It’s  St. Valentine’s day,  a day which once was a holy day, and now has become a holiday.  While I could spend some time as I have before on this blog on the subject of who St. Valentine really was,  in the wake of the recent provocations by Jennifer Wright Knust and Michael Coogan trying to reinvent the wheel in regard the Bible’s supposedly mixed message on sexual ethics, in particular on the ethics of same sex  sexual intercourse,  it’s… Read more

Papias and the Mysterious Menorah: A Review Posted on February 9, 2011 by Mark Stevens It is unknown to many people, as well as being a well-known New Testament Scholar, movie critic and poet Ben Witherington is an accomplished writer of historical/mystery novels. A few years ago, after completing numerous works (including a commentary on every NT book), Ben and his wife Ann turned to writing historical/mystery novels. As a result the Art West adventure series was born. Papias and the… Read more

Lent will be upon us soon, and time to repent of our bad hobbits, err  habits.   One hobbit I will not be repenting of however is the Peter Jackson produced films of the same name.   Jackson recently had emergency surgery, so the production schedule is a bit behind, but will begin on March 21 as Lent is underway.  All the sites in New Zealand have already been scouted, and it looks like we will see more rather than less familiar… Read more

  I have spent a good deal of time in Egypt, that most ancient of all countries, and I like the Egyptian people a lot.  And if you have been paying attention, we have just had an important moment in history this week,  as through moral force, not violence, the Egyptian people have overthrown a much loathed dictator with cries of freedom and democracy.  As Martin Luther King Jr. once said,  there is something in the soul of a human… Read more

As some of you already know,  last May I took the whole month to do hi def filming in the lands of the Bible.   The goal was to produce introductory level books with a DVD to help lay people and entry level college and seminary students get a sense of the context of the ministry of Jesus, Paul, and other early Christians.    I am pleased to announce that probably about time for Easter, the first On the Road with Jesus… Read more

Kudos to Katya for finding this.   Bw3 Read more

There are lots of good reasons to read good books, including good ones that don’t already agree with your own predelictions and viewpoints.  As should be clear from these posts, I have some significant disagreements with Luke Johnson on the subjects he is addressing in this book, but also some agreements as well.  It is a good and provocative book and it provides a service in that it forces one to look at early Christianity through the lens of ‘ways… Read more

THE DUALITY PERSONALITY TEST You learn a lot about yourself when you are forced to make choices, and there are only two choices.  The following test is meant to be a non-scientific diagnostic test with a pop culture and Christian orientation.   You should be playing in your head the ‘You can give me this, or you can give me that, but please give me this, for this is where’s it at— do da dippity’ Kia commercial, whilst taking this test.  … Read more

In Chapter 15 Johnson turns to evidence for Religiousness D in 2nd and 3rd century Christianity,  an approach to religion that sees it as a world stabilizing force.   The concern here is for the role of religion in society.  In some ways it is odd to address this subject when one is talking about the pre-Constantinian church.  After all, Christianity was still not a religio licita,  it did not contribute to stabilizing the Roman empire, nor even to stabilizing… Read more

My next book in my little Kingdom Perspectives series for Eerdmans is my book succinctly titled WORK,  and it has just come out this week.  Here below is a little sample for you to tease your mind into active thought.     If you wonder what you are looking for,  you will find the cover below as well.    Yes, it’s available on Kindle (though I hate that format)  and yes its inexpensive—- $12.00 or thereabouts.  You shouldn’t have to do much work… Read more