George Athas blogged last week about the possibility that the remains of the last Hasmonean king, Antigonus II Matthathiah, may have been identified – “discovered” would be the wrong word, since this is not a recent discovery, but a reconsideration of an earlier find, the study of which seems to have confronted unfortunate mishaps and hurdles. As Jim Davila pointed out, if the identification is correct, then this would be our second find of someone who had been buried after... Read more
I fact-checked the quote about beer that is often attributed to Ben Franklin (“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy”), and found that it is an adaptation of something that Franklin wrote about wine: On parle de la conversion de l’eau en vin, à la nôce de Cana, comme d’un miracle. Mais cette conversion est faite tous les jours par la bonté de Dieu, sous nos yeux. Voilà l’eau qui tombe des cieux sur nos... Read more
The quote is from Rachel Held Evans’ blog post, asking whether Jesus should inform our Christianity. Read more
I got the idea from Fred Clark. To celebrate the 5th anniversary of Patheos, we were asked to list our top posts. But everyone does that, and so it seems so uninteresting – especially when a list of the most popular posts on this blog are always visible in the sidebar. And so I thought I would ask a more interesting question with less obvious answers: which are the least popular posts of all time on Exploring Our Matrix? As... Read more
Brice Jones has brought to light some disturbing news about the alleged first century fragment of the Gospel of Mark that we’ve been waiting to hear more about after tantalizing references to it were made some years ago. It seems to be connected not just with the Green Collection but also with Josh McDowell. Given the sensationalist character of the claims, and its connection with apologists known for offering a depiction of things that is at best one-sided, there is... Read more
Today is the date that Patheos is celebrating to mark its fifth year. It was actually founded in 2008 but really began to take off the following year. Today you’ll find lots of Patheos bloggers recapping their experience. I have a round-up of my least popular blog posts of all time to share later today. And I made a brief video as well: My blog, formerly hosted on Blogger, moved to Patheos in May 2011. Its archives moved along with it... Read more
We opened our church service today with the above song by Jason Upton, to fit the theme, which was (as you probably guessed) the road to Emmaus. Click the video above to listen. Read more
For Sunday, May 4th, here are some images at the intersection of Star Wars and Christianity (for one that will cause a disturbance in the Force, visit Christian Nightmares). Read more
Happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th be with you! Read more
The YouTube video above is of a concert by York College Concert Choir. It includes choral works by a number of great contemporary composers – including my colleague James Mulholland, as well as Eric Whitacre and Ola Gjeilo. As an added bonus, here is a recording made at Butler’s Clowes Memorial Hall of Mulholland’s “Three Anonymous Blessings”: Read more
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