Friday, June 22, 2007
From Eden to Exile by Eric Cline
From Eden to Exile by Eric Cline
Cline 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 that vein, his chapter on locating the Garden of Eden briefly discusses my own theory, that the Eden story derives from the Creation account associated with the Egyptian city of Heliopolis (Annu in Egyptian, On in the bible), one of the oldest and most influential religious centers in ancient Egypt. According to the bible, Joseph had married the daughter of the chief priest of Heliopolis (Gen. 41:45). Moses, as a member of the royal household, would almost certainly have been educated at Heliopolis.
Cline 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 that vein, his chapter on locating the Garden of Eden briefly discusses my own theory, that the Eden story derives from the Creation account associated with the Egyptian city of Heliopolis (Annu in Egyptian, On in the bible), one of the oldest and most influential religious centers in ancient Egypt. According to the bible, Joseph had married the daughter of the chief priest of Heliopolis (Gen. 41:45). Moses, as a member of the royal household, would almost certainly have been educated at Heliopolis.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Read Chapter One of "The Judas Brief"
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Virtual Ancient Rome
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 News
Thanks to Thoughts on Antiquity for the notice.
Thanks to Thoughts on Antiquity for the notice.
Barnes and Noble now shipping "The Judas Brief"
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.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Politics and Sacred marriage
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, as part of the pitch, this candidate says "I've said repeatedly that marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman." Let's assume for the sake of argument that this position is true. The problem is that "a sacred institution" means a religious institution, and under the First Amendment of the Constitution, the government shouldn't be regulating religious institutions.
I believe that a two part solution is needed here.
First, because marriage is a sacred institution between whomever whatever any particular religious group tolerates, Government should get out of the marriage business altogether. Marriage is historically a private contract issue (with government simply interpreting and enforcing the contract) and should be returned to that status, the contract defining the relationship. If religions want to sanction some private sacred rite as a marriage, they should do so, letting their own religious principles determine what sort of marriage they sanction or consider sacred.
Second, Government should recognize the idea of a social corporation, in which any number of individuals in any combination of relationships choose to be identified as a single entity. The idea is similar to that of a commercial corporation. Multiple individuals each own some portion of the corporation, but legally the corporation is a single entity. The social corporation would function in a similar manner, a group of individuals establish a legal relationship amongst themselves that governs how they relate to each other, determines the obligations each owes the others, and provides that when a member of the social corporation dies that person's assets continue to belong to the surviving members of the social corporation (subject to any pre-negotiated merger agreement.)
The government should not recognize private marriages in any of its legislation but if it wants to confer some sort of recognition or legal obligations or benefits on group entities, they should restrict such activity to social corporations. Businesses should voluntarily follow the same policy when it comes to employee benefits and restrict such benefits to social corporations and not to partners in a sacred marriage. Of course, participants in a sacred marriage can also choose to voluntarily enter into a social corporation arrangement if they want to receive some sort of government or business recognition for their relationships.
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, as part of the pitch, this candidate says "I've said repeatedly that marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman." Let's assume for the sake of argument that this position is true. The problem is that "a sacred institution" means a religious institution, and under the First Amendment of the Constitution, the government shouldn't be regulating religious institutions.
I believe that a two part solution is needed here.
First, because marriage is a sacred institution between whomever whatever any particular religious group tolerates, Government should get out of the marriage business altogether. Marriage is historically a private contract issue (with government simply interpreting and enforcing the contract) and should be returned to that status, the contract defining the relationship. If religions want to sanction some private sacred rite as a marriage, they should do so, letting their own religious principles determine what sort of marriage they sanction or consider sacred.
Second, Government should recognize the idea of a social corporation, in which any number of individuals in any combination of relationships choose to be identified as a single entity. The idea is similar to that of a commercial corporation. Multiple individuals each own some portion of the corporation, but legally the corporation is a single entity. The social corporation would function in a similar manner, a group of individuals establish a legal relationship amongst themselves that governs how they relate to each other, determines the obligations each owes the others, and provides that when a member of the social corporation dies that person's assets continue to belong to the surviving members of the social corporation (subject to any pre-negotiated merger agreement.)
The government should not recognize private marriages in any of its legislation but if it wants to confer some sort of recognition or legal obligations or benefits on group entities, they should restrict such activity to social corporations. Businesses should voluntarily follow the same policy when it comes to employee benefits and restrict such benefits to social corporations and not to partners in a sacred marriage. Of course, participants in a sacred marriage can also choose to voluntarily enter into a social corporation arrangement if they want to receive some sort of government or business recognition for their relationships.
John's "Adulterous Woman" story
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.
Did Jews in Jesus' day expect the Messiah?
Mark Goodacre has posted a snippet from his upcoming lecture Did Jews in Jesus' day expect the Messiah?
The Writing Life: The Judas Brief Barnes and Noble Glitch
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 proposed Table of Contents that has been listed. I've notified my publisher to correct this situation and hopefully it will be taken care of shortly. However, do not assume that all the subject matter covered in the erroneous Table of Contents appears in the published version of The Judas Brief. When I finally negotiated the deal with Continuum, they insisted I reduce the size of the proposed manuscript by about half.
