Nick Norelli shares an Amazon listing that has God as the author of a particular Bible. Jen McCreight shared a cartoon from the Hipster Bible: And Karyn Traphagen shares a video about an electric eel-powered Christmas tree in Japan: Read more

I mentioned in my last post that I’ve been using Ben Witherington’s commentary on Revelation in my class on Revelation this semester. In the last class, one of the interesting discussions related to the presence of (at least) two books in the depiction of the final judgment: a record of the deeds of an individual, according to which they are said to be judged, and a “Book of Life.” Witherington in fact “renames” the book in question, referring to it... Read more

This got mentioned in my Revelation class, in which we’ve been using Ben Witherington’s commentary, and so it seemed appropriate to mention it here since Ben is the most recent of several bloggers I’ve seen share this. Read more

Dan McClellan has posted the second of his SBL papers online. This one is entitled “What is Deity in LXX Deuteronomy?” It’s an interesting paper on an interesting topic, and so I hope those who share an interest in the subject will read it and give Dan their feedback. Thanks to Dan for making his paper available! Read more

Although there have been lots of complaints about the new NIV, it seems it has dared to differ from older translations and make a major improvement in one very famous verse. John Byron reports that the new NIV translation of Luke 2:7 has “guest room” instead of “inn.” I suspect that there are going to be some very surprised people who have purchased the new NIV but will only read Luke 2:7 in it at some Christmas service. I even... Read more

The “scare quotes” are not mine but theirs. P. Z. Myers has a post today about the way Answers in Genesis has been tracking who reads it and what else they read, and one of the categories is “Christian” Users. Read Myers’ post for the full story and the relevant HTML script. And here’s a link to the original report. Whatever one may think of other things Answers in Genesis has done, they have clearly accomplished one thing effectively: they... Read more

As common as it is to encounter the statement that apocalyptic literature is characteristically pseudepigraphal, it seems equally common to hear that the Book of Revelation is an exception to this “rule,” written by an individual in his own name, to churches that knew him. Has anyone explored the possibility that Revelation is not an exception? It certainly is the case that Revelation does not claim to be written by someone in the distant past, as was true of most... Read more

The news – but also misunderstanding – about NASA’s press conference today is spreading. They did not find alien life in the sense of life of extraterrestrial origin. Nor did they find life that showed signs of having evolved independently of all other life on this planet. What they found was bacteria that had evolved to substitute arsenic for phosphorous and thus thrive in an arsenic-rich environment. This expands the definition of life and the range of compounds that it... Read more

Mark Goodacre has a post on why he has long loved Q, Q and Q, and shares a picture of Q and Q reading Q! It turns out the hypothetical Q source was not a single collection of logia but a widely-readperiodical with a glossy cover. Read more