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Matthew 14:22–33 narrates Jesus’ walking on water. Yet, unlike the parallel accounts in Mark 6:45–52; John 6:15–21, Matt 14:33 reports that the disciples’ conclusion, at the end of this episode, was ἀληθῶς θεοῦ υἱὸς εἶ (truly, you are the son of God). Apparently thinking along the lines similar to Heb 3:5–6, Archelaus, Disputation with Manes, 44 (ANF 6:220), relates this text to Jesus’ superiority to Moses. Perhaps more to the point here, however, is a chaos-versus-creation motif (Boring, “Matthew,” NIB 8, 327) in which Jesus subjects the surrounding disorder (Graves, “Followed by the Sun,” RevExp 99, no. 1 [2002]: 92; Ladd, Theology of the New Testament, rev.ed., 163; Verseput, “The Faith of the Reader,” JSNT 46 [1992]: 14–16; cf. Augustine, Serm., 25.6 [NPNF1 6:338]; Jerome, Epist., 30 [NPNF2 6:45]). He does so, first, by walking on the sea himself and then all the more by causing Peter to do the same (Chrysostom, Hom. Matt., 50.2 [NPNF1 10:311–12]). In this framework, then, if Israel’s God is master of the seas (e.g., Job 9:8; Ps 89:9, 19–37; Hab 3:8, 15; cf. Gen 1:2 [LXX; LSJ, s.v. ἐπιφέρω, §§2–3])—a kind of mastery not otherwise within the realm of human experience—Jesus’ walking on the sea is an eminently good reason for identifying Jesus as θεοῦ υἱός (son of God) and worshiping him as such (see Matt 14:33; Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, 6.51 [NPNF2 9:117]; cf. Mark 6:51–52; John 6:21; Aristotle, Poetics, 5.6, 6.2).

• Duane Smith repeats Jim Davila’s recent excerpt about the availability of the Babylonian Talmud online (English, Hebrew-Aramaic). The basic bibliographic entry for the Soncino version is available here (BibTeX).
• Jim Davila notes the completion of Sheffield’s Dictionary of Classical Hebrew.
• Daniel Roth highlights five articles about SOPA, including John Gaudiosi’s report of the White House’s disapproval of the bill as it stands.

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The latest issue of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society arrived in yesterday’s mail and includes the following:

• Al Wolters, “An Early Parallel of αὐθεντεῖν in 1 Tim 2:12″
• Michael Harbin, “Jubilee and Social Justice”
• Gary Smith, “Isaiah 40–55: Which Audience Was Addressed?”
• Don Garlington, ” ‘Salt of the Earth’ in Covenantal Perspective”
• Gavin Ortlund, “Resurrected as Messiah: The Risen Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King”
• Eric Johnson, “Rewording the Justification/Sanctification Relation with Some Help from Speech Act Theory”
• Jason Sexton, “The State of the Evangelical Trinitarian Resurgence”
• Bruce Davidson, “Glorious Damnation: Hell as an Essential Element in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards”

• Logos Bible Software releases version 4.3 (SR8), which includes couple bug fixes, and adds Oxyrhynchus papyri (15 vols.), J. P. Migne’s Patrologia graeca (18 vols.), and Marcus Jastrow’s Dictionary (2 vols.) to the community pricing program.
• Peter Head comments on a textual siglium in NA26 and NA27 at Gal 1:1, and several interesting comments follow.
• Mark Goodacre considers Kevin Kilty and Mark Elliot’s “Regarding Magness and Talpiot.”
• The Document Foundation releases LibreOffice 3.4.5 (download; 3.4.5.1 change log; 3.4.5.2 change log).
• Anthony Thiselton discusses the value of studying hermeneutics (HT: Matthew Maclolm):
  
• Google Books has available a full-text PDF copy of Theodore of Mopsuestia’s commentaries on Galatians–Colossians.
• This fall, Lincoln Christian University will host a conference on “Jesus, Criteria, and the demise of Authenticity” (HT: Daniel Kirk).
• Matthew Montonini collects three of Douglas Moo’s lectures on Romans.
• Kerry Lee digests and briefly comments on Richard Hays’ lecture yesterday, “Can the Gospels Teach Us How to Read the OT?”