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 proposed Table of Contents that has been listed. I've notified my publisher to correct this situation and hopefully it will be taken care of shortly. However, do not assume that all the subject matter covered in the erroneous Table of Contents appears in the published version of The Judas Brief. When I finally negotiated the deal with Continuum, they insisted I reduce the size of the proposed manuscript by about half.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Brian Doherty's "Radicals for Capitalism"
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 entertainment value of the book. I won't say which one. I'll let you read the book and see if you can figure it out.
The Writing Life: The thrill
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 writing and production processes. Much of the journey is outside of the author's control and it can be frustrating to experience unforeseen delays. Even though I have published several other books, I still get the same charge out of this stage of the project. Of course, I wouldn't mind lots of sales, fantastic praise, and the respect of all scholars in the field. I guess I can wait til tomorrow for that :)
The book was due in the publisher's warehouse on Friday last, and on that day, by what means I know not, the status of my book at Amazon and Barnes and Noble went from "Not yet published" to "not in stock." The distribution channels probably take two or three weeks to get from the warehouse to the bookstores, so you should all probably start lining up outside your local store now so you can be at the front of the huge lines.
The book was due in the publisher's warehouse on Friday last, and on that day, by what means I know not, the status of my book at Amazon and Barnes and Noble went from "Not yet published" to "not in stock." The distribution channels probably take two or three weeks to get from the warehouse to the bookstores, so you should all probably start lining up outside your local store now so you can be at the front of the huge lines.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Ur-Mark and the Passion
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 a pre-Mark source modified by Mark and that it may have been this pre-Markan source that Matthew and Luke used rather than Mark itself.
While I lean towards the idea of an Ur-Mark, I have not yet decided if I agree with Weimer's view that Ur-Mark contained some material that is currently assigned to Q. However, based on my work on The Judas Brief, I am convinced that there was a full-blown (but historically dishonest) written Passion account that Mark adopted and modified in several areas. One of the biggest changes made by Mark was placing the flogging of Jesus after Pilate's verdict rather than before, as in John's Gospel. However, I further argue in my book that many Christians realized that Mark's (and Ur-Mark's) Passion account were narratively, historically, and logically flawed and quite unconvincing. This led to a major modification of Ur-Mark's Passion account that also circulated in Christian circles. John relied on the revised Ur-Mark, which he further modified, and Luke used both Mark and/or Ur-Mark and the revised Ur-Mark, to which he also made modifications. Ultimately, I believe that John, despite numerous problems and dishonest sources, probably comes closest to the historical events underlying the Passion, although he is still a long way off from the truth in several instances.
Chris Weimer over at Thoughts on Antiquity briefly comments on the Ur-Mark theory, that there was a pre-Mark source modified by Mark and that it may have been this pre-Markan source that Matthew and Luke used rather than Mark itself.
While I lean towards the idea of an Ur-Mark, I have not yet decided if I agree with Weimer's view that Ur-Mark contained some material that is currently assigned to Q. However, based on my work on The Judas Brief, I am convinced that there was a full-blown (but historically dishonest) written Passion account that Mark adopted and modified in several areas. One of the biggest changes made by Mark was placing the flogging of Jesus after Pilate's verdict rather than before, as in John's Gospel. However, I further argue in my book that many Christians realized that Mark's (and Ur-Mark's) Passion account were narratively, historically, and logically flawed and quite unconvincing. This led to a major modification of Ur-Mark's Passion account that also circulated in Christian circles. John relied on the revised Ur-Mark, which he further modified, and Luke used both Mark and/or Ur-Mark and the revised Ur-Mark, to which he also made modifications. Ultimately, I believe that John, despite numerous problems and dishonest sources, probably comes closest to the historical events underlying the Passion, although he is still a long way off from the truth in several instances.
101 Myths in Croatian
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 may have folded before releasing it. ) Now Croatian. And I believe there may have been a pirated version of one of my books in Chinese.I also have editions of my works published in Spanish and Portuguese. Barnes and Noble also did up 101 Myths in a special Barnes and Noble bargain-priced hardcover edition that sold out. I believe they will be republishing it in the near future.
Biblical Studies Carnival 18 is up
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Something about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing
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 happened in Beverly Hills, CA, and environs. (Justice is slow in laid back L. A. so she probably want end up in the same jail cell as her idiot companion/rival Paris Hilton.)
Despite the screaming front page headline, in a separate story in the same edition of the NY Post, the gossip column (which is called Page Six but which never runs on page six) says that said Lindsay Lohan was just spotted (apparently about the same time as she was involved in the Beverly Hills run-up to her vehicle mishaps) in New York's Greenwich Village hanging out at some night club with a DJ, whose name escapes me but will no doubt be well-known among the aesthetically challenged.
Sounds like a solid alibi to me. My cousin Vinnie should be able to handle it.
Despite the screaming front page headline, in a separate story in the same edition of the NY Post, the gossip column (which is called Page Six but which never runs on page six) says that said Lindsay Lohan was just spotted (apparently about the same time as she was involved in the Beverly Hills run-up to her vehicle mishaps) in New York's Greenwich Village hanging out at some night club with a DJ, whose name escapes me but will no doubt be well-known among the aesthetically challenged.
Sounds like a solid alibi to me. My cousin Vinnie should be able to handle it.
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