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When Gods Were Men

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History and Religion

Historical Criticism

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Select a Month November 2015 July 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 July 2014 April 2014 March 2014 January 2014

July 2015

July 17, 2015

The Two Creations in Genesis

The Bible opens up with two distinct creation myths. Recently, I had an opportunity to...

May 2015

May 09, 2015

The Word of God: Both Scandalous and Divine

I feel lost. So where do I go from here? It’s not uncommon for religious...

April 2015

April 30, 2015

Marcus Borg on How to Save the Bible

What are we to make of the Bible? It is a historical product that lacks...

April 01, 2015

Who Wrote the Gospels? (part 3)

Continuing this series, I would like to draw upon a quote from the Harper Collins...

March 2015

March 24, 2015

Who Wrote the Gospels (part 2)

Back in 1992, the Biblical Archaeology Society published a collection of introductory essays in a...

March 23, 2015

Who Wrote the Gospels? (part 1)

“A historical genre does not necessarily guarantee historical accuracy or reliability, and neither the evangelists...

March 05, 2015

Does Historicity Matter?

Yes. Of course historicity matters. My own approach to scripture is founded in the historical...

March 03, 2015

The Spiritual Nature of Doubt

When religious paradigms break apart through critical analysis, it is natural for believers to experience...

March 02, 2015

The New Testament: Why Don’t We Teach This?

Over the years, I have really enjoyed the writings of prolific New Testament scholar Bart...

March 02, 2015

Authoring the Old Testament: A Great Review

Tom Hardman, who posts at In Fide Scientiam: To Our Faith Add Knowledge, has posted...

February 2015

February 23, 2015

Kitchen: Too Blatantly Apologetic to Warrant Serious Consideration as Historiography

I thought I would share a helpful follow-up citation to the last critique I posted...

February 18, 2015

The Earth Really Isn’t Flat: An Evangelical Critique of K.A. Kitchen

Last month, I wrote a three-part series titled "Don't Do Bible (but if you do,...

February 18, 2015

Historical versus Historicity

There's been some question as of late on the use of terms such as "historical"...

February 16, 2015

Exilic Absorption of the Female Goddess in Deutero-Isaiah

Despite his original divine masculinity, the anthropomorphic Yahweh was eventually emasculated in later biblical and...

February 14, 2015

Biblical Scholars: Preoccupied With the Reconstruction of History

From archeology, to literary criticism, to folklore analysis, modern biblical scholars use a variety of...

February 04, 2015

The Good News of Christ: Historicity and the New Testament

So the Hebrew Bible isn’t history. But what about the New Testament? The concept of...

February 03, 2015

Stories of Faith and Trickery: Genesis as History (pt. 2)

Something exciting happened to the field of biblical studies beginning in the 1960’s. Until that...

February 02, 2015

Stories of Faith and Trickery: Genesis as History? (pt. 1)

With its stories of incest, jealousy, faith, and trickery, the Book of Genesis is filled...

January 2015

January 30, 2015

Were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Real People?

The Book of Genesis tells the story of ancient heroes from Israel’s distant past. It...

January 28, 2015

The Divine Word Made Flesh: A Fundamental Mormon Paradox

In his recent Oxford University Press study, Dr. David F. Holland shares a profound observation...

January 27, 2015

Concerning Scripture: Historicity Versus Inspiration

The historicity of scripture is not a matter of faith. It is an issue of...

January 27, 2015

Mosaic Authorship: Creating History, Creating Torah

I'm currently in the process of trying to put together an introduction to a historical...

January 24, 2015

Minimalists versus Maximalists and Contemporary Scholarship

For some reason, I have recently received a few messages from readers interested in where...

January 24, 2015

William Schniedewind on Scribalism and the Development of the Bible

How did we get the Bible? Back in 2004, UCLA professor of biblical studies and...

January 24, 2015

Critical Studies Versus Apologetics: My Own Personal Journey

I have a great love for critical scholarship, but like any real love, mine took...

January 20, 2015

Don’t Do Bible (but if you do, do it right) part 3

It’s hard for many Bible-believing Jews and Christians to learn that their sacred book lacks...

January 20, 2015

Don’t Do Bible (but if you do, do it right) part 2

It’s true. Some conservative scholars interested in Bible will pursue ancillary degrees in Near Eastern...

January 19, 2015

Don’t Do Bible! (but if you do, do it right!)

Many years ago now (in fact, more than I’d like to admit), I was approached...

January 18, 2015

Peter Enns: Reading the Bible Critically as a Spiritual Journey

I'm going to make a confession. No offense to Peter Enns, but his book, The...

January 15, 2015

The Bible: No Sir, That’s Not History

So why is it wrong to refer to biblical authors as “historians”? After all, they...