tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230255862012-02-16T07:03:36.886-05:00Gary Greenberg's comments on biblical historicity and whatever else comes to mind.Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1051100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-46557915223802897522007-08-21T21:12:00.001-05:002007-08-21T21:12:18.767-05:00

After considerable reflection I have decided to terminate this blog. My main literary interest is writing books or preparing long think pieces that explore new perspectives or insights into historical issues or biblical analysis. Such a process is slow and not interactive. Blogging is not a good medium for such activity. Good biblioblogging requires lots of short fillers, some news, occasional

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-72949393250748808312007-08-02T20:25:00.000-05:002007-08-02T20:29:48.318-05:00

Sorry for the posting slow down. I've been extremely busy at my job the last couple of weeks and probably the next week or two. Hope to catch up soon.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-33116949673143983622007-07-20T20:28:00.000-05:002007-07-20T20:32:17.333-05:00

Here are several reviews of William Dever's Did God have a wife? Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel. The wife in question is the Canaanite deity Asherah.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-25108615276315452122007-07-20T20:14:00.000-05:002007-07-20T20:23:37.638-05:00

Michael Kiehl on the SBL Forum asks: "Did Paul Get Whacked? The Endings of The Sopranos and the Acts of the Apostles." He draws parallels between the endings of Acts and the ending of the Sopranos and wonders if we can draw some conclusions about what happened to Paul after he was sent to Rome for trial.Since in The Judas Brief I argue that Luke's Passion account goes to great lengths to

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-2953189472942272652007-07-19T20:55:00.000-05:002007-07-19T21:13:52.393-05:00

LJXpress, an electronic supplement to the print version of Library Journal, an important book review source for librarians deciding on purchases, will be releasing a brief review of The Judas Brief. The review has some positive comments but in the short space managed to garble a main argument of the book, mistakenly saying I proposed a peace-keeping arrangement, brokered by Judas, between Pilate

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-72846160847183405582007-07-19T19:51:00.000-05:002007-07-19T20:55:23.257-05:00

Among the many glitches plaguing the production of The Judas Brief, is that the publication track is out of sync with the publicity track. While the book was officially release last month, the main publicity campaign was only launched today. This could create some difficulties for book sales because book stores only give a book a couple of months to prove itself before they start returning books.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-754832048301868622007-07-13T21:43:00.001-05:002007-07-13T21:48:08.175-05:00

In the arsenal of anti-Jewish Christian bigotry, 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16 holds a prominent place. Here is the NRSV translation, with a key portion underlined.We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God's word, which is also at work in you believers. For you,

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-52051767115172201622007-07-12T19:11:00.000-05:002007-07-12T19:33:10.459-05:00

The Book of Jeremiah mentions an important Babylonian official named Nebo-sarsekim, who, together with Nebuchadnezzar, was present at the seige of Jerusqlem in 587 BCE. Now, an Austrian Assyriologist, Dr Michael Jursa, has discovered a reference to that very individual on a previously undeciphered cuneiform tablet in the British museum, which apparently has a vast horde of undeciphered Babylonian

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-11882732764275129132007-07-07T21:40:00.001-05:002007-07-07T21:43:04.714-05:00

Mark 12:28-34 tells the story of a friendly encounter between Jesus and a Jewish scribe, in which the two men discuss Gods fundamental commandments and the path to salvation. Matthew and Luke, who used Mark as a source, seem to have been highly disturbed by Mark's account, partly because it shows Jesus having a friendly respectful conversation with a knowledgeable Jew and partly because it

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-72710621140612530272007-07-05T21:50:00.001-05:002007-07-05T21:50:30.077-05:00

I started this blog on about January 1st of this year, so the passing of the six month mark last week seems like a good time to reflect a little on what I have experienced. First, blogging is hard work if you want to be serious about what you write and provide scholarly commentary. For many people, I suspect, blogging is just an opportunity to rant and let off steam, hurt people they don't like,

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-36053855836256149272007-07-05T21:44:00.000-05:002007-07-05T21:50:11.744-05:00

Stephen Cook at Biblische Aus-bildung is hosting this Biblical Studies Carnival (XIX).I'm pleased to note that some of my entries for June received attention. Thanks Stephen.(See my sidebar for a link to the Biblical Studies Carnival archives.)

