Not only students, but other sources regularly refer to Assyria conquering Israel in 722 BCE. This reflects a misunderstanding of the Bible and other evidence. Assyria was already the dominant power in the region, and had been for a decade or more. Israel and Judah were vassal states within the territory of the Assyrian Empire. Then they rebelled, and Assyrian sent in troops to punish the rebellious kingdoms and their rulers. To talk about this as Assyria “conquering” Israel makes... Read more
A site like Patheos depends on advertising. The use of ad-blockers not only places the site’s ongoing existence in jeopardy in the long term, but deprives bloggers of their measly income in the short term as well. I was aware that Patheos was going to try to find a way of delivering one advertisement in a way that would get past ad-blocking software. I understand from a friend that the result is often an extra tab of the sort that one expects... Read more
Pliny the In-Between re-envisages religion in terms of the board game RISK. Or is it that he re-envisages the board game RISK in terms of religion? Either way, the combination is thought-provoking. To what extent do various people and groups view religion as a game of world conquest and domination? Read more
The quote above comes from one of several recent posts by Fred Clark, addressing the problem of allowing fundamentalism to define religion. The other two posts are about how the fundamentalist paradigm distorts religion, and why you should not take the word of some faction when they say they are the “real true Christians.” Both those posts contain charts showing how fundamentalists equate conservativism with authentic religion. And that is no surprise – what should surprise us is that very frequently that... Read more
When I saw the photo above by M. Elsevier Stokmans, which accompanied the news that a CT scan of a Buddha statue had revealed a mummy inside, I presume I wasn’t the only one to think of the Doctor Who episode “Dark Water” and the Cybermen, right? There’s more information on Robs Webstek’s website. Read more
Bart Ehrman recently blogged about the fact that he typically receives at least $5,000 for a speaking engagement, and an extra $1,000 per additional lecture at the same event. And so that is a minimum of $6,000 for a two-lecture event. Daniel Gulotta shared the program from an event at which Bart was giving two lectures. Both are in the form of questions, and both questions have one-word answers – the first one is “no” and the second is “nothing.” $3,000 (or... Read more
Chris Tilling shared a link to Alan Garrow’s website, where he explores the neglected solution to the Synoptic problem which views Matthew as having worked with Mark and Luke. That view will also get a treatment in Robert MacEwen’s forthcoming monograph, Matthean Posteriority: An Exploration of Matthew’s Use of Mark and Luke as a Solution to the Synoptic Problem. See also Mike Kok’s round-up of his treatment of the authorship of the NT Gospels. See too the post at the... Read more
In a recent blog post, Andrew McGowan suggested that the opening lines of the Gospel of John or the Letter to the Hebrews ought, if transferred into a modern idiom, appear in the characteristic scrolling text that opened the Star Wars films. I think it is also interesting to ask the reverse question. Fast forwarding into the distant future, can we imagine the Christian story as it is now known continuing to be told, prefaced by words like “A long time... Read more
Grumpy Pharaoh. That was the problem. Read more
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