Just watched the Odyssey with Mrs and Mstr14. Really enjoyed it and thought Nolan made some fascinating choices. The trauma theme I don’t know if it was always there and I just missed it but it was really persuasive as a reading.

Old mate at the lunch queue at the preaching conference on Monday casually asked what I thought of #AI. I said I abhor it. He said it’s really helpful. I said I would have to resign in disgrace if I ever used it to write a sermon or Bible study. He didn’t respond. Hopefully he’ll reflect.

We used to have arguments over this. My colleague back in the day had the golden oldies/ads; I can’t stand ads. Whenever either of us would leave the workshop the other would switch it. 🥁 all the way 🤘

Simon Kuestenmacher@simongerman600.bsky.social · last wk.

Based on this chart the best radio station in Sydney is Triple J. I can't stand ads and most of the radio DJ chit chat is annoying too. Source: buff.ly/aP3mW1T

Preaching conference at Morling College on the Letter to the Hebrews with David deSilva, which we are told is neither a letter nor to Hebrews.

I’m reading his book “Enshittification” at the moment and it’s all so depressing. The monopolies, now they own everything, are strip mining everything of value until there is nothing left. And as a non-American, we, the rest of the world, have to wait for them to do something about it.

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net · last mo.

When Google strips all this away by harvesting an "answer" and displaying it at the top of the page, the bargain between Google and the open web breaks down. Google is extracting 100% of the value from the websites it summarizes, and giving nothing back in return. 7/

I've been reading b. Qiddushin and I'm still confused about whether I have to get off the toilet or out of the bath to greet an honoured guest. (It's because it mentions in passing "two fifths" of the psalms, which may or may not be saying something about "books" within the psalter).

Kiddushin 33a:7 | Sefaria Library

And furthermore, bar Kappara, and some say it was Rabbi Shmuel bar Rabbi Yosei, was sitting in a bathhouse. Rabbi Shimon bar Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi entered and...

sefaria.org

The highlights of this game are just going to be 20 shots by Spain plus their two goals (one disallowed) and the rest just Argentina rolling around on the ground. #ESPvARG This is what made the 3rd place game so fun - very little performative rolling.

Nice of England to do a deal with France: if England get some easy first half goals then Mbappe can have one or two in the second so Messi is that much further away from the golden boot. #FRAvENG The shadow of the Falklands is long!

working on Psalm 122 for this Sunday and there's a fun text thing going on. MT has in v4 שֶׁשָּׁם עָלוּ שְׁבָטִים שִׁבְטֵי־יָהּ עֵדוּת לְיִשְׂרָאֵל לְהֹדוֹת לְשֵׁם יְהוָה׃ while 11Q5 has just the second line in full: עדת ישראל להודות לשם יהוה LXX similarly has not statutes but witnesses: μαρτύριον τῷ Ισραηλ

After 10 minutes of the new @theresthistory.bsky.social series I think I’m convinced: go team Redcoats.

After my talk at #SBL #ISBL on "books" and spacing in the medieval psalms manuscripts at Sydney University Library, here are some puzzles I'm still trying to solve around Radak's commentary. If you know anything about medieval Hebrew I'd love your thoughts on this: duck5.blogspot.com/2026/07/rada...

Radak at the seams

I've spent a lot of time looking at a 1491 Incunable (87.2) at the University of Sydney rare books collection, which contains, among the wri...

duck5.blogspot.com

Final morning of #ISBL #SBL kicks off with politics and kinship. Gili Kugler backs up from yesterday with a fascinating take on Jacob & Esau/Judah & Edom - fraternal conflict is a massive thing in the Bible!

Today at #ISBL #SBL we start out talking about the career of Ian Young (one of my PhD supervisors). It’s his collaborators in blowing up linguistic dating of Biblical texts, Robert Rezetko and Martin Ehrensvärd.

Absolute banger by Thomas Goud on Jesus cleansing the temple to start off Tuesday of #ISBL #SBL. A great pushback to the weaponisation of Jesus to validate human anger.

Great start to the Psalms unit at #ISBL #SBL with Andrew Brown on enemy language in the lament Psalms. Indeterminacy of enemies is key.

Second #ISBL #SBL talk now completed. Expecting a mad rush on the Sydney Uni rare books collection in the aftermath to behold the mysterious variation in spacing and segmentation in their medieval Hebrew Psalms manuscripts. #booksky

Hey Bayeux Tapestry fans have I made the platform game for you? I’m sure someone else will have done this before but well now I have too… bayeuxgo.live

Bayeux Go!

Bayeux Go! Thou art Harold. Go forth and win thine battle. Jump your way to victory, avoiding arrows…

bayeuxgo.live

Okay I'm not going to touch my #ISBL #SBL talk on Psalm 118 in the Dead Sea Scrolls again. I'll just say this: if you were planning to buy a new Bible, hold off until next week when I give my talk and they have to rewrite them all.

i love not gambling. every day i wake up and just don't gamble at all. any money i have at the beginning of the day i either keep or exchange for goods or services. if somebody says "hey do you want to get into some gambling" i say "hell no, brother. do i look like an idiot to you" it's fantastic

If this hypothetical movie were properly ambitious, it could be framed as coming from a storyteller to Jews huddled in a cave during the Antiochene crisis: give the film the context the book is missing for the modern reader. 6/14

(Re-)writing my #ISBL talk and reminded again how annoying it is when editors ignore the materiality of the texts they present. There is a double-spaced line before Psalm 145 in 11Q5 which Sanders completely ignores, which IMHO completely misrepresents the text.

After perusing the #ISBL Radelaide program, the formula for any talk at the Catholic Biblical Association is quite straightforward: "[Any passage or topic] + and the eucharist" will get you a slot. Thanks for attending my talk on "the extra verse in Psalm 118 from 11Q5 and the Eucharist"

Getting excited for ISBL in Adelaide in a week and a bit. I rcecognise a couple of real life comrades and a few people I used to interact with in the other place. Noticing quite a few gaps with paper withdrawals - is this the norm for SBL and ISBL-type conferences?

Youth speak in Australia: Last month it was adding “ing” to everything (helloing) This month it’s adding “ton” to that (helloington)

In my current batch of marking my name is misspelled twice: Dough Fyfe Doug Fyffe I think we can thus postulate the existence of the Urtext where my name was spelled Dough Fyffe

That was a fun game. Wasn’t sure how we’d go this year but that was a quality effort from the Socceroos. Two brilliant strikes and a lot of really good saves. #ausvtür

I’m falling a bit behind on my weekly reflections on Zechariah. Here’s the rest of chapter 9. duck5.blogspot.com/2026/06/note...

Taught my final class last night of Biblical Theology. It’s been an interesting unit, and has drifted around every department until it found its way home to OT. It’s felt a bit like teaching an OT overview class, but ensuring every time we think about connections forwards and backwards.

I feel quite nostalgic thinking about this film. It was so well done. The question is how old my son has to be before I can get him to watch it with me - can a 14y/o handle it?

The Associated Press@apnews.com · 2mo ago

Ewan McGregor says “Trainspotting” remains a defining moment in his career. The film about four heroin addicts in 1980s Scotland celebrates its 30th anniversary with a 4K digital re-release starting Friday.