Last post I reviewed Peter Enns’ “Inspiration and Incarnation“. Now I want to look at the first of three main topics in the book. How does seeing parts of the Old Testament in their ancient middle eastern context affect how we think of the Old Testament?
Understanding the Old Testament isn’t always easy. As well as Genesis-evolution, there are many apparent inconsistencies, within the Old Testament, and between the Old and New Testaments. And those who have read a little about ancient Middle East archaeology, history and literature may have noted similarities between Biblical accounts of creation, the flood and the […]
Long before European invaders and settlers arrived in Australia in 1788, the aboriginal people had occupied this continent and developed a culture and lifestyle that could sustain them in some harsh environments. A fascinating recent ABC documentary, First Footprints, gave a deeper insight into the lives of these pioneers.
This is the twelfth in a series of posts on Understanding the Bible in the 21st century. This post: the very difficult question of how a christian should view the Old Testament.
This is the eleventh in a series of posts on Understanding the Bible in the 21st century. So far, the matters we have been discussing seem, to me at least, to be fairly clear and straightforward. They have been based on clear statements in the Bible (or lack of them) and the clear views of […]
Just a week ago I commented on the lack of archaeological evidence for Bethlehem at the time of Jesus – it was known only from about the fourth century on. I said: “Archaeologists have found little that could identify the town of Bethlehem in the first century, leading a few to argue that it didn’t […]
Archaeology can tell us a lot about the world of first century Palestine, where Jesus lived, and this is a great help in understanding the New Testament. But can it tell us much about one of the most basic questions of all: are the New Testament gospels accurate accounts of Jesus’ life, based on eyewitnesses?