For advent this year I’m planning to preach on the passages some carols are based on. Here’s how Psalm 98 and Joy to the World map on to each other:

Haven’t read it coz paywall but the comments are pretty funny

I just read (an abridged version of) the book this week - so many details different from the film! Shock horror - the shoes were silver. And the wicked witch sent various waves of creatures who were defeated before the flying monkeys.

Shout out to other time zones #medievalsky #booksky

Trying to uncover the provenance of a couple of medieval HB manuscripts I was looking at last week. Matamodon and Tatalia are the two I have had no luck googling. Anyone heard of these or know where I could look them up? 📜

Apparently my book is heaps cheap if you’re in the US. Everything you wanted to know about the structure of Ecclesiastes but were afraid to ask.

Not sure why this sign irritated me so.

Day two in the Sydney University dungeon. Had a look at this one yesterday, a 1491 HB. This is the botanical artwork around and initial letter of Psalm 1 in Nicholson 35.

This is my newest hate (after Wankpanzers). They’re essentially screaming along footpaths on electric motorbikes. The only legal e-bikes in NSW are e-assist; all other e-things (bikes and scooters) are illegal except on private property.

Horse racing is not sport. How do I know this? Take away the gambling and it ceases to exist. The obsession with this one day and putting it as the top story will never make sense to me.

I promise I'm not looking for these but the last two verses of Romans also look like a really nice chiastic structure. It centres (E) around the revelation, begins and ends (A) with the only wise God who is able to establish you (B) "my gospel"//the Gentiles coming to faith I think it works!

Although we really can't know why variation stopped (or started in the case of the latter) in sequence or segmentation of the Psalms, there are two events which would seem to be massive in shutting down variation:

Romans 16 is next. Here's my structure 📜 A 1-2 Receive Phoebe whom we commend in the Lord B 3-16 Greet all these people C 17-20 A warning against the dividers who will soon be crushed B’ 21-23 Greetings from all these people A’ 25-26 Receive Jesus whom is commended in my gospel

Positively buzzing about my trip to the library next week. I get to play with some 14th and 15th century Psalms manuscripts! I knew USyd had some fun items but to look at some this old should be extra enjoyable.

There's this weird thing, where in Qumran, the order of psalms varied between each manuscript. But thereafter, we don't find any variation of sequence in any manuscripts at all. Then in the Medieval period, the segmentation of psalms differs greatly, but not at all before or after. Weird, huh? 📜

I think Romans 15:1-7 is its own little structure as a response to the issue of chapter 14. The structure, based around repeated lexemes, looks like this. And in the middle, as with my chapter 14 structure (embedded somewhere in this thread) is another verse from Scripture.

My structure for Romans 14 looks a little something like this: It's based on repeated lexemes and themes. At the centre is the panegyric of 14:11 quoting Isaiah 45:23. It all gets a bit mixed up if you extend the section to chapter 15, so I'm wrestling with how that works at the moment.

Nothing to see here? Well, this is a slow moving 🧵 for #skystorians and others about #eyeglasses of the past, about how to read in the past, where to buy eyeglasses, and how to do with them in general. The hashtag is #HowToDoWithGlassesInThePast Let's roll.

Is it too long a bow to string to link Romans 14 and one’s views on Halloween?

Free to download for two weeks only! Starting today, you can download my new book: Between Yahwism and Judaism: Judean Cult and Culture during the Early Hellenistic Period (332–175 BCE) Download it now, and read it later. Please share and spread the word! www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Just signed up for a 27km run through the Snowy Mountains in February. A little scared but mostly excited. It’s 10km further than I’ve run before, and it’s a trail run, and I’m currently not allowed to run, but I’m trusting I’ll be okay by then and it should be a lovely day in the sun in any case.

"When Christians are more loyal to our ethnicity or nation than to Christ's body, we have gone beyond giving Caesar what is Caesar's to giving Caesar what is God's." Craig Keener on Romans 13 (NCCS) way back in 2009

Turned my thoughts on Obadiah into a blogpost. Love to know if you think this works. 📜 duck5.blogspot.com/2025/10/ogli...

I honestly don’t know what more proof @goodacre.bsky.social needs for the existence of Q

A rare combination of Tiberian and Palestinian cantillation on my son’s pyjamas

Just starting to work on Romans 13 for next week; this structure for 12-13 looks plausible and useful. What to actually say about 13 at this moment in history is another question altogether! 🪔

share a cartoon from the past that kids today probably never heard of 📺

A better Obadiah structure is probably more like this: A. Yhwh's vision by his envoy (1) B. The high brought down (2-4) C. Nothing left (5-7) D. Your day vs Yhwh's day (8-16) C'. Everything eaten up (17-18) B'. Your heights occupied from Mt. Zion (19-21a) A'. Yhwh's kingdom (21b) 🪔

I have a theory... I think you could structure Obadiah around the Seven Deadly Sins™️ 2-4 Pride 5-7 Greed 8-10 Wrath 11-14 Sloth (did nothing) 15-16 Gluttony (drinking imagery) 17-18 Lust (this one is dodgy - but fire//lust?!) 18-21 Envy (now they all want to possess former Edom)

I don’t watch much motor sport these days but the #Bathurst1000 today was incredible. 280kmh down the strait and screaming around the mountain in pouring rain for almost seven hours and the drama of the last few laps was something else.

