshops

News

• Fighting for Iraq’s Culture

Letters to the Editor

• Response to the “Lost Tomb of Jesus” by Jonathan L. Reed
• Response to Reed by James D. Tabor

Here is the full table of contents of the February 2007 (vol. 5, no. 2) edition:

In the Public Sphere

• The SGD Digital Collection: Previously Unknown and Uncatalogued Ethiopian Manuscripts in North America by Steve Delamarter

In the Profession

• Teaching the Bible in Babylon: Reflections on Joining the Biblical Studies Diaspora by Michael F. Bird

In Popular Culture

• The Return of the Chaos Monsters: A Biblical Myth by Gregory Mobley
• Climbing the Dragon’s Ladder: Perpetua, Felicitas, Graphic Novels, and the Possibility of Writing Modern Hagiography by Andrea Lorenzo Molinari
• The Grain of Sands: The Personal Exegesis of A. David Lewis by A. David Lewis

News

• Update on the ETANA (Electronic Texts and Ancient Near Eastern Archives) Digital Library Project

Letters to the Editor

• Study Bibles

This edition has a number of interesting articles. Here is the table of contents in full (I am going to make reproducing the contents of each Forum in full my habit since there is no index to previous Forums):

SBL Forum – January 2007 (vol. 5 no. 1)

In the Classroom

• Confessions and Reflections: What Can the Bible Do for the Liberal Arts? by Alan Lenzi
• Wikipedia: Unreliable Source, Useful Heuristic Tool by Lawrence J. Mykytiuk

Reviews

• “The Nativity Story”: A Review by Mark Goodacre

In Popular Culture

• Comics and the Bible: Reinterpretation and Mythic Understanding by Greg Garrett
• Do Superheroes Read Scripture? Finding the Bible in Comic Books by G. Andrew Tooze
• OH-MY-GOD It’s So the Teen Bible! by James G. Crossley

Make sure to take a gander at Mark Goodacre’s review of The Nativity Story as well as James Crossley’s look at the Teen Bible.

On a side note, does anyone know if previous forums are listed anywhere on the SBL site? It appears that once the new forum is posted, no index of the previous forums are available.

What especially caught my eye in this month’s forum was an article by fellow Canadian and friend Tim McLay. Tim wrote a piece entitled “The Goal of Teaching Biblical and Religious Studies in the Context of an Undergraduate Education.” In this article Tim first deals with the goal of an undergraduate education, which he argues is first and foremost “to learn to think critically and to articulate one’s ideas better in oral and written form.” His second and related claim is that “the content of teaching is irrelevant.” While I have a knee-jerk reaction to Tim’s second claim, in the context of his article I can appreciate his point — especially when you think of it in light of his rhetorical question: “How often are we concerned to finish our lecture rather than entertain a question?” While I am not terribly content driven (witness the fact that I used to have a hard time getting out of the Pentateuch in my OT Literature class!), I do feel that a certain amount of content is necessary for the introductory courses. Nevertheless, Tim’s point is well taken as a reminder to be flexible in the classroom.

Perhaps my more substantial objection is to his first point. Isn’t a liberal arts education more than just critical thinking? Don’t get me wrong — the development of critical thinking skills is a crucial component of a liberal arts education — I just think that a liberal arts education should be so much more. What do you think?