I'd recommend this interesting essay to readers. It was published by the Christian Research Institute. The essay has some deficiencies, in that there are other important differences (and nuances within the differences noted). For example, the OT law was also something...
Paleobabble (Misreading Texts)
New Jesus Revisionist Hokum Book Getting Trashed by Scholars
By now most readers will have heard about the new book by Simcha Jacobivici (not a typo) and his academic co-author Dr. Barrie Wilson. In short, it's an embarrassment. And that's saying something given what Simcha (whom I and others have affectionately nick-named...
Fake Exegesis: Return of the א-ת BS
You've heard of fake news? (Who hasn't?) How about some fake exegesis? Some time ago I blogged about the nonsensical idea that the Hebrew particle את has an amazing hidden meaning in Gen 1:1 (that's an aleph and taw, read right-to-left, for those who don't read...
Allegorical Interpretation of the Names in Genesis 5
I've had several readers over the past several months ask me to comment on a post authored by Chuck Missler entitled, "Meanings of the Names in Genesis 5." The essay puts forth the idea that the list of names in Genesis 5, stretching from Adam to Noah, can be read as...
Are the Hebrew Letters to be Interpreted from their Original Picture Signs?
I recommend the video below created by Dr. Michael Brown. It's more than a debunking of the deeply flawed, nonsensical idea that the meaning of Hebrew letters is to be found in their original pictographic (picture) representations. Like myself, Dr. Brown is a trained...
Of Yehovah and Jehovah’s Witnesses
A week or so ago I saw something on Twitter that made me shake my head. An apparently well meaning Hebrew enthusiast gleefully reported that, after searching through hundreds of manuscripts, he'd found thousands of places where the divine name (YHWH) was vocalized by...
Catholic Skeptic Candida Moss at it Again
Someone just sent me this short article from the Daily Beast by church historian Candida Moss: "Nero, the Execution of Peter and Paul, and the Biggest Fake News in Early Christian History." Basically, it's about how Christians really weren't persecuted by Nero as part...
An Assyrian Origin for the Trinity?
Some readers may be aware of claims in this regard popularized on the internet. The idea is actually fairly old, but in recent years has gained steam via the work of a credentialed Assyriologist, Simo Parpola. A few years ago I had the role of soliciting papers for an...
Reza Aslan’s Book About Jesus: More Out-Dated, Long-Refuted Scholarship
New Testament scholar Craig Evans recently wrote this pointed, detailed review of Reza Aslan's book, Zealot. The review spans several pages, so make sure to click through at the bottom of the first page.Evans has a long scholarly publishing resume and is known and...
Camping Crackpottery Survey Update
Contest voting is pretty tight, as the graphic shows. No sign of a clear consensus yet, so I'll be leaving the survey live for a while yet. Not sure if Harold Camping's latest nugget of incoherence will sway voters, either. In case you haven't heard you're blessed,...
Harold Camping, Bible Crackpottery, and a Contest
In honor of today's blazingly stupid (and failed) rapture prediction by Harold Camping, I thought I'd coin a new term to use for Bible crackpottery. I can't decide between two alternatives. I was actually hoping he'd be right since I've been grading (mostly poor)...
More on the “Gabriel’s Revelation” Tablet – Israel Knohl Responds
Israel Knohl addresses some of the concerns raised by April DeConick. Editor's note: because of potential loss of external content, link's main content is reproduced below:From https://forbiddengospels.blogspot.com/2008/08/letter-from-israel-knohl-addressing.html,...
David Meade and the Sept 23 Rapture: Living Testimony to Biblical Illiteracy
This is embarrassing. It shames Christ and tarnishes all those who sincerely try to understand Scripture and get people interested in it. There's just no other way to put it. Lord willing after nothing happens on Sept 23 David Meade will just quietly disappear. But I...
The Mysterious Book of Jasher
That's the title of this scholarly article by rabbi Arthur Chiel I recently found in an old issue of the journal Judaism: Chiel-The-Mysterious-Book-of-Jasher The article is a very good survey of the history of what some folks (even today) tout as a lost biblical book....
Joseph Farrell’s 150-Year Learning Curve on Yahweh and Cuneiform Texts
A few days ago I exchanged emails with Cris Putnam who blogs at Logos Apologia. The conversation was in regard to how Dr. Joseph Farrell had published certain ideas about the name Yahweh in cuneiform texts that people who are actually in this field (ancient Semitic...