I've really enjoyed reading the PhD dissertation of @blindscholar.bsky.social this Saturday. I'm thankful for the terminological distinctions he establishes and it's nice to read someone whose work overlaps with my own.

This has infested our house as well. The YouTube Shorts generation have already made this twice these holidays!

9.5 hours in a waiting room to get told it’s likely inflammation not a stress fracture was not how I wanted to spend my Saturday.

2355 years ago, on the 1st of October 331 BCE, the Army of Macedon under Alexander the Great defeated the Persian Army under King Darius III in the Battle of Gaugamela. It is seen as the final blow to the Persian Empire. #otd #history #persia #alexanderthegreat 🗃️

Yom Kippur begins at sunset on 1 October. Here is Jonah being swallowed by the fish, at the text of Jonah, the haftarah for the afternoon service of Yom Kippur. #YomKippur Bodleian Library, MS Kennicott 1; 'The Kennicott Bible'; 1476 CE; La Coruña, Spain; f.305r @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

I've clearly been marking too much. I keep writing LSS (learning support system) instead of LXX.

the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) is both written down by Moses, reflecting actual historical events, AND is a polemic against the neo-Babylonian empire. not sure how these can both be true but finding out is the joy of marking. #ammarking

In the last verse of Amos 8 Yhwh has issues with people putting their trust in three northern locations: Samaria, Dan and Beersheba. He calls out the Shame of Samaria, the God of Dan, and the Way of Beersheba.

My fear with the Lexham Logos Baker deal is the endless conglomeration. Soon everything is going to be owned by Bezos or Disney or Murdoch. Murdoch btw owns NewsCorp who owns HarperCollins who owns Zondervan. When one falls they’ll all go down. Oh and more censorship.

lol ok i had to

dumb AI recognition software is giving my son anxiety. he's writing an 800 word essay and it's telling him it's some percent AI (which it isn't - I watched him write it) and now he's stressing trying to edit it to reduce it so he doesn't get in trouble

A great🧵 One day somebody’s going to write a PhD on Charlie Kirk’s funeral as the consummation of American evangelical syncretism. Like, there’s so much text and sub-text here. Just deeply disturbing.

Brilliant #MinuteCryptic today for this religious space lover: "Religious space cosmonaut struggling with lack of oxygen" (7) www.minutecryptic.com?utm_source=s...

just hit Amos 8. two things to note 🪔 1. there's a pun on the word translated "summer fruit", because it sounds like the word for "end". it's קיץ and קץ. Yhwh shows Amos the basket of קיץ and says the קץ is coming. I like how the NIV tries its own pun - here's some ripe fruit; the time is ripe.

hadn't come across the verb נטף before today. it is in parallel to נבא (to prophesy) in Amos 7:16, but HALOT tells us the base meaning is about dripping, so they conclude that in the Hiphil it must mean something like ecstatic prophesying, foaming at the mouth etc. it seems a little dramatic but 🤷‍♂️

Two blogs in two weeks?! What's going on here?! This time, on how Psalm 33 continues Psalm 32 👀. (At least, that's the trashy clickbait.) Simply put, 32:11 is restated in 33:1. Almost as if we were supposed to read them as one... Have a look! duck5.blogspot.com/2025/09/psal... 🪔📜 #chiasm #psalms

Stoked to smash 23 mins yesterday at #Parkrun. Think I can retire now and/or become a professional trainer.

In Amos 6 at the moment. 3 quick things which stood out: 1. Amos is not a fan of David. He pictures him as this bloke strumming away on his harp while the world burns. (6:5-6) 2. There's an interesting phrase in this context: ”וַעֲגָלִים מִתּוֹךְ מַרְבֵּק“ (6:4) - calves from the midst of the stall.

Quote post with an album you'd rate a perfect 10 out of 10.

Liebe deutsche/Schweizer Bibelwissenschaftskolleg:innen: Ich suche jemanden vielleicht auf der fortgeschrittenen PostDoc-Stufe, der/die als Spezialgebiet Qumrantexte hat? Für eine kleine Fortbildung für Neutestamentler:innen. Meine Recherche/Anfragen waren nicht sonderlich erfolgreich bis jetzt.