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-7777392076348321922007-07-05T20:28:00.000-05:002007-07-05T20:39:13.787-05:00

For a look at the morass of difficulties that arise when historians and theologians confront each other check out James Crosslely's response to N. T. Wright's critique of Crossley. For additional perspective, also look at April DeConick's comment on the Crossley-Wright exchange.There is simply no point in engaging in these sort of debates except for the entertainment value of watching witty

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-47982146984994379412007-06-27T21:03:00.001-05:002007-06-27T21:10:06.945-05:00

In the wake of The da Vinci code and claims about a Jesus family tomb including a reference to the son of Jesus, some people actually think there is some merit to the idea that Jesus was married and had a child. That there is not a shred of tradition or evidence in any ancient Christian writings for the existence of a wife and child seems to be beside the point.Consider what would be the case if

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-44394052366519881162007-06-24T16:03:00.000-05:002007-06-24T16:46:17.275-05:00

In my previous post I mentioned my light encounter with the Gospel of Judas. For that purpose I made use of two books, Reading Judas by Elaine Pagels and Karen L. King, and The Gospel of Judas, edited by Rodolphe Kasser, Marvin Meyer, and Gregor Wurst, with additional commentary by Bart Ehrman.Although the two have similar translations (I didn't do any detailed comparisons) each has some

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-83020902630080883682007-06-24T15:59:00.001-05:002007-06-24T16:03:15.289-05:00

I was thumb-wrestling with the Gospel of Judas for much of the day and it occurred to me that this Gospel seems to take the Gospel of Mark as a primary source of information. The most telling clue seems to be the treatment of the Twelve Disciples, but there are others.The primary theme of Mark's Gospel appears to be that while Jesus was alive, no human truly knew the nature of Jesus, that the

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-23924974793699527592007-06-22T21:53:00.000-05:002007-06-22T22:03:37.784-05:00

Tony at Apocryphicity reviews Reinventing Jesus by J. Ed Komoszewski, M. James Sawyer, and Daniel B. Wallace. The book is an apologetic attempt to make historical arguments defending the validity of the New Testament canon in part by denigrating the Christian Apocrypha. Tony is not convinced.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-50679169628942753072007-06-22T21:29:00.000-05:002007-06-22T21:52:19.391-05:00

From Eden to Exile by Eric ClineCline was the chief consultant to National Geographic's Science of the Bible series. This just released book, is in some ways a companion volume to that series, although not all the shows are covered. Instead, it provides a mainstream archaeological overview of several biblical issues and then introduces some of the more controversial views from other scholars. In

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-89910281921103664412007-06-17T22:42:00.000-05:002007-06-17T22:56:33.647-05:00

I have posted an online copy of the first chapter of The Judas Brief, "Jews in the Dock; Pilate in the Choir." Its a PDF file. For more info on The Judas Brief go here.The book is now in stock at both Amazon and Barnes and Noble online. It should hit brick and mortar stores over the next few days.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-41859085218297691892007-06-12T17:28:00.001-05:002007-06-12T17:33:28.188-05:00

A major computing project has created a three-dimensional on-line journey through Ancient Rome in 320 AD/CE. You get an overview of the city, a tour of the Colosseum and other sites. Here's the story on Yahoo NewsThanks to Thoughts on Antiquity for the notice.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-28419588110907322332007-06-12T17:25:00.000-05:002007-06-12T17:27:11.928-05:00

BN announces 24-hour shipping. Amazon has cut its shipping notice from 1-3 weeks to 8 to 12 days. That should change in the next couple of days.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-54980795319974308502007-06-09T16:38:00.001-05:002007-06-09T17:11:35.242-05:00

We seem to be entering that stage of the presidential campaign when all of the major candidates of both major parties think about what lies they can get away with in the course of deceiving the voters about what they really believe.Today I was going through my mail and found a solicitation from one of these contenders whose been accused of flip-flopping on certain issues. (Shock, shock!) Anyhow,

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-6994675881532932902007-06-09T16:32:00.000-05:002007-06-09T16:38:09.994-05:00

Most biblical scholars accept that the story of the adulterous woman in John 7:53-8:11 was not part of John's original Gospel. Andrew Criddle at Hypotyposeis has a discussion about some of the historical issues associated with this text.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-77742253903947602162007-06-09T16:26:00.000-05:002007-06-09T16:31:59.083-05:00

Mark Goodacre has posted a snippet from his upcoming lecture Did Jews in Jesus' day expect the Messiah?

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-13081213136449181252007-06-09T16:18:00.000-05:002007-06-09T17:26:42.103-05:00

The Judas Brief can now be pre-ordered at Barnes and Noble but Barnes and Noble has a link to a Table of Contents that is not the current Table of Contents. There is a link in my sidebar to the correct Table of Contents.Somehow, an early version of a proposed Table of Contents in the book proposal solicitation stage, before I had a contract to do the book, has been submitted to BN and it is that

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-20661491457711296302007-06-05T21:16:00.000-05:002007-06-05T21:38:28.693-05:00

A while ago I mentioned the publication of Brian Doherty's Radicals for Capitalism, which tells the story of the developement of the modern libertarian political movement, and that I was pleased that he included a couple of quotes from me. Since then there have been a number of reviews. Now I've discovered that several major book reviews have focused in on one my quotes to highlight some of the

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-71395625289658903082007-06-05T20:51:00.000-05:002007-06-05T21:16:17.905-05:00

