In a stunning turn of events, Harold Camping got the end of the world wrong again. Go figure. But his nonsense will not be wasted.
As promised, it’s time to open voting for the first annual Harold Camping Bunkagesis Award. Just follow this link below to vote for your favorite example of someone who should just put the Bible down and walk away.
Here are this year’s stupefyingly ridiculous candidates:
1. The 666 John wrote about in Revelation were Arabic letters pointing to the Muslim Antichrist
2. Jesus gave us the name of the Antichrist in Luke 11: Barack Obama.
3. The aleph and the taw (Warning: if you know any Hebrew, this will be terribly painful).
4. Harold Camping goes 0-for-2 in his numerological prediction of the rapture / end of the world.
Voting ends December 31, 2011!
Wow, first Harold Camping wins the Ig Noble award… and now a nominee for the Bunkagesis Award! He’s totally got my vote.
Professor Heiser,
I am not a voyeur, and certainly not a follower, of Mr. Camping. There have always been and always will be those who need to cultivate a feeling of exclusivity and superiority through highly idiosyncratic interpretations of Scripture. In many cases, if not most, one must resist the natural (carnal) impulse to ridicule and lampoon such individuals. The better course of action when dealing with those who have demonstrated their own foolishness, however, is to simply turn away.
I follow your site, sir, because you offer interesting, text-based, and fairly presented scholarly thought. In my opinion, this Bunkagesis award, while superficially amusing, is beneath the intellectual caliber of your readers and yourself. I would encourage you to jettison it and return to more interesting and profitable posts.
I’m bored with Camping now, i vote for number 3 as i had to sit through 18 minutes watching it. Rabbi James II exegeted Gen 1 and came to the conclusion that there was nothing before Yahweh in the beginning then he created the heavens and the earth, all this is explained by the aleph and the taw being the forth word ( The aleph and the taw being Yahweh’s signature NOT an object marker !).
Funny thing is i dont disagree with the conclusion but it would be a lot simpler if the actual text was read instead of looking for “Yahweh’s signature” I hope this man goes from strength to strength in his Hebrew study he obviously has an interest in the Hebrew language, but i dont think he should be teaching anyone, also why the Flintstones outfit ?…..i dont get it.
Youtube has uncovered the mystery of the Flintstones outfit, it seems to be the apparel of choice for Black Hebrew Israelites…. I dont know if our man has any affiliations with them though ?
This was a harder decision than it looked at first blush, however, I think this would be a great opportunity to not just to recognize a perfect record, but see this as a sort of lifetime achievement award for Mr. Camping. Therefore, my vote is for #4.
Did you see this article?
http://news.discovery.com/history/god-wife-yahweh-asherah-110318.html
I suspect I know what you would say to it, but would love to see it on a blog.
http://michaelsheiser.com/PaleoBabble/2011/03/yahweh-and-asherah-more-archaeo-porn-for-the-masses/
I think some of the people that commented on the page for no1 should get the award. The Bible as living proof of a nonexistent Islamocommunist antichrist conspiracy…. I am still desperately trying to find the reference in Ezek 38. No luck yet I’m afraid.
which reference?
Does your deadline date, Dec 31, 2011, have anything to do with the imminent economic EU 666 global collapse and end of the world as per Mayan data decoded in recent translations of ancient astronaut writings found in South Africa? If so, Camping for sure; if not, it’s aleph taw hands down in a cake walk.
nope – just a nice cut off!