Welcome to my blog on biblical studies

My primary (but not exclusive) focus will be on the exploration of problem areas in biblical studies that either remain unsolved in academic circles or that I believe need to be reconsidered from a new perspective. If you like what you see, why not subscribe. Just enter your email in the subscription box and you will receive an email whenever I post something new. Great time saver.

My ASOR 2020 Annual Meeting Presentation

I am presenting a paper at the ASOR 2020 (virtual ) Annual Meeting titled “Noah’s Flood: Babylonian or Egyptian in Origin?” Almost all scholarship on the Genesis story of Noah’s Flood sees the origins of the story in some version of the Babylonian flood myths. These include some version of the Gilgamesh epic or an early ancestor to the Flood story contained within the Gilgamesh epic.

While there can be little doubt that some sort of literary connection exists between the Genesis version and some version of the Babylonian Flood traditions, scholars see this as the starting point for studying the story. In my paper I will be arguing that the story originates with Egyptian Creation myths. At a much later time, however, the original version of the story was redacted in order to harmonize it with the Gilgamesh epic.

Because the meeting is virtual, I will not be doing a live presentation. All presenters are submitting video versions of the paper that will be available to registrants for up to six months. However, members of my panel, Archaeology in Egypt, will all be available for an online live session to take questions and engage in discussions of the papers presented by the panel members. That session will be on November 20th, from 12:30 to 1:30.

Shortly after the live panel, I will add the paper to my Writings page on this blog (and perhaps make the video version available also.) In the meantime, over the next couple of weeks, I am planning a series of posts on the very problematic nature of the internal chronology of the Noah’s Flood story in Genesis, i.e., how long did the Flood last, what happened when in the course of the story, and what conclusions can we draw. There should be a few interesting revelations in the analysis.

Was Mary the Name of Jesus’ Mother? A Source-Critical Perspective

I previously mentioned the publication at the Bible and Interpretation site of my essay titled “Was Mary the Name of Jesus’ Mother: A Source Critical Perspective.” I am now making it available here and through a link on my Selected Writings page. Here is the opening paragraph. Click on the link to read the rest of the article.

If we had no reliable written sources mentioning the name of Jesus’ mother, a good guess would be Mary. Statistically, it was one of the most popular, if not the most popular, name for Jewish women in the first century. In the Christian scriptures, more women have the name Mary than any other name. The question I wish to raise here is whether we have any reliable written evidence that Mary was the name of Jesus’ mother. Click here to read the rest

Site Upgrade Completed

I have completed the site upgrade. Not only does the site have a more attractive new look, I have added a substantial amount of content.

My Book Catalogue Page contains links to each of my books, with descriptive information about each, including in most cases, excerpts from the books.

The Selected Writings Page lists several articles I have written, including abstracts and links to the articles. More articles will be posted in the near future but what is currently there should hold you for a while.

The Selected Posts Page provides a list of links to some of my past posts that discuss assorted academic problems with Jewish and Christian scriptures.

On the Home Page Sidebar I will occasionally feature links to one of my books,, article and past posts.

I clicked around, and everything appears to be in good shape, but if you come across any glitches, please use the contact form to let me know.

At the moment, there appears to be a problem with subscriber notifications. I hope that will be cleared up shortly. But if you subscribe to this site and receive notice of this post, please let me know.

This upgrade has imported all of the important material from my other Web Site on Bible, Myth and History and I will no longer maintain it. That site has been reachable through the use of the biblemyth.com domain. I will soon change the pointer so that it will take you to this site instead, giving you a shorter address to input into your browser.

If you are not already a subscriber, I hope you will become one by using the subscriber box. Subscribers will receive an email whenever I add a new post, saving you the trouble of having to keep checking in to see what’s new.

Notice to subscribers and visitors

Sometime in the next few days I will be updating this site. It will not only include a new front page design, it will feature a large amount of content based on my writings. More information about my books will be provided and in several cases excerpts will be available to read. I will also post several of my articles and papers and link to some of my earlier academic posts. Additional writings will be added over time.

Updating a site can be a perilous undertaking and I worry that the changes will wipe out the subscriber data base. I will send out a notice when the site is updated. If you don’t receive an “update completed” notice in the next week or so, I hoe you will check back and see if you need to re-subscribe.

When the site is updated and you look around and notice any glitches, I hope you’ll let me know.

Was Mary the Name of Jesus’ Mother? A Source-Critical Perspective

My essay, Was Mary the Name of Jesus’ Mother? A Source-Critical Perspective has just been published on the Bible and Interpretation Web Site. The thrust of the article is that while statistically it is likely that Mary was the name of Jesus’ mother, there is no reliable textual evidence in the New Testament that Mary was the name of Jesus’ mother. The article examines the textual evidence as it relates to this issue. Check it out and tell me what you think.

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