Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
There’s a footnote in Brodie’s The Crucial Bridge I paid little attention to until I heard a radio discussion about Japanese warrior Samurai becoming Buddhist monks.
Then I thought again about Brodie’s footnote (p.12-13) Continue reading “Killer Saints?”
I have to confess I could not resist reading Archer and Moloney’s Gospel According to Judas — damn temptation! Continue reading “Archer and Moloney’s Judas Gospel still not quite right”
There are two passages in Josephus that refer to Jesus Christ. The first one in Book 18 of his “Antiquities of the Jews” is widely known as the Testimonium Flavianum (TF) (=the testimony of Flavius Josephus). Another, in Book 20, is a briefer reference but it is cited in major works as authentic to Josephus, and not the work of a Christian scribe. It’s this latter reference under discussion here. Continue reading “That other suspect entry in Josephus”
Can’t resist linking one of me favourites from Monty Python here at this time of year.
Even better that the Brobdingnagian Bards let us play the happy tune for free. Check out: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (from Monty Python) Continue reading “Seasons Greetings from Life of Brian”
must die to save 
Once again farmer and conservationist lobbies are coming together to try to persuade Australians to scapegoat the easter bunny and worship, buy and eat instead our endangered bilby in its place. The bilby represents, I suspect, a deeply hidden part of the Aussie psyche — what we like to think of as our “unique character”. Not inappropriate, given the possible scapegoat origins of the Christ-myth.
After all, the rabbit is an unwelcome foreigner import that undermines and destroys the livelihood of the “good” foreigners we have brought in — sheep, cattle. Not unlike the attitudes towards unwelcome foreign human counterparts who too many of us see as undermining the way of life of us, the “good” white English speaking imports.
And the bilby is obviously the perfect symbol of our national soul — endangered, fragile, in need of drastic measures if it is to survive — and the main enemy is of course that rabbit pest. We once introduced diseases to the aboriginals, gave it to them in blanket and food gifts — just as we carefully handled the rabbits to give them mixemitosis in hopes of eradicating the lot. Didn’t work in either case. Now the aboriginals have been somewhat redeemed as part of our decorative fauna for tourists and image promotion (— let’s not trouble ourselves that their life expectancy is still 17 years less than the whites’).
What a coincidence all this has against a backdrop of a cultural and political war against the unwelcome foreigners, the Asians, especially the Moslem kind. Africans are okay so long as they are expat whites from the Southern parts of that continent or Sudanese who are on the right religious side (catholic) of the war there.
I feel ashamed of “patriotism” when political leaders are able to so easily able to whip up racist fears among so many compatriots and instil in them such a rabid fear that the “unique character” of Australians is under threat. Enter the bilby symbol.
For more on the bilby check out:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/scribblygum/april2006/
For more links scroll down here.
No no, I’m not against conserving the bilby. Just find it of interest the way national attitudes to bigger issues subliminally find expression through our attitude towards animals — like kangaroos, cane toads, cockroaches, sharks, koalas, wallabies, dingoes, brumbies, rabbits and bilbies.
An interesting read is Adrian Franklin’s Animal Nation: the true story of animals and Australia. Not that he discusses the easter bilby, but the message from this sociologist is nonetheless interesting.
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easter bunny, bilby,
Animal Nation, Adrian Franklin, racism, culture, nationalism, politics of fear
So the truth is out. Professor Francis Moloney and Jeffrey Archer tell us how the gospels were written.
Note: No eyewitnesses! No oral traditions! No historiography! Continue reading “How a gospel works: Judas reveals all”
Professor Francis Moloney is incensed that Dan Brown can get away with his Da Vinci Code nonsense without an equally popular rejoinder from orthodox scholarship, so has teamed up with convicted perjurer Jeffrey Archer to popularize the way gospels “really were written”. (See earlier posts in the Judas category.)
Nothing like the services of a convicted perjurer to get The Truth out there! Continue reading “Judas and the Devil take on Dan Brown”
Interview on the radio this morning again — 8.30 am EST. Or if you miss this live it will appear soon enough here. [Update: it’s now here with transcript and pod soon to follow.] Continue reading “Judas scholar and the devil again”
Chocolate Jesus! Now here’s a classic illustration of Vance Packard’s maxim: The Medium is the Message.
Marble good; oil on canvass good; but chocolate very bad!
At least no-one can call this art “tasteless” 🙂
Check out My Sweet Lord by Cosimo Cavallaro
This chapter is still coming . . . . not forgotten — main reason for the delay is that Bauckham relies most heavily on C. A. J. Coady’s book, Testimony: A Philosophical Study (1992), so I am enjoying reading Coady (along with some of the scholarly discussion circulating about his book) at the moment — hopefully to better position me to discuss Bauckham’s argument.
youngalexander has alerted me/the iidb list to a new review of John Carroll’s book.
It’s in The Age, a review by another sociology professor, Gary Bouma. Promising an extract next week. Continue reading “Existential Jesus — another review”
Earlier post looked at Elisha’s miracle as Mark’s principle source for the mass feeding miracles – here I list a few distinctly Moses sources, and a comparison with Matthew’s parallel accounts, summarized from Dale C. Allison Jr’s The New Moses: A Matthean Typology (pp.238-242). Continue reading “Additional Sauces for the Feedings of 5000 and 4000”