After spending about three years from beginning the research to printing the manuscript, I got my author's copies of The Judas Brief today, and I'm thrilled. One of the true delights for most authors is finally getting your hands around the published version. The book author lives through a long gestation period and there is a huge emotional investment and much stress and strain in both the

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-23801925435741424622007-06-04T21:25:00.000-05:002007-06-04T22:00:33.535-05:00

Novum Testamentum Blog has been running a poll on preferred solutions to the Synoptic Problem, which has been getting some play in the biblioblogs. It is not very reflective of prevailing sentiment in the academic community but it does suggest what sort of issues are of interest to the bibliobloggers.Chris Weimer over at Thoughts on Antiquity briefly comments on the Ur-Mark theory, that there was

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-50261334358751430302007-06-04T21:13:00.001-05:002007-06-04T21:22:30.748-05:00

I know many of you have been clamoring for the Croatian language edition of my 101 Myths of the Bible. Well, my publisher has received copies and sending some over to me for my collection of various editions of my books. I seem to be doing particularly well with non-Latin alphabet countries, My books have been published in Greek, Korean, Russian, and Serbian editions (although the last publisher

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-19065217600315439852007-06-04T21:06:00.000-05:002007-06-04T21:12:30.798-05:00

Danny Zacharias at Deinde hosts this month Carnival. I was a little confused about getting to his permalink but I think the one I used is correct.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-13989377226343406642007-05-27T15:52:00.000-05:002007-05-27T16:17:24.627-05:00

So, I'm reading the NY Post this AM and the big front page story is about celebrity moron Lindsay Lohan, whose lack of any discernible brain function suggests she's a charter member of the Hollywood Legion of the Undead. Seems , last night, after one of her regular bout of boorish behavior, she drove off in her car, crashed, left the scene, and police later found cocaine in her vehicle. This all

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-69986069451129258002007-05-26T15:42:00.000-05:002007-05-27T15:52:09.991-05:00

I just caught an interesting statistic. Amazon has a list of "Hot New Releases" for numerous categories. The Judas Brief clocked in at #18 in the category of Christology. In first place is Pope Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth. So between the two of us, we should sell a lot of books. (Which reminds me of an old joke about Communist Russia. At an athletic event featuring only two competitors, one

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-64141749459579660292007-05-23T20:13:00.001-05:002007-05-23T20:20:16.381-05:00

Many scholars believe that the Song of Deborah in Judges 5 may be one of the oldest if not the oldest textual strands in the bible. I don't know how widespread that view is currently but when you read the poem it seems to describe a proto-Israel that existed prior to the writing of Genesis. It has a geo-political description of the Israelite tribes that numbers fewer than twelve and some of them

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-72722011786427418552007-05-23T19:57:00.001-05:002007-05-23T20:15:57.455-05:00

The following book reviews dealing with issues of text criticism may be of interest.Thomas J. Kraus and Tobias Nicklas, eds.New Testament Manuscripts: Their Texts and Their Worldhttp://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5537Reviewed by Christopher TuckettJohn Van SetersThe Edited Bible: The Curious History of the "Editor" in Biblical Criticismhttp://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-41410889759284959822007-05-20T21:44:00.000-05:002007-05-20T21:52:37.993-05:00

Chris Heard at Higgaion continues his series of chapter by chapter reviews of Terje Oestigaard’s new book "Political Archaeology and Holy Nationalism." The book apparently attacks practitioners of biblical archaeology. Oestigaard won't like the review. Chris analyzes several arguments in this installment, and concludes that Oestgaard exhibits a good deal of incoherence and proposes poor

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-24301548031392101972007-05-20T21:34:00.000-05:002007-05-20T21:42:53.414-05:00

Geza Vermes reviews the new book on Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI. He finds that claims that the book would use historical critical practices to discuss the historical Jesus are far from accurate. His review also summarizes the history of the Quest for the Historical Jesus.Mark Goodacre chimes in by recalling some recent posts on issues involved in describing the Jesus Quest.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-37175061538709172072007-05-20T21:24:00.000-05:002007-05-20T21:34:33.489-05:00

From Chris Weimar over at Thoughts on AntiquityI’ve splurged on a book. I’ve been trying to be more reserved in spending on books, but this is a must. Edited by Jacob Neusner and Bruce Chilton, In Quest of the Historical Pharisees is exactly what I need in life right now.I agree. More here.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-82715594384943449662007-05-20T21:04:00.000-05:002007-05-20T21:24:34.686-05:00

Windows Vista continues to plague me. One horrendous problem that drives me nuts is how long some simple file manipulations take. In saving very short files wirelessly from my laptop computer to my desktop computer, I have to wait more than a minute for the Save to complete. This is disastrous for someone who wants to frequently save the file and has to continuously stop writing because the the

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-75439379257355947152007-05-20T20:59:00.001-05:002007-05-20T21:02:32.041-05:00

