I wanted to let you all know about this new product. The project is directed by a friend of mine, Boyd Barrett. Boyd is an experienced stage actor, and that experience shows in this production. You can follow this link to listen to a free audio sample. I did —...
Christmas
Excellent Article on the Sol Invictus Myth as the Basis for Birth Date of Jesus on December 25
Some readers will recall that last year around Christmas we devoted an episode of the Naked Bible Podcast (#195) to the myth that Christmas was a pagan holiday because of the December 25 (winter solstice) date. As the myth goes, the date was chosen by Constantine to...
Christians, Christmas, and Such
The latest episode of the Naked Bible Podcast just uploaded. The topic is on whether Christians should consider Christmas a pagan holiday. I hope you’ll give it a listen. I broke down the topic into two areas: the traditional date of Christmas (December 25) and...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 195: Is Christmas a Pagan Holiday?
There is much discussion online at this time of year as to the presumed pagan origins of Christmas. December 25, we are told, was a date stolen from pagan worship, specifically from the festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Sun” (Sol Invictus)? Should Christians...
Christmas a Pagan Celebration? What You Know May Not Be So
Hat tip to Stephen Huebscher for this one! Here’s a link to an interesting short essay on this topic. The author argues (with some justification) that rather than Christians adapting a pagan holiday to their sacred calendar, pagans co-opted December 25 from...
September 11: Happy Birthday to Jesus
Many readers will know that I believe the actual birthdate of Jesus was Sept 11, 3 BC. This isn’t based on any original research of my own (here’s a short YouTube video of me discussing the date). Rather, it is based on the work of E. L. Martin’s The...
Recent Finds Involving Israel's Jerusalem Temple Mount
Many readers have no doubt heard about the recent reports of the discovery of a ritual bath underneath the western wall of the Jerusalem temple mount, along with four First Century AD coins. You can read about the discovery here in the press release from the Jewish...
Merry Christmas – Christ is Born
If you've never seen the beginning of Ben-Hur, the nativity scene, here it is. We watch this every Christmas. Enjoy!
Away in a Manger, but Not in a Barn
That’s the title of one of the articles in the upcoming (Nov-Dec) issue of Bible Study Magazine . As many of you know, I am the Academic Editor for the magazine. I don’t make a habit of plugging work stuff on the blog, but this is a cool article that may...
A Christmas Suggestion from PaleoBabble
Some of you may have heard me make mention on Coast to Coast AM about “astral prophecy” and its relationship to Revelation 12 and the star of Bethlehem. Here’s an excellent video on that idea. Not expensive either. I watched it recently. The only...