In the Mail

Getting mail is awesome enough, but getting books in the mail....now you're talking! I ordered a bunch of books for my summer classes, some of which have arrived! Just to share the fun, here is what came in the mail, grouping them into books for each class:

Readings in Ancient Near Eastern Literature

• Alexander Heidel, The Babylonian Genesis: The Story of Creation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963).
• John H. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament (Michigan: Baker Academic, 2006).
• William W. Hallo & William Kelly Simpson, The Ancient Near East: A History (Orlando: Harcourt Brace, 1998).
• Thorkild Jacobsen, The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976).
• John H. Walton, Ancient Israelite Literature in Its Cultural Context: A Survey of Parallels Between Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Texts (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989).
• Patrick O'Mara, Egyptian Hieroglyphics: An Easy Introduction for History and Art Students (La Canada: Paulette Publishing Company, 1974).
• Siegfried Morenz, Egyptian Religion (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992).
• A. Leo Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964).

My OT professor usually requires a lot of books, but half of these fall under "recommended books." Since I know nothing about ANE literature, I took the plunge and bought them (most of them are old and used, thus cheap). 

The Gospel of John

• Craig Blomberg, The Historical Reliability of John's Gospel: Issues and Commentary (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2001).
• D. A. Carson, The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991). I'm already loving this commentary...D.A. Carson (though Calvinist) is an incredible scholar and intellectual giant. Everything I've read or heard by him is golden (except his exegesis of John 3:3 and his views on the sovereignty of God).
• F. F. Bruce, The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983). Again, F.F. Bruce. Need I say more? 

And would you believe I still have a couple more to come?! I can't wait to tear into them!

**Jessica, I totally took this picture Saturday and claim full originality for the idea. Though your post and pictures were much better, I just had to get that out. Spanks.