2017-11-22

The “Nugget” Theory

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

by Neil Godfrey

[S]ound historical method must lead a scholar to distrust any source much of which can be shown to be false — unless truly reliable material exists outside that source as a check.

Sometimes, however, we find that a scholar writes history

on the principle that a historian can safely mine “nuggets” out of otherwise worthless ore.

Both quotations are from Chester G. Starr in “The Credibility of Early Spartan History”, (Historia: Zeitschrift fur Alte Geschichte Bd. 14, H. 3 (Jul., 1965), pp. 257-272) …. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4434883

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The Ambiguity of the Serpent: Greek versus Biblical - 2023-01-12 23:26:21 GMT+0000

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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
"Many thanks for this post, and for the quality of your blog."

— Philippe Wajdenbaum, – November 2018
"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
"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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-- Jim West, – September 2010
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 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
"Very good. This post is going straight to the March 2016 Biblical Studies Carnival."

—N.T. Wrong, – March 2016
"I want to say here that this site is so resourceful and highly on top of the most modern scholarship in the areas discussed here. . . I know of no other site which offers a wide range of topics related to careful critical analysis of historically and scripturally related issues."

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"Neil, You’ve done a clean job in your posting on ‘Jesus the Healer’. It reflects well on you. Best, John"

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Russell Gmirkin on Demigods, Violence and Flood in Plato and Genesis — [Biblical Creation Accounts/Plato’s Timaeus-Critias – 7c]: “The above left out the quotes I was responding to: It thus seems likely that this aggression against the Greeks…” Jan 25, 18:44
Russell Gmirkin on Demigods, Violence and Flood in Plato and Genesis — [Biblical Creation Accounts/Plato’s Timaeus-Critias – 7c]: “<> Good nuanced discussion. There is a definite contrast between Timaeus, which portrayed the earthquake and flood as bringing about…” Jan 25, 18:42
John on Another Pointer Towards a Late Date for the Gospel of Mark?: “Used some of your ideas here in a blog post: https://secularfrontier.infidels.org/2023/01/corporate-sin-post-script-did-the-historical-jesus-know-john-the-baptist-my-last-blog-post-for-a-little-while/ . Thanks” Jan 24, 17:05
Philippe Wajdenbaum on The Ambiguity of the Serpent: Greek versus Biblical: “Dear Austendw, Many thanks for your detailed reply. We will probably not convince each other, but it is a worthy…” Jan 19, 19:39
Austendw on The Ambiguity of the Serpent: Greek versus Biblical: “Hi Philippe I had really hoped to just alert Neil to a different modern approach to the issue of the…” Jan 18, 20:01
Neil Godfrey on Jesus: a Saviour Just Like the Kings and Gods of Egypt and Babylon: “As for Near Death Experiences, I ask myself what is more likely: that a person really did in some sense…” Jan 17, 01:55
oldsterngary@gmail.com on Jesus: a Saviour Just Like the Kings and Gods of Egypt and Babylon: “There are tonnes of things in the ot that draw from ancient near East beliefs, further Myth made fact a…” Jan 17, 01:19
Philippe Wajdenbaum on The Ambiguity of the Serpent: Greek versus Biblical: “Dear Austendw, Darshan’s essay is fascinating, and shows in my opinion how much Leviticus’ sacrificial and purity laws are at…” Jan 16, 23:00
Austendw on The Ambiguity of the Serpent: Greek versus Biblical: “Hi Neil As you may remember, I have not in the past been a fan of Russell Gmirkin’s theory that…” Jan 16, 15:49

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