Of the notable films that came out in mid-October, this film in various ways is the most notable. Filmed as if it were a B film, grainy and bluish in tone, it stars Robert Redford in what he says is his last role, having come full circle from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969— one of my favorites), to once again play a bank robber! The stellar Sissy Spacek plays his love interest, and Casey Affleck chimes in as... Read more
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The first thing to be said is…. please do your civic duty. Saddle up your camel today and go to the polls and vote. In some ways, this is the most important election in the 21rst century for Americans, as it is likely to determine the direction of our country for years to come. The second thing to say is you should vote not on the basis of party affiliation but on the basis of where candidates stand on issues.... Read more
“This is historical fiction at its best.” (World Magazine, October 27, 2012) “Ben Witherington III, a good creative writer and accomplished NT scholar, has given us a treat in his short novel A Week in the Life of Corinth. Rather than providing a list of facts about life and culture in NT times, Witherington has composed an interesting story in which we can see and learn this information along the way. This will be a fun way to enhance our... Read more
I remember 1969 all too well. I once hitchhiked my way back to High Point from the Blueridge Parkway only a month after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. The first ride we got was by two flat landers— people who didn’t believe the world was round (because the book of Revelations [as they wrongly called it] said the angels would stand on the four corners of the earth) and thought the whole moonwalk thing was a Hollywood stunt that... Read more
First of all, kudos to Carey Newman and Baylor Press for producing this third edition of Richard Burridge’s now classic study entitled What Are the Gospels? which first appeared as an SNTS monograph in the early 90s and helped produce a sea change in the field’s assessment of whether the Gospels are like ancient biographies or not. The answer is— most now think they are. The reason for grabbing a copy of this edition are several: 1) there is now... Read more
Maybe you’ve not noticed it, but there has been a decline in religious language in public life over the course of the last 30 or so years. To give one small example, when TV newscasters want to say something sympathetic when a tragic illness has befallen someone in the news they simply say ‘our thoughts will be with you’. They rarely say ‘our thoughts and prayers will be with you’ any more. It’s gotten even worse elsewhere. A major British... Read more
There are two rather new exhibits at the Museum of the Bible, and I was able to review them both while I was there for the consultants meeting. The first of these exhibits is the Jerusalem and Rome exhibit— which has some fine murals about early Jewish history during and after the Jewish war. Here are a few of the shots of the murals. This depicts members of the Qumran community hiding scrolls in jars in caves near the Qumran... Read more
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