Over All, Through All, In All

The noise of storms and harsh alarms 

 Shouts of treason and heresy 

We burn ourselves down to the ground 

 Trading friends for enemies 

 Through a storm of lies and blinded eyes 

We strain to see each other honestly

 Demanding a sign but speaking unkind 

 Without patience or humility 

 But make us 

One body, one spirit 

 Created in one hope 

 With one lord and one faith 

One baptism, one God and father

 Over all, through all in all 

 All our rancor shows in broken windows 

 Shattered glass in the streets 

While leaders of hate in a violent state 

 Their vulgar words are indiscreet 

 A people misguided in a house divided 

 Laid to waste we cannot stand 

 Unworthy of the call with no love at all 

We withhold a helping hand 

 But make us 

One body, one spirit 

 Created in one hope 

 With one lord and one faith 

One baptism, one God and father 

Over all, through all in all

Based on the lectionary reading for today - Ephesians 4:1-16

Early Morning Stained Glass

 

Background Images for Everyone - 2017 - Week 14

Here it is. I know you've been waiting. It's this weeks' free background image - free for you (or someone like you) to download and use as your very own. Use it at home, at work, school, church, or wherever you find yourself. I only ask that you share it freely and that you tell others you found it here.

The photo this week was taken during my recent trip to Washington D.C. at the National Cathedral.

Evensong and Darth Vader at the National Cathedral

We visited the National Cathedral today. I am somewhat ambivalent about the "National" Cathedral. I worry that any church that ties itself to the state is compromised. The Church (with a capital C) does not belong to any nation. I did, however, appreciate that the tour guides and service leaders affirmed to the folks visiting that "this is your cathedral."

We took the tour, visited the gift shop (where I bought a book of poems based on the gargoyles and grotesques of the cathedral (one of which is Darth Vader)). Then we stayed for the Evensong service by the choir.

Mike Pence is Fear Mongering

Republican candidate for vice-president, Mike Pence, shared a video with thousands of Christian churches this Sunday. In the brief video he shared a bit about his own personal faith experience and urged Christian voters to vote for Trump.

In the video he also promised that “President Donald Trump” will repeal the “Johnson Amendment” which Pence says, “threatens tax exempt organizations and churches with losing their tax status if they speak out on important issues facing the nation from the pulpit.”

This is not true. 

The Johnson Amendment prohibits 501(c)(3) organizations from, “directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”

Church leaders can – and should – and do – speak about important issues facing the nation, from the pulpit even. But they cannot endorse or oppose any particular candidate on behalf of their organization. Churches are not threatened by this amendment. Not at all.

But if any particular church feels the need to campaign for a particular candidate they can certainly do that. They are free to do so, if they choose. But they will have to relinquish their 501 (c)(3) status and pay taxes. 

This is not a threat. This is not harassment. This is not an infringement of the first amendment. It is the tradeoff between rights and responsibilities in a pluralistic, democratic society.

Mike Pence is fear-mongering.


Watch the video here

Church Greeting 40MB from Phenomenon Post on Vimeo.

Maybe Church Growth Isn’t the Point

Those of us involved in church leadership, ministry, and interested in church grown often talk about how to make it easy for those who are not yet a part of a church family. We plan events and services and outreach programs designed to ease new folks into our communities. We do all that we can to eliminate obstacles and barriers.

But

In Luke 14: 25 – 33 Jesus seems to be taking the opposite approach. Instead of trying to make it easier for people to join his group, he is making it harder. “Great crowds” were already following him at that point and, in what seems a deliberate attempt to drive them away, Jesus gives the following directions:

“Anyone who comes to me without hating father, mother, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and his own life too, cannot be my disciple. No one who does not carry his cross and come after me can be my disciple…None of you can be my disciple without giving up all that he owns.”

This is not easy church growth. This is not removing barriers. This is a program designed for church decline; this is putting up barriers. This is driving people away.

Maybe church growth and numerical attendance statistics isn’t the point.

Blame the Officers

In the Salvation Army we like to praise God for his many blessings, and it is right that we should. We are thankful and acknowledge that if our corps (local congregations) are growing, if our soldiers (church members) are on fire for Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit – that it is the work of God, his gift and blessing to us.

But…

If the corps attendance is not increasing, it is (obviously) the fault and failure of the officers (pastors).

It could be that God is working out some vast eternal plan that does not include numerical growth at this time. But no. Just ignore those pesky verses (like Job 1. 21) that suggest that the Lord gives and takes away.

It could be that churches everywhere, of almost all Christian denominations are struggling with declining attendance, and despite the prayers and efforts of the officers, numerical growth remains elusive…

But yeah, let’s just blame the officers. That’s easier.

(Not-So) Biblical Limericks: Misquoting the Prophet

Some in the church are terrors, no doubt,
crushed reeds they will break with a clout.
To do this they’ll misquote
words that the prophet wrote
and smoldering wicks they will snuff out.

Isaiah 42: 3

D. Plays His Harmonica

My friend D. is a man of few words – and those are spoken very softly.  He’s not a highly educated man, and has a limited range of skills.  This year he’s been dealing with cancer – and he’s responded very well to the treatments.  Still, for a while this year it was a little scary. 

This morning, before church, he asked if he could play a song on his harmonica before the service.  I had a song prepared, but was glad to put it aside and to allow him the opportunity.

D. had a cassette tape to play as the accompaniment – it was a Carter Family greatest hits album.  We set it up for him with the sound system and pushed play.  And D. played along.  D.’s harmonica, however, was tuned to a different key than the song he was playing.  I don’t think that he knows this.  I suppose it doesn’t matter too much, D. only played two notes, back and forth.  But he played those two notes loud. 

And when the song was finished, he tucked the harmonica into his shirt pocket and sat down in his regular seat.   A couple of people in the congregation applauded and someone encouraged him, “Way to go D.” 

D. may not have great skills, but he does what he can.  It was a good morning.

I Can Tell You Which Parts They Aren't Reading

What part of "Love your enemies" requires an AR-15? What part of "turn the other cheek"?
What part of "you shall not kill"?
What part of "live at peace with everyone"?
What part of "my sword does not bring me victory"?
What part of "he makes wars to cease"?
What part of "wisdom is better than weapons of war"?
What part of "all who take the sword will die by the sword"?
What part of "overcome evil with good"?
What part of "God has called us to live in peace"?
What part of "the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world"?


Why is this church trying to - lure -  men to the church with the promise of firearms?
What part of the bible are they reading?

I can tell you which parts they aren't reading.

Biblioblog Carnival - May 2014

Welcome to the Biblioblog Carnival for May 2014. We searched the internets all through the month of May to find interesting and compelling articles related to the field of biblical studies. There's something here for everyone, something to delight, to mystify, to tickle, to horrify (we include the N.T. Wright clip specifically to horrify and annoy Jim West), and to amuse you. If we fail to deliver this, we'll return your full ticket price.

By the way, before you get lost in the carnival grounds, next month's carnival will be hosted by Phil Long at his blog Reading Acts.  You'll want to check it out, I'm sure.  And if you're interested in hosting the carnival at your blog please (PLEASE!) contact Phil.  He is "semi-desperate..for volunteers for the rest of the year."

Oldest Reference to Israel Outside the Bible

Genesis

Bereshit - In the Beginning of...  "Let’s begin with music. In the beginning of God’s creating of the heavens and of the earth."

