Joseph Ryan Kelly

@maklelan.bsky.social coming in clutch once again with a video for me to add to my slides for the day we review 1 Enoch to explore the evolving attitude of the origins of evil in the biblical and post-biblical tradition.

The whole thread in one tweet!

Another article on Genesis 2-3 that recognizes the core of the story centers on the acquisition of divine knowledge.

I heard a version of this paper nearly a decade ago, and it was such a great paper. Looking forward to revisiting it!

I've printed it out and will reply as soon as I get it read!

Opinion | Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way

So, um, www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/o...

But listen now. We must not go and fight,
Or we will bring more ruin on our heads.

καὶ νῦν ὧδε γένοιτο. πίθεσθέ μοι ὡς ἀγορεύω:
μὴ ἴομεν, μή πού τις ἐπίσπαστον κακὸν εὕρῃ.

The Odyssey 24:461-62

Image of an FAQ page from the Cleveland Clinic answering the question, "Can people still get Spanish flu? The initial response is highlighted, "People can still get different versions of influenza virus that caused the 1918 pandemic."

By his logic, the 1918-20 Great Influenza epidemic isn't over.

I reread Amusing Ourselves to Death because of this tweet, and then started thinking about a 21st century equivalent...Scrolling Ourselves to Death. I looked it up on Amazon and, sure enough, Evangelicals with the Gospel Coalition have coopted Postman's title to promote the gospel. 🤦‍♂️

Called out some local stupidity.

I'm pretty sure this is a desk reject!

Very happy and willing to be said representative!

Love the story and how chance encounters can lead us down productive paths! BTW, let's plan to talk about those poisonous mushrooms in November! (Wink)

The link to @blindscholar.bsky.social new book is now working. Get your free copy TODAY!

I teach an Ed Tech course as part of my day job. We mostly critique ed tech and learn media literacy pedagogies, but when we do cover teaching with technology, our book makes this same point about engagement and lists three concrete practices that count as engagement in her teaching framework.

This is really exciting! Just FYI, I'm not yet showing the free access to the PDF. I think @vox-magica.bsky.social element did the same thing a few weeks ago, was supposed to be available but the download link wasn't immediately available.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for this. Very happy to see this framed as a study of allusion!

@jonpaulsballs - A website featuring Jon-Paul's balls Experimental ball design and development. A collection of recent experiments from ball designer, Jon-Paul Wheatley.

Have you seen Jon Paul's Balls? The guy hand sews soccer balls for a living. I think he's big on short form video social media. share.google/tXGp7t0VCwYG...

I loved this feature too until LLMs came along. For the first time this semester, my students will pay a $21.10 course fee for 436 page spiral bound course reader that contains all the readings for the course. I'm also teaching and assigning annotations as an additional disincentive to using LLMs.

I want to reiterate that "hallucination" is a bad metaphor and "bullshit" would be more accurate.

This sucks. I filed on Feb 3 and had to use HRB because one of us gets a 1098 and that income isn't eligible for Free File (last I checked). The IRS immediately accepted my return and I had my refund in my bank acct on Feb 10. Its so shitty for them to make this inferior to the HRB and TT products.

We often think of Ludlul as a theodicy because a person experiences unexplained personal suffering. As a text addressed to scribes, it addresses the validity of diviniation, not the justice of the gods.

I'm SOO here for new assumptions and vocabulary about modes of address and ways of speaking.

Understood in this way, the suffer's situation in the poem would have been directed not to other sufferers but rather to the ritual experts experiencing ritual failure, assuring them that their rituals do indeed work and that occasional failure is not due to their incompetence or inadequacy.

In his 2023 book Suffering in Babylon, Lenzi observes that we only know of one group who knew of and were capable of understanding Ludlul bel Nemeqi, the ummânū, or scribes who progressed to the more advanced stage of Mesopotamian scribal curriculum. www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/23...

a bald man in a red and black uniform is sitting in a chair looking at the camera . Alt: Captain Picard wearing his red and black Starfleet uniform is sitting in the captain's chair of the Starship Enterprise. He makes a geasture with his right hand while mouthing the words "Make it so."

If we both agree this is the authentic text of Matthew 18:19, I'm pretty sure God has to make it so.

So if the comment about lack of shame in 2:25 refers to shame before Yahweh, I would conclude the fig leaves and the hiding were two actions operating in conjunction.

In 2.25, I take "naked but not ashamed" to refer to them being naked in front of Yahweh. But again, I'm perfectly happy to be wrong here. One thing my purity culture upbringing biased me to believe was there is no shame in being naked before one's spouse, even in a fallen world.

Do let me know when that comes out!

It seems Hendel is taking this from the hitpael in Gen 2:25, translating it as "and they felt no shame before each other." But Yahweh is right there (he just created Eve from Adam's rib), and I don't see why the focus should be on shame between the couple instead of shame before Yahweh.

Thoughts?