I wish all of you a Happy Yom Teru’ah, the Hebrew term for what is commonly called Rosh Hashanah–(lit. “head of the year”)–or the “Jewish New Year.” In fact, according to some Jewish traditions it is not so much the Jewish New Year, as the remembrance of the “birth…
Once again “Holy Week” has arrived. Today is Palm Sunday, with Easter one week away. So one might say this week is “doubly holy,” in that it binds together what Jesus as a Jew would have been intimately familiar with his entire life–Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread–and the…
Many of my readers perhaps have seen the news yesterday of what could well be the oldest proto-Hebrew inscription ever found in Israel. Below are links to two of the main news stories, the formal press release, and the video from the press conference yesterday (March 24th) at the Lanier Theological…
Copyright 1982 by Norman Perrin and Dennis During.This article, with very minor modifications, was written by Dennis Duling, Professor Emeritus of Canisius College. It was published in the 2nd edition of Norman Perrin and Dennis Duling, The New Testament: An Introduction (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,1982), pp. 4-35, now out of print. This excellent work,…
Breaking news–many of my readers know of the 1st century synagogue at Migdal or Magdala discovered in 2009 during a salvage dig conducted by Dr. Dina Avshalom-Gorni of the Israel Antiquities Authority at the location of a new hotel at Migdal Beach, the site of ancient Magdala. The breaking news out…
Nietzsche said the Christian decision to make the world ugly and evil has made the world ugly and evil. Of course the Christians were only mimickers and mirrors of the neo-Platonism and Gnostic perspectives that became so influential in late Antiquity. Quite a contrast to the Hebrew Bible. Demons, Satan…
A few weeks ago I posted an article I had published back in the year 2000, on “Salvation” in the Encyclopedia of Millennialism and Millennial Movements, edited by Richard Lances. Here is another dealing with Millennialism in the Ancient World–by that I mean the ancient Near East/Mediterranean world. I tried my…
Anyone who works on the apostle Paul comes up against this question almost immediately–namely “Who Is a Jew”? After all, in different contexts Paul affirms that “in Christ” there is “neither Jew nor Gentile” while also affirming that “He is a real Jew who is one inwardly, whose circumcision is…
Press Release via Eureka Alert: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-08/uonc-eot080819.php Researchers digging at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s ongoing archaeological excavation on Mount Zion in Jerusalem have announced a second significant discovery from the 2019 season – clear evidence of the Babylonian conquest of the city from 587/586 BCE. [See Evidence for 1099…
There is a new article up at the fabulous website The Bible & Interpretation, by Ken Hanson. If you don’t know the web site check it out and bookmark. It is worth checking several times a week. Ken is Director of Judaic Studies at the University of Central Florida. Some…