What am I doing here?

Hi. Welcome to my Bible and History blog.

For my first post I thought I would say a little about what I want to do here. For the most part I plan to examine Jewish and Christian scriptures from a secular viewpoint, with a view towards examining issues involving the historicity and development of the texts. I have also written several books on biblical and near eastern history, some of which have achieved a modicum of success. So from time to time I expect to write about the trials and tribulations of writing about biblical issues and the problems of addressing academic versus popular audiences. My next book, The Judas Brief: Who really killed Jesus? is due out in Spring 2007 from Continuum. Like many other bibliobloggers, I also expect to wander off the range once in a while to touch on some matters of personal interest. Mainly, my goal on this blog is to provide interesting, entertaining and thoughtful commentaries and/or questions on a wide range of topics.

For those who would like to know a bit more about me and my ideas, you should check out my website, Bible, Myth and History, which contains excerpts from some of my books as well as a number of my articles and papers presented at academic conferences. There is also some additional biographical information about me there that doesn't appear in my Blog Profile.

Blogging is a new experience for me and it may take a while before I get up to speed. Hope you'll stick with me as I get the kinks out.

Thanks for stopping by.