Biblioblog Top 50 – May 2009

It’s the Biblioblog Top 50 - for the month of May 2009!

The Biblioblog Top 50 ranks each biblical studies blog, or “biblioblog,” by the total traffic or “hits” it receives each month.

For the third time running, the Number One Biblioblogger of the month is…
Jim West

So who’s also hot in biblical studies blogging for the month of May 2009?

• Bryan Lilly (Katagraphais), up 108 places to No. 18
• Roland Boer (Stalin’s Moustache), who bounced back into the Top 50 as a result of a liberal number of posts on sex, up 92 places to No. 28
• Daniel and Tonya (Hebrew and Greek Reader), who were into the Top 10, up 11 places to No. 7
• Neil Godfrey (Vridar), up 46 places to No. 15
• Jim Getz (Ketuvim), on the eve of his Biblical Studies Carnival for May 2009, up 78 places to No. 23

Additions and changes to the Complete List of Biblioblogs:

• This month, we added Phillip Marshall’s new blog (Biblical Languages) to the list, which provides some helpful Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek tips and advice. We also noticed that Karyn Traphagen blogs on Hebrew and gardening at Boulders 2 Bits, McClellan posts on Hebrew and other aNE languages at Maklelan, and Timothy McCormick reviews Catholic Bibles. The blog at Bill Mounce.com was also added to the textual criticism and translation section. 
• You might want to have a read of Jane Stranz, who blogs at Of life, laughter and liturgy. . ., specializing in feminist theology.
• In Hebrew Bible / Old Testament blogging, we added our first Romanian blogger, Theophyle, who is currently blogging summaries on just about every topic from the ancient Near East, early Judaism and early Christianity. We also added the blog of Julia O’Brien, Professor at Lancaster Theological Seminary (Pennsylvania), and Jeffrey García’s Helek Tov (previously Me-vaser).
• In New Testament blogging, Ian Millington tries out some mathematical and statistical analysis to understand the New Testament, at his new blog, New Testament Math. We also added Ardel Caneday’s Biblia Theologia,  Andy Naselli’s Thoughts on Exegetical, Biblical, Historical, Systematic, and Practical Theology, T.C. Robinson’s New Leaven, Richard Wilson’s Italian Bibbia Blog, Antony Billington’s Billington’s Blog, Jacobo Jovan Payes’s Biblical Faith, and Matthew Barnes’s In the Corner with Matt. In addition, we found Rafael thinking in public at Verily, Verily, Robert Hulme studying the Bible at RobHu Studies the Bible, and Brett Berger trying to read more dead people at Reed Mor Ded Peepl. We see that John Ottens has begun to engage in some Speculative Hermeneutics, which sounds dangerous. And also worth checking out is John Brentlinger, at RevJohn.
• Biblioblogs which have withered and died in recent months include Kevin A. Wilson’s Blue Cord, Pail Randle’s Greek Books, ‘Conn’-versation, UHL’s The View from Jerusalem, Tony Burke’s Apocryphicity, and Gordon Lyn Watley’s Sibylline Leaves. So we have struck them from the list. But who knows, they may be back.
• We have also made a large number of additions this month to the Related Blogs section – blogs which contain some biblical studies material but whose primary focus lies elsewhere (e.g. archaeology, theology, computer software, etc). Check out the very personal reflections offered in The New Heretics, from a blogger who shares how he lost his Christian faith while in Bible College. Or read a religious studies lecturer’s reflections on the Bible, religions, and politics in Missives from Marx. Or enjoy A K M Adam’s Random Thoughts, such as his current series in which he offers advice on exegesis.

And here’s the full list of the Top 50 Biblioblogs for May 2009:

Rank	Prev.	+ / -	Blogger	Blog Name
1	1	-	Jim West	Jim West
2	3	1	Joel L. Watts	The Church of Jesus Christ
3	2	-1	Ben Witherington	Ben Witherington
4	4	-	James McGrath	Exploring Our Matrix
5	5	-	Airton José da Silva	Observatório Bíblico
6	7	1	Scott Bailey	Scotteriology
7	18	11	Daniel and Tonya	Hebrew and Greek Reader
8	9	1	John Hobbins	Ancient Hebrew Poetry
9	10	1	Thomas Verenna	The Musings of Thomas Verenna
10	23	13	Peter M. Lopez	Beauty of the Bible
11	6	-5	Michael S. Heiser	The Naked Bible, PaleoBabble, UFO Religions, Scribal Practices, Two Powers in Heaven
12	8	-4	Mark Goodacre	NT Blog
13	-	-	Various	Biblioblog Top 50
14	12	-2	Dave Black	Dave Black Online
15	61	46	Neil Godfrey	Vridar
16	21	5	Claude Mariottini	Claude Mariottini
17	15	-2	Chris Tilling	Chrisendom
18	47	29	Jeff Oien	Scripture Zealot
19	127	108	Bryan Lilly	ΚΑΤΑΓΡΑΦΑΙΣ / Katagraphais
20	13	-7	Tommy Wasserman, et al	Evangelical Textual Criticism
21	11	-10	Nick Norelli	Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth
22	16	-6	Chris Heard	Higgaion
23	101	78	Jim Getz	Ketuvim
24	17	-7	Chris Brady	Targuman
25	53	28	Loren Rosson	The Busybody
26	20	-6	Phil Harland	Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean
27	26	-1	Tyler F. Williams	Codex
28	120	92	Roland Boer	Stalin’s Moustache
29	55	26	John Crawford, et al	Faith-Promoting Rumor
30	52	22	Mike Aubrey	ἐν ἐφέσῳ / In Ephesus
31	50	19	April DeConick	Forbidden Gospels Blog
32	44	12	John Hobbins, et al	Bibbiablog
33	-	-	Andy Naselli	Thoughts on Exegetical, Biblical, Historical, Systematic, and Practical Theology
34	71	37	Duane Smith	Abnormal Interests
35	48	13	Ken Brown	C. Orthodoxy
36	24	-12	ElShaddai Edwards	He Is Sufficient
37	39	2	Rick Brannan	Ricoblog
38	62	24	James Pate	James’ Thoughts and Musings
39	51	12	Mandy and Calvin Park	The Floppy Hat
40	75	35	Peter Enns	Peter Enns
41	34	-7	Jim Davila	PaleoJudaica
42	69	27	J. K. Gayle	Aristotle’s Feminist Subject
43	56	13	Michael Barber, Brant Pitre	Singing in the Reign
44	131	87	David J. Larsen	Heavenly Ascents
45	74	29	Alan Lenzi	Bible and Ancient Near East
46	60	14	James Tabor	The Jesus Dynasty
47	73	26	Andreas Kostenberger	Biblical Foundations
48	22	-26	Andrew Bernhard	Gospels.net
49	32	-17	Matt Page	Bible Films Blog
50	27	-23	Art Boulet	Finitum Non Capax Infiniti

Some technical info on how the stats are calculated is included here.