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Michael D. Coogan: The Importance of Nonbiblical Evidence
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… Continue Reading “Michael D. Coogan: The Importance of Nonbiblical Evidence”
Jay Williams on The Serpent of Genesis 3 and the Tree of Life
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… Continue Reading “Jay Williams on The Serpent of Genesis 3 and the Tree of Life”
Jade Sylvan on the Gospels as “Fan Fiction”
In the Spring/Summer 2018 edition of the Harvard Divinity Bulletin there is an interesting piece by Jade Sylvan, an MDiv student at Harvard Divinity School, discussing what the Gospels share in common with the modern literary genre of fan fiction. They write, As a… Continue Reading “Jade Sylvan on the Gospels as “Fan Fiction””
Michael D. Coogan: The Content Differences Between the Two Creation Accounts
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,… Continue Reading “Michael D. Coogan: The Content Differences Between the Two Creation Accounts”
Invasion of the Bible Snatchers: Ray Comfort’s ‘Scientific Facts in the Bible’ – Invisible Material
To see other posts in this series, please go to the series’ page. In the last installment of “Invasion of the Bible Snatchers” we investigated Ray Comfort’s claim that the text of Job 26:7 affirmed that our planet was “freely floating” in space. As… Continue Reading “Invasion of the Bible Snatchers: Ray Comfort’s ‘Scientific Facts in the Bible’ – Invisible Material”
(Re)Considering Christianity: A Skeptic Looks at the Christian Religion – Introduction, part 3
“God wants us to stop obsessing about the future and trust that He holds the future. We should put aside the passivity and the perfectionism and the question for perfect fulfillment and get on with our lives. God does not have a specific plan… Continue Reading “(Re)Considering Christianity: A Skeptic Looks at the Christian Religion – Introduction, part 3”
The Weekly Roundup – 12.14.18
“I think we have to allow that John’s Gospel differs from the Synoptic Gospels in this fundamental respect: it is not an attempt to remember the historical Jesus; it is an attempt to restate the significance of the historical Jesus from a later theological… Continue Reading “The Weekly Roundup – 12.14.18”
Shaily Patel: Queer Criticism
Shaily Patel, “Excursus: Methods of Ideological Criticism,” in Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction To the Early Christian Writings, sixth edition (OUP, 2016), 193. Like feminist criticism, queer criticism is a way of reading the New Testament that contests certain norms depicted… Continue Reading “Shaily Patel: Queer Criticism”
Michael D. Coogan: The Deuteronomic School
Michael D. Coogan, The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures, third edition (OUP, 2014), 186. The Deuteronomic school, as we have seen, had connections with both the Levitical priesthood and the prophets. It continued to revise its core text, the… Continue Reading “Michael D. Coogan: The Deuteronomic School”
Musings on Mark: Mary Ann Beavis on the Parable of the Tenants
Mary Ann Beavis, Mark, Paideia Commentaries on the New Testament (Baker Academic, 2011), 175. In Mark, then, the parable [i.e. of the tenants; Mark 12:1-12] is a sort of Passion prediction in expanded, allegorical form. For the evangelist, any God-given authority that the Jewish leaders… Continue Reading “Musings on Mark: Mary Ann Beavis on the Parable of the Tenants”
The Amateur Exegete 