The well-known scholarly publisher, Brill, recently released notice of a new article about Dead Sea Scroll forgeries. From their website: The findings of false fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls have been all over the media recently: collectors have purchased modern...
Qumran
The “Book of Og”
I recently got an email requesting that I comment on something called "The Book of Og." I'm not sure what is being claimed about this book. You can be sure, though, that this book is NOT a book that goes back to the biblical period (i.e., the OT time period when Og...
Heavenly Worship in Second Temple Judaism, Early Christianity, and Gnostic Sects: Part 2
By guest blogger Stephen L. Huebscher STEP THREE: LOOKING AT THE THREE GROUPS INDIVIDUALLY CONCEPTIONS OF HEAVENLY WORSHIP IN SECOND TEMPLE JUDAISM The variety of groups and beliefs at this time was reflected in the variety of sacred texts used. It was common to...
Heavenly Worship in Second Temple Judaism, Early Christianity, and Gnostic Sects: Part 1
By guest blogger, Stephen L. Huebscher This series was originally written as an academic paper for presentation at a conference. At the time, we were doing research on the divine council for what ended up in Mike’s book The Unseen Realm. I had told Mike I was...
Mike’s Book, The Bible Code Myth, Now Available for Kindle
I wrote and self-published The Bible Code Myth over ten years ago. I don't believe it was ever on Amazon (so long ago I can't remember). I had sold it as a PDF as well. Through a lot of help on the part of Peter Rust, a friend of mine who has helped out with other...
Paul’s Use of Genesis 15:5 in Romans 4:18 in Light of Early Jewish Deification Traditions: Part 4: Becoming as the Stars and Inheritance of the Nations, Continued
This is Part 4 of David Burnett's guest blogging series Philo’s Spec. Law 4.187, 2 Baruch 21:4; 48:8, and Romans 4:17: Misconstrual and a Missing Link? This passage is frequently cited by commentators on Rom 4:17, rightly recognizing the parallel language regarding...
Paul’s Use of Genesis 15:5 in Romans 4:18 in Light of Early Jewish Deification Traditions: Part 3: Becoming as the Stars and the Inheritance of the Nations
This is Part 3 of the series by David Burnett; see Part 1, Part 2 Part 3 - Becoming as the Stars and the Inheritance of the Nations The Deuteronomic Vision of the Celestial Bodies as the Gods (or Angels) of the Nations The precedent for this assumed connection in...
Congratulations to Randall Price on Discovering a New Qumran Cave
If you listened to my ETS interview with Randall last November, there were inklings of this in between the lines. News was recently announced about the new Cave 12. Read it here.
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...
The Function of the Divine Council in Heavenly Worship: Piety, not Mysticism: Part 4
[Note: This post continues where Part 3 left off. It includes the rest of the main biblical as well as non-biblical ancient Jewish texts.-- MSH] Psalm 97:7–9. “All worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols; worship him, all you...
Naked Bible 78: Conference Interviews Part 2
Every year Mike attends the annual meetings of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS), the Institute for Biblical Research (IBR), the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) and the American Academy of Religion (AAR). This year Mike recorded short conversations with...
Why the Meaning of Daniel’s 70 Sevens (“Weeks”) is Not Self-Evident
Years ago I wrote a series of posts under the title "Why an Obsession with Eschatology is a Waste of Time." One of the fundamental goals of that series was to debunk the notion, held by countless Christians of all eschatological persuasions, that whatever view they...
Fragments of the Book of Nehemiah Found in Qumran Cave 4 Material
Everyone knows that no portion of Esther and Nehemiah were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls . . . until now.
X-Box PaleoBabble: The Book of Enoch as a Video Game
Someone sent me this link today, knowing I've spent a good deal of time studying 1 Enoch. The book of 1 Enoch is now the basis for an impending X-Box video game (there is a sample trailer at the link - Japanese version). Check it out. What I saw looks cool, but I'd...
Dead Sea Scroll Conspiracy Dies — Again
The first time was a few years after the scrolls were discovered when, contrary to nitwits like Baigent and Leigh ("The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception"), the scrolls began to be published. (For an account of the publishing history of the scrolls -- other than simply...