Jews and Gentiles Dining Together

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:17:44 -0400

What kept them separated?

James Crossley has a useful post on his blog in which he addresses Jewish-Gentile table fellowship. The perceived notion conveyed by many is that circumcision was the issue preventing Jews and pagans eating together; and this clouds their reading of the letters of Paul.

James examines the literature of the first centuries and shows that circumcision was not the issue, but rather the purity of the foods. The food had to be both acceptable under the Jewish food laws and prepared by appropriate methods as established in the Law.

The full post can be read on Crossley’s blog Earliest Christianity.

Thanks for the attention to detail, James.

Shroud of Turin Back in the News

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:11:57 -0400

Counter claims made against the dating of the shroud

The Shroud of Turin, on which it is claimed an image of the body of Jesus is marked, is back in the spotlight again. Having been dated to the Middle Ages in 1988 by the use of radiocarbon at several independent laboratories, it appeared that the lack of authenticity of the shroud was settled. Even the Vatican accepted the outcome.

Now John Jackson, a physicist at University of Colorado, and his wife Rebecca are claiming that contamination of the cloth led to an aberrant dating, as the cloth and image appear much older than the date established by radiocarbon. As they challenge the radiocarbon dating in the hope of being allowed to reexamine the cloth, the Jacksons will be aided in their quest by the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit.

The Los Alamos National Laboratory, another challenger, has suggested that the mediaeval date reading came about from new material sewn into the shroud as a repair.

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Jews and Gentiles Dining Together

Shroud of Turin Back in the News