In my book 101 Myths of the Bible, I tried to show the sources or roots for many of the stories in the Jewish scriptures. The idea that biblical authors relied on earlier sources seems to bother many of my religiously orthodox critics. This seems to have been less problematic to the authors of various books of the bible who from time to time cited non-biblical sources (that have yet to be

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-56604629641251736202007-05-14T21:30:00.000-05:002007-05-14T21:35:11.554-05:00

Mark Goodacre of NT Gateway blog will be presenting a lecture under the aegis of Logos Bible Software on the topic Did Jews in Jesus' Time expect the Messiah? He has an abstract on his website.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-67289379330117721952007-05-14T21:24:00.000-05:002007-05-14T21:30:31.900-05:00

I have added a permanent link in my sidebar to my article The Generations of Heaven and Earth: Egyptian Deities in the Garden of Eden. Those of you who have visited earlier may recall my posting on this. It's listed under the Articles section in the sidebar. It's part of my effort to explore how portions of Genesis derive from Egyptian mythic traditions.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-49803418859627027692007-05-14T21:11:00.000-05:002007-05-14T21:24:07.794-05:00

I have made two additions to the list of biblioblogs in my sidebar. One is Dr. Jim West's Biblioblog, which keeps track of the comings and goings in the world of biblioblogs. Jim is an indefatigable searcher for all things relevant to bible studies, much of which he shares on his other biblioblog, Dr. Jim West, which already has a place in the sidebar. Check him out. I have also added SansBlog,

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-81384267807609238402007-05-08T20:08:00.000-05:002007-05-08T20:13:49.939-05:00

The other day I received in the mail my invitation to the NY Public Library's 2005 Christmas Party, which would have been mailed out around October of 2005. The envelope was marked "pre-sorted first class." I guess next week's postal rate increase is in order to maintain this speedy service.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-87753431525066470272007-05-08T17:26:00.000-05:002007-05-08T17:41:11.316-05:00

Well, me and about 400 others. I spent the afternoon today at a luncheon in NY run by the Cato Institute, and the guest of honor was Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the young Somalian who escaped from an arranged marriage by fleeing to the Nehterlands and taking up the cause of liberating Muslim women from tyranny. She spoke about the problems and pressures young Moslem women face with arranged marriages, and

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-10487693645919033152007-05-08T17:15:00.000-05:002007-05-08T17:22:53.011-05:00

I took a look at the Barnes and Noble page for The Judas Brief. It doesn't show any sales, (or at least no ranking indicating sales) which is not surprising, as it is not yet released. But what is puzzling is that it says that buyers of this book have also purchased other books and lists five other books on Christianity that were allegedly purchased by buyers of The Judas Brief. CEO's work in

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-51719972188043622822007-05-07T20:27:00.000-05:002007-05-07T20:36:32.192-05:00

I'll be giving a talk at the Jewish Community Center (co-sponsored by BASNY) on May 15th, on "Judas and Pilate: Do the Gospels get them right?" Admission is $10 for JCC members and $15 for non-members, and $5 for BASNY members. I had hoped to have copies of The Judas Brief available but that doesn't appear likely. However, I will have order forms with a 20% discount if you want one and if you

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-79005305094951855122007-05-07T20:09:00.000-05:002007-05-07T20:37:17.420-05:00

Work on The Judas Brief has been completed and it has been shipped off for printing. It is now a matter of fitting into the printer's production schedule and then shipping to the warehouse and to booksellers. It should be available by June 1st.I want to thank Prof. Robert Stieglitz, a prominent biblical scholar and archaeologist from Rutgers University, for allowing the use of the following blurb

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-13656388498485163112007-05-07T20:02:00.000-05:002007-05-08T17:26:30.898-05:00

The hot archaeological news of the moment, announced today, is the tomb of Herod the Great has been found. Josephus had placed its location in Herodium, a fortified palace built by Herod about 12 km south of Jerusalem. The Romans destroyed it in 71 CE. Archaeologists have been searching the site for about fifty years, and the discover, Prof. Ehud Netzer, has been digging since 1972 at the

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-49852309246758112922007-05-04T20:52:00.000-05:002007-05-07T20:02:05.179-05:00

Tyler Williams at Codex brings his series on Mesopotamian Creation Myths to a close with Theogony, Cosmogony, and Anthropology in ANE Creation Accounts (Creation in Ancient Mesopotamia, Part 4).

