James McGrath links to a PDF by Tim S. Paananen demonstrating some problems with forgery detection via literary parallels. I’ve kept largely silent on the issue of the authenticity of The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife, because I don’t read Coptic and I’m simply not well enough acquainted with the various methodologies that would be required…
We’ve completed the first two lessons of Bob Cornwall’s study guide (Ephesians: A Participatory Study Guide) in my Sunday School class. I planned to write some notes earlier, but I’ll try to catch up. These first two lessons complete the first chapter of Ephesians. There’s quite a lot of material just in the first couple…
I saw two approaches to political persuasion today that I find particularly unpersuasive. This is besides the truth-limited ads that fail to persuade me every day. 1) Someone on Facebook posted a note that a particular claim was false. I should go to a particular website to learn the truth. The site? Her candidates web…
We often read the Psalms legalistically, i.e. all the discussion of the law leads us to believe we’re talking about some sort of righteousness by works, or better earning God’s favor through accomplishing certain works. If we read Psalm 1 as a sort of flat discourse rather than as structured poetry, we can easily read…
Despite the obvious difference in our beliefs about religion generally, Jerry Coyne is precisely correct in his comments on the right to criticize religion. He’s also right to point out that however obnoxious some critics of Islam are—face it, that recent video is just bad—that doesn’t compare to actually killing people. Yet somehow we’re supposed…
… “In God We Trust” on the back. See This is NOT a Counterfeit Bill at Yahoo News. I’ve always found the idea of putting “In God We Trust” on our currency to be mildly blasphemous. In our money is precisely where we trust God the least. And that’s in our personal finances. When we…
I think I’m beginning to understand why my original positive response to The Voice Bible has turned to one of annoyance. If you haven’t been a reader of this blog for long, you many not realize that I try to give Bible translators very wide lattitude. On the front cover of my book What’s in…
Gallup reports that U. S. Distrust in Media Hits New High. Unfortunately, I suspect this distrust does not reflect a dismay at the amount of inaccurate information and a desire to get accurate information whatever the cost. I suspect that it’s more because of the large number of partisans who think their party, candidate, or…
There’s an insightful article on the Spectrum Magazine web site titled Holy Bricks. This one deals particularly with Seventh-day Adventist bricks, but the principles discussed apply anywhere. I have yet to encounter a community that doesn’t have a few holy bricks to deal with. I particularly liked the point where a constituent in a meeting…
Well, maybe not a war. I don’t really hate Bibles with study notes, and even recommend their use for appropriate purposes. They’re great for giving you background information, pointing out connections, and so forth. When they tell you what the text says, they are not so great. At a minimum, use more than one, and…