November 19, 2008 – 12:11 pm
Gamaliel the Elder (or Rabbi Gamaliel I) was indeed the grandson of Hillel. He is in the “House of Hillel” tradition which tends to be less rigourous than the “House of Shammai”. It would, therefore, be the traditions of Hillel in which Paul was schooled.
Not a lot is known about Gamaliel’s distinctive teachings.
October 5, 2008 – 9:17 am
Persian Fire by Tom Holland give a good introduction to the wider history of the Ancient Near East. It deals with the Persian empire and the beginnings of the rise of Greece and was published in 2006 by Abacus.
You might also be interested in an episode of In Our Time which deal with Babylon [...]
September 24, 2008 – 12:58 pm
More information on the development of the canon of scripture can be found here.
September 24, 2008 – 12:51 pm
We spent some time on Monday discussing the authority of scripture and the development of the canon in the early church. You’ll find all sorts of websites on this issues, most of them from a Protestant or Roman Catholic point of view, but I’d like to steer you towards an Orthodox viewpoint.
Our Life in [...]
September 17, 2008 – 5:05 pm
The Bible Style Guide is a reference text designed specifically for those working within the media industry. It provides a crash course in the Bible for busy journalists, broadcasters and bloggers.
Whilst the guide will hopefully tell you nothing new, it is interesting to see the commonly held perceptions of the Bible which are addressed here.
Bitemybible: [...]
August 19, 2008 – 11:13 am
“The medieval theory of levels of meaning in the biblical text, with all its undoubted defects, flourished because it is true, while the modern theory of a single meaning, with all its demonstrable virtues is false. Until the historical-critical method becomes critical of its own theoretical foundations and develops a hermeneutical theory adequate to the [...]
August 13, 2008 – 3:38 pm
One of the great gems dug up amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls was the Great Isaiah Scroll. It dates to about 100 BC and is the only complete scroll to have been recovered from Qumran. It is 7.34 metres long.
You can view the scroll here, but be aware it’ll take a while to [...]
The Codex Sinaiticus is the oldest complete text of the Old and New Testaments, having survived for over 1600 years. For centuries is was at St Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai and since 1933 has been in the British Library.
The Codex Sinaiticus Project is seeking to put the entire manuscript online and is well [...]
The issue of chapters and verses came up last week. The Latin Bible (Vulgate) was first divided into chapters in the 13th century, most probably by Stephen Langton who was later to be the Archbishop of Canterbury. As to verses, this is normally credited to Robert Stephanus a Parisian book printer who completed [...]
Bart Ehrman, a well known textual critic, gave a good talk on the task of trying to piece together the New Testament from thousands of fragments. You can get it via iTunes in either Audio or Video.
It’s not short but he is an easy person to listen too and tells a good tale. [...]