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-58588742899245435192007-05-02T13:45:00.000-05:002007-05-02T13:55:44.928-05:00

James Tabor, of the Jesus Dynasty blog, has argued that some evidence for the idea that Jesus was married can be gathered from Paul's silence on the matter in 1 Corinthians. Stephen Carlson, at Hypotyposeis, offers an alternative view.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-14833879504798169832007-05-02T13:29:00.000-05:002007-05-02T13:36:56.105-05:00

Biblical Studies Carnival XVII is now posted at Chris Heard's Higgaion. These carnivals are a great way to see what's going on in the world of biblioblogs and to keep up with some of the issues that are currently being discussed among the bloggers.Thanks Chris for the links to The Judas Brief.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-12047211342739542272007-04-25T20:20:00.000-05:002007-04-25T20:26:56.572-05:00

A problem occurred with the proposed cover for The Judas Brief. It turns out that a high res copy of the chosen art work doesn't exist and the Rheinau Psalter from which it was taken is too fragile to allow for a scan. So we can't use the cover design previously shown and we were asked to take it down from the Internet sites where it was posted. Arrrgh!!! Hopefully this shouldn't result in any

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-19590158326954713322007-04-23T19:27:00.000-05:002007-04-23T19:35:16.010-05:00

The following paragraph is from The Judas Brief. It introduces the chapter on the arrest of JesusPoor Jesus! The Gospels say he went to Jerusalem to be rejected, arrested and executed. They tell us that he came into the city in messianic fashion to the cheers of the crowds and preached a new kingdom was coming to replace the Romans. He disrupted the Temple proceedings, chased people and cattle

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-82502911310142782642007-04-06T19:20:00.000-05:002007-05-02T13:28:38.113-05:00

It's been a long journey but my publisher, Continuum, has set May 17th as the official release date for my latest book The Judas Brief: Who really killed Jesus? Everything appears to be in place. Galleys for the reviewers should be out shortly and the printing process should be started up any day now. It's not unlikely that some of the larger book stores might have copies before that date. A

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-65987174555509766972007-04-06T19:12:00.000-05:002007-04-06T19:19:24.270-05:00

Tyler Williams at Codex has published Part 3 of his series Creation in Mesopotamia, this time focusing on Neo-Babylonian Creation Texts.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-55860232361730608132007-04-02T20:13:00.000-05:002007-04-02T20:23:12.591-05:00

A number of years ago I presented a paper at an Egyptological conference entitled The Generations of Heaven and Earth: Egyptian deities in the Garden of Eden. It attempts to show some parallels between some aspects of Egyptian and Genesis Creation stories. Click on the title if you would like to read it. One can't do full justice to this topic in a brief paper, but I think you will begin to see

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-78724677690202883012007-04-02T20:04:00.000-05:002007-04-02T20:13:10.935-05:00

If you have any interest in the history of the modern libertarian movement (Milton Frieidman, Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Muray Rothbard, etc.) then you will probably want to read Brian Doherty''s just released Radical for Capitalism, which tells the movement's story and the role of many colorful characters from the early forties to the present. Though not biblically related, I

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-35871241002089010932007-04-02T19:54:00.000-05:002007-04-02T20:03:41.783-05:00

The sixteenth Biblical Studies Carnival is up on Brandon Wason's Novum Testamentum.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-42869837937526910892007-03-24T20:59:00.000-05:002007-03-24T21:22:55.270-05:00

One of the secret pleasures/fears of most current authors is frequently checking out their book rankings on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It's not quite clear what these rankings actually mean and here and there one finds on the web some speculative/investigative articles on what these rankings mean. BN and Amazon have very different formulas and I strongly suspect that BN is more directly

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-56968068587551548672007-03-20T19:17:00.000-05:002007-03-20T19:20:32.797-05:00

If you use Logos Bible Software and find that it is a bit overwhelming at times, you should check out Morris Proctor's blog. He provides a constant stream of useful tips about mastering this valuable resource.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-72628019326026124592007-03-20T19:02:00.000-05:002007-03-20T19:16:48.594-05:00

Due to the March speaker's illness, the Biblical Archaeology Society of New York (BASNY) has revised its lecture schedule.The March 27th speaker will now be Prof. Robert Stieglitz of Rutgers, speaking on Peleset to Palestine:the story of the Sea Peoples who became Arabs. Stieglitz had been the April speaker but graciously agreed to substitute for the March speaker.Replacing Stieglitz on April

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-73430132570310192622007-03-19T20:44:00.000-05:002007-03-19T20:50:51.754-05:00

Ed Cook at Ralph the Sacred River offers an argument based on one of the name forms in Luke's Jesus Genealogy that Luke made use of a Hebrew text in composing the list of names.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-45432128280954969462007-03-19T20:34:00.000-05:002007-03-19T20:44:50.690-05:00

If you like looking into ancient near eastern king-lists you might want to check out Biblicalia, where Kevin Edgecomb discusses Rulers of Aram-Damascus, in which he examines the historical issues concerning how we know who those rulers were and what info we can glean from the biblical texts.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-52241045691899488172007-03-07T21:27:00.000-05:002007-03-07T21:31:58.817-05:00

