I’ve had another paper I proposed accepted, this one for the Session on the Proliferation of Sessions about the Proliferation of Sessions at the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meetings. Here is the title and abstract: Title: Why the proposed requirement that the entirety of one’s paper be expressible, as regards its principle subject matter, in the title of one’s proposal, in the form of a run-on sentence, will not reduce the number of papers proposed, and thereby reduce the... Read more

Daniel McClellan shares an e-mail allegedly from Peter Thonemann at Oxford, staking his career on the lead plates being forgeries, and explaining why. Here’s the catch: Daniel can’t verify the authenticity of the e-mail. And verifying the authenticity of e-mails can sometimes be harder than verifying the authenticity and antiquity of lead plates! If only Daniel had left posting on this until tomorrow, I would have found it more amusing… Read more

I learned today that my paper, “The Satirical Use of Christian Material in the Mandaean Book of John,” has been accepted for the Aramaic Studies section at the Society of Biblical Literature 2011 Annual Meeting in San Francisco. I’m excited and honored to be the first to add Mandaic to the list of Aramaic dialects represented in papers presented in that section! Here’s the abstract: The Satirical Use of Christian Material in the Mandaean Book of John Gnosticism is well... Read more

HT Jill Moffett on Facebook Read more

About a week or so ago, my family and I noticed a squirrel behaving oddly. It seemed unable to stand up straight for long periods – as though its sense of balance were affected. It would fall over, and lie on its side while trying to eat seeds it found beneath our bird feeder. Here’s a YouTube video someone else made illustrating what it looks like: A quick search online found a probable explanation: raccoon roundworm. If a squirrel eats... Read more

Dan McClellan has set his sights on documenting the examples of worship directed at figures other than God in Judaism. It will be a welcome contribution to the investigation of monotheism in early Judaism and Christianity! Read more

Thanks to Doug Chaplin for sharing a trailer for the upcoming season of Doctor Who that is viewable in the United States. Some others that are circulating cannot be. http://www.bbc.co.uk/emp/external/player.swf Read more

Blogger has a new feature that allows one to view blogs in a variety of different ways. I’ve noticed that WordPress also seems to have a similar feature, making viewing blogs on an iPad a remarkably different experience. Check out the different ways of seeing Exploring Our Matrix:  Flipcard, Snapshot, Mosaic, Timeslide and (the least interesting) Sidebar. Read more

Michael Patton has posted a cartoon, and once again I find it troubling. The cartoon asks whether believing in a talking snake (as per Genesis 3) is really that different from believing that what started as a single-celled amoeba became a talking human being. Ugh… When I first saw the post on the Parchment and Pen blog, I refrained from commenting. But since Friendly Atheist has chimed in, it seems appropriate to blog about this, so that it is clear... Read more

Chris Brady shared a selection on his blog. Pay him a visit – they are really entertaining/useful! Read more