Biblical Studies

On a Christian website with which I am indirectly involved the Community boards have recently been swamped with questions from two Muslims. The objections, I soon realised, are standard ones drawn from Islamic websites and because they are standard questions have been answered many times before. On doing some research I have found that the same thing is happening on other Christian forums and chatrooms around the world and I thought that some resources might be helpful.

There is always the option of banning objectors from the forums – which should be done if anyone breaks the “house rules” for the site – though this could be misinderstood by others on the forum. Another option that was suggested to me would be to agree to answer one objection against Christianity and then be allowed to put an objection against Islam. Most Muslims are totally unaware of the problems in the Qur’an, for example, and most quickly move on to another site to try their luck there. Handled this was observers on the forums will see that the objections can be answered satisfactorily.

Here are some sites that should help in answering Muslim objections. My list is based on that provided by Lambert Dolphin:

Answering Islam (Jochen Katz)
Arabs for Christ
Islam Review (The Pen and the Sword)
Jesus and Islam, (The Books of M.N. Anderson)
The Good Way (Christian response to Moslems)
Iranian Christians International, Inc. (UK)

If anyone can suggest other resources, please do so.

The Festschrift for Professor Alan R. Millard has just been published. Many thanks to Becca Vaughan-Williams of T. & T. Clark for providing me with details of its contents:

Piotr Bienkowski, Christopher Mee & Elizabeth Slater, eds., Writing and Ancient Near Eastern Society. LIbrary of Hebrew Old Testament Studies 426. London & New York: T & T Clark, 2005. Hbk. ISBN: 0567026914. pp.368.

Pierre Bordreuil, “Migraines d’Epigraphiste,” pp. 15-28.

Alasdair Livingstone, “Taima’ and Nabonidus: It’s a Small World,” pp. 29-40.

Dennis Pardee, “Dresser le beouf a Ougarit,” pp.41-48.

M.C.A. MacDonald, “Literacy in an Oral Environment,” pp. 49-118.

Wolfgang Rollig, “Keilschrift versus Alphabetschrift: Uberlegungen zu den epigraphs auf Keilschrifttafeln,” pp. 119-126.

John F. Healey, “The Writing on the Wall: Law in Aramaic Epigraphy,” pp. 127-142.

David T. Tsumura, “‘Mispellings’ in Cuneiform Alphabetic Texts from Ugarit: Some Cases of Loss or Addition of Signs,” pp.143-154.

Graham Davies, “Some Uses of Writing in Ancient Israel in the Light of Recently Published Inscriptions,” pp. 155-174.

K.A. Kitchen, “Now You See It, Now You Don’t! The Monumental Use and Non-use of Writing in the Ancient Near East,” pp. 175-188.

Daniel I. Block, “What has Delphi to do with Samaria? Ambiguity and Delusion in Israelite Prophecy,” pp. 189-216.

Christopher Tuplin, “Darius’ Accession in (the) Media,” pp. 217-244.

K. Lawson Younger, “‘Hazael, Son of a Nobody’: Some Reflections in Light of Recent Study,” pp.245-270.

George L. Brooks, “4Q341: An Exercise for Spelling and for Spells?” pp. 271-282.

John Davies, “The Origins of Inscribed Greek Stela,” pp. 283-300.

Alan Millard, “Only Fragments from the Past: The Role of Accident in our Knowledge of the Ancient Near East,” pp. 301-

I have just uploaded two articles by Dr Richard Bauckham of St. Andrew’s University:

Richard J. Bauckham, “Weakness – Paul’s and ours,” Themelios 7.3 (1982): 4-6.

Richard Bauckham, “The Relatives of Jesus,” Themelios 21.2 (January 1996): 18-21.

Many thanks to Dr. Bauckham for his permission.

Two more of his articles will appear shortly on http://www.theologicalstudies.org.uk/ and will be posted here: http://theologicalstudiesorguk.blogspot.com/