There is a one to 25 scale replica park in Istanbul called the Miniaturk Park, presumably for families and especially those who can’t afford to travel and see the sites in Turkey. It’s a fun place, and in fact it’s the only place you are going to find several sites of Biblical import— for example the temple of Artemis (of which only one column still remains in Ephesus), or the tomb of Mausolus (from which we get the word mausoleum).... Read more

The word Chora in Greek means ‘country’ and once upon a time the Chora Church in Istanbul, now a museum, was out on the country. This church is the source of various of the famous iconic mosaic images you see of Christ Pantokrator, rather than Hagia Sophia. It has been under repair for some time, and I arrived on May 22 to discover it even more under repair, both outside and in. Here is what the outside now looks like—-... Read more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ejaw0F8-sY Read more

Having already read the prequel to Rogue Lawyer (352 pages released last October), namely the short story Partners on Kindle last month, I have now consumed Rogue Lawyer whilst riding on the plane to and from Atlanta to Istanbul and back again. As usual, they are both easy reads. But they are dealing with the complex subject of the relationship between ethics and legality. The Law is one thing, what is moral is another. Sometimes there are laws that by... Read more

Southern Discomfort Ben Witherington III Southern Discomfort chronicles the trials and tribulation of Masey Bumgarner, recently widowed, who returns from her summer vacation to discover that her town, Pineville, North Carolina, has decided to pave a four-lane highway through her front yard . . . without her permission or even sufficient advance notice. After consultation with her pastor, she decides to contest the location of this project in court. Along the way, her lawyer and his detective discover all sorts... Read more

One of the sad parts of teaching graduate students, is though many are bright, only a few can write well (by which I do not mean only a few can write the word ‘well’). So Weird Al’s now famous video ‘Word Crimes’ is mandatory viewing in my view…. BW3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eL3x5dHMLA Read more

Of the now some five Lyle Mays solo lps, the first two which emerged in 1986 and 1988, and now have been reissued, tell an important tale of just how big a contribution Lyle made to the real early peak of the Pat Metheny Group (think Still Life Talking, Offramp, Letter from Home, etc.). The first of these lps, which is simply self-titled has an all star cast of musicians on it including Alex Acuna and the great Bill Frisell... Read more

Q12.BEN: It seems obvious enough that the Pastorals do call leaders and others to both good service of their fellow Christians, and to not be greedy. You give us various examples from Xenophon and elsewhere about how people sought the priesthood of Artemis for material gain, and I don’t doubt that. For the wealthy that was not always a primary motive, they were more looking for honor and publicity, and performing ‘liturgies’ to increase their honor rating. But there is... Read more

Here’s part of an interesting article from the website sciencealert.com with a remarkable testimony about a secular Jew who suddenly had a vision of God while they were testing his brain, since he was epileptic. See what you think. BW3 Thanks to alert reader James for the referral to this site— http://www.sciencealert.com/neuroscientists-have-recorded-the-brain-activity-of-a-man-at-the-exact-moment-he-saw-god —- This week, Israeli researchers report how a patient experienced an intense religious experience while undergoing treatment for epilepsy, causing him to ‘see’ and converse with a figure... Read more

(picture courtesy of our Louisville Courier Journal). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ot2PCwGF-s Muhammed Ali, born Cassius Clay in Louisville Kentucky, was a remarkable boxer, and an even more remarkable human being. A charismatic personality, Ali, named after the famous Egyptian Muslim (who is memorialized in a Cairo mosque named Muhammed Ali Mosque). Ali was many things to many people. I am on record as not liking boxing. I really don’t like watching people pummel each other, but Ali was an artist in the ring... Read more