Terri and I are in Paris, escaping the “mission creep” that ate up so much time the last couple of weeks.  Today, we spent all day at the Louvre (my feet are killing me! :)).

I thought about blogging about some of the things I’ve seen there, since the British Museum posts have been so popular, but it would be stupid for me to do so.  It has already been done, so instead, I’m going to give you a site that will help you use up loads of time that you may not be able to afford.

Visit the Louvre with the Bible appears to me to be a great site, comparable to my Bible in the British Museum posts, only it includes many, many more pages.  It is written by a Frenchman who has this to say on one of his introductory pages:

This chiefly cultural site presents the research efforts of a Christian for whom the Bible is authoritative. A Christian who considers it not as “the word of man, but, as it truly is, the word of God.” – 1 Thessalonians 2:13.

…

The concern is however to avoid imposing religious beliefs or opinions but rather to present the facts which bear witness to the truth of the Book.

In general the English translation is superb — you won’t have any trouble following it.  And if you are interested in how history sheds light on Biblical statements, it’s a great resource.

For instance, the Bible often uses the imagery of being caught in a net, and we learn that this imagery of a defeated foe being portrayed as caught in a net goes back to before the time of Abraham in the Ancient Near East.

We learn something which sheds light on the interaction between Jacob and Laban in Genesis 31:

An archaeological discovery made at Nuzi revealed the existence of a patriarchal law under the terms of which the possession of household gods gave a man the ownership rights over the property of his deceased father-in-law.

I’ve only looked at a fraction of this site, but haven’t encountered anything that was inaccurate.  It does use some Bible translation which I’m not sure of — it may be a translation back into English from the French.  In any event, I won’t give it a blanket endorsement as to its accuracy or the soundness of the theology, but there is much of value here.