I recently came across the photo of Geza Vermes below taken at Qumran, the site of the Dead Sea scrolls community. I was reminded of my time with him in January 2008 in Jerusalem. Here is what I wrote in 2013 upon hearing of his death. Geza Vermes, famed scholar…
Most of us who do academic work on Jesus and early Christianity often refer to what we do as “Christian Origins” or “Christian Beginnings.” It is more specific than just Bible or the history of ancient Mediterranean religions. The operating question seems to be how to account for Jesus himself–i.e.,…
I can hardly believe it has been a year. There is nothing I could say that would improve on what I wrote last year, a week after David’s death. I am posting it again here as I want alll of you to know what an extraordiary person he was and…
I have the first of a two part guest post on Bart Ehrman’s blog. It is about my newly published book on Paul where I lay out why I wrote it and next will write about how my mind has changed on Paul over 35 years. Most of you know…
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…
