Browsing the archives for the social history category

Breastfeeding and the Bible at SBL

Breasts are not a typical conversation topic for biblical scholars, at least not in my experience. But they do tend to be a common conversation piece in my household. My wife, among other things, is a Certified Lactation Educator and is very passionate about breastfeeding. If the topic interests you, you may find her blog [...]

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The New Testament in Antiquity by Burge, Cohick, and Green

The New Testament in Antiquity: A Survey of the New Testament within its Cultural Contexts
Authors: Gary M. Burge, Lynn H. Cohick, and Gene E. Green
Hardcover: 480 pages
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 9780310244950
Buy: Zondervan; Amazon
I have to admit that I was salivating about this book since I first saw the author interview posted on Zondervan’s Koinonia blog. I would [...]

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Paul's Mother Was a Roman Citizen

This is the suggestion of Lynn Cohick in a recent post on Zondervan’s blog Koinonia. I have not come to a conclusion myself regarding the citizenship of Paul. His citizenship plays a significant role in Acts, but is nowhere mentioned in Paul’s actual letters. Historically speaking, then, I think those who argue that Acts invented [...]

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Jesus' Family Values

I’m borrowing the title of Deirdre Good’s book even though I haven’t read it. It’s a catchy way of getting at what I’ve been considering quite a bit lately. As we read Jesus’ statements in the Gospels, he often feels somewhat hostile to blood families. Christians caught up in “family values” culture wars in North [...]

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Film: "Birth of a New Religion"

Bartchy had his survey course, “History of Early Christians,” watch a section of a documentary film on Christianity to review. I thought I would share my own thoughts here. Part One of the film “Two Thousand Years: The History of Christianity” (1999), a section entitled “The Birth of a New Religion: 1st and 2nd Centuries,” [...]

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In the Mail: Malina's The New Testament World

Many thanks to Westminster John Knox Press for sending over a review copy of Bruce Malina’s unique New Testament introduction, The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology! This is a standard text for Scott Bartchy for many of his classes at UCLA. I actually haven’t read the book yet, so I thought it’d [...]

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