Pisteuomen - πιστευομεν - T. Michael W. Halcomb

Okay, that was meant to look like an expletive but its not, it's a cover-up for the word "motherboard" (although I felt like letting the word you thought I was referring to fly when this all happened). Last night, the motherboard on my laptop had a meltdown and now, I have to ship the thing off for two weeks. Needless to say, as I type this post on a computer that isn't mine, I probably won't be blogging much for the next week or two. Please, though, skim through the tabs above and check out some of the site's other content. As soon as my mother@#$%* gets replaced, I'll have more substantive posts. For now, however, I'll shall take somewhat of a short break. Happy Holidays.

So, in addition to a pretty sweet snowblower that will come in handy this winter, I got a nice gift card to B&N. So, I picked up some books online, of course, more on Mark's Gospel:

...and Happy Holidays from all of us here at Pisteuomen (oh wait, it's just me, Michael Halcomb). Regardless, travel safely and share the love of Christ wherever you go!

One of the things I like best about blogging is the chance to interact with other people who love discussing the same types of things I'm interested in. One benefit of all of this is that sometimes, you get to meet the people you've come to know via modem. Over a year ago, through dialogue on another blog, I met Chris Vanallsburg (I'm wearing the brown coat and he's wearing the black vest in the pic). Chris is a native of MI but now lives in NC. Through various conversations on Facebook and each other's blogs, we began to get to know each other. This month, when he came home for the holidays, we decided to get together for lunch and visit a couple of bookstores. We ate at Panera and also had a visit to a Reformed bookstore (yes, he's one of those people!) and Eerdmans. For me, it was like Christmas-come-early going to those shops. I picked up 12 books and it all rang-in under $50. I was quite pleased. Chris and I had some good conversation and despite the insan...

Have you ever wanted to have all the Bible & Theology blogs that you like in one place? Want to un-muddy your page-reader or blogroll? Want some kind of aggregator that you don't have to manage? Want to visit a blog without trying to type in a url you can't remember, going to your page-reader or googling it? Well, now you can have what you want. Today, a couple of days before Christmas, I am giving a present away here at Pisteuomen. The present is called "The Pistueomen Bible & Theology Bloggers Toolbar". This toolbar, a one-of-a-kind, contains scores of sites of active Bible and Theology bloggers. A couple of months ago, NT Wrong began collecting working urls of bloggers. Every url listed on his site, plus, many more are included here. One of the best things about the toolbar is that it is updateable, so, if you're not included this month, if you contact me with the proper info., your site can be included in next month's update. The toolbar is incredi...

Have you ever had a friend that smelled really bad but you just didn't have the nerve to tell them? Have you ever been talking with someone and their breath just wreaked? Have you ever been playing basketball and your teammates pits just kill you? Well, what do you say? What do you do? And is there a nice way to do it? Here's what Marcus Aurelius once said (I must say, its quite a joy to stumble across passages like this when reading ancient literature!!!): "Are you irritated with one whose arm-pits smell? Are you angry with one whose mouth has a foul odor? What good will your anger do you? He has this mouth, he has these arm-pits. Such emanations must come from such things. 'But the man has reason,' you will say, 'and he could, if he took pains, discover wherein he offends.' I wish you well of your discovery. Now you too have reason; by your rational faculty, stir up his rational faculty; show him his fault, admonish him. For if he listens, you will cure h...

Yesterday I posted a photo of me standing next to my stack of Markan books and articles. Since you can't get a good look at the titles in that picture, I thought I'd upload a sort of photographic bibliography here (it's much easier than typing all of that info. out!!!). Of course, you can't see the journal articles but oh well. Anyway, check out the panorama below. You can use the "hand icon" to forward or backward by moving it left to right and you can zoom in or out on the photos using the small "magnifying glass" icons in the bottom right corner. For the titles that are a bit fuzzy, you can zoom in to get a better view:

Here's a photo of me standing next to all of my Mark articles and books. As you can see, the stack is over 6 ft. tall. Too bad I couln't include some of the stuff I have on my computer too.

