It may seem a small thing, but it strikes me as a nonetheless significant blow against the so-called biblical “minimalists” and for the historicity of the biblical narrative:   http://www.timesofisrael.com/inscription-bearing-name-from-davidic-era-found-at-ancient-site/   The minimalists seem to me weirdly disconnected from the physical, archaeological reality of Palestine.  They tend, on the whole, to treat the Bible as a purely literary text, making it sometimes rather whimsically malleable.  On which tendency, please see this Hamblin/Peterson column, published back in late January:  ... Read more

    “Peace is the gift of God. Do you want peace? Go to God. Do you want peace in your families? Go to God. Do you want peace to brood over your families? If you do, live your religion, and the very peace of God will dwell and abide with you, for that is where peace comes from, and it doesn’t dwell anywhere else. . . .Some in speaking of war and troubles, will say are you not afraid?... Read more

    This continues to be one of the strangest stories in the news right now.  And there are several really strange stories in the news:   http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/06/16/rachel-dolezal-says-identifies-as-black-amid-race-controversy/     Read more

    Matthew 18:21-22 Compare Luke 17:4   This teaching is difficult, even though it’s quite easy to understand.   One thing that it doesn’t entail, though, in my view, is the idea that we need to keep coming back to be sinned against, over and over again.   This isn’t a doctrine of “shunning,” but it’s also not a commandment to be a fool.   Jesus wasn’t an idiot, and he isn’t asking his disciples to be idiots, either.... Read more

    I maintain a blog for many reasons.   One of them is purely personal:  It’s a kind of journal for me, and, even more particularly, it’s a way of remembering things, and especially of remembering people, whose memory I refuse to allow to be wholly lost.   So, for instance, I’m afraid that readers of this blog will have to put up with my regular yearly memorials to my brother and my parents.   Today marks the first... Read more

    We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.  (Martin Luther King, Jr.)   Read more

      Back in the Bad Old Days, when I was still spewing vitriol from my perch at the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies or FARMS, and long before real scholarship had made its long overdue appearance in that organization, this was one of the hit-pieces that I published there:   http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1128&index=26   Incidentally, my answer to the question is no.   I contend, along with more than a few other scholars, that the doctrine of creation... Read more

    From its birth back in the Bad Old Days of FARMS, when I was invited by Jack Welch to launch it, I was determined that the Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, as it was first known — it would later become the FARMS Review of Books and then simply the FARMS Review, though its very last title was actually Mormon Studies Review (under which title it’s effectively been, to borrow an old Latin American political term,... Read more

    Just when we think we know pretty much everything, something odd comes along:   http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/physics/fast-radio-bursts/   Posted from Bountiful, Utah     Read more

    I think I’ve only been to San Antonio once before, and no visit here can be complete without at least dropping by the Alamo.   At least for me.   The smallness of the Alamo surprised me when I first came, despite warnings.  And it surprised me again today.   The small size, though, makes the heroism of the besieged rebel soldiers even more impressive.  A huge fortification would have been one thing.  This tiny little ecclesiastical outpost,... Read more