Are you interested in going beyond reading blog posts on topics connected with the New Testament/early Christianity and in having a chance to interact with other blog members (and a New Testament scholar) on important and interesting topics or biblical passages? It is an option on the blog.  It involves joining a special group called the “Blog Stewards.” We meet once a quarter for a focused seminar.  In advance I pick a topic or important passage of the NT; I write up directions for how one might go about studying it; and I explain some of the lesser known background.  Then we get together remotely for an hour and a half and discuss it all. No one is required to do the “homework.”  Some members just want to sit and listen in while others talk.   Others want to bounce their ideas around. I run it as a seminar, much like I would a university course: I usually begin by making a brief presentation about some of the key issues and puzzling and/or debated [...]

I was so very sorry to announce that we will not be able to do the Cruise on the Nile we had planned for the fall, but Thalassa Journeys has now come up with an alternative that is, well -- how many ways can you say "spectacular?" It is a cruise on a sailing vessel to some of the most gorgeous islands of the Caribbean, January 25-February 1, 2027.  The ship, the Sea Cloud Spirit is amazing (just look it up): 136 passengers (our group will be a part of that), small enough to get into remote places the big cruisers cannot, and large enough to be, well, rather luxurious. There will be great sites, great vistas, fantastic food and drink, and friendly like-minded people in our group who will have intriguing stories and lives, and common interests to discuss to our hearts' content. I will be giving lectures on the cruise on one of my all-time favorite topics:  “The Greatest Manuscript Discoveries of Modern Times.”  Here I will talk about archaeological finds that have revolutionized [...]

In mid-March I announced on the blog that I would be doing a cruise on the Nile (and seeing other interesting parts of Egypt) later in the year.  I am sorry to say that because of the situation in the Middle East, we have decided to cancel the trip.  Or rather, cosmic forces willing, to postpone it.  I very much want to do it ... sometime down the road when potential travellers will be more inclined to go to the region. BUT, I will be doing another trip in its place.  To the Caribbean.  Whoa.  It'll be a good one.  I'll give the details in my next post. For now, the Nile cruise has been canceled.

I’m visiting my daughter and her family up in New Hampshire just now, and the 16 year-old is reading A Children’s Bible, a novel by Pulitzer Prize finalist Lydia Millet, for her English class.  But it’s filled with biblical allusions from the book of Genesis and elsewhere, so over dinner last night I decided it was time to tell some Bible jokes. You hear a lot of these if you go to Bible college, trust me.  And maybe otherwise!  Here are four of the classics.  Do you have any?  Let’s hear ‘em.   Where is baseball first mentioned in the Bible? “In the Big Inning” Where is tennis first mentioned in the Bible? “Joseph served on Pharaoh’s court” Who was the first constipated person in the Bible? “Cain. Because he wasn’t Abel.” (I didn’t tell this last one because I thought it probably required to much background/knowledge to be funny) (I’m assuming it’s funny…): Who was the smallest person in the Bible? There are a variety of possible answers. The wrong ones would [...]

As you may know, this month we are celebrating fourteen years of the blog's existence. The actual anniversary took place back on April 3rd, and to mark the occasion, we did something a little different. Instead of a lecture or formal Q&A, we hosted a live cocktail hour built entirely (okay, well mostly) around hypotheticals. We discussed the kinds of questions that are too playful for a classroom but still rooted in real historical thinking. I offered a few answers to get us started, but the real fun was hearing yours. It turns out that even the most offbeat questions can open up genuinely interesting ways of thinking about the past. If you missed it, here’s the full recording.   https://vimeo.com/1182051051/8bf9b050b7?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci    

Want to help celebrate the beginning of year 15 of the blog?  Choose one of your favorite posts (even if you started, say, last week) for us to revisit (see belowe for details) We celebrated our 14th anniversary on April 3 (this year, 2026).  Whoa.  Never saw that coming.  We're gonna keep celebrating for a while. First I should say that this longevity entails some interesting numbers.  We have had 4300 posts (most by me; but some by guest scholars and occasionally Platinum members);  on average that means about six a week.  These posts have generated about 165,710 comments from readers, so around 228 per week; and about 55,000 of those are my replies to questions, so about 75 per week.  OK then. More important, we have raised a boatload of money for our charities, nearly $3.5 million since we started; with the last three years being by far the best for our, nearly $1.5 million combined.  The vast chunk of that has come from membership fees -- that is, from your generous decision to [...]

I have been doing a lot of podcast interviews for the release of my book, Love Thy Stranger: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Moral Conscience of the West.  Most of these podcasts have been terrific fun, with good and engaging questions.  Here for, your viewing pleasure, is one that I especially enjoyed, with an interviewer who "got it"!

I started this blog back in April 2012, and here we still are: fourteen years, thousands of posts later, a few million comments (some of them even on topic!), and over $3 million donated to charity later. I have to say, I never saw this coming. To celebrate, we’re doing something we’ve never done before: a live cocktail hour. No lecture or slides or Q&A. Instead, bring whatever you drink when you’re about to engage in a lively debate (wine? whiskey? sparkling water? coffee? a nice bourbon if you’re feeling Pauline…) and join me on Zoom for an evening of questions that are too fun for a formal course and too academic for normal dinner conversation. We’ll be tackling some of the most pressing hypotheticals in early Christian scholarship, such as: Which biblical figure would make the best Misquoting Jesus podcast guest, and who would be a disaster? Which biblical figure survives a modern 24-hour cable news cycle, and who is completely destroyed by day two? The early church has to survive one family-style holiday [...]

Was Christianity ultimately good for the world or bad? In the previous post I began to sum up the significance of my study of Jesus’s influence on our modern sense of morality; I ended by talking about how Christianity is often attacked for all the harm it has done, for example in pogroms against Jews leading to the Holocaust, the Crusades and the ongoing hatred of Muslims, the Inquisition – torturing people to death for believing the wrong things.  In addition to these major historical events, one also has to consider how it is that many Christians today advocate radical nationalism, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, the slaughter of civilians, and the burning of the planet—all claiming Christ is on their side. When other Christians say these views and actions are not “Christian,” I readily agree they are not consistent with the teachings of Jesus.  But they certainly are “Christian” – done by self-professed followers of Jesus often in his name. I pick up here by looking at the positive side, in one of those [...]