I’d like to update my readers on The Omega Course, a fictional blog narrative which takes the form of a first-person “diary” blog. It is testimony to the realism of the story told by its author, Helen Ingram, that I found myself extremely worried after the final entry, in which the main character expressed her plan to follow a (potentially) suicidal course of action. For those who may not have encountered this blog before, Helen is an academic, whose research... Read more

There is a blog, The Omega Course, which I added to my Google Reader feeds a while back after reading an interesting post there. Since then I have not read with any regularity. But I read today's post, and it ends with a promise that this will be the last, and it sounds to me worryingly like a suicide note. Here's the link: http://theomegacourse.blogspot.com/2009/11/lama-sabachthani.html I would welcome input on whether I've mistaken this blogger's meaning, and if not what might... Read more

I didn’t bring a camera to SBL this year, but others did, and I’m grateful to Brandon Wason for snapping this one (I assume you’ll all recognize the guy playing the piano): Who else took photos? (I know Jim West and Michael Halcomb did). Which were some of the best ones? Here’s another one of me (taken by Jim West) from the bibliobloggers’ dinner: I know I have a kind of strange look on my face in this one. I... Read more

Given the interest so many people seem to have had in alleged prophecies about Barack Obama in the Bible, I am really astonished that the same individuals have been so slow to draw attention to the far clearer references in the Bible to another figure in modern politics. As any New Testament scholar can tell you, Palin is mentioned 141 times in the New Testament. Palin, you see, is the Greek word for “again.” But the original meaning has not... Read more

Happy Thanksgiving!* * Void in Canada and elsewhere as prohibited by law. The above saying is not intended as a form of coercion to happiness or to the celebration of a holiday from which one wishes to abstain. If you found this post offensive, please accept the author’s sincere apologies, and please be informed of his request that in the future you refrain from reading any posts on this blog the title of which begin with “Happy” or “Merry.” Read more

I am now ready to file my TOP SECRET report on my undercover operation as part of the Secret Bibliobloggers’ League, the shadow organization that has infiltrated and taken control of that other organization which also has the abbreviation SBL. I met my contacts in Atlanta. One of them I had never met face to face, and the other had not previously revealed himself to be part of the League. But they slipped the code-word (“chiasmus”) into their conversation so... Read more

I’ve been blogging through the chapters of John Walton’s book The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate for several months, and now that I’ve finished, here are links to all the posts in the series: Introduction/Proposition One Proposition TwoProposition ThreeProposition FourProposition FiveProposition SixProposition SevenProposition Eight Proposition NineProposition TenProposition Eleven Proposition TwelveProposition ThirteenProposition FourteenProposition FifteenProposition SixteenProposition SeventeenProposition EighteenConclusion Read more

Over at Homebrewed Christianity they’ve posted an interview I did about my book The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context. Click through and listen to the podcast (my part is about a minute and a half into the show): Early Christian Monotheism with James McGrath: Homebrewed Christianity 68 In other news, I’m back from the Society of Biblical Literature conference in New Orleans. Having failed to blog about it while away (it was incredibly busy in... Read more

John H. Walton’s The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate provides a very helpful overview of issues related to the study of the creation account in Genesis 1, its historical and cultural background, and its relationship (or lack thereof) to the theory of evolution and modern science education. Walton’s non-committal stance on evolution is probably a good thing considering his audience. While he emphasizes that he is not “promoting evolution” (p.165), he also emphasizes that... Read more

Jim Davila shared recent news about Mandaean refugees: http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2009_11_15_archive.html#3691037173885699200 Read more