Boldly professing the obvious since 2009
It’ll be very interesting to see what happens to Harold Camping‘s followers in the aftermath of his failed attempt to predict the “Rapture” (and subsequent end of the world). These people have embraced Camping’s prediction to the point of personally bankrupting themselves (like this 60-year-old retiree who spent his $140,000 life savings to buy billboards [...] Read more »
The marketing campaign for Bart Ehrman’s latest popular book (this time on forgery in the Bible) has picked up in earnest, first with a few interviews and now with a piece in the Huffington Post summarizing his thesis that “the Bible actually contains lies.” As usual, Bart isn’t actually saying anything new in this popular-level [...] Read more »
Paul begins his letter to the Romans by introducing himself: Παῦλος δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ, κλητὸς ἀπόστολος ἀφωρισμένος εἰς εὐαγγέλιον θεοῦ, “Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, a called apostle set apart for the gospel of God ….” One would think that this would be a rather difficult verse to misinterpret, but nearly anything is possible [...] Read more »
One of my commenters has asked an excellent question about Matthew 28:1 (and several other verses), centering on the fact that the Greek word σάββατoν (sabbaton, “Sabbath” or “week”), which occurs twice in the verse, is translated differently each time. He observes that the same word (Strong’s reference number 4521) seems to be translated several [...] Read more »
This month’s Biblical Archaeology Review includes a nice piece by Doron Mendels on Why Paul Went West (subscription required), highlighting the difference between the Jewish diaspora communities of the (Roman/Hellenistic) west and the (Babylonian) east, explaining that it only makes sense for Paul, with his fluency in Greek and roots in the culture of the [...] Read more »