Blogs

This blog concludes the book review begun in our last two.

This blog continues where our last one left off. 

Spring 2007 saw the sensational claims by a new book and a Discovery Channel broadcast that the family tomb of Jesus had been discovered in the south Jerusalem Talpiot neighborhood.  The Ted Koppel special aired immediately afterwards pitted one of the book’s authors and a maverick scholar who supported him against a team of four biblical scholars, theologians and archeologists from evangelical, mainline Protestant and Catholic perspectives.  Now an outstanding anthology of scholarly respons

The discussions surrounding the recently discovered “Gabriel’s Revelation” (or “Dead Sea Stone”; see the posts below) have brought to the foreground the long-debated question of whether first century Judaism expected a suffering (and vindicated?) Messiah. This issue is closely related to—though broader than—the question of whether the “Suffering Servant” passages of Isaiah were interpreted messianically in the pre-Christian era.

Just finished the SNTS meetings in Lund, Sweden, a beautiful city in Southern Sweden, near Malmö, the country's third largest city. The university has been here since 1666. The meetings were a great time to catch up on all things New Testament.

The study of antiquities is fascinating business, but it can be quite dangerous because the contemporary scholarly impetus is to fill in the gaps, often with purely hypothetical conclusions, when a wiser path would be to discuss options and then acknowledge that the present state of our knowledge is limited. Scholars tend to say more than can be definitively shown, when a more prudent path would be to present data and be conservative in conclusions.

I am writing from Taiwan, but I am not immune to the news about the new Stone "Dead Sea Scroll".

Go to http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/07/07/1184950.aspx and click on the links to the Hebrew and English texts of the new stone causing the stir about possibly referring to the concept of a resurrected Messiah before the time of Jesus.  Look at lines 78-85, which must be what Israel Knohl is referring to.  Notice what's actually in the text vs. what he has to supply.  The text itself, reads merely :

Some of you may have noticed, but out of Jerusalem there is coming news of an upcoming Dead Sea Scroll meeting, the 60th anniversary meeting. The headliner of this event is the discussion, by Israel Knohl (an adventurous sort), of a stone tablet. Knohl claims the text, as he reconstructs it, could indicate a pre-Jesus Jewish belief in a messiah's resurrection on the 3d day. The messiah is a so called Simon. Much ink will be spillt on this one; keep your eyes open.

Israel is surely one of the most diverse countries both geographically and culturally. Nothing is boring about Israel, and each day’s experience in this country stimulates thought and feeling and understanding. For example, one has difficulty understanding a Jewish view of the sabbath until witnessing the celebration and joy that are expressed at the Western Wall at the beginning of Sabbath.