Blog Post Categories

The following categories are represented in the blog posts. If you want a chronological listing encompassing all posts for any of the topics that interest you, simply click on a category and read to your heart’s delight.

Categories on the Blog

Click on a category for the full archive, arranged by date.

• Are You Willing To Donate Blog Memberships to Those Who Can’t Afford It? December 4, 2021
• An Article about Religious Studies by One of My Undergraduate Students December 2, 2021
• Did Paul Know Much about the Historical Jesus? November 27, 2021
• A Thanksgiving Reflection, 2021 November 25, 2021
• A Rare Opportunity! Want to Read My Book on Revelation (before it’s published)? November 23, 2021
• Announcement: Did the Christmas Story Really Happen? Upcoming All-Day Event! (VIDEO) November 18, 2021
• Want to Come With Me on a Cruise in the Adriatic?? November 14, 2021
• Killing Jesus Is Killing Me…… November 13, 2021

• Do I Hold a Grudge against Bruce Metzger? October 31, 2021
• Why Would Later Scribes Be Interested In Having Jesus “Sweat Blood”? October 24, 2021
• Was Jesus in Agony Before His Arrest? The Unexpected Answer in Luke. October 20, 2021
• An Unexpected Argument Against Jesus’ “Sweating Blood” October 16, 2021
• Can We Reconstruct the New Testament from the Writings of the Early Church Fathers? October 12, 2021
• Another Problem with the NRSV: Knowing What To Translate October 10, 2021
• Bruce Metzger and Me: Reminiscences on my Dissertation August 28, 2021
• More On Bruce Metzger and Me: How I Got Interested in my Dissertation Topic August 1, 2021

• Time Magazine Cover Story on Lost Christianities. Kind Of…. November 9, 2021
• The Remarkable Story of Masada: Guest Post by Jodi Magness May 27, 2020
• Academic Fraud at the Highest Levels May 24, 2020
• Startling and Disturbing Development Involving Manuscripts at the Museum of the Bible October 15, 2019
• Why Was the World Created in 4004 BC? July 1, 2019
• The Hobby Lobby, Biblical Manuscripts, and Academic Scandal June 25, 2019
• An Official Copy of Jesus’ Death Sentence: Another Forgery? May 27, 2019
• Homosexuality and the New Testament. Guest Post by Jeff Siker. March 4, 2019

• Why Cynics Thought Being Poor Was Ironically Better November 23, 2021
• A Humorous Take on Wealth From a Great Satire of Antiquity November 21, 2021
• Should You Give Up All Your Possessions to Be Happy? The Ancient Cynic View November 20, 2021
• Was Jesus Like One of the Pagan Fertility Gods? July 1, 2021
• The Divine Realm in Antiquity (Appropriately: A Pyramid!) March 3, 2021
• What Did Ancient People Think It Meant To Call Someone God? February 27, 2021
• Still Other Humans Who Became Gods: In Jesus’ Time! January 16, 2021
• Could a Human Become a God in the Ancient World? January 14, 2021

• How Yahweh of the Israelites Became God of All: Guest Post by Dan Kohanski October 26, 2021
• Why these Caricatures of the Old Testament God? Guest post by Amy-Jill Levine September 28, 2021
• Christian Stereotypes of “the God of the Old Testament.” Marcion is Alive and Well and Well and What To Do About It. Guest Post by Marc Zvi Brettler September 23, 2021
• Does God Really Care How He Is Worshiped? The Book of Hosea. August 29, 2021
• Sin and Divine Punishment As a Dominant Theme of Scripture August 26, 2021
• Israel’s Conquest of the Promised Land: Did Any of That Happen? August 25, 2021
• Destroy More Others! The Israelites’ Conquest of the City Ai August 24, 2021
• God’s Destruction of the “Other”: Joshua and the Battle of Jericho August 22, 2021

