Revelation 1:7 reads: Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen. The implications of that verse for what the author of Revelation thought are noteworthy. One could perhaps suggest that the statement “every eye will see” Jesus could be a reference to the idea of a final judgment, at which all people will... Read more
Bart Ehrman has a new blog, called Christianity in Antiquity: The Bart Ehrman Blog. He will be doing something very different, and very interesting, with it. The blog offers some public content but also has subscriber-only content. Money from subscriptions to the blog will be donated to charities, and so in addition to offering blogging, Bart is doing something to fight poverty, hunger, and homelessness. I know that there are a lot of readers of this blog who are interested... Read more
A few weeks ago we began working our way through the Book of Revelation in my Sunday school class. Two points that I drew attention to in the text relate to the same theme of the cosmology of the author and readers, with its heavily populated spiritual and celestial realms. Right in the first paragraph, the author describes the book as a revelation given by God to Jesus who gives it to an angel who gives it to the author... Read more
Jeff Carter has created a theme song for this blog, incorporating a snippet of Mandaean text. Click through to have a listen! If you like it, you can download a copy from Archive.org Please leave a comment to let me know whether that’s what you think this blog sounds like! Read more
Jim Linville has shared a poster from the upcoming Research in Religious Studies Conference that the University of Lethbridge is hosting in early May: I wonder whether the attendees will be mostly people indifferent to science fiction, people who think the topic sounds interesting, or will be such die-hard fans of Star Trek and/or Doctor Who that they will object to the fact that neither appears in the posters visible behind me in the photo… If the print is too... Read more
A 20th century composer who is too little know, getting wider exposure thanks to YouTube: Read more
There was a lot of God-talk in the episode of Fringe “The Consultant.” Discussing a case which (like almost all of them on Fringe) involved someone dying under unusual circumstances, the subject comes up whether God killed the man in question, as Walter quotes from Romans 1. Walter adds that some would say that God kills all of us – although usually in a less violent manner. There is also a reference to there being no miracles in the sense... Read more
The Doctor Who episode “The Time Meddler” concluded the second season in the show’s history, and it represented another major first: in it, the Doctor and his companions encountered another time traveler, who it is eventually discovered has a TARDIS of his own and is from the Doctor’s own world. Apart from the Doctor and his granddaughter Susan, we had never met any others of the Doctor’s people. When the Doctor looks at the TARDIS of the so-called “meddling monk”... Read more
At long last, the wait is almost over for those of you who’ve been awaiting a paperback edition of my book The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context. University of Illinois Press will be releasing the book in paperback in a few months’ time, and it is already available for pre-order on Amazon.com. As is to be expected, it is significantly cheaper than the hardcover edition. Read more
Steve Caruso noticed that the supposed name of Jonah is upside-down on the ossuary. Of course, so is the supposed stick figure of Jonah himself. So is this two strikes against the idea that Jonah is depicted, or do they fit nicely together? Rogue Classicism has a lengthy discussion of the documentary and its claims. (Jim Davila linked to it). Jim West noted that the documentary didn’t do very well, as far as ratings are concerned. James Tabor offers an... Read more
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