The first century Jewish historian Josephus is one of our most significant sources for the history of Roman Israel in the century before and after Jesus. He's also a fount of information on other sources for the study of ancient history, frequently citing other writers and quoting from many lost ancient works. This site, under the guidance of Josephus scholar Steve Mason, can help you explore

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-42118503416086933222007-03-07T21:19:00.000-05:002007-03-07T21:24:06.339-05:00

In light of all the Jesus Family Tomb hoopla, archaeologist Jodi Magness has published a piece on first century Jewish burial practices and explains why this tomb can't possibly belong to Jesus and his family.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-78900893561269176912007-03-05T19:41:00.000-05:002007-03-06T23:23:13.513-05:00

I've now been advised that the National Geographic Cain and Abel documntary will have its initial showing this Sunday night, 3/11. My local cable provider's schedule (Time-Warner) shows that is scheduled for 9 PM. TV Guide (and my NG source) say 10 P.M. Double-check both times if you are interested.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-3830893125618051712007-03-02T21:18:00.000-05:002007-03-02T21:20:21.072-05:00

In an earlier post I directed interested parties to a paper I presented entitled Osarseph and Exodus: Literary reflections in and Egyptian mirror. I have placed a link to that paper on my sidebar.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-61410015933135976242007-03-01T20:08:00.000-05:002007-03-01T20:17:32.746-05:00

Mark Goodacre at NT Gateway has a great post on the fallacies behind the statistical arguments used to support the filmmakers' conclusion.And Chris Heard over at Higgaion takes on some of the DNA fallacies.Tyler Williams at Codex has another roundup of commentaries.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-73151783065594578942007-03-01T19:41:00.000-05:002007-03-01T20:08:21.156-05:00

Biblical Studies Carnival XV is now posted at Awilum. To check out the archives for past roundups use the link on my sidebar.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-63751369118363328502007-02-28T21:55:00.000-05:002007-02-28T22:00:43.437-05:00

Don't know how long this will remain posted. There doesn't seem to be any permalink yet. It was an editorial cartoon by Sean Delonas in the NY Post, commenting on the Jesus Family Tomb documentary.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-46258294588143930532007-02-28T21:16:00.000-05:002007-02-28T21:26:41.153-05:00

Continuum had listed The Judas Brief in its Spring catalogue with a March release date. But due to glitches on their part it is now scheduled for the August-September time frame. I only just got the page proofs for editing. After this, it takes several weeks for the galley's to be produced and edited. After that the book goes into production.On my web site Bible, Myth, and History, I have posted

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-46059987063042103902007-02-27T21:20:00.000-05:002007-02-28T21:29:32.552-05:00

A post buried at the National Geographic Televison site indicates that the Cain and Abel documentary, where I appear as one of the talking heads (towards the latter part of the show, when they get into some Egyptian material) is scheduled to air on March 12 at 3 PM and 1 AM (i.e., the night of 3/11.)UPDATE: Due to the lack of descriptive information on the NGTV site, I am only assuming that this

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-55053865690559385112007-02-26T22:42:00.000-05:002007-03-06T23:20:01.292-05:00

Attended the BASNY lecture last night on Merneptah's Victory stele, by Prof. Colleen Manassa of the Egyptology Department at Yale. As many of you probably know, this stele contains the first historical mention of "Israel." It was erected by Pharoah Merneptah, of Egypt's Nineteenth Dynasty in the latter part of the thirteenth century, following his campaigns into Canaan. Less well known is that

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-68292335138228676232007-02-26T22:35:00.000-05:002007-02-27T21:20:43.798-05:00

By now you have probably heard about the (no doubt soon-to-be-proved-ridiculous) claim that the tomb of Jesus and his family has been found. This claim is made by the same team that made the ludicrous documentary about the Exodus that recently had some air time. I think one of the team is the film director who made the super-hit "Titanic."In any event, Mark Goodacre has links to several blogs and

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-54556924045559431732007-02-23T21:47:00.000-05:002007-02-23T21:54:38.409-05:00

I previously posted on National Geographic TV's upcoming Cain and Abel documentary, in which I played a consulting role. One commenter raised questions about whether the actors in the recreations would reflect the historical ethnicity involved. A follow-up commenter, Joe Wiecha (who appears to have worked on the documentary) has responded. As the post has scrolled off the page and into the

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-57508148861543561102007-02-21T21:46:00.000-05:002007-02-21T22:06:35.074-05:00

Mark Goodacre at NT Gateway Weblog has some fascinating observations about The Gospel of Thomas and the Synoptic Gospels. He lays out a couple of Jesus sayings from Matthew and Luke alongside some similar sayings from the Gospel of Thomas and shows that Thomas, in each instance, appears to have the beginning and end of the saying but lacks the middle part. Goodacre sees this as an indication that

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-37982408614628744162007-02-21T21:43:00.000-05:002007-02-21T21:46:22.143-05:00

Wasn't that Stan Lee, creaor of Marvel Comics, who appeared in a brief cameo role driving the bus that Hiro got on at the end of this weeks episode? If your a trekkie also, did you catch the license number of the car driven by Hiro's father, who was played by George Takei (Sulu from Star Trek)?

