The Bible and Culture

TEN THINGS NOT TO DO WHILE DRIVING!1) TEXTING 2) USING A HAND-HELD CELL PHONE 3) CHANGING CDS IN THE CD PLAYER 4) REACHING DOWN TO PICK UP SOMETHING YOU DROPPED ON THE FLOOR OR IN THE PASSENGER’S SIDE SEAT. 5) TRYING TO TAKE A LEFT TURN ON A YELLOW ARROW WITH ONCOMING TRAFFIC TOO CLOSE TO BE SURE YOU CAN MAKE IT. 6) IGNORE STOP SIGNS. 7) ROLL DOWN THE WINDOW AND TAUNT NEARBY DRIVERS INTO RACING YOU. 8) TURN AROUND TO HAND A CHILD SOMETHING IN THE BACK SEAT. 9) TAILGATING THE CAR I … [Read more...]

Leave it to the Romans to try something too big! The picture above is of a block of stone some 64 feet long, hand-carved, and weighing in at a massive 1200+ tons (not pounds, tons, you do the math). It was found in an ancient quarry near Baalbeck in Lebanon. It appears to have been destined to be part of the massive stairs leading up to the even more massive temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus being erected in Heliopolis. Only one problem--- transportation. Well, actually two problems-- it was … [Read more...]

SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE SHOW AND DON'T WANT TO KNOW SOME OF THE PLOT, THEN SKIP PARAGRAPH 2 BELOW.There are not that many script writers in America more talented than Aaron Sorkin, who made his name with the blockbuster 'The West Wing' show which amazingly ran for seven consecutive seasons on a major network television without getting stale or old, or losing most of its audience. Even 'Lost' only survived for six seasons. But after scripting a flop called 'Studio 60 on the … [Read more...]

While many Christians know that the English word 'taxi' comes from the Greek word for 'quick', what is decidedly less well know is that the mistranslation of the prepositional phrase 'en taxei' has led to all sorts of wrong conclusions about the eschatology of the NT. While en taxei can in some contexts mean ‘soon’ telling when something will happen, in Lk. 18.8 and in various other places in the NT it likely has the adverbial sense of ‘quickly’ telling ‘how’ something will happen. (cf. Acts 12. … [Read more...]

Egyptian funerary art was highly developed by the time of the NT era. It involved both mummy masks which were painted, and even sarcophagi tops were painted, as for example in this picture which I took of a Greco-Roman person buried in Egypt according to Egyptian funerary practices, but showing his ultimate origins.Sarcophagi and mummies have proved to be goldmines when it comes to the finding of recycled papyri materials. This is what we are dealing with in this new discovery.Craig … [Read more...]