Sure, John Dominic Crossan is an interesting figure. He is an engaging and very personable individual. His scholarship has been extremely provocative and influential. While I disagree with many of his conclusions, I’ve benefited from reading his work. But why is it that CNN has run a story on him for two days on the homepage…

Check out this CNN story that deals in part with Muslims protecting Christians during the protests in Cairo. This is a different angle on Christian-Muslim relations in Egypt, one that we rarely see in the U.S.

Got back in late last night. I heard a couple of our West Virginia travelers were hung up in New York overnight, but I haven’t heard anything else about flight complications. Overall, this has been a very, very good trip. The program of the Society for Biblical Studies isn’t just about tourism. It’s about getting…

Great day in Galilee yesterday: worship on the Sea of Galilee, then over to Capernaum, the Mount of the Beatitudes, the traditional site of Peter’s house, and the River Jordan. Late in the day we made our way down to the Dead Sea because a couple of people wanted to float. Today we’re going to Tent…

We left Bethlehem this morning and went to Qumran. After seeing the sights there for a little while we had lunch in Jericho. Jericho is the lowest city on earth, and perhaps the oldest continuously inhabited city on earth. And they make good falafel. After lunch we made our way up into Galilee and finally…

Today we went to an Israeli settlement where we met with two rabbis who spoke with us about Zionism and the function of settlements within it. Their presentations were rather different, as one seemed much more militant than the other. From the settlement we went immediately to a Palestinian refugee camp in Hebron. We spoke with…

I couldn’t blog for a while because there was not easy internet access at St. Catherine’s monastery. (Go figure.) Regardless, St. Catherine’s was incredible. Many of us climbed Sinai, attended the Greek Orthodox service, and took a brief tour of the monastery sanctuary. We made our way into Israel yesterday and spent the night in…

We had a great meeting today with Jesus the Light of the World Church deaf unit in Cairo, a ministry of the Anglican Church (technically, the Anglican Diocese of Egypt with North African and the Horn of Africa).  About 10% of the population of Cairo is hearling impaired. This church ministers to Christians from all…

We went to Saqqara today outside of Cairo. We saw the Step Pyramid, which is very impressive, and later we went to Dashur and saw the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid. You can go into the Red Pyramid, which was interesting, though it had its challenges. For lunch I had flatbread and considerable amount…