I often get the question of whether I think books like 1 Enoch are canonical. I tell people I don't -- and that the question doesn't matter. A book doesn't need to be canonical to be useful, or to inform theological thinking. It's quite evident the NT writers had the...
New Testament
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...
The Talmud, Midrash, and Ramen Noodles
When I was in college and grad school friends and I would often joke about whether books or food were a higher priority. Sure, it was funny, but every once in a while there was something that actually turned the conversation serious. Some of us literally (I speak to...
Moses and the Law of Moses in the New Testament
In this final post on the issue of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, I want to examine a couple items in the New Testament. As noted before, my position is that "law of Moses" is an appropriate designation for the Torah/Pentateuch despite sound evidence that...
On Using Rabbinic Material to Interpret the New Testament
I'm still in the process of getting things together for the posting of my ETS papers (both of which were well received). I'll have that ready by the end of the weekend. However, I decided to post something else that I have recently run into. I'm not sure why it hasn't...
The (Bart) Ehrman Project
I heard today about a new website just starting up that seeks to address the various claims of New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman. I've blogged about Bart Ehrman before, so in case you don't know who he is, go here (you'll have to scroll down and through some pages to...