2006-11-26

Retraction already?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

by Neil Godfrey

Am I going mad? This looks like a retraction that my memory just told me I have not yet had time to write! When did I do this? Too busy, too busy….. Anyway, here ’tis.

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"Here I give an admittedly subjective short list, in random order, of useful, high level and regularly updated weblogs on the study of the Old Testament . . . ‘Vridar: Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science’ (http://vridar.org/) by Neil Godfrey"

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"For an excellent example of generally high-quality scholarship by someone who isn’t a biblical studies professor, see Neil Godfrey’s work posted on the website vridar.org."

— Tom Dykstra, – JOCABS 2015
"Neil Godfrey and Tim Widowfield, who both write at Vridar . . . happen to be some of the most astute and well-read amateurs you can read on the internet on the subject of biblical historicity. I call them amateurs only for the reason that they don’t have, so far as I know, advanced degrees in the subject. But I have often been impressed with their grasp of logic and analysis of scholarship. I don’t always agree with them, but I respect their work."

— Richard Carrier, – March 2014
This is superb work, Neil, and reminds me of Albert Schweitzer’s work from a century ago. . . . .

I commend you for being the first to even TRY to translate Bruno Bauer’s brilliant Kritik der Evangelien und Geschichte ihres Ursprungs, which is now more than 150 years old.

. . . . .Thank you for your historic effort.

-- Paul Trejo, M.A., - November 2022
Editor, An English Edition of Bruno Bauer’s 1843 Christianity Exposed
"Neil, in my mature judgement (I am now an old man), this fine 4-part study is a brilliant reworking, an instructive restatement of Hayden White’s Metahistory (and his subsequent writings). Your critique of certain historiographic representations as imbedded in the case study of the “scientistic”, “empirical” Richard Carrier provides a solid starting point for the more honest “fictive” reading of the New Testament that you encourage. Your last paragraph is a very intelligent call to sensitive readers of these texts. I suspect a whole generation of biblical students has been educated without the insights provided by the incomparable White. Bravo!"

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-- Martin Lewadny, - March 2009
"Neil, You’ve done a clean job in your posting on ‘Jesus the Healer’. It reflects well on you. Best, John"

— John Moles, September 2011 (personal email)
"Very good. This post is going straight to the March 2016 Biblical Studies Carnival."

—N.T. Wrong, – March 2016
https://earlywritings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=145080#p145080
Neil made a good synthesis of the work without being an “expert” of the field.

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Congratulations, Vridar, . . . I declare, Vridar, your own hard work translating Bruno Bauer will make a major difference in future studies of Bruno Bauer and the evolution of Hegel’s philosophy of religion.

-- Paul Trejo, - April 2023
"By the way, my thanks to Neil for an ongoing superb job of exposing Jim’s review for what it is: a farcical and none too effective exercise in mythicism assassination, nothing to do with rational, let alone unbiased, scholarship. I’m also happy to see even Jim giving Neil credit where credit is due."

— Earl Doherty, June 2011
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— Anthony Le Donne, – September 2009
"These reviews of yours are so bloody weird!"

— James Crossley, – April 2010
"Note that I do not use the term ‘amateur’ pejoratively. . . . In fact, Godfrey is extremely well read and his librarian skills have brought many important academic works to my attention."

Raphael Lataster - August 2019
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"I have found your website really valuable as an interpretive filter for Biblical scholarship, especially the origins of Christianity and historicity of Jesus issue. Your clarity of expression, fair comments and personal insights are much valued. I refer to your site frequently as yet more names and publications pop up requiring an academic critique and helpful recommendations for book purchases. So, please continue to delve deeply and share this intellectual sustenance with your grateful readers."

— Mary Booker, – February 2020 (personal email)
It is worth saying another word of appreciation here for Neil Godfrey's effort to make Bruno Bauer accessible in English.

-- Peter Kirby, - May 2023
"Thanks much for this book review. I think it expands, and contributes to, the effort in honouring Thomas that we with Lukasz originally had in mind with this volume. Best, Emanuel"

-- Emanuel Pfoh - August 2020

Neil Godfrey on The Folly of Bayesian Probability in “Doing History”: “In short, I mean what the judge means when he tells the jury to come to a decision “beyond reasonable…” Jan 22, 00:19
Neil Godfrey on Paul’s Letters and Accounting for Paul’s Name: “Who knows what the authors were thinking? Justin seems to believe in the historical fact of Jesus having done certain…” Jan 22, 00:08
Neil Godfrey on The Folly of Bayesian Probability in “Doing History”: “I am saying that some types of knowledge and conclusions do not involve mathematical weighing of odds. By insisting that…” Jan 22, 00:02
Neil Godfrey on The Folly of Bayesian Probability in “Doing History”: “What unreasonable conclusions have I drawn? What I have tried to make clear is that Carrier is referring to both…” Jan 22, 00:00
Neil Godfrey on The Folly of Bayesian Probability in “Doing History”: “I mean that the probability of the Pearl Harbor attack not happening is so small that it is reasonable to…” Jan 21, 23:57
Gordon Rouse on Paul’s Letters and Accounting for Paul’s Name: “So would Paul claiming to be from the tribe of Benjamin (in Philipians) also be an allusion to King Saul?…” Jan 21, 23:03
Clarke W Owens on The Folly of Bayesian Probability in “Doing History”: “OK. I thought Neil was saying some claims have a zero probability of being false, and I was simply identifying…” Jan 21, 22:46
Petr Jancar on The Folly of Bayesian Probability in “Doing History”: “I suppose Neil will react, but I just wanted to recall that the debate is on Carrier’s axiom 4 recalled…” Jan 21, 20:52
Clarke W Owens on The Folly of Bayesian Probability in “Doing History”: “I had thought you were using the WWII example to say that we don’t need to quantify our doubt about…” Jan 21, 20:21

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