Noah – Hollywood Midrash  "Aronofsky’s version of the Noah story is keenly aware that traditions are living things that develop over time, and draws upon the Noah story--or stories--as they were actually being told and repeated by believers down through the centuries. Not everything Aronofsky adds can be traced to ancient sources, but I have to applaud him for actually doing some research into how the Noah story was received and interpreted before embarking on his own interpretation."

Ten Ancient Stories and the Geological Events that May Have Inspired Them "Myths have fed the imaginations and souls of humans for thousands of years. The vast majority of these tales are just stories people have handed down through the ages. But a few have roots in real geological events of the past, providing warning of potential dangers and speaking to the awe we hold for the might of the planet."

URCall: Herodotus and Babel "Being, after all, the so-called “Father of History,” Herodotus wasn’t necessarily all that great at it by modern standards. That is to say, while many of the things that he wrote about did happen, others are derived from the myths and legends of his time – the distinction was not as important to his readers as it is to us. Finding that Herodotus has repeated your particular myth is not therefore the stamp of approval Lloyd makes it out to be."

On Religious Commitment and Violence: A Reading of the Akedah "I like to go with the Jewish description (the Akedah) of this event--the binding of Isaac--rather than the typical Christian description--the sacrifice of Isaac--because, well, Isaac was bound for a sacrifice but wasn't actually sacrificed."

Exodus
Liberation Theology, Moses, and Us  "Watching The Prince of Egypt was the first time I’d really thought about Moses and The Exodus since I’ve started looking into Liberation Theology, and one of the things that stood out to me this time was what Moses had to overcome in order to become the man that could lead the Jews."

The Ten Words and their Music "Exodus has some interesting points in both music and translation. There may even be some irony in the accented musical figures created by doubling a sub-linear sign on a change in the reciting note. In the short commandments, they provide emphasis on the first and last syllables."

Deuteronomy
Did Moses Invent Secular Government?  "As I understand it, correction invited if I'm wrong, it was standard in the ancient world for the highest religious offices to be occupied by those also in the highest political offices. That is there was no way to separate the religious and the secular authorities."

Are the “Ten Commandments” in the Bible? "The first problem with the suggestion that Christians should know the Ten Commandments is the fact Bible never refers to anything called, “the Ten Commandments.” This phrase in Hebrew would be (עְַשֶׂרֶת הַמִּצְוֹת). It does not exist in the Old Testament."

Joshua
Land Allotments "The narrator follows up by describing the boundaries of the land under Israelite control on the east side of the Jordan, reminding us once more about how Moses defeated King Og and King Sihon (will he ever stop going on about that?). We are told that the Israelites had failed to drive out the Geshurites and Maacathites, who still live within Israel 'to this day'"

Judges

Is the “Song of Deborah” Sexually Suggestive and Bawdy? "The Song of Deborah and Barak in Judges 5 sounds a bit like a drinking song one might have heard in an Ancient Near Eastern bar frequented by fighting men."

Chronicles
I Chronicles 9  "This story is an example of how disturbing the Old Testament can be to modern people, who generally believe that people should be punished for their own sins, not the sins of their parents or ancestors."

Psalms

Free Adaptation, Translation without Word Boundaries – Psalm 16 

You will not throw me off into shadowy places with Dead Rulers.

You will not allow anyone within your love and mercy to see destruction.

You will show me the path of life,

satisfaction, gladness, your continuing presence,

pleasures in your governance always.

This is the Sunday School Pageant I’d Love to See: Psalm 82 "Psalm 82 is a dazzlingly weird passage. It’s a lot more like something out of Neil Gaiman than most of the Psalms. The scene is a “divine council” in which God meets with all the other Gods and informs them that they’re all in danger of losing their jobs and dying like mere mortals if they don’t get their act together and defend justice for the weak and needy."

Isaiah
Ramblings on Isaiah 58, the Sabbath, and Edward J. Young "I was consulting Young’s commentary because I had a question: Was Isaiah 58 saying that the Israelites should help the poor while they are fasting from food, or that they should help the poor instead of fasting?  What does it mean to call helping the poor a “fast”?  Is the author here saying that helping the poor will accomplish what the Israelites are looking to fasting to do: to get God’s attention so that Israel will be blessed?"

LXX
An Increasing Awareness of Resurrection Theology in the LXX  "I wanted to draw attention to a few passages in the Septuagint which actually alter the Hebrew text into a more ‘resurrection themed’ theology."

The Septuagint Sessions #6 – A Problem with the Apocrypha "In this podcast, I wanted to talk about a problem in research on the LXX that stems from a canonical bias."

The Gospel of Matthew
The Politics of Biblical Genealogies  "...despite scholarly attention tending to focus on the unusual inclusion of the four female names in the genealogy, there are also strong echoes of sociopolitical displacement within the text. This is evident both from the repeated emphasis on the Babylonian exile, but also by the simple (but original as far as I am aware) observation that of the forty or so names in the genealogy, at least fifteen can be explicitly linked to episodes of forced displacement, wandering, and political instability in the Old Testament."

Was Jesus Employed? "The assumption that Jesus himself wasn’t overly affected by the economic and political turmoil in ancient Galilee is surprisingly common. And even though scholars devote considerable attention to exploring this ancient context, Jesus still seems able to move about and make economic decisions with relative ease. This, I would contend, reflects more about capitalist middle-class assumptions of individual entrepreneurship and full employment, than it does the marginalizing reality of itinerancy  or underemployment in the ancient world."

Jesus as Teacher of Happiness  "The ever-impressive Luke Timothy Johnson explores Matthew's portrait of Jesus as teacher in this lecture. LTJ sets Jesus' view of happiness in conversation with other ancient philosophers."

John the Baptist Evoking the Sodom and Gomorrah Memory I find the kerygma of John the Baptist to be rather interesting. He is in the same region at the Sodom and Gomorrah incident. He preaches repentance and the coming wrath which will, coincidentally, involve a judgment with fire, just like the fires of judgment mentioned in Genesis 19. John tells his audience that they should not presume that their relationship to Abraham would grant them immunity in the coming judgment, as it did with Lot. No, they should produce fruit worthy of repentance.

The Gospel of Mark
The First Century' Gospel of Mark, Josh McDowell, and Mummy Masks: What They All Have in Common  “And you start pulling it apart. You say, “What?” Yep! They’re layered on top of each other. You start pulling them apart. Most scholars have never touched a manuscript. You have to have gloves on and everything…we just wash them and hold them in our hands. [Laughing] We don’t even make you wash your hands before.”

Apparently this is very funny to McDowell.

Jesus as the Primary Actor "I suggest Jesus believes God has abandoned Israel and therefore acts to take within himself the chaos of a God-abandoned cosmos. I arrive at this conclusion by reading the narrative of Jesus through the lens of the Roman poet Lucan and his work, Pharsalia — focusing especially on his characterization of Cato the Younger. What emerges is an image not of a sacrifice whereby Jesus was a willing victim of God, but a “divine man” and “hero” who freely chooses to die in order to save an Israel abandoned by God."

Was the Ending of Mark’s Gospel Lost?  "NT Pod 71 discusses the ending of Mark's Gospel. It is just under fifteen minutes long."

Mark’s Ending "Can we really say that everyone throughout church history has found Mark's short ending a problem?  I don't think so."

