From the lovely, elegant, and scholarly 1985 JPS translation, to the unparalleled Oxford maps, the extensive scholarly, well-balanced notes (including academic as well as rabbinic perspectives), the essays, tables, and charts in the back, with additional maps and charts splashed on the pages throughout, printed on high quality “Bible” paper…
I am contacted two or three times a year by various student directors of campus chapters of an international organization called Ratio Christi. Usually these students email me to ask if I would be willing to have a public debate with one of their associates, most often on the topic of…
As most of you know, I have taught in the Department of Religious Studies since coming to UNC Charlotte in 1989, as well as serving as Chair of the Department for 10 years (2004-2014). If you haven’t been keeping up with the amazing and explosive growth of UNC Charlotte (30,000…
Here is a short summary of our fabulous 2018 dig season at our Mt Zion site in Jerusalem with a pictorial essay at the end. Enjoy! The 2018 Mt Zion season in Jerusalem focused on four major goals this past summer: 1) setting up our new Mt. Zion Archaeological Excavation Headquarters; 2) doing post-excavation work on the finds…
I want to recommend to my readers this wonderful and important article by David Bentley Hart. I thank my colleague Dr. James Philip Arnold of Reunion Institute in Houston, TX for pointing it out to me. Philip earned his Ph.D. from Rice University and wrote his dissertation on Paul–so he…
Given my chosen field of study, namely “Christian Origins,” I am often asked by students and attendees at my lectures whether there are any reference to Jesus and the early “Christian” movement outsidethe New Testament. The following references, from a diverse collection of Roman writers around the time of the…
I have posted quite a few things lately on the relationship between the gospels of Mark and the gospel of John. I want to strongly recommend Paul Anderson’s recent piece with the fascinating title, “A Bioptic Hypothesis: A Theory of Influentiality Between the Johannine and Markan Gospels,” along with the…
This week I am giving Ten Lectures at the Biblical Archaeology Society Seminar at St Olaf College in Northfield, MN. I will post my slides each day, which have hyperlinks to more materials and references to books and further reading, for those who want to delve into these subjects a…
I have written several posts recently on the different Jesus traditions reflected in Mark, our earliest gospel, and John, our latest, namely on The Last Days of Jesus, A Wedding at Cana, The First Burial of Jesus, and Comparing our Earliest and Latest Sources. If you missed any of these and…
I have been amazed over the years at what one assumes is in the New Testament Gospels and what is actually there. I have been teaching these texts for over 40 years and hardly a semester goes by when I don’t see something I had missed, or have something pointed…