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-27382626388507713642007-02-20T20:45:00.000-05:002007-02-20T20:51:41.807-05:00

Tyler Williams at Codex has just published Part 2 of his very useful summaries of Old Babyloian creation texts. Part 2 deals with Old Bablylonian texts from about 2000-1600.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-62956692283856151302007-02-19T21:47:00.000-05:002007-02-23T21:47:23.828-05:00

A group of scholars using a modern technology called multispectral imaging claims to have discovered some previously unknown texts hidden within existing papyri.The professors Roger Macfarlane, Stephen Bay and Thomas Wayment, have been working on deciphering these writings on papyrus found in an Egyptian dump where an ancient city known as Oxyrhynchus previously existed. The papyri are now housed

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-6756282194687401142007-02-19T17:42:00.000-05:002007-02-19T17:53:40.856-05:00

I have assembled the pieces of my essay Pilate's Extended Dialogue in the Gospel of John: Did the Evangelist alter a lost written source? into a single article and posted it on my web site. I am also placing a permanent link to the article in the sidebar's web site section. To read the full article click here. For those who came in late, I argue in the essay that the author of the Gospel of John

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-15545500428684451162007-02-13T20:00:00.000-05:002007-02-13T21:21:27.058-05:00

A few years ago I presented a paper at an international scholars conference entitled "Osarseph and Exodus: Literary reflections in an Egyptian Mirror." The thrust of the paper was that the biblial Exodus account utilized an Egyptian literary motif to tell the story. Implicit in the paper was the idea that the Exodus was a real historical event that happened at about the time the bible says it

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-1563960686083686092007-02-12T20:47:00.000-05:002007-02-10T16:22:53.371-05:00

One of the biggest problems in biblical studies is the constant crossing of the line between history and theology. This is not an issue of which side is right or wrong. It is about what each discipline is supposed to do. Practitioners on both sides of the divide frequently cross over and hinder the discussion within each discipline.The historian is supposed to look at evidence without

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-67803323754363717522007-02-09T22:57:00.000-05:002007-02-09T23:02:26.884-05:00

One of the great scandals in the study of early Israelite history, to my mind, is the near absolute barrier between Egyptology and biblical scholarship. There are very few scholars with a strong knowledge of the relevant material in both disciplines and a basic bias against finding any significant cultural links between ancient Egypt and ancient Israel. Israel is sacred and Egypt is profane. The

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-82216124961326995292007-02-07T20:29:00.000-05:002007-02-07T20:53:27.707-05:00

I'd like to get back to biblioblogging but the Vista upgrade is continuing to cause major chaos. I spent over three hours with tech support last night trying to find my email address book for the new windows mail program that replaces Outlook Express. For some reason, Windows search couldn't find the necessary file and what appeared to be the file that was found wouldn't open. I went to several

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-41058052463986065522007-02-06T20:38:00.000-05:002007-02-06T20:48:00.861-05:00

Biblical Studies Carnival XIV is hosted this month by Chris Weimer at Thoughts on Antiquity. I want to thank Chris for plugging Bible and History in this month's carnival. If you want to check in on the latest Carnival or go to the archives for previous ones, I have added a link on the sidebar to the Biblical Studies Carnival site.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-14091764365253440352007-02-05T22:16:00.000-05:002007-02-05T22:24:27.972-05:00

The Biblical Archaeology Society of New York (I'm President) will be sponsoring a lecture on the Merneptah Victory stele. Dating to the late 13th century BCE it is the earliest known reference to the existence of Israel."And It's Seed is Not": Egyptian Military Strategy in the Reign of MerneptahSpeaker: Colleen Manassa of Yale UniversityMonday February 26th, 2007, 7 PMat the Jewish Community

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-4039093410197006092007-02-05T22:00:00.000-05:002007-02-05T22:15:53.195-05:00

Tel Dan is the site of the recently discovered "King David" inscription that dates to about a century or so after David's purported reign. Site excavator David Ilan (acting director of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology and Professor of Judaic Studies at Johns Hopkins University) will be giving a talk in NYC on February 14 at 6 PM at Hebrew Union College. The title of the talk is

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-71204055314632014082007-02-05T21:29:00.000-05:002007-02-05T22:00:04.331-05:00

I upgraded to windows Vista over the weekend and have had plenty of grief and it will take a while to get back to where I get everything functioning properly. The good news is that I loaded Vista onto two machines and neither crashed. But boy was it a mess. Initially, neither machine could load Internet Explorer or download my email, and my network crashed and couldn't make contact. Spysweeeper

