To be a fundamentalist, you have to have a book. And you have to forget the book has a history. I normally post on matters in my areas of expertise, namely, late 2nd Temple Judaism and earliest Christianity in the Greco-Roman period (“Augustus to Constantine” as my revered Chicago Professor…
There’s an ancient, mysterious quality about it that makes me want to like Moses take my shoes off while standing on holy ground. Professor James D. Langford, Ph.D. Linguistics, University of Texas I heard today from a few readers that copies of the new Book of Genesis are beginning to arrive.…
The writings and teachings of the apostle Paul are in many ways the bedrock of Christian faith and tradition. But where did Paul get his authority? What does he claim for himself? A number of times in Paul’s letters he uses a technical term in Greek, “to receive,” which is…
Both Kindle and Print Versions Now Available on Amazon Worldwide “I have worked in linguistics for 25 years now and have been a lay reader of the Bible. Reading the new translation of Genesis is at once familiar but also like reading something I’ve not read before. There’s an…
In my previous post, “Have I Not Seen the Lord? What Did Paul Claim to Have Seen?” I suggest that we need to go to Paul, and what he says in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, as our earliest witness to faith in Jesus’ resurrection–rather than to our latest witnesses–the gospels of…
Most people who read the New Testament read it “backwards.” By that I mean they begin with the four Gospels–Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John–move through Acts, and finally get to the letters of Paul and the rest. What many fail to realize is that the seven letters of Paul (1…
I just happened to see on the Society of Biblical Literature web site that Jimmy Dunn has died. We were academic “friends” and he reviewed my book Paul and Jesus, for Biblical Archaeology Review in 2013. You can read his review and my response here on the blog. We sharply disagreed, but I…
Last week I posted an article I published some years ago dealing with Paul’s idea of “Apotheosis,” or “Divinization,” i.e. “becoming Divine.” Several readers wrote me that the extensive use of Greek in that published article, made it difficult for them to follow. I apologize for not noticing that. It…
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…
Those who have read my book, Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity might recall that in the Introduction I survey what I consider to be Paul’s “Six Major Ideas,” several of which are underemphasized, or even overlooked, in many standard treatments of Paul. One of those, which I explore in…
