Josephus’ Early Challenges in Galilee—and the Emergence of John of Gischala Upon arriving in Galilee, Josephus saw that his work was cut out for him. He was tasked with mobilizing the populace, raising an army, securing the region and building up fortifications throughout the area. And he had to do this in a region that…
In this next post in my series in which I analyze Ken Ham’s book, Six Days, The Age of the Earth and the Decline of the Church, I am going to take a look at the next two chapters in the book. Now for Chapter Two… Having condemned a number of Christian academics who don’t…
It was four years ago that I first really began to pay attention to Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis. It began with writing a number of posts on the Nye/Ham Debate, and it kicked into high gear when I was informed by an over-zealous YECist headmaster that I was no longer a “good fit”…
Cestius Marches Upon Jerusalem Cestius’ march into Judea was swift and brutal: Antipatris, to Lydda, and soon outside the walls of Jerusalem. Once there, Cestius took a few days to organize his troops and determine a plan of attack. Much to his initial surprise, though, the zealots in Jerusalem proved not to be the most…
The news of the uprising in Jerusalem quickly spread like wildfire throughout the region, and soon people throughout the entire province of Judea retaliated against the Jews living among them. It didn’t matter whether or not their Jewish neighbors had anything directly to do with the uprising in Jerusalem. The persistent agitation and terrorists acts…
Agrippa’s Soldiers Arrive in Jerusalem; the Festival of Xylophory As soon as Agrippa’s soldiers arrived in Jerusalem, it became clear that regaining control of the entire city immediately was out of the question. And so, they, along with the city leaders and the high priests, were able to take possession of Mt. Zion and the…
Throughout the rest of this year, I have determined to write my own, more simplified version of Josephus’ account of the Jewish Revolt of AD 66-70. As mentioned in a previous series on my blog involving Jesus and the Olivet Discourse, I believe that at the heart of Jesus’ prophetic declaration during the Passion week…
Over the past few months, thousands of women throughout the United States have courageously come forward and told their own stories about sexual harassment. This is a good thing. This post, though, is not about that. As it seems to be the case with all movements, especially in our current age of social media, people…
In yesterday’s post I wrote about the article by Valerie Tarico entitled “Why is the Bible So Badly Written?” that was taken down by Salon.com because it had gotten such negative feedback. The long and short of the article, as I said, was the equivalent of a sophomoric complaint about having to read Shakespeare. Specifically,…
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine messaged me on Facebook, “Did you catch the Salon article on the Bible, before it got pulled?” I said, “No, what did it say?” He replied, “Oh it was so bad,” and proceeded to tell me a bit about it and told me if I was able…