2016-01-06T14:10:00-05:00

Last updated on: January 6, 2016 at 2:10 pm   By

Having attempted to do away with contradictions between Matthew and Luke for Christmas, Ian Paul has now offered a blog post claiming that Matthew’s story of the arrival of the magi can be treated as historical. I am not persuaded. Infancy stories featuring miracles are a common feature in ancient literature, and are consistently devoid of reliable historical information. To try to pretend that the Gospels are an exception is not going to be persuasive without some very strong arguments. Splitting... Read more

2016-01-06T10:45:21-05:00

Last updated on: January 6, 2016 at 10:45 am   By

There is an interesting call for papers for a conference in Helsinki, Finland next September, on the synagogue in ancient Palestine. Sounds fascinating! Click through for more information. Of related interest, here is a photo of Butler students at the synagogue in Capernaum: Read more

2016-01-06T05:44:27-05:00

Last updated on: January 6, 2016 at 5:44 am   By

From Cartoon Movement. That’s the trouble with the magi delivering their gifts, according to Matthew, when Jesus would have been old enough to talk… For those who want something more serious on the occasion of Epiphany, I will point out that not only is Jesus a toddler in the story in Matthew, but the family lives in a house. Indeed, there is no indication in the story that the family has ever lived anywhere else than Bethlehem. Hopefully you know... Read more

2016-01-05T13:58:10-05:00

Last updated on: January 5, 2016 at 1:58 pm   By

Bob Cargill’s latest book, The Cities That Built the Bible, is now available for pre-order. There is a website about the book, and you can pre-order it on Amazon.com. Since it is now available, I thought I would share the full version of the blurb I provided to Harper Collins about the book: In The Cities that Built the Bible, Bob Cargill looks not just at cities that are the focus within the Bible, but the cities that provided the context for the... Read more

2016-01-05T11:49:10-05:00

Last updated on: January 5, 2016 at 11:49 am   By

I will do a retrospective post about my sabbatical soon – I’m not considering it to be over just yet, since I am still finishing off one project, and classes don’t start until next week. But I thought I would share a separate post about one of my sabbatical goals, which was to exercise regularly, and not merely lose some weight, but actually get within the recommended range for someone my height and age. That goal was successful, and although... Read more

2016-01-05T06:18:47-05:00

Last updated on: January 5, 2016 at 6:18 am   By

“Nevertheless the opinion of experts, when it is unanimous, must be accepted by non-experts as more likely to be right than the opposite opinion. The scepticism that I advocate amounts only to this: (1) that when the experts are agreed, the opposite opinion cannot be held to be certain; (2) that when they are not agreed, no opinion can be regarded as certain by a non-expert; and (3) that when they all hold that no sufficient grounds for a positive... Read more

2016-01-04T06:05:55-05:00

Last updated on: January 4, 2016 at 6:05 am   By

A Christian university offers a “free course” so its students can get a license to carry a concealed firearm? Why are guns so important to the folks at Liberty that they offer a course on concealed carry free of charge? If a Christian college offers free courses on carrying guns, but charges money for courses on the Gospels and the letters of Paul, what does this say about the school’s priorities and mission? The quote comes from Larry Behrendt’s blog... Read more

2016-01-03T06:11:44-05:00

Last updated on: January 3, 2016 at 6:11 am   By

Kent Hovind has suggested that God may have put difficulties in the Bible to weed out the atheists. I’d like to suggest that it is more likely that God put them in there (if indeed God is to blame) in order to see which Christians would be honest enough to acknowledge them, and which would become dogmatic and dishonest charlatans like Hovind and lie about them. See further the posts about Biblical errancy elsewhere on Patheos blogs Daniel Linford and... Read more

2016-01-02T21:42:10-05:00

Last updated on: January 2, 2016 at 9:42 pm   By

I am pretty sure that this image is just a Star Wars fan trolling Christians. But of course, Qui-Gon does look a lot like the stereotypical image of Jesus, he dies fighting a bad guy who looks a lot like traditional views of the devil, and he manages to resurface from the netherworld of the Force, which is not exactly a resurrection, but still adds up to him fitting a lot of the superficial Christ-figure motifs. So what do you... Read more

2016-01-02T13:00:37-05:00

Last updated on: January 2, 2016 at 1:00 pm   By

Jennifer Guo has posted the latest Biblical Studies Carnival on her blog. Click through to explore highlights from biblioblogging last month. As always, Phil Long has details about upcoming carnivals. Read more

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