Biblical Studies Carnival for August over at Jim West's Blog

Jim West is hosting this month's Biblical Studies Carnival. It's number 44 and he's calling it the Funhouse edition. He starts off saying

Go ahead, glower at me all you like, I’m still calling this the ‘Funhouse Edition’. Funhouses are filled with distorting mirrors and freakish, bizarre and scary sights as well as funny stuff. If you find your benighted self included in this particular freak show, don’t be mad- it’s ok to be a freak. Just remember, I love all, most, some, a few, one or two of you!

Too, it’s good to have fun- even at our own expense sometimes.

And even I get a mention, which is great to see. But it appears Jim doesn't like my decor. He complains of "the ghastly and eye stabbing pink festooning his (my) page" But then Jim's heavily into Calvin and terms himself a Zwinglian. I don't think between those two they allowed much room for pink in their lives. We Catholics on the hand... Jim had better stay away from the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Wellington. Although most of the photos don't do justice to how rosy pink it really is inside. Even the Anglican's St Paul's Cathedral just a couple of doors down the road, are very taken with pink, inside tempered with pastel greens and purples and blues while the whole building exterior is in a delightful salmon pink. But once again the photos don't do justice to how brightly those pinks stand out.

I guess Jim's really lucky I couldn't do a blend of pink and purple on this page :)

Biblical Studies Carnival XL

The Biblical Studies Carnival is a monthly "is a monthly carnival showcasing the best of weblog posts in the area of academic biblical studies." According to the main Carnival Page at Codex:

The goal of the Biblical Studies Carnival is to showcase the best of weblog posts in the area of academic biblical studies. By "academic biblical studies" we mean:

• Academic: Posts must represent an academic approach to the discipline of biblical studies rather than, for instance, a devotional approach. This does not mean that posts have to be written by an academic, PhD, or professor -- amateurs are more than welcome! Nor does it mean that posts must take a historical critical approach -- methodological variety is also encouraged.
• Biblical Studies: Broadly focused on discipline of biblical studies and cognate disciplines, including Ancient Near East, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Christian Origins/New Testament, Intertestamental/Second Temple literature (e.g., LXX, Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, Josephus, etc.), Patristics, Biblical Criticisms and Hermeneutics, Biblical Studies and popular culture, among other things.

In addition, the Biblical Studies Carnival also serves to highlight a variety of blogs -- from well known to lesser known. All blogs are welcome to submit relevant posts to the Carnival. In this way a Carnival is an excellent way to let others know about a blog you frequent or gain new readership to your own blog.

This month the XL Biblical Studies Carnival is happening over at James Gregory's blog. There's a whole lot of interesting stuff there under the headings

A) Linguistics, Text and Translation

B) Hebrew and Judaic Studies

C) New Testament and Early Church

D) Biblical Theology

E) Books and Resources

F) Miscellaneous

And lo and behold, under section B, Hebrew and Judaic Studies, two items from this blog are listed, two posts on the Book of Esther I put up last month. Needless to say I'm quite chuffed. Thank you, James, for including me. So check it out. He's put up heaps of interesting stuff, And he's also got a dazzlingly gorgeous smile. What a shame he's a husband.

And then checking back from the Codex carnival mainpage I find that Jottings gets a reference on the Biblical Studies Carnival XXXIX over at Dr Platypus, Darrell Pursifull's blog. As befits the Carnival there's heaps of good stuff there too, so be sure to check it out. But no photos of Darrell, I'm afraid, so, alas, there'll be no dazzling smiles to distract you on that site.