2013-01-16

Vridar Blog 2012

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

by Neil Godfrey

WordPress have collated and forwarded me these stats for the past year:

450,000 views in 2012. This was up from 280,000 in 2011. The shift began with posts on Paul-Louis Couchoud and responses to James McGrath’s vacuous efforts to “review” Earl Doherty’s Jesus: Neither God Nor Man, but a new plateau was established with posts on various responses to Bart Ehrman’s Did Jesus Exist?, in particular Earl Doherty’s chapter by chapter reviews. These have been collated and edited into a new ebook.

Neil Godfrey

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Latest posts by Neil Godfrey (see all)

Samaria in the Persian Period - 2024-04-15 11:49:57 GMT+0000
No Evidence Jerusalem/Judea had a “Writing Culture” in Persian times — Israel Finkelstein - 2024-04-12 09:45:34 GMT+0000
Questioning the Hellenistic Date for the Hebrew Bible — continuing - 2024-04-11 20:54:16 GMT+0000

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5 thoughts on “Vridar Blog 2012”

Tim Widowfield says:

2013-01-16 11:29:12 GMT+0000 at 11:29

I’m glad to see that some people are interested in more than just reblogged trash, lolcat pictures, cartoons, and musings about Doctor Who.

Reply
mcduff says:

2013-01-16 18:12:04 GMT+0000 at 18:12

Thank you Neil, and others.

Reply
Willie Buck Merle says:

2013-01-17 04:51:53 GMT+0000 at 04:51

thx and keep up the good work

Reply
Neil Godfrey says:

2013-01-17 06:18:12 GMT+0000 at 06:18

One other detail I find encouraging is that the 450,000 represents only ‘on-site views’ and does not include those who view the posts through email and rss feeds, and it does not represent the numbers of visitors. Visitors seem to average between 2 and 3 on-site views each, which tells me that they find the articles worth coming back to or find more worthwhile posts to read once here. Posts written years ago are still attracting strong interest.

Reply
1. Willie Buck Merle says:
  
  2013-01-18 02:49:49 GMT+0000 at 02:49
  
  so do you believe if you split-off or expanded you would dilute hits for Vridar? What I’m saying is that, as far as edification, Vridar is at the highest level I’ve seen around… but maybe a release valve? idk my2c
  
  Reply

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"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
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"Vridar is consistently thought-provoking, well-informed, and asking the right questions. There are intelligent, thoughtful comments and commenters regularly offering productive discussion. Books and publications are covered with a range of perspectives with attempts at fair and accurate representation of others’ arguments and content (where there are occasional and inevitable missteps on that I notice Neil making corrections and apologies where warranted, which wins points with me). Please carry on."

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-- Jim West, – September 2010
"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
"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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"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
https://earlywritings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=145080#p145080
Neil made a good synthesis of the work without being an “expert” of the field.

-- Enrico Tuccinardi, - October 2022
"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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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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— Mary Booker, – February 2020 (personal email)
"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
"Very good. This post is going straight to the March 2016 Biblical Studies Carnival."

—N.T. Wrong, – March 2016
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
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— April DeConick, – November 2007
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"I still wonder at all the material you turn out for Vridar. The more I read your stuff (and I still do, of course), the more I realize how much we all owe you. Your voice is unique."

— Earl Doherty, November 2013 (personal email)

Neil Godfrey on Samaria in the Persian Period: “Well I sure overlooked that one, didn’t I! Thank you for adding this to the post.” Apr 15, 21:48
Neil Godfrey on Judah and Samaria in Persian Times — the Evidence (and a way out of a quandary): “My reading of Reed in Demons, Angels and Writing in Ancient Judaism and her many references (in particular Collins and…” Apr 15, 21:43
Russell Gmirkin on Samaria in the Persian Period: “What I find fascinating is the likely depiction of an asherah on a fourth century BCE coin from Samaria, as…” Apr 15, 12:03
Paul Trejo on Judah and Samaria in Persian Times — the Evidence (and a way out of a quandary): “Kudos, Neil, for your continuing research into a long-neglected field. What your sources have admitted — however small and speculative…” Apr 14, 21:41
James Faubel on No Evidence Jerusalem/Judea had a “Writing Culture” in Persian times — Israel Finkelstein: “It’s true that “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” but it is also true that “absence of evidence…” Apr 14, 17:58
Neil Godfrey on Questioning the Hellenistic Date for the Hebrew Bible: Elephantine ‘Jews’: “In short, “Judaism” as we understand it was an “exclusivist” type of religion that identified itself as in major ways…” Apr 13, 23:09
Neil Godfrey on Questioning the Hellenistic Date for the Hebrew Bible: Elephantine ‘Jews’: “Yes, and we can add Jonah alongside Ruth. There are many works that protest the “Priestly” code of the Pentateuch.…” Apr 13, 22:49
Austendw on Questioning the Hellenistic Date for the Hebrew Bible: Elephantine ‘Jews’: “For your Maccabees I could propose a Berenice (Emperor Titus girlfriend) and for your Ezra-Nehemiah I might offer the book…” Apr 13, 20:07
James Faubel on No Evidence Jerusalem/Judea had a “Writing Culture” in Persian times — Israel Finkelstein: “It appears the Hebrew version of Ben Sira was written before the maccabees revolt. There is no text quoted by…” Apr 13, 17:48

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