Seven Biblioblogs I Make Sure to Read

You can get the history on this meme from Chris Heard. John Anderson asks which seven biblioblogs we actually read most often (so, not necessarily favorites). I point out that the question is complicated by the fact that not everybody posts at the same rate. It is also complicated by the fact that I follow a lot of darned blogs. So, these are the seven that, if I’ve got 185 unread posts in my NetVibes feed and not enough time to really catch up, I make sure to read these.

• Akma’s Random Thoughts. Besides being a friend and example, Akma has always been, and will continue to be, my liaison to even other smart people with good ideas: Michael Wesch and David Weinberger alone have changed many of the ways I think about my vocation, and I first gave them a hearing simply because Akma seemed to think it a good idea.


• Higgaion. Chris Heard’s was one of the first Bible-related blogs that I discovered. My current rubrics for research papers are in direct descent from his grading flow chart, and who can thank him enough for his series on The Exodus Decoded? As one of the centurions was heard to exclaim,

Others Chris saved (from having to produce a point-by-point refutation to Jacobovici’s migraine-inducing woo-fest); himself he could not save!

• Abnormal Interests. Duane, I don’t want to encourage you in your unseemly hero-worship, but here’s an anecdote you might like. I found Mark Twain’s short story “About Barbers,” and liked it so much I read it aloud to my wife Michelle. After I read it, I asked her if she could guess the author from the prose style. Without hesitating she ventured, “Akma?”
  Shoppers who like Abnormal Interests may also enjoy Karyn Traphagan’s Boulders 2 Bits, Charles Halton’s Awilum and C. Jay Crisostomo’s mu-pàd-da.


• Hevel. Bryan is a friend, classmate, and fellow backpacker. Like Akma and Chris, Bryan does the work, so I don’t have to: if Bryan wants to figure out open-access education and Macintosh productivity software in his limited spare time, I should reinvent those wheels? Also, he’s a genuinely good person, so when social convention insists I pass as one I sometimes can just try to do like Bryan (but with a Chicago accent) and hope for the best.


• Exploring Our Matrix. I wasn’t raised in a conservative biblical tradition, but I teach many students who are. So, I have to seek out conversations that are critical aware and which engage thoughtfully the concerns of biblical maximalist readers. James McGrath is critical, generous, and his comment threads draw controversy like a post-diluvian sacrifice draws gods.
  Shoppers who like Exploring Our Matrix may also like Doug Mangum’s Biblia Hebraica and Art Boulet’s finitum non capax infiniti.


• Ancient Hebrew Poetry. Always keep up on John Hobbins, except when I find a certain critical mass of Italian, whereupon I simply stare for a few seconds and nod sagely in case anyone is watching. I wish more translators would “work out loud” like John does.
  Shoppers who like Ancient Hebrew Poetry may also enjoy Philip Sumpter’s Narrative and Ontology.


• בלשנות Balshanut. It’s not easy being a lazy semiticist: so much to read, so little time budgeted for keeping informed. Pete Bekins makes the impossible possible by reporting on his reading with detail and clarity. Like Chris Heard above, Pete does the work, so I don’t have to.
  Shoppers impressed that Pete Bekins, Art Boulet, Charles Halton, Karyn Traphagan, Philip Sumpter, and C. Jay Crisostomo accomplish so much blogging as students will also enjoy these other students with high-quality blogs: Adam Couturier at משלי אדם mišlê-ʾadam, John Anderson at Hesed we-ʾemet, Brandon Wason’s Sitz im Leben, and probably other student biblioblogs as well (thanks to Daniel and Tonya).

What seven biblioblogs do you make time for when time is short? (And what student biblioblogs are you reading?) If you take up John’s meme, trackback, ping, or link to this post so I can be sure to see it!