Mike Koke continues his series “The Dating Game” by turning his attention to the Secret Gospel of Mark. In thinking about a work, it is indeed important to have a clear sense of what the range of genuinely possible dates for its composition are, and then proceed from there. As the terminus post quem, the earliest possible date, we have perhaps AD 40 or so, if the work is authentic and Smith’s suggestion that it represents an earlier version of Mark is correct.... Read more

From Non Sequitur, HT The Dispersal of Darwin Read more

David Ker describes on his blog attempting to find someone online and not being able to, following up with encouragement to readers to make sure that, if someone is looking for them online, they can find them. Curious, I typed in James F. McGrath on the Yahoo! search engine, and all but one of the results on the first page of hits was somehow connected with me. Presumably search engines give an indication of either what is important about us,... Read more

I saw the picture on the right on the blog nah then and it got me thinking about how Biblical authors and other ancient religious teachers and thinkers “used” metaphors and imagery from their time to express their ideas. But of course, for the most part they didn’t “use” them. They inhabited them, and assumed them, and took them for granted. They were not free to “use” them or not use them any more than we are free to completely... Read more

I was struck by an interesting thought about LOST – I don’t think it is what the writers have in store for us, but I thought I would share it nevertheless. As Desmond works to bring together individuals and direct their paths to intersect, working things together towards a goal which has yet to be fully revealed, he is resembling Jacob more and more. What if Jacob, in turn, is someone who remembers an earlier universe which, through some attempt to... Read more

I had heard about this but never watched it until today. “The Curse of Fatal Death” is a Doctor Who parody featuring Rowan Atkinson as the Doctor, and a number of other big names in British television as well. Enjoy! HT SF Signal Read more

There seems to be strong interest in the relationship between monotheism and Christology in academic New Testament scholarship at present. Jewish monotheism, Wisdom, agency, mediator figures, divine identity, and many other topics seem to be more and more the focus of discussion, interest, and interaction – not least in the biblioblogosphere. I wonder whether there would be any interest in creating some sort of of venue for discussing this broad range of interrelated topics at the Society of Biblical Literature... Read more

Romans 1 is one of the most frequently-cited passages in the New Testament when it comes to the topic of homosexuality. I considered simply reposting one of my earlier posts on the subject, but it seemed worthwhile taking the time to focus instead on one specific aspect of the passage. In Romans 1, Paul talks about homosexuality not as a sin, but as a divine punishment for sin. He never says “Because people lusted for people of the same gender,... Read more

We were discussing technological and genetically-engineered enhancements to human (and non-human) existence in my Religion and Science Fiction class today, and an interesting question came up. Could genetic engineering be used to make a pig that not only “cloveth the hoof” but also “cheweth the cud” and thus be kosher? It turns out this question has been asked before – after class I did a quick search and came across a post on Daniel Radosh’s blog on the topic. What... Read more

http://a.abc.com/media/_global/swf/embed/2.6.3/SFP_Walt.swf Read more