I became an atheist in 2013 after a yearlong battle staving off doubt and unbelief through prayerful meditation over the Bible and by reengaging apologetic literature that had helped me in the past. When my journey to atheism first began, I read Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion and was thoroughly turned off. Still feeling apprehension about... Continue Reading →
Over at the website The Bible and Interpretation there is a piece by religious scholar Jay Williams on "Eden, the Tree of Life, and the Wisdom of the Serpent." It is at once both a very interesting and very bizarre piece. Williams points out not long after the piece begins that the serpent isn't Satan as Christians would like... Continue Reading →
Note: This is a post written by Chris H. (@unicornwiz) in response to a recently published piece by @GodlessEngineer entitled "Inanna's Descent Matches Jesus' Passion Narratives." Chris can be reached on Twitter or at his email address biblicalhistoryskeptic32ad@gmail.com. *Prenote: this revision was made possible thanks to Digital HammurabiWell, today I’m going to do a basic... Continue Reading →
"All translations of great works are of course no more than approximations of the original, in some places happy ones, in some necessarily imperfect. But respecting the sheer physicality of the Bible’s language together with a stylistic decorum appropriate to the Hebrew diction can help readers sense something of the world quite different from ours... Continue Reading →
To see other posts in this series, please go to the series' page. In the previous installment of "Invasion of the Bible Snatchers" you were introduced to Ray Comfort and his book Scientific Facts in the Bible. As we saw in that post, his first example of a "fact" was anything but a fact. Furthermore, his hermeneutic... Continue Reading →
Steven DiMattei, Genesis 1 and the Creationism Debate: Being Honest to the Text, Its Author, and His Beliefs (Wipf & Stock, 2016), 10-11. In general terms, then, the authors and cultures of these ancient Near Eastern creation myths, Genesis 1 included, did not conceive of creation as an act of creating matter, but as an act... Continue Reading →
Michael D. Coogan, The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures, third edition (OUP, 2014), 83. Many elements of the plot of Genesis 12-50 are found in other ancient literatures. Among these, one of the most significant is the epic of Kirta (also called Keret), partially preserved on three clay tablets found at Ugarit....The... Continue Reading →
Michael D. Coogan, The Old Testament: A Literary and Historical Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures, third edition (OUP, 2014), 69. The sign of the covenant between God and Noah and every living creature is "the bow in the clouds" (Gen 9.13). This refers to the rainbow, which will remind God of his promise. But the bow... Continue Reading →
Michael D. Coogan, The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures, third edition (OUP, 2014), 38. The second verse of Genesis seems to allude to the battle between the storm god and the primeval sea, found in Enuma Elish and in other ancient Near Eastern sources: "Darkness was on the face of Deep... Continue Reading →
A podcast exploring the most read and least understood anthology the world has ever known.
Amateur Exegete
Recent Comments