Below you will find some of the precursors in various media, ranging from wood cuts to paintings to tapestries to fresco’s on stone depicting Revelation. It is interesting that the Reformers mostly shied away from this book. Revelation is the only NT book Calvin didn’t do a commentary on, and John Wesley was not very certain how it should be interpreted, deferring to the work of Johannes Bengel on the matter. (Due to a flaw in Word Press, you’ll need... Read more

In this post and what follows, I am providing some snapshots of various parts of the Tapestry of Light exhibit, for those who cannot come and see it in person. The problem is, that one needs to see the tapestries in various sorts of light including black light to get the full effect. There were a variety of previous works of art that inspired this project of Irene Barberis—-here she is at the MOTB installation of the exhibit. The inspiration... Read more

You are all cordially invited not only to come see Irene Barberis’ remarkable artistic work on various tapestries depicting the book of Revelation for the 21rst century, but this is your invitation to come to a conference which brings together art, literature, and Biblical scholars discussing Revelation, including yours truly. The conference properly will be on October 10th, and I encourage you to contact MOTB for tickets, or simply go on the website for the Museum of the Bible. A... Read more

A several year study at MIT and elsewhere of the possible genetic origins of same sex sexual orientation has produced various reactions in the last month or so. Here is one report of the study… https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/30/health/gay-gene-study-trnd/index.html And here is another…. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/science/gay-gene-sex.html The study basically concludes that a single gay gene cannot be isolated, but that there seem to be several genes involved in this disposition. But this is not all. The study also concludes that there are environmental and social... Read more

This one day conference is at the Museum of the Bible at 400 4th St. SW in Washington, D.C. Ya’ll come. BW3 Read more

At first glance, you might not realize this famous Vermeer painting is a work of religious art…. but look carefully. Notice the woman holding a scales in her hand… and behind her on the wall… a painting of the Last Judgment. The woman is thus depicted as reflecting on her ultimate fate or destiny. From the studio of Rembrandt (with the same sort of use of light and shadow as the master himself) comes a painting of the lowering of... Read more

While lots of people know all about the impressive Impressionist collection at the National Gallery, as well as many others, less well known is that there is a considerable amount of Christian art in the museum as well. For example, here’s the famous Salvador Dali surrealist painting of the Last Supper, or maybe a meal with a see through risen Jesus…. Hendrik Goltzius a 16th century Dutch painter offers us a picture of the moment when Adam and Eve ‘fell’…... Read more

Jesus-Devotion and Historical Questions by larryhurtado A reader of my previous posting raised several questions and made several assertions (some of them unfounded) that lead me to offer a few comments about the historical issues pertaining to the origins of Jesus-devotion and correct historical method in addressing them. The first thing is to grasp clearly the questions that I address. When, where, and in what form did devotion to Jesus emerge, and what forces and factors might have prompted and... Read more

The Botanical Garden is right on the Mall near the reflection pool and circle in front of the Capitol Building. We visited at the right time, because normally it’s like a sauna…. well heck it is a hot house after all, but not on the day we were there. It was cool and pleasant. Here’s some more of the flora God wants us to appreciate and nurture…. Can you find the dinosaur. Read more

While there are external gardens which are set up by region or eco-system around the gigantic green houses, it is the internal plants that are most interesting and come from around the world, but the most interesting are the exotics, like those yellow ones seen below from Brazil. I am especially partial to the purple bouganvillea. Read more