Gospel of Luke

Jesus, Clobber Texts and the Centurion’s ‘Companion’ "It’s not unusual for words to have such very different meanings. Think of the many ways we use the word 'companion.' Strictly speaking, it just means someone with whom one travels or with whom one spends a lot of time. It’s thus a common term for personal assistants — people in an economic relationship with an employer who would, in a more class-candid culture, be referred to as 'servants.' So we might say, for instance, that 'Adrian Monk arrived at the crime scene accompanied by his companion, Natalie Teeger,' and it would be a mistake to infer anything more intimate or romantic implied by the term."

Rossano Gospels: The Good Samaritan "The Rossano Gospels depict two parables: the Good Samaritan and the Wise and Foolish Virgins. The depiction of the Good Samaritan is placed in the cycle of pictures that depict the Passion of Jesus—between Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane and healing of two blind men on one side and Jesus’ trial before Pilate on the other. Its placement in the cycle indicates its connection to the death of Jesus, spiritual conversion (symbolized by the healing of the blind), and redemption (through the Passion of Jesus)."

Jens Schröter on the Need to Assess the Historical Value of Acts on Multiple Levels  "…this will be the first of three posts that focus more specifically on Jens Schröter’s perspectives on the historical value of Acts in From Jesus to the New Testament, which will presumably inform his forthcoming HNT commentary on Acts."

Gospel of John
The Pericope Adulterae Conference "Why am I telling you all this?  Well, in my original argument in my 2009 book, I described the katagrapho/grapho reading as the "majority" reading several times.  I was wrong on this point (I was soon to find out), and for my life I cannot remember what made me think this was the case."

Against Theodicy "But the problem is that to even try to answer the question of theodicy is, it seems to me, to take the Gospel backwards."

Historical Jesus
Questioning a Common Assumption "Why should this be taken as some kind of threat to the theological legitimacy of traditional Christian faith?  Why should the clever Deist tactic of the 18th century continue to be treated as a self-evident truth and the basis for apologists and critics of Christian faith in their continuing wrangles and debates?  The fundamental theological basis given in the NT for treating Jesus in the “high” terms advocated is a theo-centric one:  God’s actions form the basis of the responding christological claims and devotional practices.  Considering this might be a really helpful move for all sides in any theological debate."

Sending Language and the Origins of Jesus "Too often interpreters of the Bible read the various statements which depict Jesus as having been “sent from God” with such wooden literalness. They assume that, since God is in heaven and Jesus was on earth, then Jesus must have literally descended from the location of the one who sent him (heaven). I contend that the language of sending needs to first be placed into its wider context before making an assessment of its meaning in regard to Jesus and his place of origin." 

Did Jesus Identify with the Poor or Was He Poor? "Within New Testament scholarship, Jesus’ experience of poverty and homelessness is often presented as a lifestyle choice; i.e. he wasn’t actually poor, but he readily chose to identify with the destitute and downtrodden in his society as part of his God-ordained mission. This is an assumption that easily takes root within the middle-class mindsets of most biblical scholars who themselves are not usually poor, but recognize the importance of helping those less fortunate. The assumption is then read back into the biblical text. Jesus is in some sense regarded as separate from and economically superior to those among him and to whom he ministers."

From Jesus’ Parables to Parables of God with John Dominic Crossan "We will discuss the last 30 years of historical Jesus research, its role in the academy, the growing audience in the public square, changes in the church and his two most recent books The Power of Parable & The Greatest Prayer."

Acts of the Apostles
The Politics of an Unknown God "Paul’s message at the Areopagus received a lukewarm response. His declaration of a God who lays claim to us in Jesus Christ—his revealed and appointed agent of blessing and judgment—cut entirely against the grain of speculative and superstitious religion. The listless Athenian preoccupation with hearing something new was answered with a demand for absolute commitment. The darkness of superstition was scattered by the dazzling light of divine revelation. The council desiring to cast judgment on a new religion found itself called to account before the bar of heaven. It is this same message that we are called to declare to the powers of our own age."

Mars Hill Mistake?  "Yesterday in Sunday school, someone suggested that Paul in Athens, as described in Acts 17, had tried to reach people by adapting his message to his audience, and being philosophical and rational in his approach. The result, the person claimed, was disappointingly ineffective, and so Paul never did it again."

Revelation
Apocalypse When? New Documentary Examines Failed Prophet Harold Camping "

Three years ago today (May 21), radio evangelist Harold Camping and his followers awaited the end of the world. It didn’t come that day, or in October as part of a revised doomsday timeline, and Camping died last December at age 92." 

Jürgen Moltmann on the Gnostic Escapism in Left Behind "Moltmann’s eschatology focuses on the Christian hope of resurrection not on speculative theories that piece together various biblical passages into a timeline of the future."

Patristics / Gnostics / Talmud
The Problem of Evangelicals in and with Patristics "Evangelicals value the Bible, and get trained in the Historical Critical method, and then at their worse think that Patristics is negligible because they were all bad exegetes who got their Doctrine wrong. Furthermore, they are prone to hear the unfortunate apologetic claims of Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox churches saying "these are our Fathers" which makes Evangelicals suspicious, and see church Fathers as dangerous/other/possibly a temptation to depart from Evangelicalism..."

St. Hippolytus’ Careers Christians Should Never Have  "The Apostolic Tradition, a third-century text attributed to St. Hippolytus of Rome, has its own list of unacceptable careers for prospective candidates for baptism. While a few—prostitute, brothel keeper, and garment trimmer—seem unlikely to feature in anyone’s second-grade “what I want to be when I grow up” masterpiece, there are other professions forbidden by church fathers that are routinely glamorized by the secular media."

Rethinking Gnostic Intellectuals? Categories as Weapons and History as Construct "The question of whether the so-called Gnostics are intellectuals is a wonderful case study. Here we have a noted scholar of early Christianity aligning his “facts” along conflicting classification lines with what seems like a very modern apologetic subtext."

“Gnosticism” and Religious Rivalry in Early Christianity (part 1) "This week on the Inquisitive Minds Podcast, we will examine how scholars explain "Gnosticism" and the related idea of "Gnosis" (knowledge or insight). If Gnosticism is not a viable category as some scholars argue, should we not simply drop the expression? Is there any evidence of Gnosticism at the the turn of the first century CE or prior to that time period? Which ancient religious texts can be considered as Gnostic? How was Gnosis understood by philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle?"

  

Did Christianity Influence the Development of the Talmud?

News
Defeating Satan at Harvard "The reason Satan is so dangerous is not because Satan is a mythical figure with horns and a pitch-fork. Satan is so dangerous because Satan represents an anthropological reality. Satan has no independent existence outside of humanity. Humans provide oxygen for Satan’s survival whenever we accuse others and exclude them from our community. Following Girard’s use of Satan’s titles, Satan is the anthropological principle that 'tempts' us to unite in 'accusation' against a scapegoat, or a common enemy. Satan is the 'prince of this world' and the 'prince of darkness' because the world runs on accusations. Whenever we experience accusations against us, we respond with accusations of our own. This leads us down a dark path of mimicking verbal and physical violence against one another."

NRB Forces Out WaterBrook Multnomah Publishers Over Sister Imprint's 'Gay Christian' Book  "I believe that Multnomah is in serious danger of crashing its brand in terms of evangelical trust…I am quite certain that a host of evangelical authors share this deep concern."

