Dr Paul Allen

The famous Australian phrase "Buckley’s chance" —which famously means "no chance at all"—ironically commemorates a man who beat the ultimate odds. While the saying implies a hopeless situation, the real-life story of William Buckley is one of the most astonishing tales of survival and cross-cultural integration in colonial history. The Great Escap e In 1803, William Buckley, a towering former British soldier turned convict, arrived at Port Phillip Bay (near modern-day Sorrento, Victoria) to help establish a new penal colony. The settlement quickly fell into misery due to a severe lack of fresh water. On a hot night later that year, Buckley and a few other prisoners decided to risk everything and escaped into the rugged, unfamiliar Australian bush. The group's sense of geography was so poor that they initially believed they could walk all the way to China. Ill-equipped and starving, Buckley's companions eventually lost hope and turned back, never to be heard...

Robert R. Cargill, PhD .  Bible & Archaeology (University of Iowa) People ask about the problematic nature of this census, its historicity and its failure to align well with the birth narrative in Matthew's Gospel. First, know that biblical scholars have wrestled with this census issue for over a century. But let me explain it as best I can here. Luke 2:1–3 reads: (1) In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.  (2) This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.  (3) All went to their own towns to be registered. The census has a couple of problems. First, Quirinius and Herod the Great did not rule at the same time. Herod the Great died in 4 BCE. Anyway, Herod the Great died in 4 BCE, and yet Publius Sulpicius Quirinius wasn’t appointed as the governor of Syria until 6 CE, that is, well after Herod the Great died and after Herod’s son and successor, Archelaus, was banished as ruler...

QUESTION: Luke says that Jesus was born during the census of Quirinus, which took place in 6 CE, whereas Matthew says Jesus was born during the reign of King Herod, who died ten years earlier, in 4 BCE.

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbour. For each will have to bear his own load. (Gal. 6:1–5) In these five verses Paul uses the word bear twice: first to command his hearers to bear one another’s burdens and then to remind them that they must bear their own load. How can both of these statements be true simultaneously? Part of the answer comes from considering Paul’s use of the word law in verse 2. This is the only time we see the exact phrase the law of Christ.” There is something distinctive about the law of Christ—something that distinguishes it from the Old Testament law. Throughout Galatians, law is ...

What is a temple? A religious building, yes. But specifically, a temple is a place where humans meet with God. Even more specifically than that, it is where impure humanity meets with pure divinity. It is where the divine and the human, otherwise alienated from one another, meet; where the sacred and the profane intersect once more. All of humanity knows itself to somehow be outside. A temple is where, briefly, we can be brought back in. In the Old Testament, the divine and the human mingled in a physical building, where, with strictly limited access, we could fellowship with the holy God. In the New Testament, the divine and the human mingled in a physical body, where, with unlimited access, we could fellowship with the holy God. And while the Old Testament temple kept out the unclean, weak, and defiled, the New Testament temple embraced the unclean, weak, and defiled. Eden after the fall, Noah’s ark, the tabernacle, Solomon’s temple, the second temple—they all had walls. Access denie...

Are you aware of this plagiarism of a myth now in the Koran as truth?

Critics argue that the Quranic story of Dhul-Qarnayn in Surah 18 borrows from the Syriac Alexander Legend, while traditional Islamic scholarship denies that Dhul-Qarnayn is Alexander the Great. The debate involves several key arguments regarding texts, history, and theology. THE CRITICAL CLAIM • The Figure of Dhul-Qarnayn : In Surah 18 (verses 83–102) of the Quran, a righteous king named Dhul-Qarnayn (meaning "The Two-Horned One") travels to the ends of the earth. • Striking Parallels : The Quranic narrative describes Dhul-Qarnayn travelling to where the sun sets in a muddy spring and building a barrier of iron and molten brass to trap the tribes of Gog and Magog.  These details closely match older Christian and Syriac stories found in the Alexander Romance and the Syriac Alexander Legend, which depict Alexander as a pious king who built a copper-and-iron gate against apocalyptic nations. The Alexander Romance is a massive collection of fabulous, semi-mythical stories about A...

Jarvis Williams 1 Peter 3:19 presents scholars with multiple interpretive challenges. [1] Space constraints prevent me from critically engaging with the complicated reflections upon the verse in the history of interpretation. Instead, I simply attempt to answer some of the basics of the who, what, how, and when questions presented by v. 19. Who or what are the spirits to whom Jesus preached? What did Jesus preach? What does Peter mean by preaching? How did Jesus preach, and when did Jesus preach? My thesis is Peter suggests Jesus preached a sermon of defeat (what) by means of his death, resurrection, and exaltation/ascension (how and when) to all the rebellious angels in Gen 6:1–8 (who). I support this thesis with a succinct exegesis of v. 19. 1 Pet 3:19 in Context Peter wrote to Christians in the diaspora to encourage them to keep being faithful to Christ while suffering for their faith in Christ and/or while suffering as Christians (1:1–2, 6–7; 1:13–2:25; 3:13–5:19). 3:19 connects w...

If God is good, why is there so much suffering? Most of us have probably sought explanations for suffering in light of our faith in God, or else evil may have contributed to our doubts about God’s existence. If you have spent any extended amount of time thinking about these questions, you are exploring the problem of evil, a term that refers to analyzing challenges that the existence of evil causes for various religions. What is the problem of evil? Technically, we would do well to speak of multiple problems of evil. Each religion may face unique challenges (is karmic suffering really just, as Hinduism suggests? Is evil an illusion, as some Buddhists claim?), but this article will consider the problem of evil in Christianity in three forms.  The logical problem of evil is a philosophical attempt to argue that a theistic God cannot exist if evil exists. The evidential problem of evil argues that a specific kind or example of evil makes God’s existence improbable. The existential pr...