The Bible and Culture

Egyptians were polytheists when they encountered Hebrew and then Christian culture. They had many gods, and made many images of the many gods. Above you will see a collection of some of amazing variety of small deity statues of Anubis and Osiris and various other deities, carved in alabaster or lapis lazuli or jade and other stones. Of course if you look closely you will also find carvings of Pharaohs as well. Of the many failings of the whole Zeitgeist approach to ancient religions, one of the … [Read more...]

One of my all time favorite sculptors of the 'Impressionist' era is Rodin. I highly recommend a visit to the special museum of his work in Paris, but failing that, you can go to the Met and see a great deal. This particular image is of God fashioning Adam.Above is another favorite in the courtyard of the museum in Paris--- namely the Gates of Hell.... When we think Impressionists we often think Monet or Manet or Van Gogh, in short painters. But there was much more to the movement than … [Read more...]

Egyptian funerary art is something pretty special. In the arid climate of Egypt, the pictures painted on the lids of sarcophagi are sometimes very well preserved, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a nice collection of such funerary art. What is especially interesting about this practice is that it dates to the Greco-Roman period, specifically to the period just before and during the NT era. Take for example the last of these paintings above. It dates to 100-150 A.D. and is painted in … [Read more...]

One of the more frequent questions I get asked, after having written 40 books and hundreds of other forms of written communication, is--- How do you do it? They ask me about schedules, how much I sleep, how many research assistants I have (n.b. I have never had any really), and so on. My answer is severalfold, but here I want to concentrate on two things that at least in my case help. Since I have previously spoken to the issue of developing a good writing style, by stressing the necessity of … [Read more...]

Perhaps for the first time in this whole volume, Jens Schroter in his article on "Paul the Founder of the Church" provides a rationale for the title of the volume in saying "The Acts of the Apostles and the Pastoral Epistles belong to a trajectory of early Christianity committed to the heritage of Paul's mission and theology." (p. 195). As I have already said, there is a reason to connect those two sets of documents, the middle term being Luke, but if the Pastorals are ultimately from Paul they … [Read more...]

I was minding my own business looking out the window of my Delta jet sitting and waiting at Hartsfield Airport for our flight back to Lexington when the captain came on the loudspeaker and said--- "I need to tell you that we are awaiting some human remains to be placed on the plane before we can push back, and fly to Lexington, so it will be a few minutes." About ten minutes later a small tow truck with two baggage wagons pulled up to the plane and placed a 380 pound coffin protected inside a … [Read more...]

While her first novel, 'Cover her Face' showed the various traits of a first novel (for example, a lack of use of the full pallet of description that she undoubtedly possessed) the second novel, first published in 1963, is another story. James likes what I would call set pieces, buy which I mean murders committed in small, and often confined settings-- a small literary community with a hospital ('the Black Tower'), a small school, a small business firm, a small seaside village or in this case a … [Read more...]