Pope, Netanyahu Spar Over Jesus' Native Language  "'Jesus was here, in this land. He spoke Hebrew,' Netanyahu told Francis, at a public meeting in Jerusalem in which the Israeli leader cited a strong connection between Judaism and Christianity."

Mitri Raheb Interview on the Pope’s Visit to the Holy Land 

In Remembrance: Maya Angelou "My fruitless effort to hold back tears was proven vain as I made my way into the bowels of a D.C. Metro station — tears streaming. I felt silly."

Megachurch Methods: Pastor Fired Because He Wouldn’t Sign Non-Compete Clause  "This is essentially a non-compete clause but one which Poirier rejected. I call it a non-compete clause because Mars Hill appears to view churches within a ten mile radius as a competing church."

Nicea III in 2025?  "We agreed to leave as a legacy to ourselves and our successors a gathering in Nicaea in 2025, to celebrate together, after 17 centuries, the first truly ecumenical synod, where the Creed was first promulgated."

Book Reviews
What is Relational Theology? "It is a theology that emphasizes God‘s interaction with humanity and creation, as well as the Creator’s capacity to be affected by the creation. In this theology, the passage, “God is love,” is invoked repeatedly.  Nothing is predetermined or foreordained in this perspective, and both the divine and humanity have more or less, libertarian free will, but for the sake of community."

Bart Ehrman’s – How Jesus Became God: Introduction "I've decided to walk through Ehrman's book as well. I'm also working through Bird's response book, but I don't want to compare the two books. I want to read through Ehrman's book as if I were a "none" who is not particularly interested in religion or as if I were a Christian who has never encountered ideas like Ehrman's before. My goal is thus not to write an apologetics piece like Bird but more to play the role of a consultant of sorts, thinking through it with the person for whom these are pretty much new ideas."

An Interview about my Agnosticism

The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions "Anyone familiar with Second Temple and New Testament studies will probably be aware of the proliferation of traditions associated with angels that were floating about. This collection of essays probes into the traditions associated with the fallen angels that arose from Gen. 6:1-4. These traditions elaborate upon this passage of Scripture by detailing what the angels (the “Sons of God” in Genesis 6, later to be called the “Watchers” in 1 Enoch) actually did, who they were, what resulted from their actions, and what their punishment was."

Early Arabic Contributions to Trinitarian Theology "It looks at the way Qur'anic concepts of "Word" and "Spirit" were used to explain the unity of the triune God. The later chapters explore theories of divine attributes, predication, and analogy. The book focuses especially on the strategic use of Aristotelian concepts, since Aristotelian philosophy was a shared authority among Christians and Muslims. Another major theme is the delicate way these Arabic Christians utilised scripture in their arguments, at times restricting themselves to those parts of scripture that Islamic teaching did not view as corrupted."

Review of God and the Gay Christian "It is written by a conservative Christian who is gay. It accepts the authority of Scripture. And it makes a convincing case within that framework that what the Bible says does not provide a basis for disapproving of same-sex marriage. Although Vines is not a scholar, by drawing on scholarship and carefully investigating the subject, he comes up with interpretations of the relevant Biblical texts, against the backdrop of their cultural setting, that are thoroughly persuasive."

Archaeology and Antiquities
Barabbas and the Crucified "One also needs to consider the possibility of borrowing from or interference between a historical story about a Hasmonean who is crucified and denied honorable burial and subsequently given a burial in a borrowed grave, and the story of something similar happening to Jesus. But it is also possible that this sort of thing happened more than once, and that it would not have been unexpected for Jesus’ followers to have sought to recover his remains and give them a proper burial with the honor they felt he deserved."

The Brephos Papyrus: Fetal Assault "So how do we make sense of this? Obviously, if you are trying to hurt someone, throwing a fetus at them probably won’t do too much harm. Instead, scholars agree that what we have here is a case of a fetus being used as part of a magical spell."

2 Baruch and 4 Ezra – Another Syriac Lectionary Manuscript "Today I have some real news for those of you who are fans of 2 Baruch and 4 Ezra: Lections from 2 Baruch and 4 Ezra have been identified in yet another, hitherto unpublished, Syriac lectionary manuscript."

Creating Replicas of Biblical Artifacts: An Interview with ‘Biblical Reproductions’  "All of us have had, these past few years, our attention drawn to numerous artifacts purporting to be ancient and so it has set me to wondering about the legitimate business of creating replicas of ancient stuff.  I contacted the nice folk at Biblical Reproductions up in Canada and they have been kind enough to ‘sit down’ for an interview."

  

Ever Thought about Plastering the Skulls of your Dead Loved Ones? "The funerary practices witnessed here may at first appear to be very different from our own experiences. One example of this is the plastering of skulls. The dead would initially be buried beneath house floors. But then the skull (or cranium) would be retrieved some time later, once the head had skeletonised and no flesh remained. Then, a face would then be skillfully built on the skull, using mud, lime or gypsum plasters."

Aren Maier – New Light on the Philistines 

Endangered Archives Program Opens up Priceless Palestinian Heritage "As with the al-Aqsa collections, the urgent need to preserve the documents highlights the threat posed by Israeli aggression and neglect to Palestinian heritage. The Akka manuscripts, according to the EAP, 'provide a unique insight into centuries of Arabic culture in Palestine,' and conserving the collection has become a pressing need due to 'periods of political unrest, and more recently through vandalism and theft.'"

Temples and Temple Builders at Early Bronze Age Megiddo "Tel Megiddo lies in the heart of the Jezreel Valley, at the hub of international roads between Egypt and Syria. Its local importance in all periods of the Bronze and Iron Ages cannot be understated but while major excavations have taken place at well-known sites like Megiddo, Jezreel, and Taanach, the valley itself has received little archaeological and historical attention. The Jezreel Valley Regional Project (JVRP) is designed to focus attention at the regional level through long-term, multi-disciplinary survey and excavation."

Khirbet et-Tannur: A New Approach  "The Nabatean people were lost in the sands of the desert for centuries only to recently be lost in the pages of books.  This fascinating and important culture existed in the ancient Near East, stretching from Arabia, across Jordan, and into the Negev and the Sinai.  They were skillful merchants and vital to the spice trade. They are best known for their architecture; specifically the cliff side carved building of Petra."

Fort Found Was Home Quarters to Roman Infantry Unit Wielded To Vanquish the Jews  “Four years after starting to dig up an ancient Roman outpost in southern Jordan, a team of archaeologists from Tennessee found a unique, and well-preserved, inscription on a rock - revealing that the site is the previously unknown base of a Roman infantry unit involved in crushing the Bar-Kochba rebellion.”

Theology  

Is Kyrios Christology a High Christology? "I suggest that we have better evidence (if you want to try and dig down to “earliest” layers) for what I call a Kyrios Christology – where Jesus is associated with the identity of Yahweh himself in some special way (hence “Jesus is Kyrios” and maranatha appear to be earliest creedal/liturgical statements). If this is true, then Jesus could not have been viewed as a man exalted after his death to divinity, because Yahweh would not want to share his own title (Kyrios) with an exalted man."

How High is Kyrios Christology? "And so the New Testament kyrios Christology is indeed rightly called a 'high' Christology. It has a human being exalted to a status second only to God himself, and having bestowed upon him the very name of God, enabling him to exercise rule over all things on God’s behalf. Calling such a Christology 'low' would be inaccurate. But so too would be claiming that these texts depict Jesus as sharing in the divine 'nature.'"

