2009-12-20

Poor Joseph, God was a hard act to follow

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

by Neil Godfrey

http://images.smh.com.au/2009/12/19/988571/billboard-420×0.jpg

Never thought I’d see a church as progressive as St Matthews in Aukland, New Zealand.

Have a look at the Australian ABC news stories:

Mary and Joseph poster sparks unholy row

and

Church resurrects controversial billboard

but finally the inevitable . . .

Sexy God billboard removed

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Neil Godfrey

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Latest posts by Neil Godfrey (see all)

Challenging the Authenticity of Paul’s Letters - 2025-01-18 02:50:35 GMT+0000
Nina Livesey’s The Letters of Paul in their Roman Literary Context - 2025-01-10 21:18:06 GMT+0000
New Book Questioning Authenticity of Paul’s Letters - 2025-01-09 00:00:44 GMT+0000

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"Thanks for this detailed interaction! I’ll try to offer something more substantial than 'Thank you' in response at some point, but I didn’t want to wait . . . to express appreciation for your detailed interaction with what I’ve written!"

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

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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."

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"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"

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"Thanks for your very elaborate review! I realized that I hadn’t added your blog to our blogroll. This oversight has been corrected. Looking forward to more segments."

— Anthony Le Donne, – September 2009
"Neil, for what it is worth it is obvious to me that if you had earlier in life tracked into a graduate program at one of the world’s leading research universities you would be one of the world’s formidable ones. You are doing essentially the same quality now (apart from the philology and languages) except mostly sticking to commenting on others’ work as informed comment/discussion."

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Ark on Challenging the Authenticity of Paul’s Letters: “Since the very first time I came across the fact/claim Marcion was the one responsible for gathering /finding(?) the initial…” Jan 18, 10:45
Neil Godfrey on Challenging the Authenticity of Paul’s Letters: “On the contrary, I think it is the conventional view that lacks independent supports for the early dating of the…” Jan 18, 03:38
Nicholas Ryan Covington on Challenging the Authenticity of Paul’s Letters: “Paul’s letters in the 140’s? I would think theorizing them that far out would end up clashing with the dates…” Jan 18, 03:19
Petr Jancar on The Folly of Bayesian Probability in “Doing History”: “There seems to be a substantial difference in our backgrounds regarding the thinking in mathematics, and science in general. I…” Jan 17, 20:54
Neil Godfrey on The Folly of Bayesian Probability in “Doing History”: “Now for my other bit that I wanted to mention: Carrier claims to have discovered the logical “secret” that lies…” Jan 16, 20:16
Neil Godfrey on The Folly of Bayesian Probability in “Doing History”: “Let me try to be more direct than my reply above, and then I want to add one other point.…” Jan 16, 10:45
Neil Godfrey on The Folly of Bayesian Probability in “Doing History”: “Hi Petr and thanks for replying. I thought I had lost you for a moment there. I find the answer…” Jan 15, 21:28
Neil Godfrey on Miracles with Multiple Jewish and Roman Eyewitnesses: “We exist because of the Big Bang. We came to be because of evolution. None of that robs us of…” Jan 15, 20:33
Sean Anderson on Miracles with Multiple Jewish and Roman Eyewitnesses: “Neil – you’re so smart ! and explaining all those purported miracles Please tell me why we exist at all,…” Jan 15, 19:37

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