Biblical oil is modern medicine

Professor Michael Ovadia from the Tel Aviv University's Zoology department has produced a modern version of a priestly anointing oil, taking his recipe from the Bible. He found that it was amazingly effective in preventing Avian flu, herpes and HIV. He has even sold his discovery to a multinational company! Michael said that he carried out his research on the suspicion that the oil played a role in preventing the spread of infectious diseases from animals to people, as Israel's priests were to anoint themselves with the oil prior to conducting animal sacrifices.

Source - http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=13532

Oldest Biblical Text

I realise this is old news, but I have only recently come across this information so I thought I would make a post for anyone else who might of missed it. Gabriel Barkay, an Israeli archaeologist, discovered what is thought to be the oldest preserved copy of Biblical text, a number of years ago. On the left of this post you can see the discovery and on the right you can see the restored text and English translation (NOTE: unfortunately it translates YHWH as Lord). These verses are from Numbers 6:24-26 and constitute a priestly blessing.
For more information check out this news item or the Israeli government's website on archaeology.

Study Bible Project

For a few months now I have been working on creating a study Bible that will be outputted to PDF format so others can use it. I am using all public domain sources for the Bible so it won't cost me anything to make, and so that I can also offer it for free. I have started a blog for the project over at http://study-bible.blogspot.com. Feel free to offer input.

Monday Quote of the Week

"The Socinians wanted to get rid of all philosophical language in Christian theology. They wanted to just go back to the bare texts of Scripture. The result was a theology that was (surprise, surprise) Unitarian. Guess what? If you get rid of all the Greek philosophical vocabulary in Christian theology, you cannot express God’s threeness-in-oneness in anything approximating a coherent way. You simply can’t do it. And historically it’s the case that whenever people have tried to purge Christianity of what we would call metaphysical language, philosophical language, it always ends up in Unitarianism.

- Dr Carl R Trueman (a member of the Free Church of Scotland and Departmental Chair of Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia) - quote taken from Immoderate blog.

Tuesday Top Seven

For this weeks (belated) Tuesday Top Seven, I have chosen a short, sweet and opinionated list:

My Top Seven Translations of the Holy Scriptures

1. New World Translation - literal, precise, translators had great knowledge of original languages

2. New American Bible - very literal, but try and get the 2nd version that gets rid of most of the "inclusive" language used in the 1st, 3rd & 4th versions

3. Jerusalem Bible - a poetic, "dynamic equivalence" translation, features God's name in the Hebrew Scriptures.

4. New Jerusalem Bible - update of the Jerusalem Bible, uses some "gender inclusive" language

5. American Standard Version - based on the King James Version, but updates the speech and common errors, very accurate for its time, and one of the most literal Bibles of all time.

6. New English Bible - relatively free translation with some interesting renderings

7. The Bible in Living English - The eccentric Byington's own translation, features the divine name, modern language, and faithful renderings.

America - nation of Biblical illiterates!

Time magazine has an artile entitled The Case for Teaching The Bible that examines developments in the United States calling for secular Bible classes to be taught in schools. An interesting quote caught my eye:

"According to Religious Literacy, polls show that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the Bible holds the answers to "all or most of life's basic questions,"but pollster George Gallup has dubbed us "a nation of biblical illiterates." Only half of U.S. adults know the title of even one Gospel. Most can't name the Bible's first book. The trend extends even to Evangelicals, only 44% of whose teens could identify a particular quote as coming from the Sermon on the Mount.

While this biblical illteracy is no surprise to many true Christians, we can also take note that many Americans still view the Bible as a high authority, they just lack understanding of it. All there more reason to get out there and preach the good news!