More on Qeiyafa

Recent MSNBC coverage on Qeiyafa had this little tidbit: Will these finds settle the debate over the historical David? Garfinkel would like to think so. “Various suggestions that completely deny the biblical tradition regarding King David and argue that he was a mythological figure, or just a leader of a small tribe, are now shown [...]

The Roundup

So I’ve been very busy lately, but I did want to throw out some recent updates and some interesting posts I’ve read this weekend. First, I haven’t had a chance yet because of my schedule to highlight this, but my recent paper was published on Bible and Interpretation: Did Jesus Exist? The Trouble with Certainty [...]

Philip F. Esler on Why Identity Matters

Interesting Op Ed by Philip Esler on Bible and Interpretation.  Here is a snippet: “Identity Matters” is the title of a recent book by a group of social scientists on ethnic and sectarian conflict.1 And so it does. If a person is explaining who he or she is or a group who they are, they [...]

An Outstanding New Resource: ORBIS!

How amazing is this?!  Stanford set up this little node which allows you to calculate the time it would take to travel ANYWHERE in the Roman world! It not only measures the faster route, and in what manner of travel, but the shortest and the cheapest.  And it calculates price!  It is an amazing resource.  [...]

Honor and Cheating Students

The American Scholar has an interesting article published on the increase of students cheating in their classes in order to get ahead.  Here is a snippet: One of the gloomiest recent reports about the nation’s colleges and universities reinforces the suspicion that students are studying less, reading less, and learning less all the time: “American [...]

Carrier on Ehrman’s Response to Criticisms

Carrier took a moment out of his conference schedule to type a response to Ehrman.  It is as efficient as his others, meaning that he thoroughly shows the hubris of Ehrman’s latest foray (his book and his response to critics).  And let us not beat around the bush here, there is either dishonesty at work [...]

Larry Hurtado Tackles Academic Injustice and Shameful Cowardice

His excellent discussion starts with this: Over the last few months I had more reports of academics being let go by Christian-aligned academic institutions, and for what seem to be very minor differences of view on any one of a variety of relatively minor matters. These are degree-granting institutions, supposedly committed to academic excellence (or [...]

‘Is This Not the Carpenter’ in the Mail Today!

So my coedited volume ‘Is This Not the Carpenter?’ The Question of the Historicity of the Figure of Jesus arrived today, much to my excitement (and confusion).  This is not due out for another two months (June 2012) but somehow a copy made its way to a third party bookseller on Amazon and I picked [...]

Richard Carrier, Bayes’s Theorem, and Historical Jesus Criteria

Richard Carrier has a new article posted at the online journal Bible and Interpretation entitled Bayes’ Theorem and the Modern Historian: Proving History Requires Improving Methods.  Here is the blurb: Several examinations of the methodologies employed in the study of Jesus have consistently found those methods invalid or defective. Which fact has resulted in the [...]

Of Scholars and Things: Bart Ehrman, Pride, and Credibility

καλεῖ δ᾽ ἀκούοντας οὐδὲν ἐν μέσᾳ δυσπαλεῖ τε δίνᾳ: γελᾷ δὲ δαίμων ἐπ᾽ ἀνδρὶ θερμῷ, τὸν οὔποτ᾽ αὐχοῦντ᾽ ἰδὼν ἀμαχάνοις δύαις λαπαδνὸν οὐδ᾽ ὑπερθέοντ᾽ ἄκραν: δι᾽ αἰῶνος δὲ τὸν πρὶν ὄλβον ἕρματι προσβαλὼν δίκας ὤλετ᾽ ἄκλαυτος, αἶστος. (Aeschylus, Eumenides 558-565) In Ehrman’s recent response to Carrier’s criticisms of his book, Ehrman writes the following (rather [...]