• Did Paul Know What Jesus Taught? More Reflections December 5, 2021
• What Paul Says about Jesus’ Teachings December 1, 2021
• What Paul Knows about Jesus’ Death, and What Led Up to It November 30, 2021
• Did Paul Know Much about the Historical Jesus? November 27, 2021
• Must Jesus Divide Families? Part 2 of 2. Platinum Guest post by Douglas Wadeson November 20, 2021
• Announcement: Did the Christmas Story Really Happen? Upcoming All-Day Event! (VIDEO) November 18, 2021
• Jesus the First-Century Tea Partier November 17, 2021
• Really Riled By O’Reilly November 16, 2021

• Was Jesus in Agony Before His Arrest? The Unexpected Answer in Luke. October 20, 2021
• An Unexpected Argument Against Jesus’ “Sweating Blood” October 16, 2021
• What Do I Think of the New Revised Standard Version? October 2, 2021
• Jesus as a Healer: “First: Do No Harm” Platinum Guest Post by Douglas Wadeson August 18, 2021
• Jesus the Healer, Repossessed?  Platinum guest post by Douglas Wadeson MD August 10, 2021
• Finally: Cephas and Peter. What Do I Really Think? August 10, 2021
• The Naivety of the Nativity: Platinum Guest Post by Joel Scheller August 4, 2021
• Jesus Healing the Paralyzed. How Do We Explain the Stories? Platinum Guest Post by Douglas Wadeson, MD July 29, 2021

• The Massive Diversity of Early Christianity. My Book: Lost Christianities November 6, 2021
• Why and When Did We Get This Canon of the New Testament? September 25, 2021
• An Impromptu FREEBIE. A Zoom Lecture Tomorrow Morning! September 20, 2021
• Then Who WAS the First Bishop of Rome (if not Peter)? September 19, 2021
• Pop Quiz on Early Christianity September 1, 2021
• Were Cephas and Peter Two Different People? A Blast from the Past July 29, 2021
• Two More Live Lectures this Sunday! April 14, 2021
• Modern Christians Who Follow Marcion (Unawares) March 25, 2021

• A More Serious (Specific) Problem with the NRSV Translation October 3, 2021
• Was Christ So Divine That He Was Not Human? The “Antichrists” of 1 John March 16, 2021
• How the Trinity Got Into the New Testament: Part 2 January 9, 2021
• Did Some *One* Forge the Writings of “John”? Guest Post by Hugo Mendez May 19, 2020
• Problems with Thinking the “Letters of John” in the NT are Forgeries? Guest Post: Hugo Mendez May 18, 2020
• Are the Gospel and Epistles of John *Forgeries*?? Guest Post by Hugo Mendez May 12, 2020
• Was There One Author Behind the Four Johannine Writings? A Community? Guest Post by Hugo Mendez May 11, 2020
• WAS there a Community behind the Gospel and Letters of John? Guest Post by Hugo Mendez May 5, 2020

• God’s Mercy and Justice: The Opening of a Chapter in Journeys to Heaven and Hell November 10, 2021
• Was Peter Crucified Upside Down? September 21, 2021
• Blog Zoom Lecture This Saturday: Jesus as a Young Boy! June 2, 2021
• Was Paul Peter’s Enemy? May 4, 2021
• The Letter Jesus Wrote from the Cross (!) April 28, 2021
• Another Letter Written By Jesus? Stranger and Stranger… April 27, 2021
• Do We Have Any of Jesus’ Writings? (The Answer May Surprise You!) April 21, 2021
• Were Jesus and Christ Two Different Beings? March 31, 2021

• How I First Learned About the Gospel of Judas Iscariot July 20, 2020
• Slurs Against Religious Opponents and Makin’ Stuff Up July 15, 2020
• How Did We Get *These* 27 Books in the New Testament? October 4, 2019
• When Were Matthew and Mark First Seen as Scripture: Guest Post on Papias by Stephen Carlson June 10, 2019
• Papias and the Writers of the New Testament: Guest Post by Stephen Carlson April 25, 2019
• A Papias Mystery: What Was the Book He Wrote? Guest Post by Stephen Carlson April 12, 2019
• Is the Didache One Document or Three? December 23, 2017
• The Ethical Teachings of the Didache December 21, 2017

