Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
Critique of the Gospel History of the Synoptics by Bruno Bauer Volume 1 —o0o— 1 First section. The birth and childhood of Jesus. § 1. The lineage of Jesus from David. After the recent founders of biblical criticism unsuccessfully attempted to answer the question of why Mark says nothing about the birth and childhood of … Continue reading “§ 1 The lineage of Jesus from David.”
Romans 1:1-7 (YLT) 1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, a called apostle, having been separated to the good news of God — 2 which He announced before through His prophets in holy writings — 3 concerning His Son, (who is come of the seed of David according to the flesh, 4 who is marked out Son of God … Continue reading “Jesus the Seed of David: One More Case for Interpolation”
I continue here the series covering Paul Louis Couchoud’s argument for the creation of the canonical New Testament literature from the 1939 English translation of his The Creation of Christ: An Outline of the Beginnings of Christianity. The series is archived here — scroll to the bottom for the first posts where the overall purpose … Continue reading “Paul’s Letter to the Romans – the creation of the canonical edition according to Couchoud”
Updated with NT passages for reference This follows my previous post that set me thinking along a related line. The verse for the day is Horsley’s sentence that I quoted there: It would thus appear that the supposedly standard Jewish ideas or expectations of the messiah are a flimsy foundation indeed from which to explain … Continue reading ““Son of David” as an anachronism (or metaphor?) in the Gospels, Paul and Acts?”
I have been recently addressing some common misconceptions about mythicist arguments. Another one is that “mythicism” places strained interpretations on passages that refer to Jesus as “the seed of David” and as being “born of a woman.” This post does not explore all the ins and outs of the arguments, but briefly points to what … Continue reading “Seed of David, born of woman, and mythicism”
345/346 VIII. The Completion of the New Testament Literature. 1. A Great History and a Late Poem. In a series of images, we have seen the fate of the Empire, the nationalities, and the social classes of the first two centuries of our era unfold before us. As diverse as the figures were that moved … Continue reading “BRUNO BAUER: Christ and the Caesars – VIII. The Completion of the New Testament Literature”
Christ and the Caesars The Origin of Christianity from Greco-Roman Civilization by Bruno Bauer Berlin, 1877. Printed and published by Eugen Grosser.” Machine translated by Neil Godfrey from Christus und die Caesaren. Der Ursprung des Christenthums aus dem römischen Griechenthum March 2023 Contents Preface on the previous views of our subject. I. Seneca’s … Continue reading “BRUNO BAUER: Christ and the Caesars – Contents and Preface”
When I offered to post a comprehensive review of Writing With Scripture by Nathanael Vette the publisher sent me a copy and now I hope this first in a series of reviews will begin to do justice to all concerned and interested. I write primarily as a layman for interested lay readers. Who is Nathanael … Continue reading “How and Why the Gospel of Mark Used Scripture — a review of Writing with Scripture, part 1”
314 4. Die Vorgeschichte des Matthäus. 4. The prehistory of Matthew. 314/316 Jn zwei Formen konnte sich die Anschauung von dem Wunder der Empfängniß Jesu darstellen. Das Wunderbare wurde entweder durch die Engelsbotschaft an die Jungfrau einfach angekündigt, das Auffallende, daß eine Jungfrau, die noch von keinem Manne wußte, schwanger wurde, im Voraus gedeutet und … Continue reading “Ch 4 – The Prehistory of Matthew”
It’s been too long since I visited our French scholars of the Bible so here I continue with part 5 of Nanine Charbonnel’s table setting out the “Old Testament” sources of the Gospel narratives. In Jésus-Christ, Sublime Figure de Papier Charbonnel is presenting a case for the gospel figure of Jesus Christ being created entirely … Continue reading “Gospels Cut from Jewish Scriptures, #5”
I have been asked to address certain arguments on another forum and thought I’d draft out this one here as something of a prep. . . . I was asked if I am “sure” Jesus existed as a historical figure, and if so why. I tried to give a short answer as follows: “Sure” is … Continue reading “A Succinct Argument for the Historicity of Jesus”
Continuing a discussion of M. David Litwa’s How the Gospels Became History: Jesus and Mediterranean Myths. . . . All Litwa review posts are archived here. This post covers chapters 7 and 8, “Magi and the Star” and “Child in Danger, Child of Wonder”. Even though I often disagree with Litwa’s interpretations and conclusions I do … Continue reading “Review, parts 7 and 8. Litwa on Birth and Childhood Stories of Jesus – Widespread Cultural Tropes Recycled as “History””
Vridar’s first post on a Hermann Detering work was in February 2007: Little Apocalypse and the Bar Kochba Revolt The next “mention” of Hermann Detering was subtle. It was hidden as a link in the last sentence — But that leads us to a new set of questions about dates and identities that will have to be addressed … Continue reading “Remembering”
The abstract to Simon Gathercole’s article in the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus begins The present article seeks to show that the case for the mythical Jesus is seriously undermined by the evidence of the undisputed Pauline epistles. By way of a thought experiment, these letters are taken in isolation from other … Continue reading “Simon Gathercole’s Failure to Address Mythicism: (#5)”