I don’t often recommend poetry books on this blog but I have from time to time. Some of my readers will recall the amazing story of my posthumous connection with poet James Whitehead and his book The Panther for which I wrote the Forward–see “James Whitehead on The Panther,” where I…
This lecture lays out the varied calendrical systems used in ancient Judaism. Calendars are complex things and lie at the core of our lives, as well as how most religious traditions function. How to count time was one of the most contentious issues between various ancient Jewish groups and sects–whether…
This post from Friday, March 11th is now looking doubtful–as Israel and Turkey are apparently not in agreement. Here is the latest from the Jerusalem Post. We will continue to follow this developing story but the links below to Nichol’s work on the Moses Shapira connections remain as the main point…
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1946-47. We are already seeing signs of various retrospective reporting and analysis in special issues of major mass media publications such as National Geographic and Life magazine. These thick, lavishly illustrated, special editions are harbingers of much more…
Here is a lecture version of my previous post, “Dead Messiahs Who Don’t Return.” Please Like, Share, and Subscribe to my YouTube Channel, and click the “bell” on Youtube if you want notifications. I am uploading dozens if lectures from my decades long career in March. https://youtu.be/rMe0g52O-OY
Delivered at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, 1997 Since the release and subsequent study and translation of the entire Dead Sea Scrolls corpus in 1992, it is now possible to sketch out what I would characterize as a rather full and reliable portrait of the community that produced…
One year ago today, February 23, 2021, Ross Nichols published his new book, The Moses Scroll (Horeb Press). I wrote the preface for the book and Nichols and I had been working for over a year on the research, sharing what we uncovered. It was quite an adventure. While I finished my…
It is noteworthy that Paul’s testimony in 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 remains our only firsthand autobiographical account of such an experience from the ancient world. The idea of Jesus “ascending to heaven” after his resurrection from the dead is a theme well known in our culture. Along with his “resurrection from…
Flash Announcement: Last Call… We have a very few places left on our October tour (October 21-November 1, 2022)! Due to Covid-19 restrictions we have had to wait now for nearly two years, rescheduling this tour twice! We have some very loyal travelers, as about 3/4 of our initial group…
I took a bit of a hiatus during the first half of February on the blog. I had been posting a lot in January and I wanted to give folks a chance to catch up, but my main reason was I have been putting in all of my free time…