  

El Shaddai and the Gender of God "But I wanted to add another element to the debate because, as far as I know, no one has considered it: the possibility of a feminine name for God in the Hebrew Bible." 

Art

What Would Characters from the Bible Have Looked Like? "Lewis' "Icons Of The Bible" photo series depicts some of the most famous characters from the Old and New Testament exclusively as people of color, including Simon Peter, Elijah, King Solomon and the archangel Gabriel. The series, which will be fully released in October, features 70 models who identify as either Asian, Native American, Hispanic, African, Middle Eastern, Black American and West Indian."

The Beauty of Ottoman Palestine, Lovingly Explored and Documented "In the basement of a house on the Mount of Olives is a collection of 100-year-old photographs of Ottoman Palestine — published here for the first time — that document the people, sites and lifestyle of Palestine in the twilight years of Turkish rule."

Whatever is Leftover

Animals and Religion "Did you know that animals engage in what appears to be ritualistic behaviors which appear to show some awareness of the luminous, if not the spiritual? It’s true. In particular, a variety of animals have death rituals." 

The Danger and Beauty of Acculturation "That's right: Jesus is a wizard."

Top 10 Strangest Miracles of the Middle Ages "While most miracles were typical stories of healing or assistance, there were many unusual ones as well. Here is our list of the top 10 strangest miracles of the Middle Ages."

Why Your Miracles Aren’t Really Miracles

40 Maps that Explain the Middle East "Maps can be a powerful tool for understanding the world, particularly the Middle East, a place in many ways shaped by changing political borders and demographics. Here are 40 maps crucial for understanding the Middle East — its history, its present, and some of the most important stories in the region today."

Recommended Summer Reading “I work at the James P. Boyce Centennial Library, and the staff there are putting together a suggested summer reading list for students. Here are the books related to biblical studies I suggested, in no particular order.”

You may also like to check out Jim West's Avignon Carnival (all Twitter edition).


And just to repeat, here at the end of the carnival, next month's carnival will be hosted by Phil Long at his blog Reading Acts.  You'll want to check it out, I'm sure.  And if you're interested in hosting the carnival at your blog please (PLEASE!) contact Phil.  He is "semi-desperate..for volunteers for the rest of the year."

A Limerick for Mark Driscoll

Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill will insist
anyone who questions him be dismissed;
sign the non-compete clause
(it’s in the church by-laws)
or you’ll end up on Driscoll’s black list. 

Powerpoint Slides for Everyone - 2014 - Week 23

Here it is again.  This week's free background image.  I use them for the Powerpoint slides in our church services and programs - but you are free to use it however and wherever you like. Use it how you will - I only ask that you share it freely and that you tell others that you found it here.

For those who are interested in such details, the stained glass window in this picture is located in the chapel of the First Presbyterian church in Newton, Iowa.

The Wrong Blood

We had no special recognition of Memorial Day during our church service this morning.  We did not make mention of those fallen soldiers who died in battle.  We did not sing patriotic songs.  We did not pledge allegiance to the flag.  We did none of these things because they do not belong in a Christian worship service.

These things do not belong in a Christian worship service because they honor and attribute power (wonder working power) to the wrong blood.  It is not the blood of fallen soldiers that makes us free.

Only the blood of the Lamb should be celebrated in a Christian chapel. 

Keep Your Head

This sign is posted above a very low doorway (I had to bend at the waist and the knees to pass through) leading into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.



























I think it's pretty good advice for those entering the church, both in the physical realm of bruises and concussions - and in the spiritual realm of fanaticism and willful ignorance.

Other photos I took at the Holy Sepulchre can be seen here (Light Into Darkness), and here (Inside the Holy Sepulchre) , and here (Grafitti and Prayers).

Light Into the Darkness

After returning from Israel I've got a lot of photos to work through.  Here's one that I especially like.  It was taken inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by Jeff Carter on 500px

May 2013 Biblioblog Carnival

Welcome, welcome, one and all, to the greatest show on earth, the traveling Biblioblog Carnival - a round-up of the month's most exciting, stimulating, scintillating, thought provoking articles and blog posts in the wide, wide field of biblical studies.  We guarantee that even if you were to search the world over, high and low, you wouldn't find anything like it - not until next month.  Rest assured, you'll get your money's worth.  This is, to steal a line, the greatest show in heaven, hell or earth.

Come inside the show's about to start...  Like most carnivals, it may prove that there's too much to see in one visit.  Whether it's because we're unable to discriminate or because there was just a lot of good material this month, we leave it to you to decide.  We encourage you to return again and again.  And invite a friend.

Old Testament
Genesis:
Rod the Demon Hunter at Political Jesus  - And now we have Appleby Baptist Church in Nacogdoches, Texas as a church that publicly admits to teaching the racist Curse of Ham theory.

Joel Watts at Unsettled Christianity – Science Proves the Tower of Babel (sorta) 

Fred Clark the Slactivist – “The Sodom and Gomorrah story may be the biblical passage most frequently cited against homosexuality, it may also be the least relevant, because it’s not clear it has much to do with homosexuality at all.”

Matt Page at the Bible Films Blog - Ishmael's appearances tend to be bland unimaginative and, as in the text, he is very much a character who is acted upon, little more than a moving prop.

Deuteronomy: 

Morf Morford at God’s Politics -   There should be no poor among you - Deuteronomy 15:4  This is one of the few commands virtually all religious people easily – even eagerly – follow.  We just do it our own way.

Joshua:

Richard Beck at Experimental Theology -  Yes, you read the right. This is a post about how to read the cherem texts non-violently.

James Pate at James’ Thoughts and Musings- Who Wrote Joshua 22?

Judges:
Jack Collins at Worthless Mysteries – Poop (in the biblical sense pt. 1) 

Kings:
Richard Beck at Experimental Theology - One of the interesting tensions in the Old Testament are the mixed messages you get about kings. Are kings good or bad? At times the Old Testament reads like monarchist propaganda. At others times the OT reads like subversive, anti-monarchist literature.

Bible Study and the Christian Life -  In this inaugural episode of the Bible Study and the Christian Life podcast on the Book of Kings, we discuss the backstory of the Book of Kings. We focus on offering an overview of the Book of Samuel, the book that immediately precedes the Book of Kings in the Bible.

Psalms:  

Bob MacDonald at Dust - What is the Psalter About? 

  

Ecclesiastes:
Larisa Levicheva at Biblical and Early Christian Studies –  Qoheleth sees the experience of pleasure as the only one available to human beings. The constraints of human knowledge and the lack of control over the activities in this world make material gain illusory and transient.

Jeremiah:

Richard Beck at Experimental Theology - In light of this, I've taken up hissing as a part of my practice in resisting the Principalities and Powers. I'm now hissing in meetings, in stores, in political discussions.  True, it's all a bit distracting to co-workers, friends and family, but spiritual warfare is spiritual warfare.

Jonah:

St. Eutychus – A Modern Day Jonah 

Torah: 

BBC News - The University of Bologna in Italy has found what it says may be the oldest complete scroll of Judaism's most important text, the Torah.

Other ANE:

Mike Heiser at PaleoBabble - shares a handy .pdf chart to help you keep your Mesopotamian deities straight.

Intertestament

Scott McKnight at Jesus Creed - How is manliness understood today? Why is there so much appeal in the men’s sector for resonance with the manliness vision of Alexander the Great?

