Category: Background Info
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Coming Soon: Website Relaunch!
This past May marked the 10th anniversary of Create a Learning Site. Over the course of 120 articles, I have shared what I have learned on a fascinating journey of discovery through the Bible’s history, culture, and theology. As part of this milestone, I took a sabbatical to reflect and recharge. Now, after a period…
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Unveiling 1 Corinthians 11: Going beyond ‘New Women’
Learn about Paul covering the uncovered: his surprising stand for women in 1 Corinthians 11.
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The Bible and Music; Plus: The Revised Toolbox!
James McGrath has published an unusual and innovative book, The Bible and Music. It uses the power of the World Wide Web by embedding links and videos in the text. Admittedly, you don’t have to be a genius to have that idea, but it is not often done. To top it all off, the book…
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Leviathan & Co.: More Canaanite Mythology in the Hebrew Bible
In this third (and final) look at Canaanite beliefs, we meet a strange array of monsters, such as Leviathan. They also make an appearance in the Hebrew Bible. What do we make of this and of the claim that God, too, had to do battle with creatures like these?
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Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon
How great was Babylon the Great? A brand-new book with awesome illustrations gives us a taste. Have a look! (And download the book at www.zaphon.de.)
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The Council of El: Canaanite Mythology in the Hebrew Bible?
Although Baal worship is strongly condemned, the Old Testament surprisingly integrates fragments of Canaanite mythology (such as Baal as the rider in the clouds) in its portrayal of the God of Israel. How are we to understand this? And is the so-called divine council one of these fragments or is it something more substantial, as…
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Canaanite Religion in the Bible
Various gods and goddesses of Canaan make their appearance in the Hebrew Bible. It is easy to get confused. In Judges 2:13, for instance, the Israelites serve “the Baals and the Ashtaroth”; in Judges 3:7, they serve “the Baals and the Asheroth”. Ashtaroth and Asheroth – what is the difference? This issue is meant as…
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1 Corinthians: Is Paul Also among the Rhetoricians?
Occasionally, we run into a piece of new information that throws a bright new light on something familiar. It enables us to see coherence where before we had not noticed connections. In other words, it creates an “Aha!” experience: suddenly everything (or at least something) makes sense. This happened to me when I was preparing…
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‘New Women’ in Rome and in Corinth
I should have read this book much sooner. It provides crucial background information on the life of women in the first century. In doing this, it illuminates several difficult and controversial passages in the New Testament. I am referring to Bruce Winter’s Roman Wives, Roman Widows: The Appearance of New Women and the Pauline Communities,…
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The Seven Cities of Revelation
The book of Revelation begins with seven letters to seven churches in seven cities in the Roman province of Asia. You probably know this. The condition of each church and specific facts about each city are reflected in the content of each letter. This is likely not new to you either. What I aim to…
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Sennacherib
Probably no event in the Old Testament is as well documented as Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah in 701 BC. The Bible itself gives us three accounts: 2 Kings 18:13-19:36, Isaiah 36-37, and 2 Chronicles 32:1-23. In addition, we have several versions of Sennacherib’s own report on the event, plus reliefs carved out in stone that…
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Codex, Kingdom of Heaven, Rapture: Three Random Things
I regularly run into bits and pieces of insight or information that fascinate me but that seem too small to turn them into a full issue of Create a Learning Site. This month, I present three such pieces: codex, kingdom of heaven, and (the true meaning of) the rapture. You can also watch this content…
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Thinking about Thinking
There is enormous diversity among Christians in what we believe and in how we understand various passages in the Bible. This is a simple and straightforward observation; at least on this, we should be able to agree. But what causes it? Is it something about the Bible? Or is it something in us, humans? I…
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LXX: It Was All Greek to Them
If you have ever used Bible reference works, you may well have come across these somewhat mysterious letters: LXX. (Hint: they have nothing to do with XXL.) If you have done a fair bit of Bible teaching, chances are that you have made reference to the Septuagint, the word behind LXX, in your lectures. I…
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Reading the New Testament in Greek: What Was It Like?
Last year in February, I wrote about my intention to read the New Testament in Greek and report regularly on Tumblr and other social media on my progress. So how did I do? Well, life happened. To be more precise, we unexpectedly decided to buy a house and move, which made much of the…
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The Lost World of Genesis 1-11
I am shamelessly paraphrasing the title of a book by John Walton on Genesis 1, because it fits so well with the point I want to make in this issue. This point is: the world in which the early chapters of Genesis were written was very different from our world. Or more accurately, since it…
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What Is Glory? And What Does It Have to Do with the End Times?
Once upon a time, The Late Great Planet Earth was a highly successful book. It was the bestselling nonfiction book of the entire decade of the 1970s, with 35 million copies sold worldwide. Today, it is no longer relevant. If its author, Hal Lindsey, would have been right, the world would have ended 30 years…
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Paul in Three Words
Paul summarized in three words!? Generations of theologians have wrestled their brains out with Paul’s thought, and now we are able to summarize all of this in just three words? I don’t blame you if you are sceptical, but give N. T. Wright a chance: he thinks he can do it, even though it takes…
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Seven Reasons to Read Leviticus
According to Torsten, a good friend with whom I worked in the School of Biblical Studies for many years, this is the most important book in the Pentateuch. I disagree, of course. My wife thinks it is Numbers; for this reason I did an earlier issue giving six reasons to read Numbers. If you ask…
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How Ancient Rhetoric Helps Us to Understand the Bible Better (II)
For April of this year, I dedicated a post issue to the subject of socio-rhetorical criticism. One fascinating takeaway from that exercise was the realization that most NT letters are not really letters as much as they are speeches or discourses of various kinds. They had to be put in writing because their author could…
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A Fresh Look at Old Letters: Socio-Rhetorical Criticism
With this subject, I am taking you along on my own recent learning experience. Socio-rhetorical criticism is a relatively new approach in biblical studies, and I have taken some time to get to know it better. Admittedly, the term “criticism” is unfortunate, because of its negative connotation in everyday language. No such negative bias is…
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How to Study (and Teach) a Big Book
Here is the bottom line right at the start: to successfully study a big book you have to make it a priority and allocate time to it, or it is not going to happen. But don’t worry, this is not a “you ought to… (do this; do that; do more)” kind of letter/post. Instead, I…
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The Emperor’s New Clothes: The Imperial Cult in the Roman Empire
Things I Am Learning from N. T. Wright’s Colossal Book on Paul, Part 1 I started reading Paul and the Faithfulness of God during the Christmas break and now, more than 10 months later, I am still at it. But I am learning a lot on the way, and this month I want to start sharing…
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8 Things I Learned from Living in a Mediterranean Climate
Since I am still in the middle of my reading project, and since the book I am reading has turned out to be rather heavy stuff, I looked for something that is a little lighter for this month’s letter. So I am taking a break from scholarship on the prophets. Instead, I would like to…