Why Do Christians Have an Old Testament? Another Trade Book.
A month or so ago I posted a series of blogs about the next trade book I’m hoping to write, which I’m tentatively calling “Expecting Armageddon.” As I explained then when I decide what I want to...
View ArticleIs the Old Testament a Christian Book?
Yesterday I started describing a trade book that I’m thinking about writing, tentatively called (in my head) “The Battle for the Bible.” Here is the next part of my self-reflections:...
View ArticleShould the Old Testament Even Be in the Bible?
A week or so ago I started to describe how I’m thinking of one of my future books, that I’m tentatively calling The Battle for the Bible. The book (if I write it) will be about how Christians got the...
View ArticleHow “Jews” Became “Children of the Devil” in the New Testament
I have just started getting into the meat of the book proposal I have written for myself about The Battle for the Bible, on how it is that Christians claimed that the Hebrew Scriptures belonged to them...
View ArticleThe Jewish Bible in the Gentile Churches
I continue here with my thoughts about how Christians came to claim the Jewish Bible for themselves, and to argue that it no longer belonged to Jews. I’ve already pointed out that the Jewish...
View ArticleWhy Christians Needed an Old Testament: Pagan Attacks on the Faith
In my discussion why Christians claimed the Jewish Bible for themselves (and argued it no longer belonged to Jews), I’ve been focusing strictly on the relationship of Jews and Christians, for obvious...
View ArticleWhen Christians Went on the Attack Against Jews
I return now, for a couple of posts, to my thoughts on the rise of anti-Judaism in the early Christian tradition, and my thesis that it was largely driven by a different way of reading the Bible, that...
View ArticleHeightened Opposition to Jews in Early Christianity
I have been outlining some of the issues that I may talk about in a book on the rise of anti-Judaism in early Christianity, if I write it. In previous posts I have detailed some of the uglier...
View ArticleWhy Do Christians Try to Convert People?
Why Do Christians Try to Convert People? I begin this New Year by addressing a really interesting question I received recently from a reader. It’s a question that has rarely occurred to most people....
View ArticleDid Paul Really Think “All Israel Will Be Saved”? Guest Post by Jason Staples
One of the most thorough dissertations I’ve directed in recent years was by Jason Staples, called “Reconstituting Israel: Restoration Eschatology in Early Judaism and Paul’s Gentile Mission.” It might...
View ArticleWhen Paul Says “Israel” Does He Mean “The Jews”? Guest Post by Jason Staples
Last week I posted the first of three interesting discussions by my erstwhile student Jason Staples, PhD in New Testament, currently teaching at North Carolina State University. Here is the second...
View ArticleWill “All Israel” Be Saved? Really? Guest Post by Jason Staples
Here now is the third and final post by Jason Staples connected with his dissertation and now to be published book on what Paul meant that “All Israel will be saved.” It’s a big issue. Isn’t Paul the...
View ArticleTwo More Live Lectures this Sunday!
This Sunday, April 18, I will be giving TWO live Zoom lectures for anyone who wants to come. They will be recorded for my undergraduate course on the New Testament and there will be a 30-minute Q...
View ArticleJewish Indifference to Jesus and the Problems It Caused: Platinum Guest Post...
Here now is another stimulating and learned post by Platinum member Dan Kohanski, on an unusually important topic. Any comments? He's happy to answer them. I'm running low on Platinum posts! Do...
View ArticleChristian Stereotypes of “the God of the Old Testament.” Marcion is Alive and...
An important book on understanding the Bible recently appeared: The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christian Read the Same Stories Differently, by Marc Zvi Brettler and Amy-Jill Levine. I...
View ArticleWhy these Caricatures of the Old Testament God? Guest post by Amy-Jill Levine
We earlier had a guest post by Marc Zvi Brettler, an internationally renowned scholar of ancient Judaism, as related to his book The Bible With and Without Jesus (HarperOne, 2020), co-authored with New...
View ArticleAn Intriguing Anti-Jewish Variant: Did Jesus Pray “Father forgive them”?
In my previous post I pointed out that scribes appear to have changed their texts of the New Testament in ways that reflected the rising anti-Jewish sentiment of the early Christian centuries. For me,...
View ArticleThe Slippery Slope of Extreme DIAKRISIS (Discernment). A Platinum Post by...
Here is a creative and imaginative Platinum guest post that explores key religious differences among various traditions in the early period of the church, through a plausible (fictional) conversation....
View ArticlePaul, the Apostate: a Platinum Post by Manuel Fiadeiro
Was Paul responsible for the split between gentile Christians and Jews? Did he have regular visits with Jesus after he converted? Did he consult the Alexandrian philosopher Philo about the issue?...
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