Praise for Studying the New Testament Through Inscriptions: An Introduction

I am delighted to see praise for my book, Studying the New Testament Through Inscriptions: An Introduction. Bob Turner, Library Director at Harding School of Theology (Memphis, TN), has hailed my book as “a really impressive work” that “any NT student or scholar” should purchase. One particular strength of my book, he notes, is that it is really “an exercise in both epigraphy and hermeneutics.” To exemplify this, Turner points to my chapter on 1 Corinthians 11:21 and the translation of the Greek verb προλαμβάνω, which is important for reconstructing the problem with the Lord’s Banquet at Corinth that Paul the apostle addresses. Does it mean to eat, to devour, or to go ahead with? Turner notes, “In that conversation Burnett engages with the leading figures in Corinthian scholarship, reviews the usages of that word in antiquity, reconstructs the social setting of house churches in that world, and shows how inscriptional evidence can inform the reading of that passage.” For the rest of Turner’s review click here.

I appreciate Turner’s kind comments and encourage everyone to purchase Studying the New Testament Through Inscriptions to see the immeasurable benefit that inscriptions have for interpreting the New Testament. It is available now for your Kindle on Amazon or your Nook from Barnes & Noble. As soon as some Coronavirus restrictions are lifted, physical copies of Studying the New Testament Through Inscriptions will be available everywhere good books are sold, including Amazon, ChristianBook.com, and Barnes & Noble.

Studying the New Testament Through Inscriptions is Out, Kinda: Publication/Shipping Update

Well, I’ve got good news and bad news. First, the bad news. Due to the COVID–19 crisis, Hendrickson’s warehouse in Peabody, MA where my book, Studying the New Testament Through Inscriptions: An Introduction, is currently housed has been closed. It is set to open in mid–May, at which time physical copies of my book will be shipped and you can preorder here.

Now the good news. The e–book version of my book is available and can be purchased right now from Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

Bibl·e·pigraphy Podcast Milestone

Last June (2019), I launched a unique podcast called Bibl·e·pigraphy––where the Bible and epigraphy meet––now available on iTunes and the Bibl·e·pigraphy website. What makes this podcast so singular is that it is devoted to discussing inscriptions and their relationship to earliest Christianity, and the New Testament in particular. My rationale for starting this podcast was twofold.

First, I wanted a platform to promote my latest book, Studying the New Testament Through Inscriptions: An Introduction (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2020), which will soon be available for purchase and can be pre–ordered here (it was originally set for release on April 1, but the COVID-19 crisis delayed it).

Second, I wanted to introduce important Greek, Latin, and Hebrew/Aramaic inscriptions to scholars (unaware of this material), pastors/ministers, and lay persons, for the purpose of discussing how these archaeological artifacts can or, in some cases, cannot help us better contextualize the New Testament and thus interpret it more accurately.

I am proud to say that in less than ten months the Bibl·e·pigraphy podcast has hit its first milestone: it now has over 500 downloads (508 to be exact)!

Thanks to everyone who downloaded and listened to these podcasts! It is a pleasure to make them and an even greater pleasure to know that they are listened to!

If you have listened to the Bibl·e·pigraphy podcasts but not rated them on iTunes, please do so because it will help promote the podcast. If you haven’t listened to them yet, what are you waiting for? Click here to listen and prepare to be hit with some knowledge!

New Revelation about the Nazareth Inscription

Is there inscriptional proof of the empty tomb of Jesus? Some scholars say yes. The epigraph to which they point is the so–called Nazareth Inscription, which is a Greek epigraph, dated to the first century BCE to first century CE by paleographic means, that supposedly came from Nazareth, Jesus’s hometown (for more on the Nazareth Inscription’s history see my first podcast on the subject by clicking here). The epigraph itself is an edict from a “Caesar” that references the desecration of a tomb by the removal of a corpse and proscribes any further such behavior (for the Greek and my translation of the Nazareth Inscription click here). Given that the text supposedly came from Nazareth, that its date coincides with Jesus’s crucifixion (30–33 CE), and that it mentions the removal of a corpse, not a few Biblical scholars and some Christian apologists conclude that the Nazareth Inscription is connected to the empty tomb of Jesus and at the very least to the early Christian movement (for more information see my first podcast on the Nazareth Inscription by clicking here).

However, a recent scientific study of the marble of the Nazareth Inscription demonstrates once and for all that the epigraph is neither connected to Nazareth nor Jesus’s empty tomb (see Kyle Harper, Michael McCormick, Matthew Hamilton, Chantal Peiffert, Raymond Michels, and Michael Engel, “Establishing the Provenance of the Nazareth Inscription: Using Stable Isotopes to Resolve a Historic Controversy and Trace Ancient Marble Production,” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 30 [2020]: 102228). Rather, the marble is almost certainly from the island of Cos, about 1000 km or 690 miles from ancient Palestine. For a discussion of this new revelation click here to hear my latest podcast.

Biggest Evangelical Archaeology Graduate Program is No More

Due to the financial strain of the COVID-19 crisis, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has decided to close the largest evangelical archaeology graduate program in the world, the Tandy Institute of Archaeology. In the process, the school is firing five full time professors and tossing to the wind more than 25 students who were in the process of earning graduate degrees in archaeology.

The justification for this move, according to the school’s administration, is that it is part of an institutional reset. To this end, they decided that graduate degrees in archaeology are “incongruent” with the school’s mission of training of pastors.

In my opinion, this decision is nearsighted and the notion that ministers need not be concerned about archaeology could not be further from the truth.

In 2016, I participated in an excavation on the island of Cyprus that the Tandy Institute hosted. Although I was (and am) not an evangelical or a Southern Baptist, the archaeologists and budding archaeologists on that excavation were top notch, respectful, and so gracious to me. I learned so much from them about archaeology and Cyprus and I consider Tom Davis (acting director of the Tandy Institute) and some of his students friends. My heart hurts for the former faculty members and students of the Tandy Institute and their families.

For more information on this sad and terrible announcement see Christianity Today.