2010-03-03

Another James McGrath exchange re the evidence for HJ

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

by Neil Godfrey

James and Tom have an interesting exchange on the evidence for the historical Jesus here:

James on Jesus: Reopening Pandora’s Box

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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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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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— 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
"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."

— Gregory Doudna, – January 2019
"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
"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!"

— Eva Mroczek, – June 2017
"Fantastic. I’m so glad you’re helping to spread these ideas!"

Nancy Fraser - June 2019 (personal email)
"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
"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, 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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-- Thomas L. Thompson, - April 2020
"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!"

— James McGrath, – June 2009
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— April DeConick, – November 2007
"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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-- Paul Trejo, - April 2023
"Many thanks for this post, and for the quality of your blog."

— Philippe Wajdenbaum, – November 2018
"Very good. This post is going straight to the March 2016 Biblical Studies Carnival."

—N.T. Wrong, – March 2016
"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
"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)

Mike on Pitfalls in Seeking Authenticity in Ancient Texts: “Was proved centuries ago, God of Abraham was completely invented Cephas (Peter) and Paul invented Jesus from their “visions” Even…” Jul 2, 01:37
Paul Trejo on “Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence” – Review 3 – “received with pleasure”: “In my reading, Morton Smith (“Jesus the Magician,” 1978) offers a more cogent explanation for the text on Jesus by…” Jul 1, 04:34
Neil Godfrey on Pitfalls in Seeking Authenticity in Ancient Texts: “Yes indeed. I had the same reaction when Lucy Worsley read the “trial transcript” of Alice Driver per Foxe’s Book…” Jul 1, 04:01
Gordon Rouse on Pitfalls in Seeking Authenticity in Ancient Texts: “It does remind me of Lucy Worsely’s episode about Queen Mary. (Still on iView I see at time of posting)…” Jul 1, 03:19
Stephen on Speaking of Josephus . . . .: “I have read both links, and I think for the most part they are reasonable, and I agree the real…” Jun 29, 15:29
Stephen on Speaking of Josephus . . . .: “And the Judas Sicariots of the Way conspired with the Zealot chief priests of the Way to betray and murder…” Jun 29, 14:15
Stephen on Speaking of Josephus . . . .: “Thanks for the two links, Neil. They look very interesting. I am reading now.” Jun 29, 13:45
Stephen on Speaking of Josephus . . . .: “Good point about “cults” committing suicide when expecting an end to their group, with the Judas Sicariots on Masada coming…” Jun 29, 13:02
Neil Godfrey on Speaking of Josephus . . . .: “I was persuaded by Steve Mason on this point: https://vridar.org/2018/11/30/is-josephus-evidence-that-a-messianic-movement-caused-the-jewish-war/ and the evidence of no radical militant movement in time…” Jun 29, 02:50

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