This is a prayer from Billy Graham, quite profound I think, for the United States. After you read it, leave a comment and let me know what you think about it: 'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and ...

Here is a compilation of posts from this year's Christmas series on Pisteuomen titled "Jesus' Birth In Context". I have also listed some back posts from last Christmas. So, here's a list of twelve posts dealing with the birth of Jesus and the Infancy Narrative(s). Enjoy. * God-man Talk At Christmas: Jesus' Birth In Context, Pt. 7 * Was Mary Scandalous? Was She Raped?: Jesus' Birth In Context, Pt. 6 * The Magi: Jesus' Birth In Context, Pt. 5 * Was Jesus' Birth Unique?: Jesus' Birth In Context, Pt. 4 * A Miraculous Conception?: Jesus' Birth In Context, Pt. 3 * Jesus & Prophecy: Jesus' Birth In Context, Pt. 2 * Born Of A Virgin?: Jesus' Birth In Context, Pt. 1 * Jesus' Genealogy At Christmastime * Why December 25th? * Rethinking "The Inn": Christmas Tradition Vs. Scripture, Pt. 3 * Was Jesus Born In A Cave? Christmas Tradition Vs. Scripture, Pt. 2 * Erroneous Christmas Carols: Christmas Tradition Vs. Scripture, Pt....

Some time ago, there was a cartoon in The New Yorker that had a CEO ending his board meeting with the following remark: “And so, while the end-of-the-world scenario will be rife with unimaginable horrors, we believe that the pre-end period will be filled with unprecedented opportunities for profit.” You know, this cartoon really hits the nail on the head. Two of the fastest growing beliefs in Western Christianity have to do with end-times and money. I want to suggest here that when both of these tenets are accepted by one person, let alone a group of persons, the atmosphere is ripe for hedonism! How so? Well, think about it this way: If you're an end-times, rapture-believeing type of person, chances are, you already have it ingrained in you that you couldn't care less about this planet. The thought is: "Why should I care, it's all going to burn up and end in disaster anyway. I'm going to get raptured and spared, so, it's not my problem to worry about it."...

Or was it the Holy Spirit that enabled Him to do the things He did (and said)? Or was it both?

Recently, I began noticing a couple of funky things happening with my computer: 1) When I'd type in a URL, the page would act like it was taking forever to load and then, it usually wouldn't load but instead would go to an error page, and 2) The URL I typed in, such as www.yahoo.com, would automatically change itself to http:///?%www.yahoo.com. After running AVG, WinUtilities, Windows Defender, HiJackThis, WinSockFix, LMFix, Task Manager, Add/Remove Programs and attempting to edit some registry values, nothing had worked. Paying closer attention to what my computer was doing when I was online, I noticed there were some DNS errors. So, I figured that something was up with either my internet server or my router. Now, here's where things get a little tricky. About a week after having these problems, which was also a week after my wife had put up our Christmas tree, which was plugged into the same power strip as my router, I noticed that once she moved the Christmas tree plug t...

During Christmastime, in the Christian tradition, we hear over and over that Jesus is God made flesh. To put it differently, Jesus is the "God-man". The traditional teaching in Christianity is that the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, she miraculously conceived a child as a virgin and gave birth to Him. Thus, He was "God's Son" or "The Son of God". In the opening verses of Mark's Gospel, the nomenclature is used: Jesus the Messiah, "Son of God" (Grk: yios theos). It also appears in Mk. 5 (Gerasene Demoniac story) and Mk. 15 (story of the Roman Soldier at the cross). Interestingly, this title is not unique to Christendom and it is certainly not unique to Jesus. Nearly 50 years before Jesus stepped on the scene, Octavian was already referring to himself as the divi filius (the Latin of yios theos). For the 30 years prior to Jesus' birth Augustus was also being called this. During the rule of Tiberius, we know that his ruling son, Germani...