• The Massive Diversity of Early Christianity. My Book: Lost Christianities November 6, 2021
• Two Live Lectures on Sunday: The End is Near! April 20, 2021
• Was Marcion a Gnostic? April 13, 2021
• The Earliest Views of the Trinity (Long after the New Testament) April 11, 2021
• How Can the Father and the Son Be the SAME? Can Your Father Also Be Your Son? April 10, 2021
• Are God and Christ the SAME Person? April 8, 2021
• Were Jesus and Christ Two Different Beings? March 31, 2021
• What Is Gnosticism? A Video Introduction March 30, 2021

• The Council of Nicaea and The Resulting View of Christ May 2, 2021
• Constantine and the Christian Faith: My Fourth Smithsonian Lecture May 2, 2019
• When Christianity Became the “Official” Religion of Rome May 2, 2018
• Making Rome Pagan Again May 1, 2018
• The Beginning of the End of Paganism April 30, 2018
• Did Constantine Outlaw the Pagan Religions? April 29, 2018
• The Conversion of Constantine February 12, 2018
• Did the Council of Nicaea Take Away Reincarnation and Give us the Bible? January 8, 2017

• Bart Ehrman discusses the Apocalypticist July 27, 2016
• Violent Opposition to the Romans in the Days of Jesus (or Brian)? June 30, 2014
• Brian and the Apocalyptic Jesus Part 3 June 29, 2014
• Brian and the Apocalyptic Jesus Part 2 June 28, 2014
• Brian and the Apocalyptic Jesus Parts 1 June 27, 2014
• Day Two of Jesus and Brian June 25, 2014
• Day One of Jesus and Brian June 24, 2014
• The Life of Brian Conference June 23, 2014

• My Final Exam This Semester! The Birth of Christianity. November 28, 2021
• MORE Assignments on the Birth of Christianity September 5, 2021
• Student Papers for “The Birth of Christianity” September 4, 2021
• Pop Quiz on Early Christianity September 1, 2021
• My Syllabus for “The Birth of Christianity” August 31, 2021
• Two More Answers from My Pop Quiz September 2, 2020
• Does Basic Information about the NT *Matter*? My Pop Quiz August 30, 2020
• My Faux Pop Quiz this Semester August 26, 2020

• An Interview about Heaven and Hell: American Freethought Podcast July 21, 2021
• Where Did the Trinity Come From? The (Briefer) Video Version March 9, 2021
• My Interview About Jesus for “The Dagger Squad” February 23, 2021
• A Recording of My Webinar on Heaven and Hell January 24, 2021
• An Unusual Podcast Interview with a Muslim about How I Debate. Check This One Out! September 11, 2020
• Smith-Pettit Lecture – The History of Heaven and Hell August 21, 2020
• Reason and Theology – Heaven, Hell and the Afterlife July 7, 2020
• My Interview with Erstwhile-Evangelist-Now-Secular-Humanist Bart Campolo May 20, 2020

• How I’ve Changed My Approach To Writing November 4, 2021
• Why I Prefer the NRSV November 2, 2021
• Must Jesus Divide Families? Platinum Guest Post by Douglas Wadeson October 21, 2021
• Starting My New Trade Book on Revelation October 21, 2021
• Then Who WAS the First Bishop of Rome (if not Peter)? September 19, 2021
• Weird (But Common) Ways To Read the Bible September 7, 2021
• Bruce Metzger and Me: Reminiscences on my Dissertation August 28, 2021
• The Essence of Religious Literacy: A Christian Perspective. Guest Post by Fredrick Ackun August 17, 2021