Gospel of Jesus’ Wife? – Beware the Sound of One Hand Clapping

I once remarked on the History Channel documentary, “Banned from the Bible”: “Just when we think that the very last word on biblical scholarship has been said, the landscape changes, and usually in completely unexpected ways. Sometimes we really think we’re on to something, and then somebody comes along and debunks it all… It means that it’s an ongoing mystery as well as an incredible detective saga.”

David’s City: Defying the Propaganda

by Kenneth L. Hanson, Ph.D. Associate Professor Univ. of Central Florida, Orlando 
author, The Eagle and the Bible: Lessons in Liberty from Holy Writ,  New English Review Press, 2012 

http://www.amazon.com/The-Eagle-Bible-Lessons-Liberty/dp/0985439408/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345321257&sr=8-1&keywords=eagle+and+the+bible

Modern Israel has built itself up based on the principle of creating “facts on the ground” – a complete infrastructure for a functioning nation-state – regardless of sanction, or lack thereof, by the international community. But as important as these “facts on the ground are,” imagine, how important it is for the morale of Israelis, surrounded as they are by enemies intent on their annihilation, to come across “facts underground.” Imagine coming to the confirmed archaeological site of the city and, quite possibly, the palace of ancient Israel’s greatest potentate, the illustrious King David.

“Israelity” – One American’s Experience in the World’s Hotspot

It dawned on me that I really ought to circulate certain personal/ life experiences that give me at least a bit of insight on Israel and the Middle East, as a microcosm of many of the issues that face America and the world today. My story involves both adventure and the shock of reality – a rude awakening to the reality of the “culture of death” that pervades much of the Arab world.

The Dream Is Dying

by Kenneth L. Hanson, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Univ. of Central Florida, Orlando

author, The Eagle and the Bible: Lessons in Liberty from Holy Writ, 

New English Review Press, 2012

President Barack Obama recently declared, “The nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism.” Tell a story? Well, there are a lot of us these days who have stories to tell, that, far from reflecting unity, purpose and optimism, are testimonials to another sad reality: the “American dream” – at least under the Obama administration – is dying.

Friday Night Torah!

This week's Davar Torah is all about "espionage." The parasha of the week -- Shlakh Lekha -- relates how 12 "secret agents" were commissioned to "spy out" the land of Canaan prior to the coming Israelite invasion of their new "Promised Land." Trouble is, 10 of the 12 come back terrified, complaining of great, fortified cities and "giants" in the land. Even the grapes are too big! What do we make of this "hesitant" approach to taking possession of the land we would come to call Israel? There are lessons to learn here, in Dr. Ken Hanson's new multimedia presentation that promises to be a "visual feast." Friday night... Be there!
http://www.betchaim.org/

Mayor Bloomberg, Coke, and the Bible

An addendum to yesterday's observations:

C.S. Lewis famously wrote: “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

What could be more illustrative of the prophetic truth of these words than the new rules proposed by New York’s Mayor Bloomberg to ban the purchase of sugary soft drinks in excess of 16 fl. oz.? But this shouldn’t surprise us. After all, when a population (like ours) gradually surrenders its freedom to what amounts to a “benevolent dictatorship,” all for what we mistakenly think is “security,” we end up with neither security nor benevolence. We just get tyranny. 

Is government today the "new nanny"? Or perhaps the "new pharaoh"? Next time we buy a Coke, let's make it a large one, in honor of this new definition of "pro-choice"!

http://www.amazon.com/The-Eagle-Bible-Lessons-Liberty/dp/0985439408/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338731900&sr=8-1

So, You Wanna Go Back to Egypt?

Does the Bible really weigh in on political theory? You bet it does! It’s all about “freedom.” Let’s face it; freedom is a word that’s really cheap, misunderstood, overused. It doesn’t really grip people the way it ought to. But when you think about it, “freedom” is a theme that runs all through the biblical text. And by the way, it’s not really what we think of today, in terms of the great conservative-liberal debate. When the Bible talks about freedom, conservatives might want to embrace that, but to be honest, it’s more on the level of what we’d call “classical liberalism.” That’s what emphasized – all through history – real individual freedom. Classical liberalism is all about the freedom of the individual, not to be governed in the minute details of our lives, by the state. Not to be ruled over by some “mastermind,” whether a king or monarch, or some oligarchy of all-wise, all-knowing autocrats.

