This is Part 9 of a guest series by Dr. Ronn Johnson. My last post concluded with the recommendation that the primary effect of Jesus’ death when viewed in priestly terms (that is, when we speak of Jesus dying as a sacrifice) found him making an already-righteous...
Abraham
The Function of the Divine Council in Heavenly Worship: Piety, not Mysticism: Part 5
For the previous post and links to earlier parts of this series by Stephen Huebscher, click here. -MSH SUMMARY OF TEXTS. After surveying the most common biblical and Second Temple texts (together with a few older ones from the ancient Near East), we can see that the...
Ben Carson and the Pyramids
James Tabor has a short, interesting piece over on the Huffington Post about where Dr. Ben Carson's idea that the pyramids were the storehouses Joseph built to hold grain. It's worth a read, though I have some correctives to offer to both Drs. Tabor and Carson. First,...
Shrine to Moon God Sin Discovered in Israel
A number of websites and blogs I subscribe published this bit of news today. The article from Salon.com is representative. The first paragraph reads: A massive crescent-shaped stone structure has been discovered just a few miles northwest of the Sea of Galilee in...
Camels in the Bible on Hump Day
It's Wednesday and, wouldn't you know it, someone sent me a link to the following article: "Will Camel Discovery Break the Bible's Back?" In case you're not up on the problem of camels for the Bible (shame on you), here's an excerpt: ". . . a scientific report [has]...
What Lands Were Promised to Abraham and Israel?
Todd Bolen recently posted two excellent summaries of the opposing views of this question on his Bible Places blog. For those interested in eschatology (especially those who think they have all the answers about end times), these posts are *highly* recommended. The...
Where Was Abraham's Ur?
Let's file this one under "What you know may not be so." What could be more obvious than Abraham coming from the southern Mesopotamian (Sumerian) city of Ur? Plenty. Check out this three-page article I'm having my Ancient Israel students read this quarter (I...
Why An Obsession with Eschatology is a Waste of Time, Part 6
Now that we're out of the covenants, it's time to move on to other items that demonstrate how anyone's position on end times is driven by presuppositions. Our discussion of the covenants (and some reader comments) brought to light how readily many Christians assume...
Why An Obsession with Eschatology is a Waste of Time, Part 3
To this point, we've talked about a single dispute that divides biblical scholars and students on eschatology: whether or Israel and the Church are to be kept distinct when interpretating prophecy. The question matters since any position that wants a literal...
Why an Obsession with Eschatology is a Waste of Time, Part 2
In the first installment of this series, I talked about how certain systems of eschatology need the New Testament to distinguish between the Church and national Israel for certain elements of their eschatological system to work. Let me unpack that a bit again here by...
Abraham Was from Ur in Mesopotamia . . . Right?
I don't think so, and I'm in good company. Why? You'll know that after reading this 1958 article by Cyrus Gordon, one of my favorite scholars: "Abraham and the Merchants of Ura." You'll wonder why it's been so overlooked.