The only explanation I can think of for why the media is focusing attention again on the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife is that Tony Burke persuaded them to give some free publicity to the upcoming York Christian Apocrypha Symposium. Via the Archaeological News Tumblr, I learned of a LiveScience article by Owen Jarus which essentially says that tests are being done, and information is available, which could potentially yield results that might indicate something one way or the other. That... Read more
For students: The syllabus is to the course you are taking what the instruction book is to a video game, or the manual is to your driving test. Of course, in our day and age, many are used to situations in which you can just learn by doing and consult the instructions if and when you find you can’t figure it out yourself inductively. But until such time as you are taking a course that mirrors that approach, and lets you fail over... Read more
Daniel Gullotta has been busy online defending the historicity of Jesus against internet pseudoskeptics who don’t understand how historical studies works, and so draw problematic conclusions. In a recent blog post he explained why it is unsurprising that Jesus doesn’t get mentioned by his contemporaries. And then he engaged David Fitzgerald in a debate on the Miami Valley Skeptics podcast. Be sure to see his blog post about the debate as well, where he clarifies some things which, in the process... Read more
Fred Clark recently mentioned the blogroll as an antiquated artifact from the past. I wonder whether he is right. But first, are you aware that this blog has a blogroll? It is on a separate page, rather than in a sidebar. And while I’ve continued to add to it, I rarely remove anything. And so I am not sure how many of the blogs on the list are still active. I also maintain a list of useful sites. Are such things... Read more
For the inerrantist, it is all supposedly about getting “back to the Bible,” and there have been numerous fundamentalist pamphlets, books, and sermons with that title. Once we escape the grip of inerrantism, we can instead talk back to the Bible. As I wrote in response to a Facebook comment on a recent post, instead of feeling that we are merely passive listeners to a communication from God, with our only responsiblity being to understand God correctly, we become active... Read more
Another Straight Outta Compton meme, this one for Whovians. This comes courtesy of Innerd Space on Facebook, who also shared this: Read more
A quote from a recent post of mine, turned into a meme. There it was a question – here it is a statement. Read more
Ken Schenck has been blogging through the book I (Still) Believe: Leading Bible Scholars Share Their Stories of Faith and Scholarship, about the personal faith journeys of academics in the field of Biblical studies. Since Ken has reached the chapter by our doctoral supervisor, James D. G. Dunn, I thought I would now draw attention to the series. He has also blogged about the chapters by Walter Bruggemann, Richard Bauckham, Ellen Davis, and Gordon Fee. I’m planning to read the book, but... Read more
Fundamentalists say that the Bible must be trustworthy in everything it says – about nature, science, history, or any other topic – or else it isn’t trustworthy in what it says about God. Let’s see what happens if we apply the same logic to the natural world. The Bible says that the created things give reliable testimony to their Creator. In Romans 1:20, we read, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly... Read more
Ian Paul shared this chart a while back, suggesting that it provides evidence for the unity of Revelation. I’m not so sure – I’m not entirely persuaded by redactional proposals, but I definitely see why such solutions to the puzzles of Revelation appeal to some. What do readers of this blog think? Is the Book of Revelation a unity, or can we detect multiple hands involved in its composition and editing? Read more
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