Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
Continuing my posts on Shelly Matthews’ 2017 article. . . . I am one of those who have leaned favourably towards arguments that our canonical form of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts were early to mid second century attempts to take on Marcionism. See my series on Joseph B. Tyson’s Marcion … Continue reading “Doubting that Luke-Acts was written to refute Marcion; New Perspectives, part 2”
This post is moving beyond my original interest in posting notes from Tyson’s hypothesis about the influence of Marcionism on the composition of Luke-Acts, but it completes his final chapter, and so also completes this series of posts. Looking here at: Literary achievement Theological achievement Historical achievement Christian-Jewish relations
In a series of posts (archived here) I have outlined Tyson’s argument (Marcion and Luke-Acts: A Defining Struggle) that both our canonical Luke and Marcion’s gospel were based on a common “original Luke”. The argument does, I think, offer a plausible explanation of the evidence, and Tyson’s discussion of Luke and Acts certainly gives grounds … Continue reading “Marcion and Luke-Acts: Conclusions”
Tyson has argued that there are good reasons for regarding Luke’s Infancy Narratives (Luke 1-2) [discussed here] and most of the Resurrection appearances (Luke 24) [discussed here] “as additions by a post-Marcionite author to an earlier text.” (p.116) Without attempting to reconstruct an “original Luke” upon which Marcion and the canonical author appear to have … Continue reading “Marcion and Luke-Acts: The Body of Luke – Luke 3-23”
Continuing notes from Tyson’s Marcion and Luke-Acts — the previous post (on Luke 24) is here, the lot archived here — Previously I discussed Ancient Prologues in detail, but that was with particular reference to the Book of Acts. Nonbiblical examples of split prefaces, such as we find in Luke-Acts, were part of that discussion, … Continue reading “Marcion and Luke-Acts: The Preface of Luke”
Continuing notes from Tyson’s Marcion and Luke-Acts . . . . Last post looked at Tyson’s arguments for the Infancy Narratives in the Gospel of Luke, this one at the final chapter with the Resurrection appearances. Notes below that are in italics are my own additions and not, as far as I recalled at the … Continue reading “Luke’s Resurrection chapter: its ties to the Infancy stories, Acts and Marcion”
This post follows on from one I completed — here — way back in February. The lot can be found in my archive for the Tyson category. Continuing notes from reading of Tyson’s Marcion and Luke-Acts . . . . Tyson summarizes the hypothesis of John Knox published in 1942, that Acts (and canonical Luke) … Continue reading “Dating the Book of Acts: Acts as a response to the Marcionite Challenge”
Tyson draws on the criteria devised by Andrew Clark in his Parallel Lives to further his discussion of Peter’s and Paul’s characterization in Acts. (Have been discussing Tyson’s argument that our canonical Luke-Acts was largely a second century response to Marcionism.) Before continuing with notes from Tyson, am listing here Clark’s criteria.
Continued from Dating Acts: Marcionite context . . . (see also Tyson and Marcion archives) After attempting a form of controlled analysis for determining the main themes and their supporting literary patterns in Acts, and arguing that the results are best explained as a response to the Marcionite challenge, Tyson examines the characterizations of Peter … Continue reading “Dating the Book of Acts: Marcionite Context 2 — and beyond”
This post continues notes from Tyson’s Marcion and Luke-Acts: A Defining Struggle. Previous posts reconsidering the date of the composition of Acts and the Marcionite challenge can be found in my Tyson and Marcion archives. Tyson begins with Haenchen.
125 8. The Composition of Acts of the Apostles Let us especially keep in mind the parallelism of Peter and Paul, then the undeniable testimonies that speak for the fact that the miracles of both apostles are intentionally and with full consciousness copied from the miracle reports of the Gospels, finally the artistic machinery that … Continue reading “8. The Composition of Acts of the Apostles”
At about 57 mins of the MythVision podcast O’Neill underscores the importance of Paul’s claim to have met James the “brother of the Lord”. Not only is Paul’s claim from a contemporary of Jesus but it is even from one who is opposed to his source: Paul is saying, says O’Neill, “Yeh, I have met … Continue reading “Bad History for Atheists (3) — Proof-texting, Circularity, Fake Facts, Insults”
In a former life back in 2006/2007 I wrote a series of posts suggesting that the “we passages” in the Book of Acts were the author’s technique of vicariously bringing his Roman readers into his narrative as they followed the story of the founding of a second kingdom in Rome. Rome was replacing Jerusalem as … Continue reading “Rome, Troy and Aeneas — model for the story of Acts?”
This post selects a few of the highlights from Mogens Müller’s chapter in Luke’s Literary Creativity (2016) in which he presents a case for Acts being a “biblical rewriting of the gospels and the letters of Paul”. I omit several important questions that his thesis raises and that he addresses in the same chapter, attempting to … Continue reading “Acts as a Rewriting of Gospels and Paul’s Letters, part 1”