Here’s the trailer for the new season of Doctor Who. HT IO9 At :54 seconds into the clip, there is a person who as it flashes by looks like it could be William Hartnell’s Doctor! If you actually stop the video there, the resemblance evaporates on closer inspection. But precisely because the First Doctor visited Tombstone in the days of the wild west, and the first episode of the new season is a wild west themed episode, I suppose I... Read more
Richard Carrier has a lengthy response to my response to his response to Bart Ehrman’s Huffington Post piece on mythicism and why it is viewed as bunk by historians and other scholars. Let me tackle one important topic first, one which I think is indeed the most crucial (which is why I have addressed it before): “James the brother of the Lord.” Carrier accepts that there are references to all Christians as brothers. Let’s grant (if only for the sake... Read more
Charles Jones posted at Ancient World Online about the Melammu project, which has a digital library dedicated to “The Intellectual Heritage of Assyria and Babylonia in East and West.” The site contains numerous interesting pieces, but not surprisingly the one that grabbed my attention was Amar Annus’ “Some Otherworldly Journeys in Mesopotamian, Jewish, Mandaean and Yedzidi Traditions.” Others potentially of interest to those who study ancient Christian and Gnostic literature include Simo Parpola’s “Mesopotamian Precursors to the Hymn of the... Read more
A round up of the latest blogging on the Talpiot tombs and James ossuary. James Tabor has provided more photos of the most discussed inscription from Talpiot tomb B. He also offers additional photos of other inscriptions from the tomb, also known as the patio tomb. Tom Verenna offers video evidence from the “Lost Tomb of Jesus” film for a predisposition on the part of the filmmakers and other investigators to find a connection with Christianity. Paul Flesher has a piece... Read more
The expression “old as Methuselah” is perhaps not as common now as it once was. Methuselah was famous for his unbelievably long life according to the Bible (969 years), hence the expression. But according to the Septuagint, he managed to survive the Flood without being on the ark! Young earth creationists treat such absurd ages in the same way they treat the worldwide flood for which there isn’t evidence: as matters to be accepted on faith, supported by bogus pseudoscientific... Read more
Fringe is back and as great as ever. It was hard to choose a title for this post that accurately reflected and encapsulated this week’s episode, “A Short Story About Love,” without being spoilery. If you wish to avoid spoilers because you have yet to see the episode, read no further! The title, those reading on presumably already know, comes from the Observer known as September, whom Peter helps get back into his universe after having been “locked out” of... Read more
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If so, go have some yogurt. You deserve it. From Beatrice the Biologist. HT IO9. Read more
Joel Watts – sorry, Willy Wonka – makes an apt comparison on Joel’s blog: Joel also links to my response to Carrier, and emphasizes in the process that, while matters such as whether Jesus was the Messiah are questions that depend on faith, the question of whether there was an ancient human being around whom the movement later known as Christianity formed is not a matter of faith, but of historical evidence and deduction. Mike Bird quotes Chris Keith in... Read more
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Grumpy Scribes Left Their Mark
Do you imagine ancient scribes cheerfully copying texts? Think again. IO9 highlighted some of the more amusing comments from some medieval manuscripts, including more profound ones such as “As the harbor is welcome to the sailor, so is the last line to the scribe” and more succinct ones such as “Oh, my hand!” How impoverished is the perspective of those of us who work with printed critical editions, which don’t as a rule indicate the marginal comments of scribes unless... Read more