Gain additional insight, information, and interaction for topics engaged through blog posts and presentations.
Bible Resources
Resources for reading the Bible, listening to the Bible, following Bible reading guides and plans, and recommendations for research and more information about the Bible.
Conferences & Presentations
Resources to help with planning for a live presentation, making the most of conference sessions, and recommendations for online conferences.
Language Resources
Resources that help and encourage the linguistic study of the Bible. Resources include word studies, linguistic and literary comparisons, and other tools for understanding the ancient languages of the Bible and related literature from the ancient Near East.
Religion & Pop Culture Resources
Resources to encourage discussion and conversation about religious and theological influences in popular culture. Resources include a curated list of movies, films, and series, organized by divine figures, and a music playlist. This is a working project.
Recent Blog Posts
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Wandering through Leviticus Part II
NOTE: This is part of a 3-part series. The first is Wandering Through Leviticus Part I, and following this is Wandering through Leviticus Part III. The Priests This week, we dove into our discussion of Leviticus by profiling the Priests making sacrifices. Leviticus Priests were like butchers or surgeons. This is not the modern pastor,…
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The Passover Seder 2021
On Friday evening, our family celebrated our first Passover Seder in our home. We blocked a few hours on the calendar to dedicate to preparing food, setting the table, and enjoying some pre-dinner Passover drinks (which is apparently, a thing). My daughter helped me make coconut macaroons dipped in chocolate, which was so incredibly easy!…
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Freedom, Beauty, Truth, and Love & Good Friday
This morning, I spent some time thinking about how to best observe the significance of Good Friday. I could not separate the concept of the crucifixion from immaculate love, so I decided to reflect on love by watching a musical that explores many aspects of love, in all its complexities, corruption, purity, and simplicity—Baz Luhrman’s…
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The Day Before Passover
It’s one day before our scheduled Passover Seder and in addition to picking up the few straggling items from the shopping list, we are slow cooking the brisket and making the charoset. Joshua prepared the root vegetables and seasoned the brisket in the morning so it was ready for a long day of slow cooking…
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Preparing Passover
16—How many years I have studied the Bible as a scholar, resulting in to Masters degrees and one PhD. 12—How many years I have spent teaching University students about the Hebrew Bible. 0—Number of times I have tried to celebrate a year’s worth of Jewish holidays. This year, I was very accurately targeted with an…
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Wandering through Leviticus Part I
I am reading the book of Leviticus and a few friends, so we have a topic of conversation to guide our weekly Zoom-meeting discussions. We’re taking it slow, but the questions come quickly. We have five Master’s degrees in Linguistics, Law, Chemistry, two doctorate degrees, and one doctoral candidate. We started by reading the first…
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SBLAAR20 Academic Conference Highlights
Early in the SBLAAR20 conference, an Institute of Biblical Research (IBR) section focused on how scripture is used in the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible. Gary Schnittjer presented how the Old Testament uses Hebrew Scriptures to provide a resource for how the New Testament uses Hebrew Scripture. It is exciting to see…
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Reading the Bible with Integrity
Why “literal” doesn’t always mean honest—and how a faithful reading begins with humility Ever since I went to seminary, I’ve become acutely aware of a phrase commonly heard among Christians: “I read the Bible literally.” Before seminary, I wasn’t unaware that the Bible was written in another language—but I hadn’t fully considered that it was…
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Book Review—Composing a Life by Mary Catherine Bateson
About the author—Mary Catherine Bateson is the daughter of two social anthropologists and scholars, Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson. She is an anthropology scholar on her own right as well. From what I can tell, she is damn impressive, and this book is evidence of her thoughtful and thought-provoking interaction with life. What drew me…
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SBLAAR20: Day Ten
Zoom, Zoom, Zoom—Tenth Day of a 10-day online academic conference Two years ago, at SBLAAR18 in Denver, CO, I gave a presentation on the final morning of the conference. It is not a popular time slot and is usually filled with visitors on their way to the airport, luggage in hand. The virtual conference last…
