Rachel Held Evans: The fact that the Bible lends itself to competing interpretations should be cause for celebration rather than dismay, for these competing interpretations among people of faith who love and value Scripture help bring us into relationship with … Continue reading
I’m going to get straight to the point of this post: there were never any walls around Jericho. The Bible was most likely wrong. The story in Josh. 6—of the walls of Jericho falling down after the Israelites marched around … Continue reading
Continuing on Greg’s response to “Reasons for Believing the Bible is God’s Word” I’d like to examine two other points that Roger E. Olson makes that I have encountered several times when discussing the validity of faith and the Bible … Continue reading
At Holey Books, we’ve come across our share of scriptural commentary, and usually prefer to read what reasonable scholars (such as James Kugel) have to say about the various bits of scripture we talk about. But occasionally—as recently in a post … Continue reading
When the Israelite spies come to Jericho, they’re housed and protected by a prostitute (not sure why that’s relevant–seriously, there’s no context for it in Joshua) named Rahab. She promises to protect the spies in exchange for amnesty during the … Continue reading
Over in his daily “My Answer” column, Billy Graham addresses the question of a reader: Do the Dead Sea Scrolls contradict the Bible? Sadly, while Rev. Graham does get some of the history right, his ultimate analysis is lacking—and borderline … Continue reading
We all know the Jericho story pretty well—at least, if we’ve had much in the way of Bible schools, religious studies, or scriptural readings, we are familiar with how the walls of the city came tumbling down. We also know … Continue reading
As readers of this site are probably aware, Karen King, Christian history scholar, caused quite a stir in religious circles with a surprise announcement regarding a fragment of an ancient document that quotes Jesus talking about his “wife.” While at Holey … Continue reading
Rick Lowery, at the Huffington Post, discussing abortion and the Bible: It’s hard to ask biblical texts the modern question, “when does human life begin?” because the Bible has a very different understanding of human reproduction. Biblical writers don’t talk … Continue reading
This is the second in a series of posts on Joshua and the leadership transition from Moses. The first post can be found here. Despite a new face to lead the Israelites, Joshua proves to be pretty similar to Moses. … Continue reading
