If you’re following the Naked Bible Podcast we’ve had several episodes where we get mired in the quagmire that is ancient chronology. Years ago I read the book Centuries of Darkness by Peter James. It’s fundamental exposure to why the accepted...
chronology
Mike at Grace Church Bellingham: Thinking Like an Israelite: Week 4: Chaos and Calendar
Here are the slides to the last night (which was tonight). You can catch the video on my Facebook / Youtube channel. Wk4-Chaos-and-Calendar Â
No, the Nephilim Did Not Build the Pyramids
Well, this is soul-crushing. My thanks to Jason Colavito for once again directing our attention to awful thinking and helping us think more clearly about it. His post (Did the Nephilim Build the Pyramids? Or Were They Woolly Mammoths?) is about a video documentary...
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...
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...
Calculating and Fixing the Date of Easter
I’m once again feeling wearied by all the nonsense (pagan and fundamentalist Christian in equal doses) about how the date of Easter was the result of some sort of deliberate paganizing conspiracy. Personally, I don’t like the modern trappings of Easter. A...
Immanuel Velikovsky Resources
Immanuel Velikovsky’s name is, for many, synonymous with paleobabble. I can think of a few other candidates I’d move ahead of him for such an honor, but Velikovsky indeed belongs to the “modern classical period” of wacky stuff related to study...
Ancient Chronology Critiques: Not Always PaleoBabble
I used to be really into ancient chronology (Near East, biblical). The chronology of the ancient Near East prior to 1000 BC and its basis has genuine uncertainties. Consequently, this is one area where alternative theorists have some real contributions to make. While...
Oldest Mayan Calendar Discovered: No Apocalypse in the Record
Pardon my yawn just now…. Anyone out there believe this primary data will stem the tide of the nonsensical hysteria? Nope; me neither. If the heretofore known Mayan primary material (which also does not predict the end of the world) didn’t rebut 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...
Seventy Weeks of Daniel (aka, The Pit of Despair)
Remember the albino from The Princess Bride? The guy who was in charge of the pit of despair? That's who I feel like when asked to talk about the seventy weeks of Daniel. It is a quagmire of ambiguity and obtuseness. And yet so many people hang so much on one...
The Dating of the Last Supper
Colin Humphreys’ proposal to date the Last Supper on a Wednesday has been making the rounds on the internet this past week. Mark Goodacre has an informative post on it here on his New Testament Gateway blog. Certainly worth a read.
An Eschatological Spasm: McFall's Chronology of the Prophetic Weeks of Daniel
Well, it took the women in ministry issue to drive me back to eschatology :-). Just kidding. I was reading through the blog comments tonight and was prompted to see if I could find an alternate source for Leslie McFall’s fascinating article on the chronology of...
Why An Obsession with Eschatology is a Waste of Time, Part 14
Nearing the end of this (have to check my list). It’s time for “when was the book of Revelation written?” The two candidates are, of course, before or after 70 AD (the latter in the 90s). I think the most thorough recent discussion on this is by Greg...
ZIBBC – Exodus
In my judgment, Exodus is one of the more neglected books in the Old Testament. This may sound surprising since there is so much in the book that is familiar to so many: the burning bush, the plagues, the exodus, the ten commandments, the tabernacle, and the ark of...