So I decided to host my first livestream discussion and did so with Chris H., a brilliant guy who has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the Hebrew Bible and its relationship to Ancient Near Eastern cultures. We talked about the Gospel of Mark, the Pentateuch, the Canaanite pantheon, textual criticism, the Sea Myth, and so... Continue Reading →
INTRODUCTION If you were to ask my dad how he became a Christian, he would no doubt tell you about his friend who handed him a King James Version New Testament and asked him to read the Gospel of John. As a single dad in his early 30s, struggling to raise his two daughters, coming... Continue Reading →
"Aren’t mistakes, contradictions, myth, etc exactly what you would expect from a non-divine book?"- @AlchemistNon @AlchemistNon has a new post over at his blog on why he left Christianity. Our stories have a lot of similarities: a fervency for evangelism, continuous reading of the Bible, and more. But he wrestled with many of the problems... Continue Reading →
@andrewmarkhenry of the YouTube channel Religion for Breakfast recently published a short video on the number 666 that appears in Revelation 13:18. Following most scholars, Henry notes that the number is likely an example of gematria, the practice of using the numerical values of the letters in one's name to come up with a value... Continue Reading →
"For atheists, I would say your life is not meaningless even if you no longer believe you are for something like a hammer is for hammering nails- or even if you believe the universe is absurd! Just because you are not an instrument of someone else’s will, it does not follow that you cannot live... Continue Reading →
In this post you will find two things: a paper and a presentation. The paper is entitled "The 'Conservative Bible Project': The Interplay of Ideology and Translation. Here is the abstract I wrote for it: Those of a more socially, politically, and theologically conservative persuasion have long lamented what they have perceived as “liberal” ideology... Continue Reading →
"Through the identification with Bartimaeus and subsequent minor characters, the reader is encouraged to move beyond faith in Jesus and his power toward a more faithful acceptance of the demands and values of Jesus." - Joel F. Williams1 MARK 10:46-522 46 And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples... Continue Reading →
Marie Noonan Sabin, The Gospel According to Mark, New Collegeville Bible Commentary (Liturgical Press, 2006), 32. In chapter 2, Mark dramatizes the way that Jesus, like Wisdom, restores human beings to wholeness, both physical and spiritual. In the opening incident, he shows Jesus equating forgiveness with healing. He next shows Jesus, again like Wisdom, seeking out... Continue Reading →
"Mark, wanting to make a theological point, locates the event in a place whose name is associated with casting out demons – the language, as Marcus points out, does kinda support this. This strengthens the exorcism theme of the pericope– seems legit. A few years later, Matthew, using Mark as a source for his own gospel, either misses Mark’s theological point or... Continue Reading →
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