The Bible and Culture

Meet the Nauga, a species not of gerbil, hamster or guinea pig but of its own, and indigenous to America! The Nauga is known for its bug-eyes. The Nauga, unfortunately today  has to be reported as an endangered species, oddly enough endangered by the Barca Lounger. You see it takes an enormous amount of pelts to produces a nauga-hyde couch or reclining chair. In fact Sam van Pelt and Joe Hyde from PETA reckon that it takes over 1,000 Nauga’s hides to produce such a product. The … [Read more...]

While it is hard to believe,  at two hours and 17 minutes this is the shortest of the Depp Pirate movies, it may be even harder to believe that this has gotten worse reviews than the previous movies in the series!   Ah, but if a pirate's life is for you--- ahoy matey, shiver me timbers and blow me down, this is a summer movie just for you. Actually, in my humble opinion this is not the weakest in the series--- that would be Pirates--- At Wit's End......err.. at the World's End.    This … [Read more...]

Whilst I am off doing archaeological stuff in Turkey (blog posts to follow),  I have had my crack team uncover some major conspiracies when it comes to our American food supply.   Herein you will be told the real story behind some of the products you find in your grocery store.  Be warned, this information makes those Chick Fil-A ads look tame. Meet the spamster. He is native to small islands in the south Pacific, including Hawaii. The spamster is a cute little fellow who starts … [Read more...]

The picture here is the view from atop Mt. Nimrud in Turkey.  It is an uncommon view, and something uncommon has happened in the world of modern Evangelical Seminaries--- one of them has picked an official translation to use in all its classes---- the Common English Translation.   This translation is deliberately simply much like the old TEV or NIV and concentrates on readability for almost any audience. My only real beef with it is that it messes up the phrase 'Son of Man'  as applied to … [Read more...]

The twittersphere has been all abuzz about Mr. Camping's prediction that the rapture is happening on May 21rst.  One response was --- Weather Forecast for Saturday---- 'Doomy with a Chance of Rapture'.    Unfortunately,  Mr. Camping is about to be proved a false prophet twice over (yes, he already went down this road once in 1994 or so, but we have such short attention spans that we've forgotten that). Here are my top ten reasons why you should pay exactly no attention to Mr. Camping and … [Read more...]

I am not generally into over-hyped testosterone driven films such as the Fast and Furious franchise.   I know actors who have more acting ability in their little finger than Vin Diesel (soon to change his name to Vin Hybrid) and Dwayne Rock Johnson.   The scenario of fast cars, fast women, fast action, fast camera cuts,  large biceps, large other body parts and so on, being splashed continually across the screen is all too familiar and the formula is tired, beyond tired. So why exactly … [Read more...]

Here is another post from my friend Larry Hurtado's blog.  See what you think.  What follows is verbatim from Larry. ------------- Having used the expression "ancient Jewish monotheism" in the sub-title of my 1988 book (One God, One Lord:  Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Monotheism), it's been interesting thereafter to note the apparently rising interest in "monotheism" in ancient religion.  E.g., there is now a programme unit on the topic in the Society of Biblical … [Read more...]

Thanks to James Foster for the idea to find this longer clip on YouTube from the spring ACM program. … [Read more...]

If you have not had a chance to see "Of Gods and Men," the winner of all sorts of film prizes, including the Grand Prix at Cannes, you should drop everything and watch it, and all the more so when Osama bin Laden has just been murdered.  Yes, I said murdered.  When an unarmed civilian, criminal or not,  is killed rather than captured, that would be murder.  Yes I realize he is responsible for many many murders.  Yes I realize that there is some justice in what happened to him.   But before … [Read more...]

Here is an interesting list of top films.   See which ones you have seen.  I've seen 94 of them. Which of these American Film Institute top 100 films in 100 years have you seen? The Wizard of Oz 1,211,228 votes Forrest Gump 1,145,828 votes Snow White 983,258 votes Toy Story 869,696 votes E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 767,760 votes Titanic 758,760 votes The Sound Of Music 603,418 … [Read more...]