an oxgoad, eh?» Archaeology

an interesting resource

ox — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:19:06 +0000

I just got an e-mail notification of a resource put out by Zondervan, the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament. It looks like a fascinating source of information.

Readers should note that such publications often support liberal views on Biblical dates and tend to minimize the miraculous. Nevertheless, if read with discernment, such resources can provide valuable background material for studying and teaching the Bible.

A sample is offered where you can read the Ezra-Nehemiah section and see what is offered in this set.

There are some promotional videos available. The first is a more serious look at the set:

And the second takes a light-hearted approach:

You can find out more at The Ancient Bible.com.

Alas, I find out too late for Christmas! And, alas, the price is out of my reach just now!

In any case, it looks like this resource is one to put on the Wish List for sure.

sinaiticus

ox — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:00:10 +0000

Sinaiticus is available to view online.

This might be of interest to only a select few, but the various libraries that own sheets of Sinaiticus have cooperated to make the entire codex available.

You can see photographs of each page (or fragments of pages), jump from page to page by Bible reference, see a transcription of each page as well as a translation.

Regardless of your views of the textual issues, it is tremendous that this most important manuscript of the Bible is now available for anyone to see.

on Nehemiah’s wall

ox — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 04:27:00 +0000

It was real! [To quote Gomer: Surprise, surprise, surprise!!] Check out this article describing the find.

Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

making the calendar more inclusive

ox — Wed, 04 Dec 2002 17:26:00 +0000

NATIONAL POST Museum abandons Christian year system

Yet another attack, very subtle, on our Lord Jesus Christ, by “tolerant” Canadians. The Royal Ontario Museum is going to change it’s exhibits from reading AD and BC to the Christ-denying CE and BCE. Here is the justification:

“Dan Rahimi, the Toronto museum’s director of collections management, said the intent of the change ‘is just to be more inclusive, let’s say, in how we even describe the years.

”’A lot of people accept the reality of Jesus as a historical figure but don’t accept him as Christ, and to use the words ‘before Christ’ is really quite ethnocentric of European Christians. And to use ‘the year of our Lord’ is also quite insensitive to huge populations in Toronto who have other lords.’”

What claptrap! Jesus is the pivotal figure of human history, the hatred of mankind notwithstanding.

Ironically, the first exhibit displaying the new designation is the “James Ossuary”, possibly the burial coffin of James, the brother of our Lord Jesus Christ.