Visiting two of the pools mentioned in the Gospel of John connected directly not just with my John the Baptist project but others. My doctoral work and first book, John’s Apologetic Christology, included significant attention to the stories in John 5 and 9. My recent What Jesus Learned from Women features a chapter on Jesus’ grandmother, Mary’s mother Hannah or Anne. As it happens, the Church of St. Anne is built on the location where excavation has revealed the pools... Read more
Another first for me on my recent trip to the Holy Land was visiting Samaria. I had the absolute best guide possible. Seriously, who could possibly offer more insight to the Samaritans and their way of life than Abood Cohen, the grandson of the Samaritan high priest? If you have seen documentaries about the Samaritans, you have probably already seen him. I will include a couple at the end of this post. Here is a link to where you can... Read more
I blogged previously about what I learned about cherry-picking from the Bible by actually picking cherries. Today I’ll do something similar in relation to words attributed to John the Baptist in Luke 3:9 and Matthew 3:10. John says the ax is already at the root of the tree, and unfruitful trees will be cut down. You may consider this part of my series “in the footsteps of John the Baptist” although this insight occurred as I was working in my... Read more
In many ways the most interesting stop on my trip to the Holy Land focused on the life of John the Baptist was in the Jordan River valley in between Yardenit in Galilee and Jerusalem in Judaea. I stayed at Kibbutz Tirat Zvi, and am glad I did. It made for something of an adventure since this is not a kibbutz that has developed itself as a destination for foreign tourists. “Reception” is only marked by a paper sign stuck on... Read more
Rather than give “Jesus” as a one-word answer to the question of who founded progressive Christianity, let me begin with a quote from something I wrote here on my Patheos blog some years ago which makes that same point but in more words and with more detail, which those who are skeptical of my assertion will need if they are to be persuaded: If “liberal Christianity” means Christianity that reflects the cosmology and worldview of a particular era, then the... Read more
First, in case you missed it, take a look at the wonderful Twitter thread by Carmen Joy Imes on the story of Bathsheba in the Bible and why it is not only appropriate but important to treat what David did as rape rather than adultery: I thought it was just my incredibly niche timeline of Southern Baptists thrown together with Anglicans … but apparently not. David and Bathsheba are trending. A few points that I’m not hearing clearly enough: a... Read more
Everything Everywhere All At Once is a very strange movie. It has a sheer silliness about it, so much so that there were moments when I wasn’t sure I liked it. Yet there was a sense of something profound beneath the surface, much as is also true of The Good Place. So I kept watching and am glad I did. The end of the movie is surprisingly moving, and the message of the film is truly profound and challenging. For parents it... Read more
I shared photos on Facebook during my brief visit to Tiberias on the shore of Lake Kinneret or Lake Tiberias (named by the Gospel of Mark the “Sea of Galilee” and now more commonly known by that name). When I did so I wrote that Herod Antipas built cities, buildings, monuments of various sorts. John the Baptist built a ritual with water. Today the ruins of Herod’s capital in Tiberias don’t have much left of them and no one goes... Read more
Reinhardt Pummer’s book The Samaritans: A Profile offers an extremely helpful overview of the history literature and archaeology of the Samaritans including some of scholars’ most significant debates and discussions about where they came from who they are and how we answer those questions. While most academics who study ancient Judaism and/or early Christianity will know a little about the Samaritans, few of us know as much as we ought to. Among the important topics that Pummer covers is how... Read more
As I prepared for my recent trip to the Holy Land focused on John the Baptist, there were moments when I wondered whether it would accomplish what I hoped for. Would standing in the same places that John, his followers, and his critics stood lead to any new insights or raise new questions? The answer came as I made a quick visit to Joppa (Yafo), the ancient port city on the Mediterranean, since it is so close to Tel Aviv’s... Read more
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