Brian Chilcote
Jesus Under Construction: History versus Theology
Exploring the tensions between unbiased history and theological invention in the New Testament
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Loving God and Loving Others Fearlessly
Brian Chilcote
- Jan 26
- 13 min
Paul the Persecuted: Why did he make so many enemies?
Once upon a time in a certain town, a preacher from down south set up shop at the Free Speech Corner. His blend of traditionalism and...
Brian Chilcote
- Nov 7, 2023
- 9 min
The Sign of Jonah: Astrology and Early Christianity
"And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons...
Brian Chilcote
- Sep 30, 2023
- 14 min
My God is Better than your god!
Imagine a world in which power struggles regularly erupt between rival factions whose tribes gather at the field of battle to pit their...
Brian Chilcote
- Aug 3, 2023
- 18 min
Homosexuality and the Bible Part Three
Examples of misunderstood New Testament verses First let's remind ourselves of the Greco-Roman-Jewish perspectives that are unique to the...
Brian Chilcote
- Aug 3, 2023
- 9 min
Homosexuality and the Bible Part Two
Now let's look at those unusual passages in the Bible, remembering that they reflect the sensibilities of post-exilic conservative Jews...
Brian Chilcote
- Aug 3, 2023
- 7 min
Homosexuality and the Bible, Part One
Data over Dogma is a popular podcast that features Bible scholar Dan McClellan and Atheist Dan Beecher interacting with biblical material...
Brian Chilcote
- Jun 30, 2023
- 13 min
Bible Things That Make You Go, "Huh?"
"What is it?" Whether it's Superman, a UFO or a strange sea creature, inquiring humans want to know. We make our best guesses: A bird? A...
Brian Chilcote
- Apr 13, 2023
- 11 min
Genocidal Joshua?
What about the bothersome parts of the Bible that depict God telling people to kill other people? How did these scenes make it into our...
Brian Chilcote
- Mar 21, 2023
- 9 min
Can I get Your Autograph?
Thoughts on the Authorship of Scripture We cannot be dependent on the “original autographs,” not only because we do not have them, but...
Brian Chilcote
- Mar 2, 2023
- 13 min
Interrogating Biblical Inspiration
"We contend that viewing the inspiration of Scripture solely from the cognitive environment of print culture opens the door to...
Brian Chilcote
- Feb 21, 2023
- 20 min
Sources of Truth: How do we know what we know?
You've seen optical illusions- they're everywhere. In times past, decorators and artists would produce paintings called trompe l'oeil...
Brian Chilcote
- Feb 16, 2023
- 22 min
Time, Text and Translation: A (very) Brief Biography of the New Testament
It's around 40 CE. Stories and sayings of Jesus are circulating around Jerusalem, other nearby urban centers and Galilee. A novel Jewish...
Brian Chilcote
- Jan 26, 2023
- 9 min
Peeking Over the Wall of Certainty
Many churchgoing believers are given the impression that the Bible is totally unique among written works. We are taught that in subject...
Kevin Brisbin
- Dec 6, 2022
- 13 min
Advent-ure
Let's test your familiarity with the Christmas tradition we call Advent. So as not to leave any readers in the dark, I have provided the...
Brian Chilcote
- Nov 14, 2022
- 3 min
Where to Begin? Books and Podcasts you Should Know
There once was a book called the Bible But some people labeled it libel "Why?" you may ask It was taken to task For promoting a God who's...
Brian Chilcote
- Oct 25, 2022
- 6 min
Unwritten Rules and the Bible- Hermeneutics 4
Don't expect your meeting at a Venezuelan coffee shop to start on time. It's rude to expect anything less than 15 minutes past the...
Brian Chilcote
- Oct 6, 2022
- 5 min
Rhetorical Questions Part 6: Implications for Interpretation
Rhetoric… So what? What are the implications for us, modern readers of the Gospel of John? And what might be of value in applying ancient...
Brian Chilcote
- Oct 6, 2022
- 5 min
Rhetorical Questions Part 5: The Gospel of John meets Cicero
It has been suggested that the gospel of John is organized similarly to a Ciceronian argument in a court of law (Cicero was a well known...
Brian Chilcote
- Oct 5, 2022
- 6 min
Rhetorical Questions Part 4 Literary Devices
While only a few privileged denizens of antiquity had access to an education in rhetoric, nearly everyone experienced it in some way as...
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