Ink 11 – Spring 2022

Have you ever been surprised to find a new detail in an old story?

Whether it’s a favourite book or an oft-repeated Bible passage, it can be easy to think we know a story so well that we hardly need to read it anymore. We set ourselves up for a surprise when we pick up that book or passage anew and find that we might not know them as well as we think.
 
This issue of ink is dedicated to the possibility — and joy — of seeing old favourites in a new light.
 
We’ll look at two of the Bible’s most famous stories, the story of David and Goliath and the Easter story, to understand how biblical scholarship can help us see them with new insight. James Bejon helps us listen for echoes of the creation story in John’s passion narrative, while Dr Kaspars Ozolins looks into the identity of the giant slayer in 2 Samuel 21. 

Also in this issue, Dr Dirk Jongkind takes on another textual knot in the manuscript history of the name Jesus Barabbas. And we meet Dr Elizabeth Mburu, an academic on a mission to how the biblical text is relevant to new challenges in her context. 
 
Speaking of seeing old favourites in a new ways, this is our first completely digital issue of Ink. We’re making the most of the new format by bringing you one of our favourite episodes from our second Trusting the Bible podcast series. In this episode Dr Andrew Ollerton is joined by Dr Ros Clarke to talk about how we read poetry and allegory in the Song of Songs.

Article – Echoes of Eden in the Easter story

James Bejon explores how the imagery of John's passion narrative points us back to creation >

Interview – Thinking contextually 

We talk to Dr Elizabeth Mburu about her work on the Africa Bible Commentary, African Hermeneutics and the joys and challenges of scholarship in Kenya >

Article – Who killed Goliath? The puzzling text of 2 Samuel 21:19

Dr Kaspars Ozolins takes us on a journey through biblical names and manuscripts in order to unravel a textual mystery >

Podcast – How do we read the Song of Songs?

In series 2 of the Trusting the Bible Podcast Dr Ros Clarke and Dr Andrew Ollerton discuss how we read poetry and allegory in the Old Testament >

Article – Was Barabbas called Jesus Barabbas?

Dr Dirk Jongkind goes back to the manuscripts to find out whether Barabbas was really called Jesus >

Recommended reading

More resources to explore the world of the Bible

The Ancients Podcast: Jewish burial at the time of Jesus

Do the Gospel accounts of Jesus's burial correlate with the archaeology and records of Jewish burial in first-century Jerusalem? >

Text & Canon Institute: Seven common misconceptions about the KJV

Timothy Berg looks at seven common misconceptions about how the King James Bible was translated and reprinted >

Cambridge Digital Bible Research: The story behind Psalm 1

The Cambridge Digital Bible Research Psalms Layer by Layer project looks at the layers of meaning in the imagery found in the first Psalm >

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Ink aims to give evidence-based answers to real questions that people are asking about the Bible. If there’s something you'd love to read about in an issue of Ink let us know. Email us at ink@tyndalehouse.com