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.

• The Naivety of the Nativity: Platinum Guest Post by Joel Scheller August 4, 2021
• Cephas and Peter: Final Arguments, Summary, and Implications August 4, 2021
• Congratulations Fredrick Ackun! July 30, 2021
• Nazis and the Meaning of the Word “Jew”: Guest Post by Jason Staples July 24, 2021
• Platinum Members Only! Vote for your Favorite Platinum Guest Post July 22, 2021
• Problems with Comments on Revelation! July 21, 2021
• An Interview about Heaven and Hell: American Freethought Podcast July 21, 2021
• Interested in Hearing Three of My Lectures? Jesus according to the Early Christians July 18, 2021

• More On Bruce Metzger and Me: How I Got Interested in my Dissertation Topic August 1, 2021
• Texts and Towns that Allegedly Didn’t Exist (So Did Jesus?) June 24, 2021
• How Then Do Most Ancient Manuscripts Get Discovered? June 15, 2021
• The Value of Amulets for Reconstructing the New Testament Text: Guest Post by Brice Jones March 18, 2021
• The Oldest View of Christ: Found in Only One Greek Manuscript of Luke! February 4, 2021
• How the Trinity Got Into the New Testament: Part 2 January 9, 2021
• How the Trinity Got Into the New Testament January 7, 2021
• Paul Dictated His Letters: How Does *That* Complicate Finding an Original? December 3, 2020

• 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
• Homosexuality in the Bible (and the Christian Church) March 3, 2019

• 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
• Were Ancient Pagans Sometimes Monotheists? January 13, 2021
• The God Jesus, In Competition January 10, 2021
• No Virgin Births? Then How Were Demi-gods Born In Antiquity? January 5, 2021

• Prophecies and Saints in the Book of Daniel. Platinum Guest Post by Daniel Kohanski July 13, 2021
• The Coming of the Spirit at the End of Time May 25, 2021
• More Inconsistencies in the Pentateuch May 12, 2021
• Two (Contradictory?) Accounts of Creation in Genesis? May 11, 2021
• Who Wrote the Pentateuch Anyway? May 9, 2021
• The Spirit of God in the Old Testament May 6, 2021
• How Did the Holy Spirit Get Into the Trinity? In the Beginning…. May 5, 2021
• YHWH and Jehovah: Same? Different? Where’s Jehovah Come From? May 1, 2021

• Jesus Healing the Paralyzed. How Do We Explain the Stories? Platinum Guest Post by Douglas Wadeson, MD July 29, 2021
• Jesus the Healer: Those Darn Demons. Platinum guest post by Douglas Wadeson MD July 20, 2021
• Metzger, the Squirrel, and Me (…and Jesus). July 11, 2021
• Was Jesus Like One of the Pagan Fertility Gods? July 1, 2021
• Other Gods Who Died and Rose from the Dead? June 30, 2021
• Fiction and Fact, Legend and History. Is it Either / Or? June 26, 2021
• Texts and Towns that Allegedly Didn’t Exist (So Did Jesus?) June 24, 2021
• How Do We Know If Jesus Did Something? June 23, 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
• Jesus the Healer: Those Darn Demons. Platinum guest post by Douglas Wadeson MD July 20, 2021
• Fiction and Fact, Legend and History. Is it Either / Or? June 26, 2021
• The Reconstruction of Q: Platinum Guest Post by Steve Sutter June 19, 2021
• Confusing Messages about Jesus and the Father: John 14 June 8, 2021
• Jesus’ Final Speech in John: A Lead-up to the Coming of the Spirit June 6, 2021
• Blog Zoom Lecture This Saturday: Jesus as a Young Boy! June 2, 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
• The Value of Amulets for Reconstructing the New Testament Text: Guest Post by Brice Jones March 18, 2021
• When Did Jesus Become Divine? February 3, 2021
• Women Apostles in Early Christianity November 15, 2020
• How Were the Gnostic Gospels Discovered? October 26, 2020
• What Is Gnosticism? August 2, 2020

• 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
• The Johannine Letters in Sum May 1, 2020

• 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
• Jesus, Mary Magadalene, and … Sexual Innuendos? January 31, 2021
• An Apocryphal Story of Mary’s Conception of Jesus December 15, 2020

• 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

• 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
• Modern Christians Who Follow Marcion (Unawares) March 25, 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

• 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
• My Early Christian Apocrypha Seminar August 24, 2020
• Jesus in Scholarship and Film August 16, 2020
• Why Would An Atheist Teach the Bible? Readers’ Mailbag July 19, 2020
• Take A Final Exam on the New Testament! May 4, 2020
• How Do I Get To Know What Is In the Bible? February 14, 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

• Cephas and Peter: Final Arguments, Summary, and Implications August 4, 2021
• More Hints that Cephas Was Not Peter August 3, 2021
• More On Bruce Metzger and Me: How I Got Interested in my Dissertation Topic August 1, 2021
• Some Evidence that Cephas and Peter WERE Two Different People July 31, 2021
• Were Cephas and Peter Two Different People? A Blast from the Past July 29, 2021
• Bruce Metzger and the “Favor” He Did Me On My PhD Exams July 28, 2021
• Metzger, the Squirrel, and Me (…and Jesus). July 11, 2021
• My Mentor Bruce Metzger and the Infamous Squirrel July 10, 2021