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-64777250138879689442007-02-05T21:22:00.000-05:002007-02-05T21:29:17.636-05:00

My last post is listed as January 26th, but when I signed on to blogger today I was told my last post was 2/1. I assume that the post date is when I finished the draft and saved it rather than when I actually posted. Strange behavior. I initially thought that I hadn't posted since January 26th, but today I saw the 2/1 note and feel a little better.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-14654065000612883382007-01-26T11:59:00.000-05:002007-02-01T20:04:34.642-05:00

Part 5: Reconstructing the Dialogue between Pilate and the Jews in GJohn's SourceFor Part 1: Introduction, go here.For Part 2: Pilate talks to Jesus: GMark vs. GJohn, go here.For Part 3: Reconstructing Pilate's Dialogue with Jesus in GJohn's Source, go here.For Part 4: Pilate talks to the Jews, go here.Let’s now look at Table 4 where I propose a reconstructed earlier written source for GJohn’s

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-26161062702085686522007-01-26T11:36:00.001-05:002007-01-26T12:32:51.507-05:00

Part 4: Pilate Talks to the JewsFor Part 1: Introduction, go here.For Part 2: Pilate talks to Jesus: GMark vs. GJohn, go here.For Part 3: Reconstructing Pilate's Dialogue with Jesus in GJohn's Source, go here.Let me turn now to some anomalies in the dialogue between Pilate and the Jews. Table 3 presents the complete dialogue between Pilate and the Jews in the same sequential order set forth in

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-23572470919706376222007-01-23T22:06:00.000-05:002007-01-23T22:37:16.693-05:00

A few months ago I did some consulting for National Geographic Television's Science of the Bible series, mostly with regard to their planned documentary on the story of Cain and Abel. Although I discussed a wide range of ancient materials with them, my primary input had to do with possible Egyptian influences on the development of the story. As a result they did some filming in Egypt for visual

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-37207679874443892042007-01-22T22:22:00.000-05:002007-01-22T22:28:24.110-05:00

Religions of the Mediterranean has a commentary on the origins of Apocalyptic beliefs. Iposted a brief comment there on a trace of an Egyptian apocalyptic myth involving the Creator god and the Judge of the Dead.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-837492014682436462007-01-22T22:03:00.000-05:002007-01-22T22:25:43.373-05:00

Paleojudaica has coverage of another Temple Mount excavation argument.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-89382064432633880322007-01-22T21:51:00.000-05:002007-01-22T21:59:55.962-05:00

James Crossley (Why Christianity Happened?) will be debating William Lane Craig on "Was jesus bodily raised from the dead?"

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-18622027503026196422007-01-21T18:17:00.001-05:002007-01-22T21:50:20.508-05:00

Tyler Williams at Codex has a terrific survey on scholarly commentaries on the Book of Genesis.Update: Link to survey fixed. Link to Codex added.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-87228320447738969982007-01-21T18:15:00.001-05:002007-01-21T18:30:13.662-05:00

James Tabor of The Jesus Dynasty blog provides some information on a new (and controversial?) enterprise to be called the Jesus Project, which will deal with questions about the historicity of Jesus.

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-38079111858495412092007-01-18T21:29:00.001-05:002007-01-26T12:38:33.134-05:00

Part 3: Reconstructing the Dialogue Between Jesus and Pilate in GJohn's sourceFor Part 1: Introduction, go here.For Part 2: Pilate talks to Jesus: GMark vs. GJohn, go here .In the preceding discussion, I noted that GJohn's Jesus gives different responses to GMark's questions from Pilate, and gives GMark's responses by Jesus to a different set of questions from Pilate. I have also suggested that

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-69895864525515042382007-01-18T20:02:00.000-05:002007-01-18T21:04:22.399-05:00

Authors get blamed for a lot of things by readers, often deservedly so, but not always. Take the question of book titles. In academic publishing obtuse, boring, or incomprehensible titles are common, and the authors are well fitted to the task of selecting such works. In commercial trade publishing, however, the emphasis is on making money and the zingier the title the better. This leaves authors

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-20741552061295519342007-01-18T19:58:00.000-05:002007-01-18T20:02:01.528-05:00

This being a new blog startup I'm somewhat obsessive about tracking my visitor stats, sometimes a couple of times a day. So on a random check this morning the number of page hits read 666. Is this an omen? Cue the pipe organs. Damien, is that you?

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23025586.post-48241063138644308962007-01-13T14:35:00.001-05:002007-01-26T12:40:53.208-05:00

For Part 1 go here.In GMark Pilate asks Jesus only two questions. First, Pilate asks Jesus if he is King of the Jews and Jesus responds, “You say so.” [15:2] Second, Pilate says, “Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you.” [15:4] Jesus responds with silence. [15:5] GMark’s account.seems to have several shortcomings from a logical narrative point of view and GJohn appears to

Gary Greenbergnoreply@blogger.com0