I just saw an announcement that my book, Paul and Jesus, was chosen by a poll members of Bart Ehrman’s Biblical Studies Academy for their new monthly book discussion in January. This is one of the “Events” that BSA members can participate in. I know some of you are members…
Get ready for the countdown: Ten Major Variants between the Dead Sea Scroll texts of the Hebrew Bible and that of our traditional Masoretic text–upon which our major English Bibles are based. A very few of these variants are slowly making it into the English texts, but by far the…
Given how often my position on Pantera is distorted into the three things I do not say—namely, that the biological father of Jesus was not Joseph, that Pantera was a Roman soldier who raped Mary, and that his tomb is in German. So, it kind of amazed me to get…
One of my New Year’s resolutions is to resume regular monthly posting as a blogger for the Times of Israel, which has become for me the “paper of record” in the Middle East. I have read both the Jerusalem Post and HaAretz for the past forty years, but lately I…
Dateline: Tuesday, June 29, 2010, Jerusalem Israel I flew to Israel the day before to be present for one of the most significant discoveries I have made in my entire forty year academic career! Enjoy the experience , and see the links at the end to learn much more! https://youtu.be/N1oKvLC8oN4…
One hears from most academics that the historical figure of Jesus was most likely an impoverished, illiterate, itinerate, peasant with no wider cultural or geopolitical perspective beyond the region of the lower Galilee. He grew up in a tiny hamlet of perhaps 100 people, and certainly had no acquaintance with…
I am not sure how many Bibles I own…personal Bibles going back to when I was age 14, in college, then university, then for the past 43 years teaching at three universities–plus various translations, study Bibles, and on and on it goes–KJV, ASV, RSV, JPS, EV, NIV, Jerusalem Bible…and about…
Take a trip with me today on the “Biblical Time Machine,” piloted by producer David Roos and the brilliant Prof. Helen Bond. One of my favorite podcasts! Be sure and visit, browse the episodes, you will be hooked! https://www.biblicaltimemachine.com From Helen and Dave: Every good churchgoer knows that after we…
I wanted to let all my blog readers know that you can get my new course “Quest for the Historical Paul” for $10.00 off during the MVP Courses “Black Friday” sale. Take a look at the overview of the course here at this link–with no obligation with to buy. But…
Millions of believing Christians, as well as theologians and historians, are convinced that the earliest faith in Jesus’ resurrection had to do with the assertion that his dead body was revived in a tomb–and that he walked out of that tomb on the third day after his death, as a…
