Resources Archives - Page 142 of 152

The Graduate Junction

I have been alerted to a new resource which may be very helpful for researchers. From their description:

The Graduate Junction is a brand new website designed to help early career researchers make contact with others with similar research interests, regardless of which department, institution or country they work in. Designed by two graduate researchers at the University of Durham, The Graduate Junction has proved very popular with research students and academics alike. Within the first two weeks after our launch in early May 2008 over 2000 researchers in the UK had registered and the news had spread across 40 countries. Currently research students have two main sources of information, published literature and academic conferences. Whilst published literature is essential, it can only ever reveal completed work. Relevant academic conferences provide a forum for students with similar research interest to interact but occur infrequently. It is very easy to become isolated, overly focused on the specifics of one’s own work and lose a sense of what other related work is being done. The Graduate Junction hopes to prevent that isolation and allow early career researchers to start forming the networks which can stay with them throughout their careers. The Graduate Junction aims to provide an atmosphere similar to that at academic events and through the use of the internet aims to establish an on-line worldwide graduate research community.

This could be a great way to connect with those working in your field. Check it out here.

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Free Software: Get Lost in Jerusalem

Some years ago Zondervan released a educational game on CD called “Get Lost in Jerusalem.” The goal of the game was to navigate through the Old City of Jerusalem with the help of clues. Many American students were particularly delighted to find that “home base” in the game is the shop of the famous Shaban (photo at right). The copyright on the game has now reverted to its creator, Ted Hildebrandt, and he is making it available for free download. So if you’re hankering for a stroll down the historic narrow alleyways of Christian Quarter, minus the odors, you’re in luck. You can check out Hildebrandt’s page with the download (and lots more), get more information at Amazon, or take a look at Biblical Studies and Technological Tools to get some helpful instructions before downloading and installing the 550 MB file.

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Archive of First Protestants in Jerusalem

Haaretz has an interesting article on the historical archive of Christ Church in the Old City of Jerusalem. Some excerpts:

Tucked away in Jerusalem’s Old City, between the entrance to the David Street market and the Armenian Quarter is one of Jerusalem’s unsung treasures – a small room chock full of books, letters and documents in the historic Christ Church complex. Many of the documents are hand-written in the flowery style of the 19th century or earlier, written by Europeans, particularly the British, who lived and worked here. Coming to the documents’ hopeful rescue is a recently initiated project that applies a combination of cutting edge technology and devotion to history to set them on their way toward digitalization as a means of preserving the stories they tell for future generations…. To explain what the library is all about, Arentsen’s supervisor and Christ Church’s new rector, Rev. David Pileggi pulls out one of the thousands of glass slides the library also owns. He holds it up, illuminating it in the afternoon Jerusalem sunlight streaming though the windows from the Christ Church courtyard. This one depicts nurses standing next to the beds of patients on a ward of the first hospital in Jerusalem, founded by the missionaries. “Life is complicated,” Pileggi says, using the slide to segue into what is obviously a pet subject of his–dispelling the notion that nineteenth-century European Christians “were only interested in converting Jews to hasten Jesus’ second coming.” Pileggi, an affable and talkative Floridian who has lived in Israel for 28 years broaches an issue that raises hackles in Jewish and Israeli society. He concedes the hospital’s missionary purpose, but seems intent on getting across that it was “mixed with a deep sympathy for the Jews that came from reading the Bible. When you read the Bible and immerse yourself in its culture, as they did in places like England, Holland, and parts of Germany, you begin to identify with the main characters. That’s certainly part of what these people were doing…. The precious documents found in the rare holdings closet put the Conrad Schick Library on a list of over 50 priceless collections whose preservation and digitalization is the goal of the Historical Libraries and Archives Survey, a project under the wing of the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London. Along with the Conrad Schick Library, the survey aims to preserve and digitize collections throughout Jerusalem – from the Afeefi family’s 43 Arabic manuscripts on astronomy and other science kept in their Jerusalem home to the library in the ancient Syriac Orthodox St Mark’s church with at least 300 manuscripts, the Al Aqsa Mosque repository with about 1,000 manuscripts and hundreds of ancient Korans, and the collection of the Admor of Karlin with more than 800 manuscripts, some centuries old. Dr. Merav Mack, 35, a Cambridge University-educated medieval scholar and a fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, is a consultant on the project along with colleague Peter Jacobsen. “We think the project is important because the city’s written treasures are of such enormous educational and cultural value to our global heritage.”

HT: Joe Lauer

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BAR for a Buck

This just in:

Give a full year of Biblical Archaeology Review for only $6. That’s six fun-filled, fact-filled, controversy-inspiring issues of the premiere magazine of Biblical archaeology for only $1 each. It’s the best gift deal we’ve ever been able to offer, and we don’t expect to be able to offer it for long.

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Archaeology Handbook: The Key Finds

Insight for Living, the ministry of Chuck Swindoll, has just released Archaeology Handbook: The Key Finds and Why They Matter. This is a 120-page introduction to the top ten archaeological discoveries related to the Bible. I think it’s an excellent overview of artifacts like the Merneptah Stele, the Tel Dan Inscription, and the Sea of Galilee boat. There are also chapters on the Temple Mount, Hezekiah’s Tunnel, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. The writing is clear and engaging, the photographs are beautiful, and the layout is attractive. If you’re one of the archaeologists who reads this blog, you probably won’t learn anything from this book, but if you’re someone who hasn’t had much exposure to biblical archaeology, this is a great starting point.

I served as a consultant for the book, supplied many of the photographs, and was interviewed in one of the chapters. That’ll make some of you happy, while others will run the other way.

Here’s one of the questions I was asked: What role does faith play within the scientific discipline of archaeology?

My answer: Archaeology should not be carried out in order to prove some pre-conceived idea, whether pro- or anti-Bible. Archaeology is best when it is carried out with the best of scientific methods and interpreted by a range of scholars. Archaeology is ill-served when the interpretation of sites and artifacts is divorced from our knowledge of ancient texts, including the Bible.

Here’s another: Has archaeology revealed anything that contradicts the Bible? If so, what? And how should Christians respond to such discoveries?

My answer: Archaeology has revealed many things that can be interpreted in a fashion that is not compatible with the biblical record. But those same things can also be interpreted in a way that is consistent with Scripture. This ambiguity is not intrinsic to issues related to faith, but is the nature of the discipline. But those matters related to the Bible are naturally more popular and receive more attention in the press. I do not know of any major issues that conflict with the accuracy of the Bible.

There are some issues of a lesser nature that are not yet resolved, but I recognize that that is due to the limited nature of the evidence.

Most of the book is more interesting than these questions reflect, as it’s not dealing with theory, but with actual discoveries and what they mean.

Through May, the book is available for a donation. Beginning next month, the book will be sold in their online store. There is also a video that gives more details about the book.

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Recommended Book: In Their Sandals

I was just reminded of a book that I read last year that I intended to mention here. David Hansen’s In Their Sandals is a helpful work in thinking through different aspects of Jesus’ ministry from a fresh perspective. Hansen is driven to understand Jesus in his original context, thus avoiding some of the pitfalls that beset us when reading the Gospels from such a great distance. Among the stories that he considers are the woman at the well, the feeding of the 4,000, the penitent thief, and the writing on the ground. Hansen makes his points clearly and concisely, and I enjoyed being provoked along the way. I certainly recommend the book for those seeing to better understand the ministry of Christ in the context of the land.

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