A Virtual File Cabinet for Our Studies of Christian Origins & Hebraic Faith
From BAR Mapping Troy’s Luwian Context In a paper published in the journal Nature Scientific Data, an international team from the Luwian Studies Foundation provided the most up-to-date map of Middle and Late Bronze Age (c. 2000–1200 BCE) Luwian settlements ever catalogued, which includes ancient Troy. The study, comprising 483 settlements, illuminates the cultural landscape around […]
Continue ReadingBelow is a summary produced by ChatGPT, and then a follow-up second response, of the very good article at BAR here. At the end of that second response is this overall conclusion paragraph by ChatGPT. Across multiple categories—deportations, royal status, daily life, economic activity, social mobility, and post-exilic continuity—the cuneiform evidence repeatedly aligns with the […]
Continue ReadingFrom ChatGPT on 12/4/2025. How did Marcus Borg use the flatlander analogy to talk about God? Short Answer – He did not. I found no direct evidence that Marcus J. Borg ever explicitly invoked the classic “Flatland/Flatlander” analogy (2‑D beings perceiving a 3‑D reality) in his published works or known lectures. What I can show […]
Continue ReadingNOTE – For a non-theological explanation and analogies of the Flatlander concept, go to https://davisinterests.com/ and click on pages under the top-line menu item “Flatlanders”. From ChatGPT on 12/4/2025. Here’s a one-sentence summary of this post: Critical scholars use the Flatlander analogy to show that biblical texts reveal only partial “slices” of God’s higher-dimensional reality—like […]
Continue ReadingFrom ChatGPT on 12/3/2025 and 12/12/2025. Below is an outline comparing how each Gospel handles Jesus’ origins and what that reveals about their distinct theological aims, with scholarly support embedded in the text. Scroll down for a comparison table. Below that response is a more focused response on how and why, or silence, on his […]
Continue ReadingFrom ChatGPT on 12/3/2025. Below is a historical-critical explanation of why the Gospel of John omits a birth narrative, using the work of major scholars (Brown, Bultmann, Koester, Schnackenburg, Culpepper, Martyn, Dunn, Bauckham, and others). Citations appear within the text itself, as you require. 1. John’s theological agenda makes a human birth narrative unnecessary John’s […]
Continue ReadingThis post contains only the question by an attendee at the lecture linked below. The questioner asks Paula to confirm her understanding of Paul’s position. Paula strongly supported her statement as a “very rich comment“ about what Paul was doing. In relation to the overall subject of the lecture, Paula does not support the position […]
Continue ReadingAbout God – What happened to YHWH? The God of Jesus, YHWH, is not the God the Christian church worships. The Christian Church did not follow Jesus as they do not call the divinity YHWH, and added Jesus and the Holy Spirit, creating the Trinity. The author of the Gospel of John surely is frustrated […]
Continue ReadingFrom their email of 12/1/2025. BAS Library Special Collection, Solomon’s Splendor.
Continue ReadingSix responses from ChatGPT on 12/1/2025 stemming from my transcript of Ross Nichols’s video on YouTube Did Moses Point to Jesus?. See his directory in Dropbox for the transcript. Below is an outline-style summary of Ross Nichols’s paper Did Moses Point to Jesus? focused only on the specific instances where theologians (or the Gospel writers/theologizing […]
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