In my historical Jesus class yesterday, one of the topics was the twelve apostles. When the fact came up that there are discrepancies between the names listed in various Gospels, I suggested that one explanation might be comparable to the bands many of us love, but from which we can name the lead singer and lead guitarist, but are prone to get stuck on the others. The band analogy also brings to mind the possibility of a change of lineup.... Read more
Here are key posts around the blogosphere today related to the Talpiot tombs. James Tabor posted on his own blog about the names in the tombs, and both there and on the ASOR blog about the imagery of a fish (or something else) on one of the ossuaries. Mark Goodacre explains that the idea of the resurrection as “sign of Jonah” is a late development reflected in Matthew’s redaction of that tradition. Bob Cargill follows Antonio Lambotti’s interpretation of the... Read more
Duane Smith has posted an abnormally interesting Biblical Studies Carnival, with a round-up of abnormally interesting posts about Biblical studies from last month, on his blog Abnormal Interests. Read more
HT Caitlin Coberly Facebook Read more
Timothy Michael Law shared the news that a painting depicting Manichaean cosmology has turned up in Japan. Manichaeism is familiar to most who study ancient religion, but it survived in the Far East until only a matter of centuries ago. Read more
Thanks to Jeff Carter for drawing to my attention the Korean science fiction film “Doomsday Book” which apparently features a robot praying and in other ways explores the intersection of religion and science fiction. Read more
Many news outlets and blogs are talking about the second first-century tomb in Talpiot that James Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici have investigated and written about in The Jesus Discovery. Having recently discussed the subject of Jesus’ burial in my book The Burial of Jesus: What Does History Have to Do with Faith?, I have my own thoughts about some of the claims being made. Since epigraphers and archaeologists have commented on the claims about the inscriptions and iconography in the second... Read more
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Having given several examples of science fiction music that deserves to be better known, let me share one from a different genre, the film about King Arthur and company, First Knight. The soundtrack is by Jerry Goldsmith. Read more
Several blogs and other online venues have more information about the book The Jesus Discovery and what it is that that book has to say about possibly Christian ossuaries found in the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the “Talpiot Tomb” that made headlines a few years ago. Let me mention a few of them: James Tabor has a report with photos about the discovered ossuaries in The Bible and Interpretation. There is also a press release from UNC Charlotte. On... Read more
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