What better time than Christmas to resurrect old arguments about the birth of Jesus, right? Let's take, for example, the dated notion that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was raped by a Roman soldier named Panthera. This, actually, is a viewpoint that the modern filmmaker (and member of the infamous Jesus Seminary) Paul Verhoeven is attempting to make a movie and write a book about. The title of the book is Jesus Of Nazareth: A Realistic Portrait . But is the notion that Mary was raped, actually realistic? Or better yet, is this an argument we can place any stock in? Not so much because it troubles me theologically but because I can find no good evidence that would cause me to subscribe it, leads me to say "No" to both answers. More on this in a moment! Let me digress a little bit here and ask another question, one that has also been around a while but also seems to get brought up at Christmastime: Did God rape Mary? Was the miraculous conception an act of interpersonal violen...

Throughout Christian history, the magi (Grk: magoi) have become a central part in Jesus' birth narrative. Yet, there are some good reasons for us to step back, survey their roles in the story and ask some new questions. We shall start with questions that challenge some of our presuppositions: Why have they been referred historically to as "kings"? Why have people suggested that they are "wise"? What makes us think that they were "men"? Why do we only include three in the episode? How do we know they traveled by camel? Is there any reason for us to believe that they were wealthy? Why do we assume that they were intelligent stargazers and that they could read the heavens? Is there evidence to suggest that they were from Babylon or Persia? Why do they give the gifts they do? Now, answering all of these questions could lead to the writing of a book. But, I want to ponder them, so, I'll have to do so in a more brief manner than a tome. So, let me just e...

I've been wanting to get around to this subject / post for a while but I've recently found myself taken up by other things. One reason I wanted to write about prophecy in Mk. is because before SBL, Mark Goodacre and NT Wrong were discussing the literary function of prophetic remarks. Bill Heroman also weighed in on the matter . Mr. Goodacre's thesis was that one could, in fact, date the Markan account (pre-temple, if I remember correctly) by considering the literary function of the prophetic instances in the story. If one subscribes to this thesis, they most likely see Mk. 13 as "prophetic" (especially in a predictive sense) and even "eschatalogical". In the history of Markan scholarship, there is a longstanding tradition of reading Mk. 13 this way (e.g. it is typically referred to as the "little apocalypse"). It is with humility that I toss my hat into the ring and offer a different view. I have already written a lengthy post on Mk. 13 HERE ...

When we read Mark's Gospel or any other ancient text for that matter, the fact is, there are many things that we are not privvy to. The distance between our world and theirs is immense and because of this, we misunderstand cultural norms, ethical mores, theological stances, figures of speech, social metaphors, familial practices, etc. The work of Bible readers, in many ways and on many levels, is to uncover and understand as much about these things as we can so that we bridge some of the distance between the two horizons. When it comes to Mk. 10, the section of Mark's story where marriage is in view, there is a lot going on. Attempting to reconstruct the situation, understand it, bridge the gap and read between the lines can be quite tough. So, I want to start by reminding us that the Gospel writers were highly selective in the materials they chose to include in their respective accounts. For example, when one reads Matthew 19.3, a text quite similar to that in Mk. 10, this ...

I don't feel the need to say much about why I chose to award the Pisteuomen Bible Belt to the two following blogs, but I should say something. The reason I chose these two blogs is because 1) They post nearly every day, 2) Nearly every post is biblically or theologically substantive, and 3) They "actually" live up to the titles of "bible blog" or "theo blog" (because that's "actually" what they blog about). Using those criteria, here are my choices for the top bible blog and theology blog of 2009: *Bible Blog: John Hobbins: Ancient Hebrew Poetry *Theo Blog: Alan Knox: The Assembling of the Church John and Alan, thanks for continually and perpetually writing biblically and theologically substantive posts! Keep up the good work!

