The remainder of Chapter Twelve (pp. 1300-1319) is in the main devoted to a rebuttal to John Barclay’s critique of Tom’s reading of Paul’s ‘anti-imperial’ rhetoric. There are some significant qualifications along the way, for example, whatever critique Paul would have offered of Roman paganism and the Emperor cult, it is simply a part of the wider and broader critique Jews had always been offering in regard to paganism and polytheism. Just so. The question then becomes whether Paul was... Read more

Brought to you by our friends at IV Press. It will become available in November, and will be on discount at the Inter-Varsity Booth at the SBL meeting in San Diego the weekend before Thanksgiving! Stay tuned for more. BW3 Read more

Our very last thing to do on our trip was to take a leisurely stroll through the old city of Antalya, and have one last yummy Turkish meal. We will start at the famous Hadrian’s gate….seen from the front and from the back. We walked through the old streets and saw all kinds of things, a bouquet hotel,beautiful flowers, even wedding photos. We passed cheap street vendors of food and trinkets, and expensive shops selling Iznik tile copies… We saw... Read more

The Antalya archaeological museum is a world class museum. Indeed, it has won international awards. It’s basic problem is far too little space. It needs about three more floors. Then perhaps they could bring in the hundreds of artifacts sitting outside on the lawn in all directions into the museum. Nevertheless, this museum in the very heart of a very busy city of over a million which has been dubbed the Turkish Riviera is a major tourist destination, especially in... Read more

The ride from Myra to Antalya was rather long, and as we skimmed along the southern coast, and turned north and east, the sun was setting but you could just see a huge array of what looked like plastic covered buildings. As it turned out, that is exactly what they were— greenhouses. Produce is a huge industry in this country, and they have increased their productivity dramatically through the greenhouses. In fact there are whole towns that depend on their... Read more

No visit to Myra would be complete without a trip to the jaw-dropping site of ancient Myra, another Lykian city with rock cut tombs, only this time, they are carved into the same mountain as the theater! I wonder if they expected the dead to watch the theater performances. As you first come into the site, the first thing that grabs your attention is the huge representations of comedy and tragedy, carved in stone. The next thing that catches your... Read more

Next stop, the home of ole St. Nick, where he was bishop— Myra. There are two sides to Myra. There is the more recent Christian side, where thousands of pilgrims from Russia and elsewhere come to receive a blessing at the church of St Nicholas. We will look at that side first (right after we had lunch). But there is also the Lykian and Greco-Roman remains which are extensive, and impressive to see as well. First though, here’s a sort... Read more

At this juncture, we sadly left our boat behind, and resorted to a bus for the rest of the journey to Antalya. Along the way we had significant stops in mind. On this day we would pass through Xanthos, the Lykian capital city, on the way to stopping at length at Patara, and then on to Myra, the town of St. Nicholas himself. To get oriented here is a map See if you can find Xanthos (spelled with a Ks... Read more