Over the years I’ve done a lot of public debates, and deep down I suppose I think they can do some good.  Maybe not on a large scale, but at least for a few individuals in the audience who are open both to thinking about an important issue and to realizing that the view they’ve always held and simply assumed to be true may not be.  If there are 300 people there and five of them are like that, OK, that’s great.  Think Genesis 18:23-33. On the other hand, even though I get enthusiastic when I do debates, I really don’t enjoy them.  I’m not sure I’ve ever enjoyed one.  As some of you have heard me say, in virtually every debate I’m in, part way through I start writing notes to myself:  “WHY are you doing this??” I had a debate last week with my friend and conservative evangelical apologist Mike Licona on whether the apostolic “authorities” Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John actually wrote the Gospels named after them.  During the debate, [...]

Last week, for some reason I can’t remember (!) I decided to see what I had written about the book of Zechariah in my textbook, The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction (Oxford University Press).  As I read it, I thought — I bet most people on the blog haven’t actually read Zechariah (one of the Minor Prophets in the Old Testament — called “minor” not because they are unimportant but because they are shorter than the “major” ones — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel…).  And I bet most people who have read it couldn’t summarize it to save the planet.  And hey, why should they?  (Summarize it; not save the planet…) So why not give a bit of info on it?  It’s a great little book.  Here’s what I say about it in my undergraduate textbook. ZECHARIAH Like other books of the Hebrew Bible (most famously Isaiah) the book of Zechariah does not appear to be the work of a single writer. Scholars have long considered Zechariah 1–8 to be by one author (called First Zechariah) and 9–14 by a different one, living later (Second Zechariah). First Zechariah [...]

At the end of each year, the blog highlights one of the charities we support through our ongoing charitable work. This year, we’re rallying behind the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina—a phenomenal organization that distributes food to those in need throughout my part of the state. What they do is both astonishing and essential. They gather millions of pounds of food from farms, manufacturers, grocery stores, and individuals, then manage the enormous logistical task of getting it to where it’s needed most. The operation is mind-bogglingly complex—but the result is beautifully simple: they keep people from going hungry. You can read more about their work here. This year, I’ve set a goal to raise $20,000 by the end of the year.And to double the impact, I’ll personally match every dollar raised, up to $20,000—meaning together, we can send $40,000 to help feed families in need. A Special Thank-You Gift: The New Testament in a Nutshell To thank you for your generosity, anyone who donates $50 or more will receive an advance digital [...]

I would like to describe for all of you the kind of webinar I did this past week for those blog members who have chosen to become Blog Stewards -- so you can see what you too could be involved with if you choose. For a long time I’ve wanted to try having a bona-fide seminar with a group of layfolk. Not a lecture, not a Q&A, but a discussion – something closer to what happens in a university classroom when everyone comes prepared and ready to wrestle with a text together. Our focus was the Prologue to the Gospel of John (John 1:1–18). Few passages in the New Testament have provoked more thought or more confusion than this one. What exactly does it mean to say “the Word was with God, and the Word was God”? How an entity be something and be with the same something? What does it mean for that Word to “become flesh”? Why is this high view of Jesus found here and nowhere else in the New Testament?  Is [...]

From Jen: You've hopefully heard the big news by now. After more than three decades of teaching, Bart will soon step away from the classroom. (But don't worry, he's not stepping away from the blog!) This December marks his retirement from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where generations of students have sat in those lecture halls, scribbling notes while Bart brought the ancient world vividly to life. To honor that extraordinary career, Bart will return to the UNC campus one last time to deliver a final public lecture: “The Greatest Discovery in the History of Biblical Studies” When: Sunday, December 7, 2025, 5:00 pm Where: UNC Chapel Hill (Building  TBA) Free and open to the public (registration required) It’s hard to overstate what this moment represents. Bart has spent his life teaching others how to read the New Testament with both rigor and curiosity, stripping away assumptions to see what the texts actually say. This will be his final time doing so in a UNC classroom; the space that shaped so much of his work and [...]

If you've been following along with the blog the last few years, you've probably heard various rumblings about a new blog platform. You might have even have periodically wondered, "Is that project still happening? What's the latest?"  We're excited to let you know that the first phase of the new platform we've been working on behind the scenes is finally ready to launch on Monday, September 8th. The blog will briefly go offline during this time. Here’s what that means: The blog will likely be down for 8–12 hours, though it could take up to 2 days. During that time you’ll just see a maintenance message when you navigate to the website. If any scheduled posts are impacted, they will simply be published when the site is back up and running. You won't miss anything! When it’s back up, you won’t notice any visible changes. The blog will look and work just the same for the time being. The difference is under the hood. We’ve cleared out years of technical debt, which means from here [...]

We recently shared part one of a post written by Platinum blog member, Mark Reichert. You can find the first part here. Here now is the second part of his two-part reflections in which he offers his own reconstruction of what might have happened after the crucifixion. So what do I think really happened? There is no way to know for sure but I can put together a story that seems plausible and makes sense to me. I believe Jesus and his following traveled to Jerusalem for Passover during the governorship of Pontius Pilate. How large a following I do not know though enough for it to be considered a “following.” Once there, he came to the attention of Roman and/or Jewish authorities in a negative way. Either he said, or someone accused him of saying, that he was “King of the Jews.” I highly doubt the account in Mark that states Jesus was bound by Jewish priests and elders and brought before Pilate. This would be like Palestinian authorities turning a [...]