This was generally a slow year for me in terms of books at the SBL, owing to the fact that I am currently somewhat underemployed. I did manage to pick up some books, so I thought I would list them here.

This is the latest book in the Conversations with Scripture series. My book on the legal material in the Pentateuch was released in this series last year. I got this one for free because I am on the editorial board for the series. Cynthia’s book is being sent to all the Anglican bishops who will be attending Lambeth, since the Gospel of John is going to be the subject of their Bible study for the conference. If you are looking for books to use in parish Bible studies, I would urge you to consider this series. The books that are out so far are Revelation, The Law, Parables, and The Gospel of John.

This book was the subject of one of the Hebrew Bible and Cognate Literature sections this year. I tried to go to the session, but it was overflowing with people. I will have to settle for reading the book.

This book has been out a while, but I haven’t picked it up until now. I find the idea of Persia commissioning the Torah to be unlikely, but I thought I would give it a shot. Apparently many of the contributors to this book also find it unlikely, but the SBL Symposium Series always goes a good job of exploring issues such as this.

This is the book I am most looking forward to reading. As I mentioned in a previous post, I heard Nihan speak at one of the Pentateuch sections. The book is an expanded form of the author’s dissertation at University of Lausanne, Switzerland, under Thomas Romer. It was a bit more than I had planned to spend, but I did get an author’s discount since my own dissertation was published in this series. As it turns out, the author’s discount at Mohr Siebeck is larger than the standard convention discount for their books, so that made it a little more affordable. It still cost more than a paperback book has a right to cost. Nihan apparently draws on Israel Knohl’s ideas, which have been so helpful in my own work.

This is the second book on which Roncace and Gray have collaborated. Their first, Teaching the Bible: Practical Strategies for Classroom Instruction, was very helpful. Both books offer practical classroom exercises for teaching classes in the Bible. As the title suggests, this volume contains activities that draw on television, movies, music, poetry, and literature as a way to help students understand elements of the biblical text.

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