2007-04-12

Questions to be answered re the strange Brit captivity in Iran

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

by Neil Godfrey

“This week Bea ruminates upon the latest Iran hostage crisis and wonders why these British sailors were so vulnerable to capture in the first place and why the Ministry of Defence made the extraordinary decision to allow them to sell their stories?”

check out late night live 11 april 2007

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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.

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Editor, An English Edition of Bruno Bauer’s 1843 Christianity Exposed
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It is worth saying another word of appreciation here for Neil Godfrey's effort to make Bruno Bauer accessible in English.

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"Very good. This post is going straight to the March 2016 Biblical Studies Carnival."

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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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"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."

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"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!"

-- Timothy Bagley, - November 2024
"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)
"I’d like to thank you for this very nice representation of what I was trying to show in the book. It’s always gratifying when a reader zeroes in on exactly those aspects I thought were most interesting and most central to my argument. Thank you for this careful and engaged reading of my work – much appreciated!"

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"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."

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Douglas Kappeler on The Hebrew Bible – Composed only 300 years before Christ?: “Neil your clarity of thought on these issues is singular and much appreciated. I daresay your protestations notwithstanding, you are…” Jul 4, 19:27
Andrew Dabrowski on “Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence” – Review 3 – “received with pleasure”: “(I should have written “emend”.) I mean that many propose the entire TF is a later insertion. That’s arguably a…” Jul 3, 19:33
Neil Godfrey on “Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence” – Review 3 – “received with pleasure”: “There’s a thread about my reviews on the Early Writings Forum — and after a little flurry of personal attacks…” Jul 3, 08:23
Neil Godfrey on “Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence” – Review 3 – “received with pleasure”: “In what way is my reasoning “dubious” here? (Sorry — I’m missing your point. — I write these things publicly…” Jul 3, 08:15
Andrew Dabrowski on “Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence” – Review 3 – “received with pleasure”: “I agree with you the TF is probably fraudulent. But if so it reveals your reasoning here to be dubious:…” Jul 3, 01:47
Neil Godfrey on “Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence” – Review 3 – “received with pleasure”: “What Morton Smith wrote was: If we suppose the alterations to the text were minimal, the original was something like…” Jul 3, 01:28
Neil Godfrey on “Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence” – Review 3 – “received with pleasure”: “I have addressed Morton Smith’s methods several times now. Unfortunately he falls into the traps of circular reasoning and confirmation…” Jul 3, 00:26
Neil Godfrey on Speaking of Josephus . . . .: “There is nothing historical about Acts. It is second century fiction. The scenes are borrowed from the gospels and created…” Jul 3, 00:20
Thomas Worthington on Pitfalls in Seeking Authenticity in Ancient Texts: “This all reminds me of dealing with chatGPT and other LLMs which simply can not bring themselves to say “I…” Jul 2, 07:58

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