Some countries think that there is a limit to stupidity run riot when it comes to naming one’s children. In fact, New Zealand has done something about such brain dead decisions. You have to run the name of your new born by a government registry in Kiwi land. If only this had existed in America when I was growing up with a girl named ‘Candy Apple’ and another named ‘Merry Christmas’ (I am not kidding). Such parents should be immediately... Read more

Traveling by train to Edinburgh is both fun and easy. It takes only about two hours from Durham and you pass through Newcastle, Berwick, Dunbar and then to Waverley Station Edinburgh. Easy Peasy. My mission was to catch up with two NT friends and colleagues— Helen Bond and Larry Hurtado who are both at New College Edinburgh. I was asked to come and give a lecture to their seminar….. and it went well. Afterwards we went to Howies for lunch,... Read more

Watching movies in Durham England is a different kind of experience. For one thing, you have assigned seats. None of that first come first served thing. For another, the theaters are small. This time I was in Theater One which has exactly eight rows of 23 seats each in it, and a huge screen. I saw the film in 3D, but frankly it wasn’t worth it. 2D would have been fine at 7.50 (that’s pounds not dollars). The ratings of... Read more

So I am back from Cyprus and Turkey and getting back into the old routines. Of course while I was gone it rained in Durham more than the entire year’s annual rainfall for Cyprus. Anyway, I am minding my own business running on the path on the far side of the Wear river when suddenly— zounds and gad zooks, I had a Sherlockian experience. Think Hound of the Baskersville. I suddenly step into a mud bog…. and looked like this..... Read more

The ultimate destination of Paul was Paphos. He wanted to speak to the provincial governor of the island— Sergius Paulus. There he would testify to the Gospel, but at the request of the governor himself. The Palace at Paphos was spectacular in both it’s setting by the sea, and by the incredible houses with mosaics that surrounded it as well, though today, the Palace area mostly looks like this… Though close by it looks like this… This posts will be... Read more

There are, sadly, two sides to Cyprus. There is on the one hand the beautiful island paradise side, and there is on the other hand, the ugly political side. Greeks and Turks have long been at loggerheads with one another over islands, and perhaps no island is the focus of that more than Cyprus. Once the Brits let go of the island, all kinds of bad things began to happen in the 1960s and later. I will not pause to... Read more

If Christian novels are your thing, here is one to check out. Just a quick note that Frank Viola has just released an interesting looking book called God’s Favorite Place on Earth which is a hybrid of fiction and nonfiction about Jesus’ many visits to the village of Bethany, told from the perspective of Lazarus. While I’ve not read the book, it has some impressive recommendations: Craig Keener, Joel B. Green, John Ortberg, Mary DeMuth, Jack Hayford, Greg Boyd, Mark... Read more

Anyone who has read the Chronicles of Narnia will be well familiar with Turkish Delight. But that is hardly the only sweet in the Turkish arsenal. For example, check out this… Or this…. Or did I mention this… Or this… Or finally this… In short, the Turks have as bad a sweet tooth as the Brits. And don’t even get me started about the baklava (a Turkish word…. not a Greek word… so guess where that dessert was first made?),... Read more

Life in the antique Greco-Roman world often moved at a snail’s pace. And one of the major problems in antiquity was water, fresh water, especially in the Mediterranean where, in most places the rains stop in the late spring, and do not show up again until late Fall or Winter. This problem was compounded by the necessity of having defensible cities, which not surprisingly were often built, at least in part on high hills, acropoli. But this made the water... Read more

As many trips as I have taken to Turkey,usually in May, but this time, since I am on sabbatical, in April, there are always more interesting Biblical, Greco-Roman, and early Christian sites to see. One such site is Side, on the coast where the western harbor for Pamphylia was. Paul and Barnabas may have landed here, though it’s more likely they landed in the eastern harbor of Pamphylia coming from Cyprus, which is at Antalya. Mark and his wife Dindy... Read more