Sometimes coincidences are not just coincidences. So I’m busy reading the latest issue of BAR (Biblical Archaeology Review) a magazine I regularly write for. I’m reading the fascinating article about what happened to the menorah and other sacred articles taken by Titus out of the Temple in Jerusalem and carted off to Rome in A.D. 70. It is an amazing story, and not quite 500 years later, it seems to bring us back to Jerusalem. More on this in a... Read more

Why do we doubt the Gospel of Thomas? Read more

PLACE ‘You can never go home again’—- Thomas Wolfe, Asheville, N.C. Place Indelible image Imprinted on your brain Place Where you came from In dreams, it still remains Place Bricks and mortar, Asphalt and sewer drains Place Trees and houses Unending and insane. —- Place Friends and neighbors But they’re no longer home Place The too familiar That makes you want to roam Place A sanctuary Without a church’s dome —- Place Where you once grew up But time has... Read more

I’ve read a lot of rock n’ roll magazines (Rolling Stone should have given me an honorary lifetime subscription years ago. I’ve helped keep them in business), and I’ve read more than a few rock biographies (e.g. the four for CSNY) and for the most part you hear narcissistic tales of the sordid and the splendid, of artistry and angst, of fame, and fortune… and wrack and ruin too. The biography of Bruce Springsteen is something out of the ordinary... Read more

Wrest a Spell Eye halve a spelling chequer It came with my pea sea It plainly marques four my revue Miss steaks eye kin knot sea. Eye strike a key and type a word And weight four it two say Weather eye am wrong oar write It shows me strait a weigh. As soon as a mist ache is maid It nose bee fore two long And eye can put the error rite Its rare lea ever wrong. Eye have... Read more

Saw this picture at the Arts and Crafts Center in Berea. Do you believe in angels? I do. How about do you believe in guardian angels? Certainly, many early Jews did (though not the Sadducees, which may be one reason they were so sad, you see). What they seem to have believed is that there were guardian angels of God’s people as a collective entity– Michael being the chief one responsible and in charge. Mostly, angels in the NT seem... Read more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBklQN2vjGc Read more

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The Problem with Evangelical Theology: Testing the Exegetical Foundations of Calvinism, Dispensationalism, Wesleyanism, and Pentecostalism Ben Witherington III Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2016 (2005), 978-1-4813-0421-4, $39.95, xi + 321 pb (this review appeared in the most recent issue of JSNT). This is a revised and expanded edition of Witherington’s 2005 book, which as well as discussing Calvinism, Dispensationalism and Wesleyanism, covers Pentecostalism. The author finds each of these major evangelical theologies to be exegetically weak in places, especially where... Read more

According to the folk in Foynes, Irish coffee was invented here. Why was it invented? Well perhaps you’ve heard it rains a wee tad in Ireland. The nice folk in Foynes finished the tour by giving us lessons in how to make Irish coffee, and then each of us got a sample! One of our brave lads on the tour, named James (we called him King James), volunteered to learn and be the guinea pig…. I can attest that Irish... Read more