The Bible and Culture

… [Read more...]

Kudos to Bob Todd for this. … [Read more...]

http://youtu.be/mSByjqMGtaU Kudos to James Foster for finding this...... … [Read more...]

One of the most interesting things about books and scrolls in Jesus' world is where we find them. One might expect to find them in the ruins of houses, or under the Temple Mount. Where we most often find them is in hiding places, chiefly in caves, and more caves. and more caves. Books were highly prized in the world of Jesus, they were the things you took with you to wherever you sought refuge from invaders, or oppressors of various sorts. A standard roll of papyrus in mid-first century A.D. … [Read more...]

That Jesus spoke Aramaic most of the time very few dispute any more. The Gospels are clear enough on this--- here is a short list of Aramaic words found on his lips--- abba,eloi,eloi sabachthanai, ephphatha, kephas,messias,qorban,rabbuni,talitha qumi,amen, Gehenna, mamonas, pascha, raka,sabbaton,satana,saton, and we could go on. We have not mentioned personal names Jesus used which have the Aramaic 'bar' (son) in them like Simon bar Jonah. Generally speaking we see the decrease of Aramaic in … [Read more...]

It is a too little known fact that Greek speakers were everywhere to be found in the world of Jesus. For example, take the coastal towns in Israel---Gaza, Azotus,Ascalon,Joppa, Dor. All of these cities were largely populated by Greek speakers, including Greek speaking Jews. Herod settled his foreign veterans in the town of Gaba northeast of Mt. Carmel and rebuilt Strato's Tower on the coast. Samaria, the town, became a Greek city when Alexander settled some of his mustered out Macedonian … [Read more...]

There is an awful lot of loose talk, and pontificating on the basis of loose talk when it comes to the issue of Jesus' social level, and his ability to read or write or whether he could have been multi-lingual. Sometimes the discussion is even based on irrelevant data--- for example the fact that Galilee was not inhabited by scads of Gentiles (see Mark Chancey's fine monograph on how Gentile was Galilee). The ethnic makeup of Galilee is frankly irrelevant to the issue of whether Greek was used … [Read more...]

Sometime ago, my good friend and colleague Richard Bauckham wrote an intriguing book entitled The Gospel for all Christians. Actually the book began as an essay, but in any case the thesis of the book was that the Gospels were not written, or were not just written, for some specific target audience, but for a broad group of Christian churches. Richard and I discussed this, and in due course he allowed that maybe the Gospels were written for both a specific local audience and also with one eye … [Read more...]

The following is the suggestion of Mssr. Warren Buffett, but I happen to think it is a good idea. See what you think..... *Congressional Reform Act of 2011*_ 1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're out of office. 2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow … [Read more...]

  10 years ago the USA had Steve Jobs, Bob Hope, and Johnny Cash. Now they have no Jobs, no Hope, and no Cash. … [Read more...]