If any of my readers have a pet and a desire to get out for lunch with them then the Hughenden hotel’s restaurant “Quaife’s” is quite nice.Both the restaurant and some of their rooms are pet-friendly.

Jodie won a lunch there for us. Good food (think nice cafe food, Italian infulence) at reasonable prices ($22 for the most expensive dish – a perfectly cooked fillet of Salmon). Jodie tried squid tentacles for the first time, included on a generous tapas tasting plate.

Oscar, our dog, enjoyed the afternoon out and the other pets he met…except for the cat who didn’t really feel like playing with a bouncy puppy!

Interesting project called ‘Bibledex’.

Has a short vid on each book of the Bible which (from the few i’ve looked at so far) introduces the book, gives some background and talks through a few issues that it raises.

Those interviewed are academics and PhD students at uni of nottingham. One is a guy called Matthew Malcolm from Australia apparently. Anyone know him?

h/t marksayers

We flew back into Sydney at around 9 on new years eve after having a very enjoyable stay in Adelaide with fam+friends for Christmas.

didn’t make any new years resolutions but did remove the ridiculous attempt at list item #20 “grow an orthodox priest style beard”.

included a late submission for movember also: (list #20, #123 done!)

I haven’t done book reviews before on reubenland.com, and perhaps this doesn’t really count. It’s more of a recommendation.

Robert Alter’s “Art of biblical narrative” is a well written and very helpful book for modern readers of the old testament. His aim is to help people read OT biblical narratives with sensitivity to the artistry in their composition. His chapters on type-scene, repetition and knowledge were particularly good.

If you’re at college, I reckon it’s a “must read” if you want to enjoy OT narrative more, learn to read it and to preach it. If you’re an interested reader of the Bible in another situation the writing is not particularly technical and all translations are in english. (no hebrew knowledge required!). You’ll definitely get it, and get a lot out of it.

I’ll leave you with a quote from the closing chapter:

…religious tradition has by and large encouraged us to take the Bible seriously rather than to enjoy it, but the paradoxical truth of the matter may well be that by learning to enjoy the biblical stories more fully as stories, we shall also come to see more clearly what they mean to tell us about God, man, and the perilously momentous realm of history

I’m a big fan of wordpress, and I know a number of you use it too…

so here are a few plugins which I think you might want to use.

1. Backup wordpress

If you are self-hosting your site (i.e. its not at wordpress.com etc) you should really get this going in case you suffer a crash or get hacked. Set it to back up weekly or similar. It can send the files to a gmail account.

2. Login lock-down

Add some protection against hackers guessing your password.

3. Google analytics plugin

If you like graphs and statistics, this is a lot more detailed than the built in stats. Also you can display them nicely in the dashboard using Analytics360

Which plugins do you recommend?

Not the whole OT, just the Pentateuch (Genesis – Deuteronomy) and the Deuteronomistic History (Deut/Josh – 2 Kings)…and even then just key sections I reckon.

What I imagine would be extremely useful is a 100 or so page reading guide to these two foundational sections of the OT. Something aimed at helping an interested reader discover the structure, themes, important issues and links to the NT.

Having studied them this year I feel like I have a good grasp now on the broad sweep of Israels foundational history and the theological reflection done upon it by the biblical writers.

I guess this idea may not seem overly inspiring to many at a first glance, perhaps even a bit boring? That’s exactly why I reckon a guide like this would be great. Understanding this part of God’s word (for me) has been far from boring. It’s great stuff! And I reckon others could find it to be so too.

Who knows, I might get to writing something myself. Want to help?

• Dolphins
• Meat grown in the lab

[Thanks Arthur for emailing the dolphin link!]

Only 1 hour of examinations to go – woohoo! (church history on wednesday)

I feel some more regular blogging emerging…

I’ve noticed that i’ve not stopped to reflect much on these past couple of exams so here goes. A little self indulgent perhaps, but i hope you’ll be encouraged in some way. Even share your own reflections if you’d like.

1. Old Testament theology: I love the hard work that scholars have put into understanding the connections which exist between Genesis – Numbers/Deuteronomy and Deuteronomy – Kings. It’s complicated but has been rewarding to think about it through. Has given me an idea for uni ministry which i’ll get down soon.

2. OT exegesis: was on a few chapters from deuteronomy and 1/2 Samuel. I love hebrew narrative! It has been really hard getting reading speed above crawling pace, but worth it. Love how ambiguity makes writing better, not worse in Samuel.

3. New Testament: A highlight has been working with Rosner/Ciampa’s structure from forthcoming commentary. I like it. What God has done to take down the “strong” and “wise” and raise up the humble and foolish has reminded me again to work hard at thinking like God, not this power obsessed world. It’s encouraged me to keep trusting the weak and foolish cross of Jesus.

I should have known to add “appease wife by removing orthodox priest style beard”. We’ll I’ve done it now (added it to the list, not removed the beard).

It’s getting there…1 or two more months i reckon!!

Just for something random (and what isn’t at reubenland?)

Micro pigs, if you haven’t heard yet…behold: (and beware the terrible jokes)

I personally would prefer a micro goat…you?