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 →
To see other posts in this series, please go to the series’ page. Next in his Scientific Facts in the Bible, Ray Comfort claims that the biblical authors knew the earth was round at a time when most believed it to be flat. He quotes from Isaiah 40:22 which, he claims, was “written 2,800 years ago,” and... Continue Reading →
Michael D. Coogan, The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures, third edition (Oxford University Press, 2014), 228. The cumulative evidence, then, suggests that the Israelite confederation was composed of groups of disparate origin, including Canaanites. What would have motivated such groups to join Israel? One factor could have been the persuasive power... Continue Reading →
Michael D. Coogan, The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures, third edition (OUP: 2014), 28. Yet despite undeniable chronological and geographical discontinuities, the literary, religious, and institutional traditions of the Levant, including ancient Israel, are best understood as part of a cultural continuum that, allowing for local particularities, was consistent and... 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 →
Michael D. Coogan, The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures (Oxford University Press, 2014), 40-41. There are...important differences in content [between the two creation accounts]. For example, the first account of creation opens with a watery chaos; in the second, the world is an arid landscape. In the first, animals are... Continue Reading →
Note: This will be the final Weekly Roundup of 2019. Claude Mariottini recently posted a piece explaining why the common Christian interpretation of Melchizedek as a Christophany doesn't add up and serves to undermine the claims made in the book of Hebrews that Jesus was a priest "according to the order of Melchizedek" (Hebrews 7:11).... Continue Reading →
I am finally getting caught up with episodes of the New Testament Review, enjoying episode 23 on Richard Bauckham's work on the hypothesis of Gospel communities and episode 24 on Judith Perkins' The Suffering Self: Pain and Narrative Representation in the Early Christian Era. This is great work by the intrepid team of Laura Robinson,... Continue Reading →
"So, reader be warned. Cultivating sensitivity to Christian anti-Judaism involves re-learning or at least re-thinking a body of material that “everybody knows.” Un-learning and re-learning, in my experience, is always challenging, often annoying, sometimes infuriating." - Heather Thiessen. @AlchemistNon has constructed a moral argument against Calvinism. For those unfamiliar with the theological system, Calvinism is... Continue Reading →
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