ואל-תמכר » jim west

goodbye, biblioblog top 50

mitchell b powell — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 05:26:18 +0000

As you can see from the Biblioblog Top 50 site, we’re told to install a tracker inside our own site and to allow one Steve Caruso to archive all our files. Though the Top 50 has treated me well in the past, I won’t be participating. As I’ve mentioned before, everything on this site is uncopyrighted, so anyone, including Mr. Caruso, is welcome to archive my posts if they’re into that sort of thing. But I won’t install the tracker. I’m not going to change the way I do things here to get my name put on a list. Especially not for a project that is already turning into an exercise in using the Bible to beg for money. Just one month into the program and Mr. Caruso is complaining that he needs $25,000 a year minimum to do this — that, he tells us, would just be a bare-bones Biblioblog Top 50 website’s expenses. To really do things right, he wants $50,000 a year. Are you kidding me?

On the budget page, Steve Caruso says,

So… now the question is, who thinks this project is worth it?

Not this guy. This is what I see: someone has made the Top 50 bulkier, less attractive, more complicated, and buggier. He’s taking the living world of biblioblogging and turning it into a harsh-looking museum. And now he wants people to fork over tens of thousands of dollars for this? You’ve gotta be kidding me.

Or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Steve Caruso’s leading the Top 50 to new heights. Maybe the internet doesn’t actually work the way I think it does. Time will tell. If the current scheme survives three more months, I’ll be surprised and I’ll have to revisit this issue.

the spanish kjv

mitchell b powell — Sat, 29 May 2010 21:39:41 +0000

On Facebook, the good Dr. Jim West corrected me for using the redundant “Greek Septuagint.” He said the phrase “Greek Septuagint” was about as incorrect as “English KJV.” And he is right. But that reminded me of something I have most unfortunately failed to share with you all yet. It’s an amazingly strange piece of Americana: the Spanish KJV. Its more precise title is “The Reina Valera Gomez,” but what it is, is the great Reina Valera version reworked to match the KJV at every place where the original (1909? 1960?) Reina Valera differed from it. And that’s a pity, because if you’re looking for an accurate, traditional, literal sort of translation, the Reina-Valera is considerably better than the KJV. If the two are to be reconciled, it should be the KJV which is changed to match the Reina Valera, not the other way round. But KJVOism goes marching on, whether or not the Truth happens to be marching with it.

uh oh . . . this isn’t good

mitchell b powell — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 20:27:12 +0000

On the celebrated blog of Jim West, I recently discovered the following.

The link takes you to a more full documentation of the problem, but the essence of the issue is this:

A Dr. Karin N. Calvo-Goller wrote a book on law. A Professor Thomas Weigend has written an unflattering book review of it. Galvo-Coller decided she didn’t like the review, and demanded that it be removed from the internet. Naturally, the editor of the publication which carried the review did not want to do so, considering the review to be an acceptable criticism. And now the Prof. and the journal are being sued for libel.

Regardless of whether the suit is successful, the fact that the French court system has decided to try this frivolous suit imposes an unfair burden on the journal, because of the lawyer’s fees they must incur to fight this suit. And it will produce a chilling effect on publishers of book reviews in general, who now know that a negative review can be quite expensive.

And because scholarship is based on the free exchange of ideas, including criticism, this suit is an attack on scholarship in general.

some updates on what’s going on in the biblioblogging world

mitchell b powell — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 20:02:57 +0000

biblioblogging: n. the practice of blogging about the Bible.

blogging: n. what I’m doing now.

world: n. the term I use to describe the sum of all the biblioblogs, because “community” is far too comfy a word for such a drama-filled and strife-ridden sea of interactions.

It looks like Jim West may be back with a blog Zwinglius Redivivus (the assumed name of the blogger there is “jim,” and although I have not found any confirmation, a bunch of people say he’s Jim West). The top 50 biblioblogs ranking system that everyone loves to obsess over is now locking us out. Joel Watts has reposted the top 50 list in case people want to see where they stand, but the anonymous folks behind the site are apparently no longer in the business, and so everyone will surely be looking for another method of ranking to compare themselves one to another.

But now I’m going to stop writing, because now I’m writing about people who write about people who write about the Bible, exemplifying the sort of self-distraction that plagues biblioblogging.

Cheers!

another sad example of misinformation

mitchell b powell — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:37:22 +0000

Those of you who know my opinions about textual criticism (or maybe just my dad), know that I am unabashedly Byzantine-priorist. And although I don’t condemn those who happen to disagree with me, I hate to see facts twisted. One of the most unfortunate examples of this is the way in which our position is repeatedly characterized as being similar to KJV-Onlyism. If you’re interested in seeing how that happens, click here and read the comments. Note that the “Jim” who is saying these ignorant things is none other than Jim West, a leading biblioblogger, pastor, and adjunct professor. People who sit in positions of teaching authority really ought to do some basic fact-checking before throwing around such accusations.

UPDATE: Jim West is no longer with us on the blogosphere. He was the #1 Biblioblogger, so I guess the number one might now fall to Mark Goodacre? Who knows.

UPDATE: Jim West, of course, is back. I should a known that would happen.