One question that has intrigued Gospels scholars for centuries, especially those with Markan affinities, is: Why is the wilderness temptation narrative so short (and pretty much absent) from Mark's Gospel? This is something that I have pondered for a while too and until now, I have not said much about it. Before I offer my thoughts on the matter, though, it might be best to say a little more about the subject. Usually, this topic comes up when bible scholars are discussing the "synoptic problem" (a discussion that focuses on the order in which the Gospel accounts were written; for example, was Mk. written first or was Mk. based on Mt. & Lk.?). As I have said a number of times in this series and on this site, in my opinion, the so-called "synoptic problem" is not really much of a "problem" at all. Anyway, I won't get into that again in this post. But in regards to the temptation narrative and the synoptic problem, text and literary critics often...

A while back, I asked the question "Who is the greatest scholar in the United States?" The overall consensus seemed to lean towards Dr. Gordon Fee (even though he has taught and lived a great deal outside of the U.S.). So, I thought I'd ask a similar question about scholarship on the ohther side of the pond: Who is the greatest biblical scholar in the UK?

In my previous post on this series ( A Miraculous Conception? ), I raised a number of questions that Christians must ask and attempt to answer when thinking about Jesus' birth in its ancient context. I also showed a number of ancient accounts of the births of prominent persons in antiquity. Those narratives had many elements in them that were similar to the story of Jesus' birth (dreams, visions, natural phenomena [stars, etc.], deities impregnating women, persons called 'son of god', etc.). *Note: If you have not read that post, please click the above link and do so, it will really, really help you draw out a fuller meaning from this post. So, I should remind us here that in Jesus' day (both before, concurrent and after His time on earth), there were birth narratives of others that were considered "miraculous". Historically, we are not in a position to really ask whether any of these things "really" happened. Nobody in antiquity probably would h...

An seemingly neverending "winter storm" in southwest Michigan:

For a great majority of Christians, the "virgin conception / birth" of Jesus is a cherished belief. In fact, I recall stumbling across a poll a couple of years back which said that something like 91% of Americans believed that Jesus was conceived of a virgin (even though 91% of Americans aren't Christians). Of course, this teaching, doctrine, belief or whatever you want to call it, has, since its inception, not been without its critics. As early as the 2nd century, just a few decades after Jesus' death, we already have persons and groups denying that Jesus' birth was "miraculous". Some even suggested that Mary was raped. The rumor also flew around that Mary was promiscuous (perhaps, even sleeping with or cheating on Joseph). Rarely discussed, especially in evangelical or conservative circles (perhaps liberal ones too) are some interesting pieces of literature. I don't know if it is because of the fact that persons have no idea that these texts exist,...

Is anybody attending the 2009 Midwest Region SBL (Olivet Nazarent University; Bourbonnais, IL) this year? The main date is Friday, February 13th.

A few years ago, I attended one of Ron Luce's "Acquire The Fire" events and quite enjoyed myself. I was a youth minister at the time and had taken my students to the event mainly because the renowned apologist, Josh McDowell, was speaking. Prior to attending, I had read through and referenced a variety of McDowell's books. I admired what he was doing; he helped me through some tough, searching and trying times. At the conference, he came out and just blew everybody away with this spiel he did on biblical prophecy. He claimed that there were hundreds of thousands of OT prophecies that came true in the NT. He even showed this great little video that argued that the statistical analysis of the number of fulfilled OT prophecies should leave nobody with any doubts about the veracity of the Bible. I got into this for a while, I must admit. But there came a point in time, when, through a different, more critical approach to the biblical texts, I began to realize Mr. McDowell...

On the heels of a brief discussion that yesterday's post brought up, namely, controversies surrounding the birth of Jesus, I thought I'd start a brief series during Advent that explored, in context, that very subject. Since I was asked to decipher some of the language pertaining to the nativity story, particularly that of the "virginal" conception / birth, I am going to start there. I should say here that I am very excited about this series and that I have already made a lot of headway on it. I hope some of the posts provoke good discussion (and, perhaps, debate). So, here, I want to start by addressing the use of Isa. 7.14 in Mt. 1.23. No doubt, scores of scholars have spent much time on this very issue throughout history. The majority of the conversation has focused on whether or not the Hebrew term 'almah, found in Isaiah, rendered "parthenos" in the Greek LXX (Septuagint, that is, the first Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) and subsequently in...