Today, August 16, 2019, I am celebrating fourteen years of blogging. On this day, fourteen years ago, I published my first post with a simple message announcing that I was beginning a blog and that soon I would publish my first post.

I was encouraged to blog on a regular basis by my son JR, who believed that I should share my knowledge of the Old Testament with others. JR was my first webmaster and I owe him a debt of gratitude for his encouragement and support over the years. JR still gives me ideas for posts and for that, I am grateful.

I also owe a debt of gratitude to my amazing editor who makes sure that my posts are free of mistakes and typos. If any mistakes are found in my posts, I do not blame my editor, but myself for trying to revise my posts without her editorial help. My wife Donna has been the most amazing editor. She reads everything I write and offers editorial suggestions to improve what I write. Donna and I graduated from seminary together. Her theological education has helped me to enhance the content of my posts.

Blog Statistics

After fourteen years of blogging, a few numbers will help explain the scope of what has been achieved over the years.

1. According to WordPress, my blog has 2665 followers.

2. The blog receives an average of 1,000 visitors every day.

3. The blog is read in 142 different countries.

4. As of yesterday, I have published 2506 posts. This is my 2507th post.

5. As of yesterday, I have had 8366 comments made on my posts.

6. The blog is linked to 130 blogs and web pages.

7. The blog has been quoted by hundreds of blogs.

8. The blog is listed in the following aggregates: The 100 Top Christian Blogs, The Biblioblog Top 50, Top 200 Education Blogs, Top 100 Theology Blogs, Web-based Resources in the Field of Old Testament Studies.

9. The blog is recommended by the Jean and Alexander Heard Library at Vanderbilt University.

10. The blog is listed in The Biblioblog Reference Library.

11. The blog is included in the Blogger Grid of Bible Gateway Blog.

12. The blog has been quoted by Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Politico, The Christian Broadcast Network, Christian Headlines, Cybercast News Service, and The Christian Post.

13. The blog has been quoted in several publications including Fox News, Biblical Archaeology Society, Wikipedia, Conservapedia, and several others.

14. The blog has been cited in many books including To Transform a City: Whole Church, Whole Gospel, Whole City, The Biographical Bible: Exploring the Biblical Narrative from Adam and Eve, Problems concerning Amenophis III, The Resurrection: a Critical Inquiry, Was Achilles a Jew?: Hebraic Contributions to Greek Civilization, Adam and the Genome: Reading Scripture after Genetic Science, and many others.

15. The blog has been quoted in academic journals, including Anthropoetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology, Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Journal of Hellenic Religion, Sociology of Religion, and others.

16. The blog has been quoted in MDiv papers, M.A. thesis, and PhD dissertations.

Most Read Posts

Today is August 16, the 228th day of 2019. These are the six most-read posts in 2019:

The Seven Prophetesses of the Old Testament – 6444 readers

Forced Labor Under Solomon – 5105 readers

Erkamka na Adonai – 4225 readers

Who Was King Lemuel – 3433 readers

How Much Did Hosea Pay for His Wife? – 3306 readers

How Long Did Saul Reign? – 2978 readers

Future Posts

The popularity of my blog is due to the fact that many faithful readers share my posts regularly on social media. Every time you share my posts on your Facebook page, hundreds of people will read what I wrote. Every time you place a link to my post on your Twitter feed, hundreds more will read my posts.

Over these past fourteen years I have tried to teach the Old Testament to my readers. I have written a post on every book of the Old Testament, except two: the book of Haggai and the book of Ezra. In the next few weeks I will write a post on these two books. When that is done, I will have posted on every book of the Old Testament.

I have written several series of posts on topics of interest. If you look at the Archive section of my blog, you will find several of the series that have already been published.

I have to confess that some series are still incomplete. For instance, my series on “Studies on Suicide in the Bible” is still not finished. Only four of the ten studies have been published so far. The series on “Studies on the Deuteronomic Concern for Women” has only five posts so far; several other posts will be published in the near future. In the coming weeks I will add additional links to studies on Solomon, the Golden Calf, Isaiah, and several others.

What’s next? I have several projects in mind for future posts. One thing that challenges me is to write posts on difficult and controversial texts of the Old Testament. I am planning to select a few of the most difficult texts of the Old Testament and write on the issues they raise.

Another project I have in mind is to make all my seminary lectures available for free in PDF format. This will require an enormous amount of time and work. The final decision has not been made yet, but I will give serious consideration to this project.

Most readers are not acquainted with my early posts. I believe they are posts that people should read. For this reason, I have decided to update some of my previous posts and republish them. These updated posts will be published on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays beginning this week.

Thank You for Your Birthday Gift.

The best gift you can give me on this fourteenth birthday of my blog is your support. Continue visiting my blog as often as you can. I promise to write good posts that will help you (and others) grow your love for the Old Testament. Another gift that you can give is to continue sharing on Facebook and Twitter posts that you believe people should read.

Many of you say you liked a specific post. If you like a post, share it with others. By sharing my posts on social media, you help hundreds of people read positive and affirmative articles on the Old Testament. Since most people don’t have a good knowledge of the Old Testament, you do them a favor by inviting them to read posts dealing with this part of the Bible that is unknown to many people.

Once again, thank you for your support, for your words of encouragement, and for sharing my posts on social media.

Claude Mariottini
Emeritus Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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