I am somewhat late in linking to the post at TheoFantastique about a church in Australia that has begun having sci-fi themed services. And in related news, Robert Geraci has a piece on Ray Kurzweil’s vision of salvation through technology at Religion Dispatches. Read more

Since the lead codices from Jordan are getting so much attention, I thought I should share an exciting set of artifacts that recently came into my possession. I purchased, from a purveyor of all sorts of authentic new and antiquarian items of indisputable authenticity and scholarly value who shall remain anonymous, a set of ceramic mugs…inscribed with cuneiform. Below is a picture of one of the items in question: What do others think? Should I see if the Daily Mail will... Read more

From Steve Caruso, inspired by a post by Doug Chaplin on this perennial theme: Read more

After much debate and uncertainty, new evidence (actually, old neglected evidence) has finally confirmed that NT Wrong is in fact a women. Bibliobloggers who wondered, but in particular NT Wrong herself, will be glad that the matter is finally settled, and that the appropriate pronoun can be used henceforth in reference to her. Female bloggers will hopefully take encouragement from this, as will all who felt that there was gender imbalance in the biblioblogosphere. Much of the blogging may have... Read more

Here are the latest posts and news items from around the blogosphere related to the lead codices: Dan McClellan links to an article by Peter Thonemann in the Sunday Times about the lead codices. Jim Davila has a roundup of the latest “media dupes” as well as multiple other updates. Darrell Pursiful links to an article at GetReligion which in turn links to and surveys media treatment of the topic in various outlets. Joel Watts wonders whether a raid by... Read more

There’s a very simple, useful web site, CatchVideo.net, which allows you to download a YouTube in the simplest manner possible. Just type the address of the video in on the web site, choose the format, press the catch button, and choose where to save it. It is that simple! For those who worry that a video may disappear, or are finding it difficult to embed into a PowerPoint presentation, or want to make a mash-up, or need or want to... Read more

Jim West reproduces a statement by Robert Deutsch on the lead plates. Read more

HT Scott Bailey Read more

Via Mark Goodacre I learned of the blog Hamblin of Jerusalem, which makes the humorous and plausible suggestion that the impression of a crocodile on one of the lead tablets might have been made using a children’s toy. Steve Caruso updates a recent post and added a picture with analysis of some of the poorly-drawn and inverted letters. To get a letter backwards by failing to reverse it on a mold so that the impression comes out the right way... Read more

I am grateful to Eerdmans for having sent me a free review copy of Anthony Le Donne’s book Historical Jesus: What Can We Know and How Can We Know It? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011). The book begins with a foreword by Dale Allison, and that may create an initial expectation, which may be favorable or unfavorable. But Le Donne’s book seems to me to offer something that Allison’s own recent work, as exciting and groundbreaking as some of it has been, fails... Read more