Six Months At the Most And That’s All: Then The Trial of the Century Will Be Over

The Jerusalem Post reports

The Justice Ministry has been given six months to decide how to proceed in the trial of an antiquities dealer suspected of forging a purported reference to Jesus on an ancient burial box and a stone tablet with biblical passages. Both items were hailed as major archaeological finds but subsequently deemed clever forgeries. The ministry has been forced to reevaluate the case after the Jerusalem District Court judge in the case advised the prosecution to reassess its position in the three-year-old trial because it failed to prove that the key suspect, Tel Aviv antiquities collector Oded Golan, had indeed faked the biblical-era artifacts. The Justice Ministry would not say whether it plans to drop or amend the charge sheet against Golan and another suspect. “We will state our position – whatever it will be – in court as is the accepted practice,” a ministry spokeswoman said Sunday in a statement. Golan, owner of the James ossuary and the Yoash tablet, was arrested by Jerusalem police in 2003 following a two-year probe after an elaborate forgery lab was discovered at his home.

It seems that Hershel’s victory dance was premature. It isn’t over when he says it is: it’s over when the courts say it is.  Via Joseph Lauer.

Someone Needs to Tell Mike It’s Sunday

He thinks it’s Friday!  Bless him.  He must be teetering on the same ledge that Tilling is.  They do share one commonality though which may explain things:  they are both Australian (which is like being Canadian but without the cool Canadian accent).

Anyway, pray for Mike too…  He needs it.

Why I Don’t Like the Homeless

There are several reasons why I don’t like the homeless.  And I’ve been thinking about them ever since I read a blog posting on another site about homeless folk.  Here they are:

1- The homeless tend to smell bad.  Nothing mucks up the aroma of a beautiful non-fat decaf Latte like the stench of a beggar asking for a dollar.

2- They don’t have homes.  Seriously.  How can you not have a home?  Get a job, and then let the government bail out the banks that own your mortgage so that they can kick you out and resell it to someone else.

3- They don’t surf the web.  Hence, they don’t read here.  So really, how fun can they be?  What do they talk about at their homeless parties if not biblical and theological stuff?

4- They don’t home school.  The best they can manage is ‘box’ schooling or ’sheet’ schooling.  And we all know that only the home schooled are smart.

5- They don’t have very nice clothes.  If they were running for office like Sarah Palin they could have very nice clothes and not even have to pay for them.  Instead, they dig through the garbage and they go to Goodwill and get clothes that other people dump off.

6- I don’t know any.  How can I be concerned about someone I don’t know?

7- I can safely ignore them because they aren’t listed in Matthew 25. The hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the imprisoned, and the sick are, so I care about them.  But nary a word is said of the homeless.  If Jesus really liked them too, he would have mentioned them.

And the main reason why I don’t like the homeless?  Because they can’t do anything for me.

[n.b.- please, gentle reader, this time, pay attention to the category].

In London?

If so, you really ought to do your dead level best to get over to St. Paul’s (where the formerly mentally balanced but now teetering on the brink of insanity Chris Tilling teaches) and sit in on the lecture that Margaret Barker will give tomorrow.  Chris has the details.  Do go.

What The….????

I fear that Chris Tilling, formerly of Germany but now resident of London, has finally snapped.  Cracked.  Gone bonkers.  Flipped his lid.  Cracked his noggin.  Thrown the baby out with the bath water.  Shuffled off this mortal coil (mentally speaking).  And lost it.

Pray for Chris.  This sort of thing may well indicate his final pass into madness.

More Gun Violence: The Slaying of the Pastor

Yesterday morning as the Pastor was making way to attend a funeral, a disgruntled gun-toter shot him in cold blood, because he could.

The gunman was apparently lying in wait for “a known target” and opened fire when the men got out of a black Cadillac, Covington police Chief Lee Russo said. The Rev. Donald Fairbanks Sr., pastor of New St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church on Freeman Avenue in Cincinnati, died at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Covington. … The men were attending the funeral of Alice Turner, a 71-year-old great-grandmother, when they were ambushed on Ninth Street about 10:50 a.m., Russo said. The first victim was shot in the side as he got out of the car, Russo said. The second, who was standing near the car, ran after being hit. The gunman chased him to a park at Ninth and Prospect streets, where he collapsed near a picnic pavilion. The gunman then apparently shot him again, Russo said. Police did not reveal a motive, but Hamilton County court records show that the two men had more than a yearlong dispute that included a judge ordering Davis to stay away from Fairbanks and his church. In June 2007, Fairbanks filed a complaint against Davis saying that Davis called Fairbanks’ wife and threatened her, saying, “I’m going to make you feel what I feel,” according to court records. Davis told Fairbanks’ wife that Fairbanks, who was out of town at the time, was with Davis’ ex-girlfriend, the complaint said. In the complaint, Fairbanks denied the claim.

Or, to put it briefly, the killer thought the preacher was seeing his girlfriend though the preacher had denied it.

Besides the ease with which nutjobs like Davis can get firearms, this case also shows the absolute worthlessness of restraining orders. In the words of the Dixie Chicks, Earl walked right through that restraining order, and so do all the Earls of the world.  I think it’s time to throw in the towel and admit that our country will never lose or abandon its gunlust.  We love death too much to stand up for what’s right.  We’re just violent by nature- a nature totally depraved.

The Quest For the Historical NT Wrong

Roland Boer today initiates the First Quest of the Historical NT Wrong.  Don’t worry, I’m sure there will be a second and third quest followed by a period of confusion and repetition of past arguments till we all want to hang ourselves (like these days in connection with the Quest for the Historical Jesus).

But back to Boer’s Quest.  Here’s the rules-

a) Only rigorous, scientific research.
b) No hidden theological agenda.
c) Profound scepticism over written sources, especially NT Wrong’s blog and the Bible.
d) Only artefacts verified by an international team of specialists (The Guild of Biblical Minimalists)
e) No fuzzy pictures.
f) No looking in mirrors or down wells, as Schweitzer would have put it.
g) No hagiography or rationalist paraphrase.

[n.b. - I won't be able to participate because of the unfair advantage I have of actually knowing- but since I'm sworn to secrecy mum's the word.  I mean really, if you can't trust a parson to be quiet, who can you trust].

Quest away!!!!!

The Verdict: On Shanks, BAR, and The Trial of the Century

Antonio Lombatti takes Hershel Shanks to the proverbial woodshed for his triumphalistic language in the most recent edition of BAR concerning the ‘vindication’ of those who still, in spite of all evidence and sense, adhere to the legitimacy of the ‘James Ossuary’ inscription’s authenticity.  You need to read this post.

No, Jesus Wasn’t a Socialist

One of the biggest problems in Historical Jesus research is the tendency of moderns and post-moderns to foist their own personality and inclinations onto the person of Jesus.  ‘American Thinker‘ (where you’d think people thought) has made the same mistake by casting Jesus in the form of a socialist (by implication).

Interestingly, the final question of the essay, a quote from the Gospels, ‘who do you say that I am?’ can only be answered with ‘it doesn’t matter what you think about Jesus or about who he was.  It only matters what Jesus thought of himself.’  Casting Jesus in your own image or in some idealized image simply because that’s who you wish him to be is utterly irrelevant.

If you wish to see Jesus as a socialist, or an Emergent, or a wandering sage, or a rebellious peasant, that only says something about you.  But it has no historical meaning.