Sometimes I come across something that makes me wish I'd named this blog PaleoDiarrhea. I usually have that thought when the popular media dips its toe into archaeology and biblical studies (or ancient astronauts). Here's another example brought to my attention by...
Inscriptions, dubious
New Inscription and the Jewish Roots of Christianity: The “Aaargghh! Award”
My thanks to OJA, Debra, and TH (from elsewhere) for sending me the link to the NYT article entitled, "Ancient Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection." This article is especially noteworthy in that I have decided to keep tabs on hyped media stories from now...
Rumored Fragment of the Gospel of Mark in the News
A few days ago it was reported that a fragment of the Gospel of Mark, reportedly dated to the first century, is being studied and prepared for publication. This would be significant, as (to my recollection), the oldest fragment of the NT is P52 ("Papyrus 52"), a...
April DeConick on Gabriel’s Revelation
This pertains to the ignorant media hysteria over the Gabriel inscription (blogged about earlier). April DeConcick of Rice University has questions. She is correct in that the 2nd temple texts cited by Israel Knohl may have been revised by Christians, and therefore...
Margaret Barker and the Jordan Codices
This past June Dr. Margaret Barker was on Coast to Coast AM talking about the infamous Jordan Codices. Barker is a legitimate scholar in the fields of biblical studies and Second Temple Judaism. She's a favorite author of mine, not because I always (or even often)...
Israel Knohl and April DeConick (and now Heiser) on the Gabriel Stone
April DeConick just posted a letter from Prof. Israel Knohl, the transcriber of the Gabriel Stone. Prof. Knohl comments on her previous post (which I in turn posted for you all). The response notes a suggestion by Dr. DeConick with which Dr. Knohl disagrees. You can...
Still More on Gabriel’s Inscription
Israel Knohl and J. Collins go at it here. Editor's note: the text of the linked blog post is included below for easy-access. Original content, published August 26, 2008, found here at John Hobbins' Ancient Hebrew Poetry blog: Collins vs. Knohl on the Vision of...
Book of Jasher, Chronicles of Gad the Seer
I am frequently asked for my opinion on the Book of Jasher and the Book of Gad the Seer (more properly called the Chronicles of Gad the Seer, per 1 Chron 29:29). There are books by both titles floating around (typically on the internet) that purport to be these...
Jason Colavito on “The Emerald Tablets of Thoth”
The emerald tablets of the Egyptian god Thoth have an honored place in paleobabble about ancient Egypt. Purported to be secret wisdom from Egypt (i.e., the kind of think Graham Hancock substitutes for real historical records), they're just occult (theosophy) woo-woo....
Los Lunas Lunacy
At times I am asked about the evidence for ancient (Jewish) visitation to the Americas. Part of what prompts the question is inscriptional "evidence" like the Los Lunas stone. (Other parts are British Israelite and Mormon apologetic leanings). While I'm not one who...
Canaanites in America?
Some PaleoBabble readers may be familiar with the longstanding controversy over whether certain "inscriptions" found in the United States were written thousands of years ago by ancient Semitic peoples from the Mediterranean (Phoenicians, Canaanites, Hebrews, etc.)....
New Gospel of Judas Fragments
You can read the short post on the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog here. I recommend clicking through to the links, especially to April DeConick's blog. April, as readers may recall, is strongly opposed (for very coherent reasons) to the notion that the Gospel of...
University of Chicago Analysis: Archaic Mark is a Forgery
Looks like Stephen Carlson was right.[Carlson has also charged that a text known as "Secret Mark" is a forgery - see here.] From this article: The Divinity School’s Margaret M. Mitchell, together with experts in micro-chemical analysis and medieval bookmaking, has...
Modern Forged Manuscripts on Actual Ancient Papyrus
Just wanted to pass this along from Jim Davila's PaleoJudaica blog. Very interesting. Specific examples where someone took ancient papyrus and forged a document to pass off as an ancient text. (This of course pertains to the "Jesus' wife" fragment fiasco).
Jordan Lead Codices Fakery Update
The BBC recently aired a short segment on the lead codices from Jordan on its Inside Out program (thanks to J. Davila, J. McGrath, and Dan McClellan for the initial heads-up on the special). The codices are allegedly early Christian texts. I've blogged about the lead...