Gorgias Press has as its primary focus Syriac, and certainly there is a need for more scholarly attention to be focused there. Nevertheless, given my current interest in the Mandaeans, I thought I’d mention in particular that this too is a subject area covered by Gorgias Press. And here’s the good news Gorgias Press has for graduate students in both these areas (among others): Book Grant applications for 2009 In its efforts to promote education, Gorgias Press offers annually the... Read more

Chris Brady liked my suggestion that we put up a sign-up sheet for bibliobloggers on the message board at SBL, where each of us can provide our name and cell phone number, and that way we can all make contact easily. If you get there first, pin up a blank sheet in the “B” section with Bibliobloggers at the top and your contact info, to get the process started! If you’re going to SBL, spread the word! Read more

I’ve just learned that you can now watch the whole documentary on the PBS web site (HT Rev’s Rumbles). There are more reviews by Kenneth Atkinson, Hector Avalos, Heather Wax, Josh Kimball, and Matt Page. Read more

“If we turn from the New Testament to the later pages of church history, …. we have to ask whether the church is most faithful in its witness to the crucified and risen Jesus and most recognizable as the community which ‘bears about in the body the dying of Jesus’ when it is chiefly concerned with its own self-aggrandizement. When numerical growth is taken as the criterion of judgment on the church, we are transported with alarming ease into the... Read more

I watched The Bible’s Buried Secrets last night, and my only real complaint is that the so-called “buried secrets” are in fact exposed in mainstream books and articles on Biblical scholarship, and some of it has been common knowledge to anyone who has attended an academic course on the Bible in past century or so. So the big question is how do we deal with the flow of information problem? A key issue is that pastors are in many denominations... Read more

Here’s the latest scam to make it past my spam filter. Here’s some advice to anyone who came here wondering if an e-mail like this one is legitimate: no one will hold a lottery for which no one pays for ticket and contact you via an impersonal e-mail to tell you that you’ve won. Please be realistic. Here’s the text of the e-mail (which was sent from [email protected]): Dear Winner Your email was selected as a winner. You have won... Read more

In the Acts of Paul, Paul is presented as stating: “Caesar, it is not for a little space that I live unto my king; and if thou behead me, this will I do: I will arise and show myself unto thee that I am not dead but live unto my Lord Jesus Christ, who cometh to judge the world. ” Subsequently in the narrative, Paul is beheaded, and we’re told that “when the executioner (speculator) struck off his head, milk... Read more

Those who participated in the Dharma Initiative recruitment tests received an e-mail informing them that that Dharma Initiative has been sold…to the producers of the TV series LOST! It is fascinating the way recent movies and TV play with the boundaries between factual and fictional worlds. IGN has a nice interview with the producers about the past and future of LOST. Galactica Sitrep and SF Signal share a trailer for Star Trek IX. For the full sized and full quality... Read more

I’ve had some discussions lately here and elsewhere about whether the historical figure of Jesus existed. There is a parallel issue of whether Muhammad was a real historical individual, and that subject recently made the news once again. Read more