It’s certainly been a while since I’ve been able to update Withering Fig. “What could have possibly brought me out of my Salinger-like public coma?” you ask. Well, images of papyri, of course!

Goodacre, over at the NT Gateway, has called my attention (via his excellent blog) to some new images of papyri that Harvard is making available. Here’s is Goodacre’s post:

Harvard Papyri Online

I must say that the quality of these scans is quite good. During my 18 months on Harvard’s LDI (Library Digital Initiative) Project (via.harvard.edu), I was always pleased with the images that we were putting out. It looks like the folks in charge of this project have done superior work.

I took delivery of a new Macbook (the Blacbook) Monday. Since then, I’ve been working to get everything setup just how I like it (the thought of just copying over a Home directory sounds boring. Plus, this way I get a chance to keep things clean—as if that’s going to last).

First off, this thing is freakin’ cool—and I must say that I look smokin’ hot while sittin’ at the driver’s seat. HOWEVER…there are a few issues.

For my money, the Intel version of OS X seems to be a bit buggy. I’ve had strange things happen with signatures in Mail, Calculator has crashed, and, most disturbing of all, unicode keeps giving me issues. Because I do a lot of typing in Greek (and a little in Hebrew), unicode is absolutely imperative.

For the first several days, it was impossible to get this thing to show a final sigma (ς) in a web browser. I have several unicode fonts installed (such as Lucida Grande and Gentium). But these weren’t working. I contacted Joe Weaks over at the Macintosh Biblioblog. He ran me through a couple of ideas, but nothing seemed to work.

While all of this was going on, my little sigmas started working in other applications. I could now type them in Word and Mellel. Then they started popping up just fine in Safari. Still, Firefox and Camino (my browser of choice) were not working properly.

This morning, I woke up and logged on to Withering Fig, only to find final sigmas a-plenty being displayed by Camino.

What is going on?

I’m not going to complain, since things are working now. I’m not even going to investigate the issue further for fear of upsetting my volatile little blacbook. I am just going to go on my merry way and chalk it up to the Intel gremlins. I have clicked off the item in my OmniFocus that says “Fix Greek characters…unicode is being poopy…” — it is no longer an issue.

Anyone else had Intel gremlins?

5 Superheroes of the Bible >> Bible Study at Church Hopping

So, I just submitted my entry for ProBlogger.net’s group writing project: “Top 5.” I started browsing through other entries, and I happened upon this awesome one! Josh Rives list’ includes:

• David (aka Batman)
• Elijah (aka The Flash)
• Moses (aka Captain Planet)
• Josheb-basshebeth, Eleazar and Shammah
  (a.k.a The Fantastic Four) [although points off for only being three]
• Samson (aka Superman)

Sweeeeet…

It’s the 21st century, and anyone studying the Bible should be aware of a few technological advances that can really help them. So, here are my “Top 5 Bible Study Technologies.” If you’ve got some others, feel free to post ‘em in the comments!

1. Accordance — I’m a Mac guy, so Accordance is my Bible software of choice. Accordance is a full-featured Bible software package that allows you to compare texts, look up Greek and Hebrew words, write your own notes, draw maps, look at commentaries and lexica, etc. You can do it all, if you’re willing to spend the money. Everyday at my fingertips I’ve got a fountain of information, right here on my little iBook—no need to lug around a million different books. If you’re not hip to the Mac, if you’re stuck with Windows, check out Logos (which is also now available for Mac).
2. Zhubert.com — Sometimes you just aren’t near your own computer, and you’re just dying to know exactly what Greek word Paul is using here, or how to parse this verb in Luke…Zhubert.com to the rescue. As long as you’ve got someone’s computer with internet connectivity, you can satisfy your Greek dorkiness. There’s also online flashcards, vocab lists, and a bunch of other features that you can personalize and customize. It’s the closest thing to Web 2.0 that Greek Geeks have got!
3. Biblioblogs (see a list of Biblioblogs on Unspun) — Monographs are annual. Peer-reviewed journal articles are quarterly. Blogs are instantaneous. Over the last few years, biblical scholars have flooded the blogosphere with “biblioblogs”—blogs devoted to biblical study. Whether you are just a casual browser, or you really are interested in finding out more about Prof. April DeConick’s thoughts on “The Fourth Quest”, there is a ridiculous amount of information to be gleaned from biblioblogs. However, don’t forget this important rule of thumb: check everything out, trust no one. Just as the web can be a fantastic source of information, it is also full of misinformation.
4. Google Scholar — Google Scholar is one of those things that isn’t great yet. But, one day, it will be. Coupled with Google Book (which I believe used to be known as “Google Print”) Google Scholar can help you separate the wheat from the chaff and work on the fly, miles from a library, miles from a book. While I was in grad school, there were so many times that these two services as well as JSTOR and other online repositories of information bailed me out. The wonderful thing about Google services is that they are totally free. God bless ‘em!
5. Reading Glasses — An oldie but a goodie. First crafted by some cool Italians (check it out) in the 13th century, reading glasses have been indispensible to scholars and lay folks alike for centuries. As the years go by, our eyes start to go a little wacky. At the same time, the print in Bibles is forever diminishing…my wife’s Bible has a 7.5 point font. Cramp! More on glasses…

What are your favorite Bible Study Technologies?

Updates

• Daniel Foster informed me that Logos for Mac is not currently shipping. I’ve left it in the text the way it is, however, because someday it will be shipping…hopefully! [05/10/2007]

UnSpun by Amazon: Best Blogs about Biblical Studies

UnSpun has a list of the top blogs for Biblical Studies. Withering Fig is a glaring omission, but that’s OK…I’ll live to blog another day.

There are some surprises, however. For example, Josh McManaway with his blog “A New Testament Student” currently comes in at #9. By calling this a “surprise,” I do not mean to impugn Josh’s blog or his blogging abilities. Rather, I am just surprised that it ranks so highly considering how new it is! So, good work Josh. He and I have exchanged some emails, and he’s a downright pleasant dude!

Of course, all that said, I have no idea how this ranking system works. But get out and vote! I’m sure it’ll change your life!

April DeConick, of Rice University, right here in my hometown of Houston, has just entered herself in the blogosphere with The Forbidden Gospels Blog. I don’t know much about Prof. DeConick, but it appears that her research interests include early Jewish and Christian mysticism, Gnostic thinkers, etc. Additionally, a quick portrait in front of some pyramids always lends credibility!

Danny Zacharias of deinde.org welcomes her to the blogosphere with a bit of criticism. Danny pretty much sums up my attitude about her initial post (“Beyond the New Testament Canon”). But, that’s what we’re all about—discussion!

Joe Weaks of the Macintosh Biblioblog notes that the makers of the ESV (English Standard Version) have used a data visualization technology (Many Eyes) to create a social networking map of new testament characters.

I don’t know much about data visualization, but it appears to be a technology that is being used more and more outside the hard sciences.

Do you think the other dots are jealous of the size of the Jesus dot?

UPDATE: Brandon Wason of Novum Testamentum Blog posted another use of Many Eyes data visualization technology. Brandon mapped out the length of New Testament books.