2019-11-01

Revised Post: “Review, pt 1a: How the Gospels Became History / Litwa”

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

by Neil Godfrey

To anyone who has read the previous post . . . I have entirely rewritten the last part of that post. My original text was misleading. Now corrected.

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

—N.T. Wrong, – March 2016
"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)
"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 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, 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!"

-- Timothy Bagley, - November 2024
"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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Nancy Fraser - June 2019 (personal email)
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— Russell Gmirkin, – October 2016
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-- Jim West, – September 2010
"I always enjoy reading Neil’s blog because I think that he is careful, thorough, intellectually fair, and honest."

— April DeConick, – November 2007
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
"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
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"Neil, this is actually rather useful. Good job."

— R. Joseph Hoffmann, – June 2014
"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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Congratulations, Vridar, . . . I declare, Vridar, your own hard work translating Bruno Bauer will make a major difference in future studies of Bruno Bauer and the evolution of Hegel’s philosophy of religion.

-- Paul Trejo, - April 2023
"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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— James McGrath, – June 2009
"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 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)
"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
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
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— Earl Doherty, November 2013 (personal email)
"Many thanks for this post, and for the quality of your blog."

— Philippe Wajdenbaum, – November 2018
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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— Gregory Doudna, – January 2019

Stephen on John the Baptist: God’s Angel or “One Born of Women”?: “Other than Josephus’ penchant for making the Essenes/DSS into Greek philosophers, then one might suppose his portrayal of John is…” Oct 4, 23:55
Neil Godfrey on “Other criteria are required to determine historicity”: “Here’s another set of observations that may help us distinguish “fact from fiction”. The context is different, but perhaps the…” Oct 4, 22:20
Neil Godfrey on Do Mark’s Primitive Language, Aramaicisms and Theology Really Argue for Markan Priority?: “Here: https://vridar.org/bruno-bauer-six-works-translated-into-english/bruno-bauer-criticism-of-the-gospels-and-history-of-their-origin-in-english/ …. More specifically, the seventh chapter of the seventh book listed on that page where I link translations…” Oct 4, 21:50
Neil Godfrey on “Other criteria are required to determine historicity”: “What the point of the post demonstrates for me is that the Gospel of Mark’s John the Baptist is yet…” Oct 4, 21:32
Neil Godfrey on “Other criteria are required to determine historicity”: “I never thought it through like that. Thanks!” Oct 4, 21:23
Neil Godfrey on “Other criteria are required to determine historicity”: “Tertullian argues that John the Baptist was “of the creator” and stood in an anti-Marcionite role — given the context…” Oct 4, 21:19
Don Camp on “Other criteria are required to determine historicity”: “There may have been an attempt to identify John as fitting the Elijah type. Or he may actually have fit…” Oct 4, 19:43
Andrew J Dabrowski on Do Mark’s Primitive Language, Aramaicisms and Theology Really Argue for Markan Priority?: “Where does Bauer argue that?” Oct 4, 17:20

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