Doug Mangum has shared some random thoughts on Genesis 3. I’ve offered a reply that is at least as random. Here’s the gist of my thoughts that arose after reading his thoughts and some of the comments others left on the post: I like translating the Hebrew word that describes the serpent with “shrewd”, because it then allows you to make an attempt at rendering the Hebrew pun by using “nude” instead of naked. I appreciated another commenter’s point about... Read more

The end of the month is drawing near, and that means it is almost time for another Biblical Studies Carnival. There are reminders at both Codex and Hebrew and Greek Reader, the latter being the blog that is hosting the carnival for this month. Do submit relevant posts on academic Biblical studies that either you have written over this past month or that you have read and think ought to be shared with a wider audience. Read more

OK, so the title doesn’t precisely reflect the contents of this post, but I couldn’t think of another way to include all three of the very interesting elements in the blog post “Praise the Lord (of the Rings)” at Davar Akher. The post begins by highlighting something I didn’t know before, namely that J. R. R. Tolkien played a minor role in the production of the Jerusalem Bible translation. The post then continues with some discussion and comparison of various... Read more

Fox sci-fi action series Dollhouse is back and as good as ever. This second season got off to a strong start tonight as loose ends and new revelations from towards the end of last season have already begun to be explored. At the end of last season, we learned that Dr. Saunders is, in essence, and Active named Whiskey programmed largely based on the personality and memories of a real Dr. Saunders who worked at the Dollhouse and whom Alpha... Read more

I received a request to post something on prooftexting, and I’m not sure I have much to add beyond what has already been said in the recent post from Jeremy Smith arguing against memorizing verses from the Bible (in turn inspired by a post by Matt Cleaver). The principle is well known: “A text taken out of context becomes a pretext.” But few of us think that we are guilty of doing that when we quote a verse – we... Read more

A blog I read shared a cartoon from a series called The Far Left Side, and I found several related to religion, including this one: this one: this one: and this one: There are even more that relate to health care and insurance. There are some that are offensive (probably to just about anyone and everyone who might read them), but there are enough that are amusing and of potential use for educators talking about topics in religion, that I... Read more

Henry Ian Cusick (who has played the role of Jesus but is probably best known for his role as Desmond Hume on LOST) will be taking on the role of Charles Darwin for the October 6th episode of NOVA entitled Darwin’s Darkest Hour, about Darwin’s struggles over whether to publish his ideas and the evolution (pun intended) of his views on religion as well as biology, as well as his interactions with his wife and her own faith. The press... Read more

A student drew to my attention that a priest from here in Indianapolis, who gained the nickname “Father Neo” because of the resemblance between his cassock and the long coat Neo wore in the Matrix films, took things to a whole new level in an ad campaign for the priesthood emulating the Matrix films: I wonder if it would be possible to arrange a guest appearance at Butler next semester when I teach my class on religion and science fiction… Read more

A student drew to my attention the TV show Supernatural, which I’ve never watched, but it sounds appealing (sort of Indiana Jones meets Ghostbusters?). What makes me think I ought to watch it is the fact that apparently in one episode the characters, making sure they were prepared for their latest encounter with dark forces, went through a checklist of equipment that included “Mandaean amulets”. As far as I am aware, this is the first pop culture reference to the... Read more

“The Bible is like a stringed instrument in this respect. It only works because of great tension. Stop trying to take the tension out of the Bible. If you take away the tension, smoothing over and dumbing down and making everyingthing instructions and promises, all you get is a poorly tuned instrument and really bad music.” — Colin Toffelmire, “The Bible isn’t a bible“, on his blog Random Colin. Read more