Lawrence H. Schiffman - [W]e consider examples drawn from the Dead Sea Scrolls, in particular the sectarian scrolls regarded as representing the views of the sect that gathered the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran. We will see here that true rationales for commandments are for the most part lacking.

Phil Harland at Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean – Enoch: Fallen Angels in Early Apocalypticism  

Matt Page at the Bible Films Blog – Judith however has passed out of fashion, despite being the subject of what could arguably be called the first real Biblical Epic.

Tablet - A small, ancient sect known as the Samaritans rely on the Torah, and the Torah alone, as their sole religious text—and the Samaritans use a somewhat different version. Two weeks ago, the first English translation of this Hebrew text was published by Samaritan historian and scholar Binyamin Tsedaka: The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah. There are some 6,000 instances where this version of the Torah differs from the Masoretic text; the question for scholars is which version is more complete, or more accurate

New Testament              

Matthew:
Scott McKnight at Jesus Creed - Do you think empire criticism reads too much into the text and not enough out of the text? Is there anything in Matthew that is overtly critical of Rome?

Mark:  

Joel Watts at Unsettled Christianity - Are we wrong, then, in reading Mark as a simplistic historical narrative of the life of Jesus? Hardly, but we aren't fully reading it with the ears of the first audience. We have replaced the aperte with our need for palam and that prevents any serious investigation into the Gospel.

The Charleston Gazette - According to Watts, Mark did not want to chronicle a perfectly accurate historical narrative, but instead to rewrite history using the literary techniques, namely mimesis, available at the time.

UMJeremy at Hacking Christianity - It’s not always nice to nitpick, but when it comes to the Bible, I feel a certain obligation. After all, my schooling was in the Bible, I use the Bible every day, so if not a resident theologian like myself, who will do the nitpicking?  My nitpick addresses the release of the Common English Bible’s Study Bible.

John:

Jan Krans at the Amsterdam NT Weblog -It is the most striking example of diverging verse numbers in the New Testament…

Michael Kok at Euangelion Kata Markon -Handout 3: John and the Synoptics 

Tony Jones at Theoblogy - In the Gospel of John, Jesus makes many confident self-proclamations (conservative Evangelical’s favorite verses which seemingly demonstrate the exclusivity of Jesus). Now, I’m sure that claiming to be God in 1st century Judaism is a really big deal; however, how is it that none of these self-proclamations make it into any of the synoptic gospels? Is it possible that Jesus never made these self-proclamations? If not, how does this affect our understanding of Trinitarian theology in the gospel accounts?

Paul:
John Barclay’s lecture, at St. Mary's University College “Paul and the Gift: Gift-Theory, Grace and Critical Issues in the Interpretation of Paul,”  with introduction by Chris Keith 

Romans:

James McGrath at Exploring our Matrix - Romans in Three Hours

James McGrath has also begun a paraphrased retelling of Romans: We know that what the Bible says, it says to and about the people who have the Bible, so that mouths may be shut and the whole world rendered accountable to God. For it is not on the basis of Christian badges of identity, or mere possession of the Bible, that all humankind shall be acquitted before God. The Bible should rather be making us aware of just how far short we fall.

Michael F. Bird at Euangelion –We know from Rom 16:1-2 that a deaconess named Phoebe carried Paul’s letter to the Roman churches. However, what was her role in undertaking such a task? Did she just hand on the letter like a FedEx delivery lady, did she read the letter to them, did she answer questions about the letter, or did she even expound the letter?

Jeff Dun at the Internet Monk - For someone who lived 3,000,000 years ago, or 6,000 years ago, or never, Adam sure is stirring up a lot of dust. Of course, that’s what he was made of, if he was made at all.

Hebrews: 

James McGrath at Exploring our Matrix -  To say that Jesus was tempted in every way that other human beings are seems incompatible with the view that Jesus was an omniscient divine entity. Can one know all the possible negative impacts of one’s actions and still be tempted in the same way we are, when we can deceive ourselves and persuade ourselves that no harm will come of it if we give in to temptation?

James:
James Tabor at Taborblog - James is not merely a figure we need to “add” to our emphasis on Peter and Paul in Christian tradition–he is, quite literally, the missing piece of the puzzle in terms of understanding Christian origins.

Revelation:
Kurt Willems at Red Letter Christians -I want to suggest that most of what you have been taught about Revelation, especially if you watched the cheesy Christian movies or grew up in conservative/fundamentalist expressions of evangelicalism, is wrong.

New Testament Perspectives -  Craig R. Koester, professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., recently gave the 2013 Schaff Lectures (March 22, 2013 at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary) entitled: “The Apocalypse, Archaeology, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.”  Here are the videos from that session.

 


Don Burrows at Note Bene – But in a parenthetical argument in his last chapter, Ehrman also dismisses the notion that these works can be considered "fiction,"and here I have to disagree.

Glen Stanton at The Gospel Coalition – Does Abba mean Daddy?  

  

Scott McKnight at Jesus Creed - Should we call anyone “Pharisee”? Be careful, that’s my rule. Think historically, my second rule.

Phillip Jenkins at The Anxious Bench - I have been posting recently about the survival of the so-called lost gospels into the Middle Ages and beyond. When scholars discuss these texts, they pay special attention to the so-called Jewish-Christian gospels as precious survivals of the earliest Jesus movement. Actually, this Jewish-Christian tradition can also tell us a great deal about how we got our present standard texts of the canonical four gospels.

Don Burrows at Note Bene  - Religious freedom is under attack in America -- or so says the right-wing echo chamber, where such a sentiment is not only repeated daily but taken for granted as reality. Christians and Christianity are being "frozen out" of America and good followers of Jesus are being "persecuted" roundly in America today for their religious beliefs just like they were in ancient Rome.  ... Of course, this is all fantasy…

Historical Jesus: 

James McGrath at Exploring our Matrix - Unless one can demonstrate that [Hercules] Alcaeus was not a historical figure, then showing Jesus to be comparable to him would lead to agnosticism about Jesus’ historicity, and not mythicism.

Tom Verenna - That, to me, is very telling of the state of usefulness of fabrications; that is to say, they are just as useful as the real thing.

James Tabor at Taborblog – The idea seems to be that “secular historians” prejudge evidence and are accordingly biased in that they will not allow even the possibility of the miraculous as part of ones historical inquiry. If historians ask the questions: what do we know and how do we know it–how is it that we claim to “know” from the start that miracles do not happen and that supernatural explanations for various developments are to be rejected?

James McGrath at Exploring our Matrix - Was Jesus a Seditionist? 

Chris Glaser -  If the biblical witness is to be trusted, we know Jesus could read, because he read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah in his home synagogue in Nazareth. And we know Jesus could write, because he “bent down and wrote on the ground” when a woman accused of adultery was about to be stoned. ...  But why didn't he write down all his thoughts and parables on a scroll somewhere, and put the Jesus Seminar out of business? Here are a few possibilities...

Anthony LeDonne at The Jesus Blog – What Would Jesus Do on Mother’s Day?  

Joel Willitts at Euangelion – What do we mean when we label something “historical”? Is there one blanket, one size fits all, way to think about the historicity of the events in the Gospels?

This month we have been saddened by the loss of some of the greats - Geza Vermes and Dallas Willard.  Many wrote of their appreciation for the work of these wonderful men.

