Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
The thirteenth-century Cathars in southern France that I compared with today’s political opposition in my previous post embraced the Ascension of Isaiah as one of their core texts. (The reason I was re-reading the Sibly translation of Peter’s chronicle of the crusade against them was to try to get a clearer picture of the history … Continue reading “Medieval “Christ Mythicists” and the Ascension of Isaiah”
Richard Carrier has posted his response to David Litwa’s chapter that professes to be addressing the Christ Myth theory: Litwa’s Confused Critique of Mythicism I also posted on the same chapter by Litwa: Review, part 2 (Damnation upon that Christ Myth Theory!) : How the Gospels Became History / Litwa Carrier’s post comes with a … Continue reading “Damnation Upon That Christ Myth Theory!”
Excerpts from Philippe Wajdenbaum’s Argonauts of the Desert (related to an earlier post, Biblical Scholars, Symbolic Violence, and the Modern Version of an Ancient Myth) where he draws upon the study of structures of myths by anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss: . . . to give an interpretation of a myth is to create a new variant … Continue reading “Historical Jesus Scholarship and Mythmaking”
If the gospels are mythical stories that have been presented as history then what value can they have for anyone today and how can we treat the gospels as a source for studying the historical Jesus? Those are the questions M. David Litwa addresses in the last pages of How the Gospels Became History: Jesus … Continue reading “Review, conclusion #2: Myth and History in the Gospels (How the Gospels Became History / Litwa)”
Quite some years ago I sat listening to a sabbath sermon by a Worldwide Church of God minister in which he made some very misleading assertions about the history of U.S. foreign policy. I approached him afterwards to point out what I had learned in an undergraduate course on the history of the United States. … Continue reading ““Nothing in what [mythicists] write is authoritative or trustworthy””
Recently James McGrath has addressed a point I have regularly made about a key difference between the canonical gospels and historical and biographical narratives by ancient authors: the latter generally attempt to assure readers of the validity of their accounts by mentioning their sources; the former generally do not. McGrath has put an anachronistic slant … Continue reading “Answering James McGrath’s Questions for Mythicists”
This is the second of two articles by Professor of Religion Sarah Iles Johnston. (The first article was addressed in Why Certain Kinds of Myths Are So Easy to Believe) I have been led to Johnston’s articles and books (along with other works addressing related themes by classicists) as I was led down various detours … Continue reading “How Mythic Story Worlds Become Believable (Johnston: The Greek Mythic Story World)”
But what if you can’t turn off the TV because you don’t even think it’s there? What if the materials that train the mind to think in certain ways and to accept alternative realities are not understood by the audience — and perhaps not by the authors, either — to be fictions, at least in … Continue reading “Why Certain Kinds of Myths Are So Easy to Believe”
It has become a mantra in almost any book that raises the question: Why did the evangelists insist Jesus was from Nazareth unless it happened to be an undeniable historical fact known to all? The mantric response: Because no-one would make up such a datum; no-one would make up the notion that the great and … Continue reading “The Myth of Embarrassment over a Humble Hometown Like Nazareth”
Continuing a discussion of M. David Litwa’s How the Gospels Became History: Jesus and Mediterranean Myths . . . Allow me to round off with a few tidbits from Litwa’s discussion of the appearances of prophecies in history and biography type narratives. We have covered much of the main idea in the previous post on … Continue reading “Review, part 6b. Litwa on “Mythistorical” Prophecies, Biblical and Greco-Roman”
I am catching up on too my long-neglected RSS feeds and came across this post from James McGrath: Jesus, James and Peter Mythicism. It is worth noting precisely what it is that mythicists do with Paul’s references to Jesus in his letters, and just how easily the same could be done with James, the brother … Continue reading “Trumpian Style Response to Mythicism”
M. David Litwa declared at the outset of his book How the Gospels Became History Whether or not the evangelists did report actual events is a separate question and is not my concern. (p.3) So I remain mystified by his decision to make his first chapter entirely about the “Jesus Myth Theory”. It adds nothing … Continue reading “Review, part 2 (Damnation upon that Christ Myth Theory!) : How the Gospels Became History / Litwa”
I have been slow posting with the first few pages of M. David Litwa’s How the Gospels Became History but I hope the time I’ve taken with the foundations (see various recent posts on ancient historians) will pay off when I get into the main argument. A reason I have taken a detour with readings … Continue reading “Review, pt 1d: How the Gospels Became History / Litwa (Gospels as Mythic Historiography)”
I found the following take on Livy‘s history of early Rome of interest. I reproduce a translation of his own words and conclude with the words of another Roman historian, Arrian (born in the last decade of the first century CE), who likewise found reason to maintain without critical comment myths and divine agents in … Continue reading “Mythistory — History and/or Tradition”