Due to a significant increase in my workload right after the semester began, iTanakh added only a few new entries in September 2007:

Texts > Tanakh
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Malachi
Topics > Covenant
Topics > Ethics
Topics > God

iTanakh added new links in the following categories during August 2007:

Context > Geography
Context > Religions > Israel, Judah, and Judaism
Context > Social World
Methods > Theology
Texts > Dead Sea Scrolls
Texts > Septuagint
Texts > Septuagint > Sirach
Texts > Tanakh > Torah/Pentateuch
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Isaiah
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Jeremiah
Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Psalms
Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Job
Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Lamentations
Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Daniel
Topics > Anthropology
Topics > Canon
Topics > Music
Topics > Scripture
Topics > Tabernacle

iTanakh added new links in the following categories during July 2007:

• Archaeology > Artifacts
• Archaeology > Inscriptions
• Archaeology > Sites
• Context > History > Israel, Judah, and Yehud
• Context > Religions > Israel, Judah, and Judaism
• Context > Social World
• Languages > Greek
• Languages > Hebrew
• Methods
• Methods > Historiography
• Texts > Dead Sea Scrolls
• Texts > Egyptian
• Texts > Mesopotamian
• Texts > Septuagint
• Texts > Tanakh
• Texts > Tanakh > Torah/Pentateuch > Genesis
• Texts > Tanakh > Torah/Pentateuch > Leviticus
• Texts > Tanakh > Torah/Pentateuch > Numbers
• Texts > Tanakh > Former Prophets > Judges
• Texts > Tanakh > Former Prophets > Kings
• Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Isaiah
• Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Jeremiah
• Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Ezekiel
• Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Hosea
• Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Amos
• Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Haggai
• Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Malachi
• Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Jonah
• Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Psalms
• Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Ruth
• Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Qoheleth/Ecclesiastes
• Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Esther
• Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Daniel
• Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Ezra-Nehemiah
• Topics > Anthropology
• Topics > Family
• Topics > God
• Topics > Postmodernity
• Topics > Sacrifice
• Topics > Scripture

iTanakh added new links in the following categories during June 2007:

Context > History > Israel, Judah, and Yehud
Context > History > Persia
Languages > Hebrew
Methods
Methods > African Contextual Interpretation
Methods > Historiography
Methods > Postcolonial Interpretation
Methods > Theology
Methods > Tradition Criticism
Methods > Translation > Theory & Practice
Organizations > Schools
Pedagogy
Texts
Texts > Septuagint
Texts > Septuagint > Tobit
Texts > Septuagint > Sirach
Texts > Tanakh
Texts > Tanakh > Torah/Pentateuch
Texts > Tanakh > Torah/Pentateuch > Genesis
Texts > Tanakh > Torah/Pentateuch > Exodus
Texts > Tanakh > Torah/Pentateuch > Leviticus
Texts > Tanakh > Torah/Pentateuch > Numbers
Texts > Tanakh > Torah/Pentateuch > Deuteronomy
Texts > Tanakh > Former Prophets > Joshua
Texts > Tanakh > Former Prophets > Samuel
Texts > Tanakh > Former Prophets > Kings
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Isaiah
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Jeremiah
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Hosea
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Amos
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Jonah
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Micah
Texts > Tanakh > Writings
Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Psalms
Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Proverbs
Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Esther
Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Chronicles
Texts > Targums
Topics > God
Topics > Science
Topics > Scripture

Also, I have been trying to cull out some dead links and “pay per view” links. If you notice offenders in either of these categories, please let me know.

In May 2007, iTanakh got a bit of a facelift, with new and tags in place of list bullets to help indicate what type of resources is listed. I also removed a bunch of links that were for “pay-to-purchase” articles and I tried to update a number of changed links. iTanakh also got its very own web server space, so please, if your iTanakh bookmarks or links have “http://faculty.pepperdine.edu/cheard/iTanakh,” please replace that with “http://www.iTanakh.org” to get the latest versions. In May 2007, iTanakh added new links the following categories:

Archaeology
Archaeology > Sites
Context > History > Edom
Context > History > Israel, Judah, and Yehud
Context > History of Religions > Israel, Judah, and Judaism
Context > Social World
Languages > Hebrew
Languages > Hebrew > Terms
Methods
Methods > Historical-Critical Method
Methods > Redaction Criticism
Methods > Social-Scientific Criticism
Methods > Textual Criticism
Texts > Tanakh
Texts > Tanakh > Torah/Pentateuch > Genesis
Texts > Tanakh > Torah/Pentateuch > Exodus
Texts > Tanakh > Torah/Pentateuch > Numbers
Texts > Tanakh > Former Prophets/Deuteronomistic History > Judges
Texts > Tanakh > Former Prophets/Deuteronomistic History > Samuel
Texts > Tanakh > Former Prophets/Deuteronomistic History > Kings
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Isaiah
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Hosea
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Jonah
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Haggai
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Zechariah
Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Psalms
Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Ruth
Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Song of Songs
Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Chronicles
Texts > Ugaritic
Topics > Canon
Topics > God
Topics > Sacrifice
Topics > Sex and Sexuality

Another victim of web volatility has just come to my attention. The works of Gerald Wilson, formerly posted on his web site at Azusa Pacific University, appear to have been removed pursuant to his untimely death on November 11, 2005. The loss of Gerald’s online works is a loss to the entire online biblical studies community.

