CBS Sunday Morning on Mary, Jesus' mother

Tomorrow at 9.00 ET, Martha Teichner reports on Mary, Jesus' Mother with interviews on "The Testament of Mary" now in previews on Broadway and conversations on Mary with Profs Robin Jensen, Craig Evans, myself and a Catholic priest at St Mary's Church in NYC. Enjoy!!

Tony Benn on Jesus

Reports of 9th Coptic Text on Holy Week: Pseudo Cyril of Jerusalem

Recent reports in MSNBC news identify an edited text by Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem, Homily on the Life and Passion of Christ, Ms 610 of the Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC. The manuscript probably dates from late 9th C CE. Some of the Brill 2013 book by R. van den Broek can be accessed through Google Books. 

Handbook of Women Biblical Interpreters, Marion Ann Taylor (Baker 2013)

April 19: Women & Girls, Made in God's Image, Wichita, Ks

2013 Women’s Summit of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas 
Women and Girls:  Made in the Image of God April 19 – 20, 2013
St. James’ Episcopal Church | 3750 E. Douglas | Wichita, KS
Summit Overview: This is the first-ever diocesan Women’s Summit for the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas.

The Summit is designed for Episcopal women of all ages – from high school age and up!
The theme for the Women’s Summit is “Women and Girls: Made in the Image of God.”
The Summit will run from Friday evening, April 19, through Saturday afternoon around 5 p.m., April 20.
Registration and a light dinner will be held starting at 5:30 p.m. on April 19, with the program beginning at 7 p.m.

Three questions will be addressed during the Summit through presentations followed by facilitated
discussion in small groups. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Deirdre Good, a professor of New Testament at General Theological Seminary, our Episcopal Seminary in New York City.
Jodie Simon,  who teaches in  the Women’s Studies department at Wichita State, will be presenting on the question, “What does contemporary society and the media say to us about who we are as women?” Dr. Melissa Tubbs Loya, a Hebrew Bible scholar, will be presenting on the question, “What does the Bible say to us about who we are as women?”  
The third question addressed during the Summit is “What do we say to each other about who we are as women?”

Publication Date of the Iliad?

Recent research suggests that the date of the Iliad is 762BCE by treating languages like genes.

"Languages behave just extraordinarily like genes," Mark Pagel of the University of Reading said. "It is directly analogous. We tried to document the regularities in linguistic evolution and study Homer's vocabulary as a way of seeing if language evolves the way we think it does. If so, then we should be able to find a date for Homer."

The scientists tracked the words in the "Iliad" the way they would track genes in a genome.

The researchers employed a linguistic tool called the Swadesh word list, put together in the 1940s and 1950s by American linguist Morris Swadesh. The list contains approximately 200 concepts that have words apparently in every language and every culture, Pagel said. These are usually words for body parts, colors, necessary relationships like "father" and "mother."

The jury is out...