“If God had meant us to see the sunrise, he’d have scheduled it later in the day.” — author unknown (seen on a Facebook profile) Read more

I’ve said before that Fringe offers much that LOST did and at times does a better job of providing a coherent story with answers. Of course, there are lots of loose ends that might still be left open: Who build the machine? How could they have designed it with Peter in mind? Who are the observers? Who are the “first people”? And, as if we are still in the realm of LOST, “What do the numbers mean?” A few days... Read more

From me and Rimsky-Korsakov: Read more

Neil Godfrey has posted a “response” from Earl Doherty that nicely illustrates, as usual, why mythicism is not taken seriously by most people, but more importantly pretty much anyone with actual expertise in history and a genuine interest in applying historical methods to learn about the past. The post is in fact intended to provide an “antidote” some brief responses to mythicist claims that I offered in a post a while back. My own view is that it fails miserably,... Read more

Here are a couple of snippets of contemporary choral music by Latvian composers. Latvia has one of the richest and most remarkably vibrant cultures of choral singing I have ever encountered. First, the only excerpt from Passion and Resurrection by Ēriks Ešenvalds which I managed to find on YouTube. I had the privilege of hearing the whole thing performed live during a visit to Latvia. The second is from a composer who is slightly better known, Rihards Dubra. There are other... Read more

Kim Fabricius reposted a Good Friday sermon encouraging you to lose your faith. Undeception looks at how many Christians misunderstand justice. See too Randal Rauser’s post on the death of Jesus and imputation. Deirdre Good blogs Frank Martin’s “Golgotha.” If that’s not your cup of tea, then you can try Bruce Springsteen. and Nick Norelli recommend Martin Hengel’s book Crucifixion.Larry Hurtado Deane Galbraith continues reviewing Maurice Casey’s book, focusing this time on visions and the rise of resurrection faith. Kristin Swenson... Read more

The CNN Belief Blog reported about a group that decided to retry the case of Jesus, as a way of exploring the story and asking how it might have played out in a different time and context. Read more

I haven’t had an opportunity to mention con artists and confidence men since Sawyer and his fellow crash survivors went into the light. [sob, sniffle] The last episode of Chuck brought the subject up again, however, and at one point focused on the fact that “con” comes from “con man” which comes from “confidence man,” and in fact, confidence is a key component in a con – winning the confidence of the person you want to steal from, to be... Read more

At Jesus Creed, RJS takes on some recent statements from Al Mohler. There are some points at which a recent series on BioLogos also seems relevant to that exchange. John Byron and Scot McKnight talk about the tendency towards universalism in our time. Paul Flesher comments on the James Ossuary. Deane Galbraith continues his review of Maurice Casey’s book, focusing here on whether Jesus thought of himself as the son of man. Marc Cortez talks about the Messianic Secret. The... Read more

Via AWOL and AMIR, several digitized books of linguistic and scholarly interest: The Jewish National and University Library Digitized Book Repository Oriental Institute Demotic Dictionary Arabic Dictionaries:al-Jawharî: Tâj al-lugha wa-sihâh al-‘arabiyyaIbn Manzûr, Lisân al-‘arabaz-Zabîdî, Tâj al-‘arûsal-Azharî, Tahdhîb al-lugha Read more