I have a case of “too many blogs-itis”, and I need to simplify some of the online projects that I am involved in. What this means is that this web site will be coming down within a couple of months (target is probably late summer 2010), and no new posts will be made in the meanwhile.

The project continues however. Another podcast episode has just been published. For future updates, please see the project page on The Reading Desk, and check The Reading Desk’s home page.

Jesus embarrasses some Pharisees and lawyers. He tells them they are clean outside since they follow the Law, but filthy on the inside with corruption of the heart. Not only that, they remind him of hidden tombs that people walk over without knowing somebody is down there. Now THAT’s a putdown.

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There are more links where you can track this project and other projects I’m working on to the right. Enjoy the podcast!

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Episode 1 has the birth of Jesus, some of the life of John the Baptist, and begins the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 1 and 2 of Jefferson’s text).

Episode 2 (out later this week) continues the sermon and begins some parables.

The feed is available: http://thereadingdesk.podbean.com/feed/
More details about the podcast are posted on http://thereadingdesk.com/2010/03/10/podcast-feed-details/ – or you can visit the feed web site at http://thereadingdesk.podbean.com.

Thanks for listening!

So if there really was a historical Jesus, what might he have actually said? That question is always going to be up for debate. This podcast reflects Jefferson’s view of the gospels, from a modernized text in a podcast format.

Episode 1 is about 18 minutes long, contains a short prologue and the first two chapters. The content is the birth of Jesus (without angels, wise men or prophecies), John the Baptist, and the start of Jesus’ ministry. It also contains the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes.

Episode 2 (chapters 3 and 4) will contain mostly some parables and other illustrations attributed to Jesus. The audio is recorded but I am still working on the graphics.

I will post more information when the dust settles just a bit.

I don’t recall getting any communication from lulu.com about the change in availability of audiobooks, and I have another audiobook already published there.

I’ve had heartburn with lulu.com’s commission structures, and how much they take in profit per sale (my average share is about $0.75) and now part of my whole strategy has been removed.

This means the podcast version may be next, which I may do in two different formats – one that is audio only, and another that is more like a picturebook video.  And I may be moving my other business from lulu.com if I find another option that I can afford.  We’ll see. Meanwhile, come back for future updates.

The first stop for the audiobook is going to be http://eztolistento.com.  They already carry my pilot audiobook project (Alice in Wonderland), but I think this audiobook will make a far more significant splash.  A short sample of the audio, and the complete audiobook will next be moving to lulu.com.

What should I record next? Contenders include Moby Dick, The Age of Reason, or something else?  Feel free to make suggestions on what you’d like to hear at http://thereadingdesk.com.

The first six chapters are done, so that’s something like one-third of the meat of the book.

I appreciate your patience, and feel badly for the delays.

Every once in awhile I find a book that I wish I had found years ago.  Misquoting Jesus came years ago, and I missed it.  I’m just glad I found it when I did.

Misquoting Jesus has an obligatory chapter or two of autobiography, followed by a fairly thorough discussion – in layman’s terms – of just how badly the New Testament has been copied and edited through the years.

He traces the problems of the scribes of the first century, down through the professional scribes of the later centuries, to the Middle Ages and the politics between the Reformation and the Roman Catholic Church.  He points out that the same problems theologians were wrestling with as far as the textual concerns were also fuel for the rational movement.  No wonder it was with vehemence that Thomas Jefferson edited his own selection of verses together.

The point he drives home several times is that even if you believe in the doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy (that the words were inspired by God and directed to be written down precisely) the original manuscripts are lost and there is no reckoning of how many changes may have occurred between then and our first printed copies.  You may fervently believe that Scripture is Truth, but you cannot prove that what God intended is what is in your hands on Sunday morning.  Among all of the many manuscripts, he counts over 300,000 discrepancies among those texts, which is more words than the New Testament contains in the first place.

Whether you count yourself as a believer or as someone interested in how the Bible came to us, this is a solid and informative narrative from a very learned point of view.

Why? What’s going on?

Let’s go back in time 20 years.  The 1980s saw the merger of Christianity and conservative American politics.  These were the high-water years of the Reagan administration and the first Bush administration.  Conservative Christianity was feeling its oats – part of the mainstream of political thought.

Ah, perhaps that’s it then.  The church became part of the political landscape and thus became redundant, irrelevant, and a part of the furniture.  Perhaps the Pharisees will never learn?