In an effort to combat web volatility, I make the following offer to all bona fidebiblical scholars: I offer to host PDF files of your published works at iTanakh. I do need to:

• limit this offer to scholars with bona fide credentials (no dilettantes)
• limit this offer to PDF files, as I don’t want to mess around with the vagaries of HTML coming from many different sources
• limit this offer to previously published material that you, the author, have permission from the copyright holder (if applicable) to post online

Still, perhaps this will make it possible to build a better and less volatile archive of online material.

As the webmaster of iTanakh, I sometimes get frustrated by the shifting, here-today-gone-tomorrow character of many web resources. What’s even more frustrating is when reputable, established content providers change the rules. I’m talking about Brill. Brill makes electronic copies of its journals available through the Ingenta service. For most content, subscription is required, which is fine. What bugs me is that volume 8 of Biblical Interpretation used to be free content, but isn’t any more. Now a different volume is available as a free sample. And while I love free samples because I archive the materials on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, it’s frustrating to link to something thinking it will be freely available to iTanakh users, only to have that freeness disappear later.

In the October 2006 issue of Religious Studies Review, Matthew Mitchell of Dalhousie University (Halifax) reviewed a select few sites for biblical studies on the internet, including iTanakh. Mitchell was kind to iTanakh, and I think the weakness he pointed out were quite fair, but in his last paragraph he wrote:

An additional organizational item that I am uncertain about classifying as a strength or a weakness is the URL of iTanakh. When displayed in the browser’s address bar, it never varies from http://www.itanakh.org as one navigates the site, until one is “deep” enough into some sections for an external window. On the other hand, the URL address that appears at the bottom of the browser is far from user friendly, which makes it difficult to forward or reference webpages.

The static “http://www.itanakh.org” readout in the address bar was a consequence of the URL forwarding scheme that allowed iTanakh to have its own domain name while still being hosted by my academic institution. However, as a direct result of Mitchell’s final paragraph, I have migrated iTanakh to its own dedicated web space. Therefore, you will now see the full URL for each page of iTanakh, and you can copy and past that address into another web page in order to jump directly to that category, no matter how deep it is in the iTanakh hierarchy.

I have also made a couple of other improvements. I’ve changed the main body text font from Arial to Charis SIL. If you don’t have Charis SIL installed, you will see the text displayed in an alternate font, but for best results I recommend that you download and install Charis SIL (and not just because the spelling is really close to “Chris”). I’ve also changed the links sitewide so that iTanakh should now spawn a new window only when you navigate away from iTanakh itself.

There is also some sad news, though. Due to the fact that JBL is no longer publicly accessible, but may only be accessed through JSTOR, I will be removing all links to JBL articles. iTanakh only indexes material that you can access directly on the web. I also need to scour the pages for pay-per-view materials and remove those, although some of those come with abstracts that might be slightly helpful.

Some of you may have experienced difficulty accessing iTanakh over the last ten days or so, or you may have found that the website behaved erratically. Everything should be fine now that the migration is complete. As always, if you notice problems with iTanakh, dead or inaccurate links, or whatever, please let me know.

February 2007 was a very slow month for iTanakh. Not that there hasn’t been stuff to add; it’s just that I haven’t had much time to add it. In February, iTanakh added new entries (mostly book reviews) in the following categories:

Methods
Methods > African Contextual Interpretation
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Isaiah
Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Psalms
Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Song of Songs
Topics > Creation
Topics > God

In January 2007, iTanakh added new links (mostly book reviews from the Review of Biblical Literature, to be honest) in the following categories:

Archaeology > Artifacts
Archaeology > Inscriptions
Context > History > Israel, Judah, and Yehud
Context > Social World
Languages > Hebrew > Grammar
Methods > African Contextual Interpretation
Methods > Historical-Critical Method
Methods > Historiography
Methods > Postcolonial Interpretation
Software > Texts
Texts > Dead Sea Scrolls
Texts > Egyptian
Texts > Septuagint
Texts > Tanakh
Texts > Tanakh > Torah/Pentateuch
Texts > Tanakh > Torah/Pentateuch > Genesis
Texts > Tanakh > Torah/Pentateuch > Leviticus
Texts > Tanakh > Torah/Pentateuch > Deuteronomy
Texts > Tanakh > Former Prophets > Judges
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Isaiah
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Jeremiah
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Hosea
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Joel
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Amos
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Obadiah
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Jonah
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Micah
Text > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Nahum
Texts > Tanakh > Latter Prophets > Obadiah
Texts > Tanakh > Writings > Psalms
Topics > Ecology
Topics > God
Topics > Group Identity and “Otherness”
Topics > Science
Topics > Scripture