2018-05-11

Vridar Maintenance

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by Tim Widowfield

Please note that we’re updating the WordPress theme right now. Things may look a bit “off” for a time. Thank you for your patience.

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Tim Widowfield

Tim is a retired vagabond who lives with his wife and multiple cats in a 20-year-old motor home. To read more about Tim, see our About page.

Latest posts by Tim Widowfield (see all)

We’ve Been Published — Varieties of Jesus Mythicism - 2021-12-01 22:36:41 GMT+0000
Mark: The First Biography of Jesus? (Part 1) - 2021-11-26 18:44:13 GMT+0000
A Wunderkind in the Temple? (Part 2) - 2021-07-04 21:42:24 GMT+0000

3 thoughts on “Vridar Maintenance”

Bob Jase says:

2018-05-11 16:52:25 GMT+0000 at 16:52

You can’t avoid theological arguments by pointing to squirrels.

This isn’t politics y’know.

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1. Tim Widowfield says:
  
  2018-05-11 19:45:38 GMT+0000 at 19:45
  
  I think the word I was looking for was “wonky.”
  
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Robert L Cecil says:

2018-05-12 01:27:19 GMT+0000 at 01:27

Now more legible. I like how font weight in addition to color has been used to differentiate quote levels. It was hard to read before.

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"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
"I always enjoy reading Neil’s blog because I think that he is careful, thorough, intellectually fair, and honest."

— April DeConick, – November 2007
"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
"These reviews of yours are so bloody weird!"

— James Crossley, – April 2010
"Here I give an admittedly subjective short list, in random order, of useful, high level and regularly updated weblogs on the study of the Old Testament . . . ‘Vridar: Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science’ (http://vridar.org/) by Neil Godfrey"

-- Klaas Spronk, - Bibliotheca Orientalis LXXI, 3/4 (2014)
"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, 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)
"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."

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

—N.T. Wrong, – March 2016
"Neil, this is actually rather useful. Good job."

— R. Joseph Hoffmann, – June 2014
"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."

— Gregory Doudna, – January 2019
"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
"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
"Fantastic. I’m so glad you’re helping to spread these ideas!"

Nancy Fraser - June 2019 (personal email)
"I find your blog most interesting and appreciate your ongoing effort to keep to the evidence for the issues discussed!"

-- Thomas L. Thompson, - April 2020
"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
"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)
"Many thanks for this post, and for the quality of your blog."

— Philippe Wajdenbaum, – November 2018
"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
"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
"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."

-- Martin Lewadny, - March 2009
"I’ve even been cited by atheists with approval (which I really don’t know how to take, so thanks, I think, but I’m not sure, Vrider (even though I feel like I need to take a shower now))."

-- 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
"I think you have a high quality blog that provides a positive public service by discussing academic topics within a wider audience."

— Russell Gmirkin, – October 2016

Kelly Wellington on Why Did Written Stories of Jesus Take So Long to Appear?: “Interesting. I like your inclusion of Marcion in the mix, as I’m of the opinion that his meddling set a…” Jan 20, 02:20
Danila on Why Did Written Stories of Jesus Take So Long to Appear?: “Yes, the model of Sabbatai Ṣevi does apply to the supposed historical Jesus. We should see texts including creative writing…” Jan 20, 00:48
Mark on Why Did Written Stories of Jesus Take So Long to Appear?: “https://www.jstor.org/stable/24433089 Surely some lawyer somewhere has been struck by one loose thread in the official biography of Jesus Christ, the…” Jan 19, 23:09
Peter on Bearing False Witness for Jesus: “John Dickson’s claim that “historical Jesus” existed is Equivocation Fallacy. When he talks about the Jesus he believes in, Jesus…” Jan 19, 19:43
MrHorse on Why Did Written Stories of Jesus Take So Long to Appear?: “The ultimate desolation of Jerusalem happened after the 2nd Roman-Jewish War, the Bar Kochba Revolt of the early 130s CE,…” Jan 19, 06:03
db on Bearing False Witness for Jesus: “OP: “[A] National Church Life Survey found that only 49% of Australians believe that ‘Jesus was a real person who…” Jan 19, 01:22
Mark on Rome Burning – the Christian Problem in the Annals of Tacitus: “Avalos’ main thesis is that “The ideas of health care reflected in early Christianity constitute a system that was an…” Jan 18, 21:35
Mark on Why Did Written Stories of Jesus Take So Long to Appear?: “The tradition of the hadith (prophet’s sayings and doings) and other historical works about the birth of Islam were only…” Jan 18, 21:24
Clarke Owens on Bearing False Witness for Jesus: ““His teaching, fame as a healer, openness to sinners, selection of “the twelve” (apostles), prophetic actions (like cleansing the temple),…” Jan 18, 17:16

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2018-05-11

Vridar Maintenance

by Tim Widowfield

Tim Widowfield

Latest posts by Tim Widowfield (see all)

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3 thoughts on “Vridar Maintenance”

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