Mark Goodacre shares several videos of Geza Vermes.

T & T Clark Blog - Vermes underlined the ‘Jewishness’ of Jesus in a unique way, which would shift scholarship forever

James Crossley at Sheffield Biblical Studies - There are a number of online recollections of Geza Vermes, all of which, as far as I can see, recognise his importance as a scholar of early Judaism and the New Testament, particularly the quest for the historical Jesus. I want to look at his importance for New Testament studies, with the qualification that this aspect of Vermes’ career was, of course, part of Vermes’ Jewish studies.

Tony Jones at Theoblogy - shares several stories of personal interactions with Dallas Willard.

J.K. Gayle at BLT - His [Willard's] last words were, "Thank you."  

More tributes to Geza Vermes and Dallas Willard can be found here and at the Economist and also here.

And though he wasn't a theologian proper, we also are saddened by the passing of special effects genius, Ray Harryhausen.

John Moreheaed at Theofantastique - Harryhausen’s collection of creatures — singlehandedly and painstakingly stop-motion animated by the man himself — exhibited a wondrous sense of life, and convinced many of us that, with dedication and love, almost anything that could be dreamed of could be realized on the screen.

First - Second Centuries / Patristics / Mandaean:

Scott McKnight at Jesus Creed  – We have to fill in the lines but there appears to be a fairly common 1st Century slippery slope: If you compromise on this one, you’ll end up inviting the likes of Antiochus Epiphanes back into Jerusalem.

Rod the Demon Hunter at Political Jesus - has a Patristics carnival of his very own (even if it is very, very, very, very late.) 

Gabe Martini at On Behalf of All -  Does the evidence put forth by Pr Wedgeworth demonstrate that there has always been an equal opposition to icons and their veneration within the Orthodox-Catholic Church? Is that evidence being properly represented and understood? Were they isolated voices, or part of a large opposition to icons in the history of the Church?

Charles A. Sullivan - Did the Montanist’s speak in tongues, and is this the historical antecedent for tongues in the Church today? Two scholars take opposite conclusions.

Hieroi Logoi - Online Resources for the Mandaeans

Theology:

Ken Schenck at Quadrilateral Thoughts - What is Theology? 

Edith M. Humphrey at Baker Academic Blog-  In Scripture and Tradition: What the Bible Really Says, I am not aiming to say everything that can be said about tradition. Rather, I train my gaze on what the biblical writers both model and state explicitly regarding our topic.

T.M. Luhrmann at The New York Times - Is That God Talking? 

C Michael Patton at the Parchment and Pen Blog - Is Bad Doctrine Sin? - 

Andrew Perriman at P.OST - Some Rough and Ready "Rules" for Doing a Narrative-Historical Reading of the New Testament  

Scott McKnight at Jesus Creed - All theology, in the sense of orthodoxy or dogmatics or systematics, is a process. It’s an experimental expression to put into words what one thinks the Bible teaches in words that make sense in a new context. This also means no articulation is infallible or absolute or final. Which is not to say theology isn’t true, but it’s not final truth.

Catholic News Service - Pope Francis, the Jesuits, and Liberation Theology - 

Apologetics:

Rod the Demon Hunter at Political Jesus - Let’s be honest, I have an apathy for so called Christian apologists and Bull-Horn evangelists who want to monologue at everyone they meet.

Translation: 

Abramkj at Words on the Word - How literal should a Bible translation be? What makes a translation of the Scriptures faithful and accurate? What is the significance of the original form and the original meaning?

Ecclesiology  /Liturgy / Worship:
Tony Jones at Theoblogy- …titles are not about leadership, they are about power. Get rid of them…

The Daily Mail - Romanian Nuns Celebrate Easter among the skulls of their dead sisters - 

Paul Jesep at Faith with Wisdom - As a sojourner I have developed an appreciation, perhaps a need, for utilizing both the Julian and Gregorian liturgical calendars.  I find it an opportunity to further explore spirituality from what John Paul II described as Christendom’s left and right lungs (the Roman and Orthodox Churches).  It better oxygenates my soul.  It gives me pause to think in different ways about Christ’s two greatest commandments – to love God with heart and soul and to love one another as Jesus unconditionally loves us.

Timothy Larson at Faith and Leadership- The present is a very thin place. This moment in history is the best in which to live -- I believe this with all my mind and heart. But it is the best time in which to live precisely because we have the riches of the past to hand: the thoughts, works of art, discoveries and accomplishments of previous generations are ours to enjoy. And their mistakes, blind spots and sinful patterns are there for us to learn from. To reject those riches is to turn the present into an impoverished place.

Carol Trueman at First Things - The problem with much Christian worship in the contemporary world, Catholic and Protestant alike, is not that it is too entertaining but that it is not entertaining enough. Worship characterized by upbeat rock music, stand-up comedy, beautiful people taking center stage, and a certain amount of Hallmark Channel sentimentality neglects one classic form of entertainment, the one that tells us, to quote the Book of Common Prayer, that “in the midst of life we are in death.”

Episcopal Café – Hymnals are more like telephones than automobile tires. Tires wear out visibly and require replacing. Telephones, on the other hand, seldom wear out, yet still get replaced when updated models offer new features attractive enough to warrant the change.

Calvin Institute of Christian Worship  -10 Reasons Hymnals have a Future 

Joel Watts at Unsettled Christianity – Review of Baker Academic’s: Liturgy as a Way of Life 

Danielle Shroyer at The Hardest Question - Pentecost is a radically important day. It’s the rightful conclusion to the story of resurrection. The dismantling that begins in Holy Week isn’t completed until Pentecost.

Dwight Stewart at Jesus Radicals - Socio-political Change in light of the Pentecostal Experience

John Frye at Jesus Creed - We should not be surprised how the soterian gospel has reshaped US American evangelical preaching in view of that gospel’s long run. Thousands of individuals, saved on the skimpiest of information shaped to elicit a punctiliar decision, filled the church as uninformed converts. The robust kingdom of God gospel announcement (kerygma) has been replaced by Bible-based moralisms backed-up with catchy illustrations to teach Christians “how to” live.

Paul Jesep at Faith with Widom - Death comes with much ritual, ceremony, and a huge industry embalming bodies, cremating remains, and burying the departed in crypts, tombs, and sealed artificial boxes in the ground.  In many ways, the death industry does not make sense.

The Huffington Post - The Church of England published a plan on Friday to approve the ordination of women bishops by 2015, a widely supported reform it just missed passing last November after two decades of divisive debate.

Tony Jones at Theoblogy - The Gospel in Two Broad Strokes: Reconciliation and Liberation.

Dr. Ben Myers at Faith and Theology - I Believe...

Archaeology:

Bible Places Blog -Jerusalem Quarry Discovered

Archaeology and Arts - “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one”. This is how researchers Armin Lange and Esther Eshel interpret the inscription found on an amulet discovered in a third-century C.E. child’s grave near the Roman frontier city Carnuntum.”

Judith Weingarten- Zenobia: Empress of the East   It was also relatively commonplace to leave your own mark on the walls -- even within a god's temple, or a synagogue, or in someone else's home that you happened to be visiting!

The Biblical World – Second Temple Door Key from Jerusalem 

Mark Goodacre at NT Weblog – How Reliable is the Story of the Nag Hammadi Discovery? 

