Although I don’t think this accurately describes the situation, for the sake of argument, let’s assume for the moment that the evidence for the existence of Jesus, or the criteria for evaluating the evidence, is such that the question of Jesus’ existence cannot be answered one way or the other. The evidence is precisely balanced: he could well have existed, he may well have been invented. The question simply cannot be settled – his existence is possible and plausible, but neither probable... Read more

I learned today from Dr. Brian Mubaraki that he has set up a blog on which he has made available as pdfs a number of Mandaic texts that he has had typed and published. I am sure that all those who study Mandaean texts will join me in expressing gratitude to Dr. Mubaraki for making these resources available! Read more

Jerry Coyne has posted a link to a new survey which seems to confirm the results of other surveys about knowledge of science, acceptance or rejection of mainstream science, and other related topics in the United States. I’m astonished by his confidence that atheism is the key to combatting antievolutionism and other forms of anti-scientific irrationality. Coyne writes, “We atheists see religion itself, and its adherence to superstition and acceptance of irrational ways of thought, as the root cause of... Read more

Larry Hurtado mentioned on his blog that he has shared several more essays, including a piece about the ending of Mark’s Gospel that I was already in the process of reading in its published form! And so given my interest in the ending of Mark, I thought I’d mention this here. Read more

James D. G. Dunn’s chapter in The Historical Jesus: Five Views is entitled “Remembering Jesus: How The Quest of the Historical Jesus Lost Its Way.” Dunn begins by mentioning his book Jesus Remembered and then turning attention to three “protests” and “proposals” which are made in that book, but which are in danger of being overlooked in the midst of its some 900 pages. Those provide the structure and content to his chapter in this volume. The first protest is against... Read more

Joel Watts may not know how to spell “ergo” but I nevertheless enjoy his sense of humor. He posted on “Leisure Time for Bibliobloggers” and included this photo he snapped of some recent discussion The post also had this one, which sums up a key aspect of historical metholodogy: Read more

New at Wolfgang’s Vault: Sting live in concert in 1993. http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/common/swf/wgv_st_player.swf Read more

Larry Hurtado has shared a pre-publication copy of his contribution to the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of the Dead Sea Scrolls, entitled “Monotheism, Principal Angels, and High Christology.” Many thanks to Larry for making this useful resource available to us on his blog! Read more

Mark Goodacre’s words about his recent trip to Israel echo my own sentiments: “I have always wanted to travel to Israel, of course. Until recently, I have had neither time nor opportunity to do it, to say nothing of the cost.” I hope that it won’t be too long until I’ll be able to offer a blog series similar to Mark’s. In the mean time, I’ll enjoy reading Mark’s account (with photos) of the experience of a New Testament scholar’s first visit... Read more

“As you probably realize anyway, whenever I do interact with someone like McGrath, I am not really addressing them.” — Neil Godfrey, in a comment on his latest blog post Am I the only one who thinks this explains a lot? Read more