The Bible and Culture

Here is an excellent overview of many of the Biblical and Greco-Roman and church historical sites in Turkey (and lots more besides). The music is a bit annoying, but watch the pictures anyway. … [Read more...]

I like families as much as the next person, indeed, I love my own birth and marriage families a lot. I've been married for over 35 years, and I see that as a good thing. And in a world where there are a lot of dysfunctional families, broken families single parent families, extended families, it is understandable that there might be a colossal over-reaction to this broken reality by conservative religious folk who highly value the physical family. This sort of over-reaction can be seen amongst … [Read more...]

Thought for the Day: 'If you're all wrapped up in yourself, it's bound to be a small package.' Maxie Dunnam … [Read more...]

Nine months after the funeral, things begin to settle down a bit. The memories of the crisis itself begin to fade. You begin to worry that your memories of your daughter will grow dim. But then God intervenes and does something about it.My wife has been on a major house cleaning kick in preparation for household renovations. This included cleaning out Christy's closet. The purple girl was, like her grandmother, a collector of 'stuff' all kinds of stuff. But what Ann found was … [Read more...]

I enjoy fairy tales as much as the next person (see the picture on the right), and some of the best fictional early Christian stories from the late second through the early fourth century are Gnostic fairy tales. It would appear that someone has found a fragment of such a tale and handed it to Harvard Professor Karen King. Here is the link to the NY times article----- http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/us/historian-says-piece-of-papyrus-refers-to-jesus-wife.html?_r=2. My caution would be as … [Read more...]

Towards the end of Margaret Mitchells book (at the beginning of what was her final lecture), Margaret cites a person who has been her regular dialogue partner in this book--- Gregory of Nyssa. Here is what he says (cited on page 95):"One could collect from the rest of the prophetic corpus countless examples in addition to these of the necessity of the 'theoria'[i.e. contemplative]-reading that accords with the sense of the words. If the 'theoria' is rejected however, as pleases some people, … [Read more...]

Here is a link to Francis Watson's detailed analysis of the so called Jesus' wife papyrus. In the main he attempts to show that it is simply an expansion of sayings from the Gospel of Thomas, and is likely a forgery. Here is the link to Mark Goodacre's connection to the essay.http://ntweblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/francis-watsons-introduction-and.html … [Read more...]

Whatever else one might want to say, Margaret Mitchell (no not the one from Atlanta who wrote Gone with the Wind) can really write. Ruminate on the following paragraph (found on p. 5 of her recent monograph):"Though he denies his power as a wordsmith, Paul does later from a distance claim metaphorical distinction as a 'wise master-builder'...Without the self-effacement he used earlier, in ch. 3, when comparing himself with Apollos (and perhaps Cephas), Paul is adamant that he was their … [Read more...]

Some books are rather like coal mines. There's lots of stuff but its dirty, and yes it can be used as fuel for the fire (not to be confused with grist for the mill) and occasionally, though rarely you will find a diamond worth keeping forever.... but it's rare.On the other hand there are books that are like gold mines--- you have to labor hard with them, but what you extract is pure gold, always gold. Margaret Mitchell's new book is one of the latter. Don't let the slender size of the … [Read more...]