http://alex.alexmayers.com Origins Sun, 11 Jul 2010 23:08:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Marcus Borg is brilliant and arguably the greatest Christian theologian of our time. I just finished rereading the epilogue in his book Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary. The epilogue is a better read than the rest of the book, which is also very good, ... http://alex.alexmayers.com/?p=465 Prophets are not omniscient. I find it troubling how much weight religions invest in this notion that prophets are somehow infallible. There's an interesting example in the Gospels of the New Testament involving John the Baptist, who Jesus said was "the greatest among the prophets." This exalted status as a ... http://alex.alexmayers.com/?p=410 I remember when I started studying ancient near-eastern linguistics about a decade ago. One of my primary interests at the time I started studying was the Egyptian influence on the Jewish religion, and more specifically on the text of the Torah. My rationale was that if a people and a ... http://alex.alexmayers.com/?p=121 I frequently hear Christians misuse the following famous passage from the Gospel of John: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 Christians frequently use The Word in this passage to mean the Bible, and then extend this to Jesus, ... http://alex.alexmayers.com/?p=351 The New Testament is written entirely in Greek. But many scholars for the past few centuries have speculated that the Greek gospels we inherited from the 1st century are translations of Aramaic originals that have been lost. Most of the analysis has focused on idiomatic phrases or grammatical structures in ... http://alex.alexmayers.com/?p=262 The wonderful thing about Google is that everyone in the world dumps their souls into it without realizing that their searches can be analyzed. We unwittingly query what we care about. Google Insights allows us to take a peek into the demographics and the insanity of the political environment, without ... http://alex.alexmayers.com/?p=217 I find it strange that the economic principles of Jesus are rarely studied, especially in America where an entire political party is built largely on Christianity. Jesus actually spends most of his time teaching about money in one form or another, and states that money is antagonistic to the kingdom ... http://alex.alexmayers.com/?p=17 Preface The origin of the name of God "Yahweh", or Jehovah, has been unnecessarily obscured. The reasons for this will immediately become clear once we start to dig. Most linguists who know Egyptian, Hebrew and Akkadian have long recognized this problem. Since an understanding of the languages is required to see ... http://alex.alexmayers.com/?p=5