Some of you may have experienced slow load times or error messages on this blog in the past. The cause was apparently my sidebar widget which shared interesting posts elsewhere. If the RSS feed that it was trying to pull failed to respond, the widget would wait for it and the blog page would fail to load. But many of you enjoy the “interesting things elsewhere” items that I share from other blogs. And that sidebar has been useful to... Read more
Thanks to Dan McClellan for pointing out that the Society of Biblical Literature 2013 Annual Meeting program book is now online. Below are details of the two sessions in which I’m presenting, and I’ve included links in the titles of my papers to the abstracts for them: S23-228 Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship 11/23/2013 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM Room: 349 – Convention CenterTheme: Academic Freedom and Biblical Studies James Linville, University of Lethbridge, Presiding Jeffrey Morrow, Seton Hall University A Biblical Method... Read more
A young and creative individual in my church, David Peacock, created this in Minecraft: It is a rendition of the building where my church meets, Crooked Creek Baptist Church. Here is a photo, for comparison: I am very impressed with the likeness, and the creativity in doing something like this. It got me thinking about changing media and changing ways of doing things, and how it relates to churches. In a sense, building a church building in Minecraft is not... Read more
In working on my conference paper on lightworld visitors to Jerusalem in the Mandaean Book of John, I've been looking up related passages in the Nag Hammadi texts. Below is a passage from “The Sophia of Jesus Christ,” which always strikes me, because the response of Philip on behalf of the disciples describes something that would sound just as apt on the lips of any seeker after truth today. And he said: “Peace be to you, My peace I give... Read more
Here are another couple of excerpts from the Great Treasure or Ginza Rba, which are relevant to my conference paper on depictions of lightworld visitors to Jerusalem in the Mandaean Book of John. They are also related to one another. First here is GR 1.199-200, : If he harasses you, tell him: “We belong to you.” Yet in your heart do not confess him, and do not fall away from the words of your Lord, the Exalted King of Light.... Read more
David Hayward wrote the following on his blog today: Everyone with any sense knows that we accept the acceptable words of Jesus and appropriate his unacceptable words in altered forms. That is, we use his sayings if they are agreeable, and we reject or theologically undermine the ones that aren’t. I think an interesting question to ask is how long this has been going on. In the New Testament Gospels, we actually see sayings being added, dropped, and modified. And... Read more
I received the final version of the program for the upcoming conference on the Mandaeans at the Oriental Institute in Oxford. Here it is: MONDAY, JULY 08, 2013 (Venue: The Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane) Chairperson:Rifaat Ebied (Sydney University) 09:00-10:00 Charles G. Häberl (The State University of New Jersey) “Dating the language of the Mandaean Book of John.” 10:00-11:00 James F. McGrath (Butler University-USA): “Polemic, Redaction, and History in the Mandaean Book of John: The Case of the Lightworld Visitor(s) to... Read more
By John Atkinson Read more
I recently mentioned the words from Romans, “professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,” because I did actually have someone quote those words at me on Facebook. There are a lot of ironies in that, as I noted. But perhaps the biggest is that Romans 1:22 is part of a passage in which Paul imitates what Jews say about Gentiles, so that he can then go on to condemn those who adopt the stance he imitates. Nearly 2,000 years... Read more
From Mark Sandlin at The God Article Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In