The Eagle and the Bible

Check out the latest publicity! "Wise and compelling" ... I'll accept that! Due out on Kindle June 15, and in print July 1. Do I sense a New York Times bestseller?

Memorial Day, the Constitution, and the Bible

As I’m now engaged in teaching a summer course on the Hebrew Scriptures, I can’t help but reflect – this being Memorial Day – that the distinguished Founders weren’t only indebted to the likes of Montesquieu, Locke, Burke and others for their political theory, but (believe it or not) to the Bible. The “Good Book,” they were convinced, would help them escape the endless pitfalls of governing. Remember the prophet Samuel, who warned the Israelites of the dangers of asking for a king? Didn’t the Scriptures envision an early form of “checks and balances” to prevent one form of tyranny or another from gaining the upper hand? The king wasn’t allowed to rule in an unfettered manner; he was to be “checked” by priests and prophets, whose job it was to hold him accountable to a higher authority, who could and frequently did put him in his royal place. The Bible, it seems, isn’t just a book of high-minded religiosity. It puts forth the very political ideas that came to be part of our own republic!

Libertarian Musings on Memorial Day Weekend/ Shavuot

It’s definitely appropriate to reflect on “freedom” on Memorial Day. But let’s recognize at the outset that freedom, far from being something we yawn about in a musty old history book, is by nature more than a tad … SUBVERSIVE. America’s Founders were, as we know, students of the Bible … but not just as traditional religionists, who politely bowed their heads as they listened to Sunday sermons. They were rebels with a cause – freedom from British tyranny – and they looked for political lessons in every page of holy writ. The fact that quite a number of them were in full rebellion against religious authority (many being Deists, Unitarians, and members of disparate sects – Quakers, Separatists and the like) enabled them to look at Scripture with a critical eye, not just swallow what their clergymen told them. That “rebellious” attitude is what got them over here to begin with, and it further informed their entire philosophy of government (hence the First Amendment). It also helped birth a revolution.

The Bible is … Political!

I was musing with my class today: What a pity, that people compartmentalize their lives into little boxes; and they have this box called “religion,” into which they stick the Bible and whatever sanctimonious prattle they imagine goes along with it. So, the Bible gets read purely as a “religious” book, even though relatively little of it has to do with what modern folk think of as “theology.” Rather, it’s about human behavior, ethics, justice, a whole lot of law, and … politics! 

That’s the theme and message of my new (and 6^th) book, The Eagle and the Bible. The Good Book is really “good politics”! Furthermore, we can find endless parallels between the stories recounted in its narratives and the American experience, especially the struggle against tyrannical government. I’ve in fact isolated a political, “revolutionary” current – anti-establishment and anti-big government – in Holy Writ that’s as deliciously “subversive” today as it was back in the days of David, Solomon, and yes, Moses. Were these heroes of the Bible the great religious leaders they are made out to be, or were they much closer to biblical “tyrants,” opposed by a good many of the Israelites themselves? Here’s a book that dares to question traditional interpretations, not to cast doubt on the Bible, but to demonstrate just how relevant it is to the greater debate today, when so many feel that government is basically out of control, and cannot be trusted. 

The great divide over the role of government is certainly not foreign to American history. But how many people, when they read the Bible, also recognize the “great divide” between those Israelites who favored an all-powerful central government, and those who favored a loose “confederation” of tribes? Is that any different from the debates in early America between the Federalists (Alexander Hamilton, John Adams and others), who preferred strong central authority, and the Anti-Federalists (Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, Samuel Adams and Thomas Jefferson), who advanced the cause of “states rights”? In ancient Israel, the issue was “tribes rights,” and in both cases the end result was civil war. 

 My goal is to stir up a whole new respect for the Bible, as a masterful political work, that can tutor us through the great issues of the day, if we’re bold enough to peek beneath the surface and seek out the political conflict that underlies the whole narrative. As I tell my students: Conflict drives everything!