Larry Hurdato - It shows how we use history to define ourselves, and so we have to choose what history by which to do so.  It shows also how historical things that once bore one meaning can acquire (or be given) a very different meaning, when people need to do so.  In this case, it also shows a striking instance of how archaeology played a role in profound political developments of the recent past.

-Gabriel Stone -

John Bryan at The Biblical World - So, as usual, what we have here is not a bombshell archaeological discovery, but rather another piece of evidence that helps us to better understand the world of the New Testament.

Jim West at Zwinglius Redivivus  -Scholarship has become speculationship... 

Biblical Archaeology – Download a Free Ebook copy of Gabriel’s Revelation 

Bible History Daily - What happened to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount when the Romans destroyed Herod’s Temple in 70 C.E.? There is no report of any building left on the Temple Mount by the time the Muslims erected the iconic Dome of the Rock and the gray-domed Al-Aqsa Mosque in the late seventh and early eighth centuries.

Book Reviews:

Chaplain Mike at the Internet Monk -“Ancient evangelism occurred in a setting hostile to the church and its values; it developed in the context of a clear self-understanding of the church as the eschatological people who are under the reign of God, the people who confess “Jesus is Lord.” It was evangelism with teeth, not an “easy believism” or a “cheap grace”; and it was a spiritual journey of discipleship, spiritual formation, and entrance into a new community.”

Jim West shares Michael Kruger’s review Bell’s book, therefore, is really just spiritualism with a Christian veneer. It’s a book that would fit quite well on Oprah’s list of favorite books.

The Desperate Pastor – You Lost Me

Philip Long at Reading Acts - Robert W. Wall, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus

Liberals: 
Aaron B. Franzen at Christianity Today -  A recent poll from LifeWay Research found that 89 percent of American households still own a Bible, with the average home having 4.1 Bibles. But owning a Bible is different from reading it—and pollsters might be surprised by what happens when many Americans do.

Muslims:

The Dish -It seems Islam is going through its Dark Ages, where lack of education and a confusion of tradition with religion in Muslim countries is causing their people to be manipulated by false sermons of violence against the West as some good deed when it’s a sin and a sin alone.

Huffington Post -  Muslim leaders from across the globe paid tribute to Holocaust victims this week during a visit to Auschwitz, the former Nazi concentration camp, where they prayed at the Wall of Death for those who were killed by genocide and suffered under violent anti-Semitism.

Atheist Muslims:

Ali A. Rizvi at the Huffington Post - Richard Dawkins has referred to himself as a "cultural Christian", with an admitted fondness for Christianity-inspired art, literature and Christmas carols… This is probably why he hit the nail on the head when he described me as a "cultural Muslim with no imaginary friend." He understood that this is precisely what I meant when I called myself an "atheist Muslim."

“Regular” Atheists:

St. Eutychus - Dear sir, it has come to my attention as a citizen of the internet, that your, until recently, esteemed publication has named polemicist Richard Dawkins as number one on your “world thinkers” list for this year.

Daniel Fincke at Camels With Hammers - is hosting the inaugural Atheist  Blog Carnival 

Money:

Vatican Radio – Money has to serve, not to rule.

Tornados and Theodicy:

Rachel Held Evans  - This theology is, in a word, abusive, for it blames the victim for whatever calamity, abuse, or tragedy she suffers and says it is deserved.

Tom Verena - Tackling a Storm God: A Deist’s Impression of Yahweh and the Control over Weather

Joel Watts -  Abusive Theology,Oklahoma and Us

Funnel Cake: 
You can't go to the fair without eating something deliciously unhealthy; how about some Scripture Cake?


See the Wonders of the East:

Phillip Long took a trip to Israel - thrill as he recounts the mysteries of the orient.

The Freak Show:

The circus geeks, fools and freaks.  These are the sideshow wildmen. You don't really want to see them, but, admit it, you can't look away.
Pat Robertson 
Marc Driscoll  

The Thaw 
Pat Robertson – Again
Anna Pierre, RN (and Pat Robertson again, again...)
Matthew Hagee
Marc Driscoll (again) & Pat Robertson (again, again, again)

And William Tapley, the Third Eagle of the Apocalypse and Co-Prophet of the End Times

He who cannot reveal himself cannot love. So take advantage of the warm weather to wear less makeup.
— KimKierkegaardashian (@KimKierkegaard) May 8, 2013

Kim Kierkegaardashian

Fortune Tellers, Magicians and Clowns:

Every circus carnival has a fortune teller's tent.  The biblioblog carnival doesn't disappoint.  We've got a magician too.  Abracadabra!  And clowns... send in the clowns!

Todd Rhoades – What would HONEST church marketing look like? 

This Isn't Happiness – I hear you’re writing a book on theology… I hope you have a good title

Scotteriology  -  What’s next?  The Lord redeems Lutherans?  It’s madness!

Gospel Messenger – Feed the Hungry 

Episcopal Café - Beware the Wrath of an Organist!

Scotteriology - The Seven Deadly Gifs

Christian Nightmares  - a trailer for the new End Times comedy Rapture-Palooza 

Vorjack at Unreasonable Faith – Fist of Jesus -  (must be a Gnostic text…wherein flesh is really evil…)

The risqué tent at the carnival:
We all know it's there... that one tent at the carnival.  We won't tell your wife /husband/ boyfriend/ girlfriend...

If you should need medical assistance during your visit to the fair, please visit our first-aid tent.  The nurse there will assist you.

Pastoral: 

Micah at A Deeper Story – I raised my hand when the preacher asked, “Who will commit to pray for an hour a day, every day for the rest of their life?” I raised my hand every time a preacher asked us to make a commitment, really. If there was a way to be a better Christian, I would do it. No matter the cost. I wanted so desperately to please God.

Tom Rees at Epiphenom – Religion Doesn’t  Seem to Protect Against Depression 

 Deborah Haarsma at Bio Logos - -We have all heard stories of Christian young people who have struggled with their faith because of science. What can ministry leaders do to better prepare young people as they consider science careers? How can all God’s people develop a better appreciation of God’s revelation in nature?

Whispers in the Loggia  - "Jesus is indignant when he sees these things" - said the Pope - because those who suffer are "his faithful people, the people that he loves so much"

Fred Clark at The Slactivist - The whole point of that scene — and of Strickland’s existence as a character in the movie — is that he’s wrong. He’s wrong about Marty, and he’s wrong about young people in general. Strickland is a cruel clown whose words are not intended to be taken at face value. This is made very clear in the scene above, in which Strickland is angry with Marty for entering his band in the school’s dance audition. “Why even bother, McFly?” Strickland says, “No McFly ever amounted to anything.”

Well that's it; the Carnival is over. We hope you've enjoyed your time here and that you'll return again even after the carnival has closed up and moved on.   If you haven't had enough thrills and chills  already, you can check out Jim West’s separatist and heretical Avignon Carnival – I’m sure it will be much snarkier and more exclusively focused on academic articles.

And be sure to visit the Biblioblog Carnival again next month when it will be hosted by Andrew King at The Blog of the Twelve.

Thanks, everyone,

Thatjeffcarter

One last link for the road:
Barry Taylor - That melancholy, rooted at the heart of music that emerges from dislocation, disorientation, despair, desire, is what keeps music church for me and it might just be why I struggle with the institutional expressions of church/religion. It lacks melancholy and therefore, for me, it lacks the one ingredient that makes it vital, necessary.