The Bible and Culture

The following post by Larry Hurtado is helpful on the subject of oral texts and their public reading in antiquity. More Material Evidence on Reading in Roman Antiquity by larryhurtadoYesterday I complained that some offering claims about texts and reading in antiquity didn't take adequate account of important material evidence, citing the data offered in manuscripts that indicate how they were used.  Specifically, many Christian manuscripts of biblical texts c … [Read more...]

No friends its not an April Fool's day joke.  In fact you'd be a fool not to take advantage of the offer I am alerting you to today.  All four of the Art West thrillers are on Kindle now, and all are for sale for as low as $5.99.  Yes, you read that right.   Gift them to friends, for summer beach reading, or birthday presents.    And yes,  the fifth novel is in the works-----  here below is a little taste....---------------CHAPTER ONE:  A LONG NIGHT’S JOURNEY INTO DAY August … [Read more...]

My Friend Larry Hurtado reports the following for budding NT scholars---- Dublin: Biblical Papyri (and Guinness, the way God made it) by larryhurtadoI've just lined up interested PhD students from Edinburgh for another visit to the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin (http://www.cbl.ie/) to take in their wonderful holdings, and more specifically to examine the unrivalled cache of early biblical papyri housed there.  (For general readers of this site who don't know … [Read more...]

The Cult of the Apostle Paul by larryhurtadoA recently arrived book merits notice:  David L. Eastman, Paul the Martyr:  The Cult of the Apostle in the Latin West (Atlanta:  Society of Biblical Literature, 2011).  The object of the book is to analyze the evidence for the ways that the Apostle Paul came to be the object of reverence in the early centuries (Eastman's chronological scope takes us down to ca. 600 CE).In Part 1, he discusses the emergence of devotion to Paul in Rom … [Read more...]

Paul and the (Continental) Philosophers by larryhurtadoOne of the luxuries of my "retirement" is that I have the opportunity to catch up on a few things that the press of other commitments previously prevented.  One of my "catch up" efforts has been to dip into the "rediscovery" of Paul among some contemporary political philosophers, most notably Alain Badiou (Saint Paul:  The Foundation of Universalism, 2003; French 1997) and also Slavoj Zizek, and, less frequently noted, Georgio A … [Read more...]

In the midst of the movie wasteland that is February and March comes a movie that has already set a weekend box office record-- the Hunger Games. Based (reasonably faithfully) on the novel of the same name you can see that Gary Ross and his team were thinking big from the start as there are various A listers playing smaller roles in this movie (Donald Sutherland as the President,  Woody Harrelson as the guide for the tributes from District 12).   But the real star of this movie is indie film fa … [Read more...]

“The Zealots”, Martin Hengel by larryhurtadoYesterday I was delighted to receive a gift-copy of the newly-released 3rd edition of Martin Hengel's landmark book, Die Zeloten (Tuebingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011), with a touching note from his widow, Frau Hengel. The full title translated = The Zealots: Studies on the Jewish Freedom Movement from the time of Herod I to 70 CE. In its initial form, it was Hengel's doctoral thesis (accepted 1959, Tuebingen), and immediately after its publ … [Read more...]

Early Jewish-Christian Tombs–Earlier Proposals by larryhurtadoIn all the current hullabaloo about the most recent proposed identification of 1st-century Jewish-Christian tombs in the Talpioth area, I haven't noted any reference to the earlier proposals, which go back as early as the late 19th century.C. Clermont-Ganneau (in Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly, 1874, pp. 7-10; and Archaeological Researches in Palestine during the years 1872-1874, London:  Palestine Exp … [Read more...]

 (The following is an article that recently appeared in the 'Bible Knowledge' (Bibel Wissen) Magazine in Germany.  It is a revision of an article I previously did for BAR). DIE UNGLAUBLICHE GESCHICHTE VON DER AUFERSTEHUNGDie biblischen Berichte von Jesus’ Auferweckung sind für antike Menschen haarsträubend. Gerade die Unstimmigkeiten sind ein Hinweis auf ihre Glaubwürdigkeit.Als über- zeugende Geschichten, um Menschen für den Glauben zu gewinnen, e … [Read more...]