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In Gen 17:13, God tells Abraham that his whole household was to be circumcised והיתה בריתי בבשׂרכם לברית עולם (and my covenant will be in your flesh as an everlasting covenant). Yet, Paul strongly opposes Gentiles’ submitting to circumcision in connection with their membership in the Christian community (Galatians) and asserts that ὁ ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ Ἰουδαῖος, καὶ {ὅτι} περιτομὴ καρδίας ἐν πνεύματι οὐ γράμματι (Rom 2:29; the Jew is one who is such inwardly, and [that] circumcision is of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter). What then becomes of the בבשׂרכם []ברית עולם (Gen 17:13; everlasting covenant in your [= Abraham's household's] flesh)? It is precisely there because of the circumcision of Abraham’s messianic seed (Gal 3:16), ἐν ᾧ καὶ περιετμήθητε περιτομῇ ἀχειροποιήτῳ ἐν τῇ ἀπεκδύσει τοῦ σώματος τῆς σαρκός, ἐν τῇ περιτομῇ τοῦ Χριστοῦ (Col 2:11; in whom you also were circumcised with an unhandmade circumcision in the removal of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of the Messiah; cf. Gal 3:23–29; Bede, Genesis, 284; Chrysostom, Hom. Col. 6 [NPNF1 13:285]; Cyril of Alexandria, Catena on Genesis [ACCOT 2:56]; Theodore of Mopsuestia, Colossians [ACCNT 9:32]).

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This year’s Faith and the Academy conference program is now available. The conference is hosted annually by Faulkner University. This year’s theme is “Money, Morals, and Missions,” and the plenary sessions will feature Shawn Ritenour of Grove City College and Monty Lynn of Abilene Christian University. In the last morning session, I am also privileged to be giving a paper on “Physical Humanities and Lettered Sciences: Thomas Kuhn’s Significance for Contextualizing Biblical Studies.” For more information about the conference and to register, please see here.

Craig Keener

Ever helpful, the folks at the Westminster Bookstore have made available a PDF sample from Craig Keener’s Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts (2 vols.; Baker, 2011) on the book’s product page. The sample contains the work’s table of contents, introduction, and first chapter.

For Keener’s recent interview about the work with Christian Book Distributors, see here.

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Google Books has available a full-text PDF of August Hahn’s Bibliothek der Symbole und Glaubensregeln der Apostolisch-katholischen Kirche (Breslau: Grass und Barth, 1842).

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Apparently, recent versions of LibreOffice have a slightly different defaults for what nonprinting characters will display in a document. Instructions for customizing these settings are available here.

Abraham and Melchisedek (Image via Wikipedia)

As Abram returns from rescuing Lot (Gen 14:1–16), Melchizedek brings out bread and wine (Gen 14:18), and so, fittingly does the priest do the same whom David says has been appointed in Melchizedek’s order (Ps 110:4; Heb 7:1–26; Augustine, Civ., 16.22 [NPNF1, 2:323]; Augustine, Doctr. chr., 4.21 [NPNF1, 2:590]; Bede, Genesis, 269; Cyprian, Epistles, 62.4 [ANF, 5:359]). Melchizedek is without genealogy (Heb 7:3), and his bread and wine are also without origin. Yet, he brings them to Abram and, in a way, to Abram’s seed (Gal 3:15–29; Heb 7:9–10; cf. Bede, Genesis, 269; Cyprian, Epistles, 62.4 [ANF, 5:359]). The messianic seed, however, brings bread and wine as from himself, and he brings them to those also who are in himself as Abram’s other offspring (Matt 26:26–29; Mark 14:22–25; Luke 22:14–20; Gal 3:15–29; Heb 2:10–18).