This article, published in the December, 1999 issue of Bible Review magazine remains relevant to this day.
Tonight on the Jewish calendar marks the beginning of one of the lessor known festivals in the biblical calendar. Many non-Jews have heard of Passover, Pentecost (Shavuot), Rosh HaShanah, and Yom Kippur, but the larger culture knows little about Sukkoth–sometimes called the “feast of Tabernacles.” Sukkoth begins when the moon…
Being “washed in the blood of the lamb” has become a more appealing cultural image to our minds than “washed in the blood of the hairy goat,” but it seems that neither image, in connection to the removal or “atonement” of sins, is related to the Day of Atonement or…
Cry aloud to God our strength, raise a shout to the God of Jacob. This evening at sundown the Jewish holiday popularly known as Rosh HaShanah begins. Literally, rosh ha-Shanah ( ראש השנה) means “head of the year.” It is commonly included on our secular calendars today as one of the “Jewish Holidays,”…
The story of the fiery destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is one of a diminishing few biblical narratives of which our culture is familiar. Though few might have read the extended account, set in the time of Abraham, that runs through Genesis 18-19, the imagery has become proverbial. This was…
Back in 2015 I published a piece in the Huffington Post dealing with what I consider to be reasonably strong evidence for a “married Jesus” and within hours it drew thousands of responses and hundreds of comments–positive, negative, and even threatening and denunciatory. Clearly this is a topic that generates more heat than…
When I was growing up in the Cambellite/Stone “Churches of Christ” one of the ongoing discussions among my college age missionary minded friends at Abilene Christian College (now University) was whether or not those who had “never heard” the gospel of Christ, and thus had had no chance to respond and…
Many of my blog readers often write me asking when and where I might be giving lectures. Although I do regularly lecture here in Charlotte and around the country, by far the most lecturing I do are the in-depth sessions at various Biblical Archaeology Society Seminars and their annual “Bible…
The festival of Shavuot falls this Wednesday on the Jewish calendar, observed Tuesday sundown through Wednesday sundown. Shavuot in Hebrew literally means “weeks” or “sevens,” which refers to the seven weeks between Passover and what was originally a harvest celebration on the 50th day–also called the “feast of firstfruits” (Exodus 34:22).…
The New Testament has been the most influential collection of documents in history. Taken by both commoners and those in power as the inspired and infallible “Word of God,” and interpreted ofttimes outside its historical context, its fateful influence has often emerged from single passages with far-ranging consequences: And there…