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

Thanks to Rod of Alexandria for posting a link to a quiz designed to determine if you’re addicted to blogging. Here’s my result… 80%How Addicted to Blogging Are You? No really, I can quit any time I want to… If you’re looking for something to blog about, Jim Getz suggests blogging your prediction about when the world will end. Read his post to see why. Read more

The SBL International Meeting in London in July has its schedule searchable online. It is possible to browse and to search by surname. Read more

Kristin Swenson and Timothy Beal both think you should read the Bible – even if you don’t believe it. In the process all-too-often-neglected aspects of the Bible – such as its diversity of voices – are highlighted. Read more

Dan McClellan has posted a reminder to vote for your favorite biblioblogger.He also responds to a post by Michael Heiser about a paper he (Dan) read at SBL, all on the topic of monotheism and polytheism in ancient Israel. Read more

I’m posting this mainly to bookmark it for myself, but I suspect that many others will find it useful. Thanks to Jeremy Smith for explaining how to e-mail a cell phone, and linking to other sites with useful information to help you do so. Read more

Nick Norelli responded earlier today to my post about God and objective morality. In the process, he mentions John P. Meier’s treatment of the “Golden Rule,” which he feels is best not viewed as authentically coming from Jesus, since it teaches an ethic of reciprocity that is incompatible with other ethical teaching that is likely to be authentically from Jesus. I remember reading Meier’s treatment of this and disagreeing. I don’t believe that the Golden Rule teaches a “tit for... Read more

Both Jim West and Jim Davila note the latest article on the lead codices, focusing on Philip Davies’ perspective, which has appeared in the Sheffield Telegraph. Both Jims offer their own perspectives as well. Read more