Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
Eddy and Boyd’s fifth and final point in “the case for the authenticity of 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16” is to address the theological contradiction that exists between it and Romans 9-11. Here is the evidence. Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. (Rom 10:1) I magnify my … Continue reading “Taking Eddy & Boyd seriously (5)”
Continuing from Taking Eddy & Boyd Seriously (3) . . . . Indicting “The Jews” for the murder of the Lord Jesus Having insisted that 1 Thess 2:13-16 was indeed written by Paul, Eddy and Boyd (The Jesus Legend) must now attempt to argue that the contents of the passage are not antisemitic. One of … Continue reading “Taking Eddy & Boyd Seriously (4)”
Continuing from Eddy and Boyd (2) . . . . The argument that 1 Thess. 2:13-16 is an interpolation generally includes the claim that the passage refers to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 c.e. — some years after Paul’s time. The last line of this section is . . . . But wrath has … Continue reading “Taking Eddy & Boyd Seriously (3)”
Eddy and Boyd are often touted as having written some sort of authoritative rebuttal of arguments sceptical of “the historical reliability of the Synoptic Jesus tradition”, but as I began to show in my earlier part 1 post, and will continue here, their work misrepresents specific arguments they claim to refute; demonstrates a shoddiness, sometimes … Continue reading “Taking Eddy & Boyd Seriously (2)”
A popular book cited by lay readers and scholars alike as presenting “a case for the historical reliability of the synoptic Jesus tradition” is The Jesus Legend by Eddy and Boyd. Richard Bauckham calls it “one of the most important books on methodological issues in the study of Jesus and the Gospels to have appeared … Continue reading “Taking Eddy and Boyd seriously (1)”
What if the Testimonium Flavianum, the passage about Jesus and his followers, in Antiquities by Josephus was written in full (or maybe with the exception of no more than 3 words) by Josephus? I know that would raise many questions about the nature of the rest of our sources but let’s imagine the authenticity of … Continue reading “Imagine No Interpolations”
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)”
For an annotated list of previous posts in this series see the archived page: Daniel Gullotta’s Review of Richard Carrier’s On the Historicity of Jesus For other Archives by Topic, Annotated see the right margin. In the previous post we began to look at Daniel Gullotta’s treatment of Richard Carrier’s argument that the gospels are … Continue reading “Gullotta’s Misleading Portrayal of Carrier’s claims…. Part 2”
Previous posts in this series: We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age [ἀρχόντων τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου], who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for … Continue reading “Who Crucified Jesus – Men or Demons? Continuing Miller’s Study of 1 Cor 2:6-8”
I have finally caught up with the comments by Dr Mark Goodacre [MG] and Dr Richard Carrier [RC] since their radio discussion on the view that Jesus did not exist. While RC, without the burden of having to mark student papers, is able to add around 7,000 words of recap and elaboration to the case … Continue reading “Goodacre-Carrier Debate: What if . . . . ?”
My recent encounter with Matthew Novenson’s Christ among the Messiahs has led me to a few other publications of his and one of them I found particularly surprising and interesting: Why Does R. Akiba Acclaim Bar Kokhba as Messiah? that appeared in a 2009 Journal for the Study of Judaism (40). (Bar Kokhba was the … Continue reading “A model history lesson (or, Why Does Rabbi Akiba Proclaim Bar Kokhba the Messiah?)”
No. (But historicists do argue for interpolations and interpret contrary evidence metaphorically.) This is another misinformed assertion advanced by some who appear never to have read mythicist publications. I most recently noticed it in a response to another post by James McGrath complaining that mythicists do or don’t do or argue this and that, and … Continue reading “Do mythicists read Paul’s references to Jesus’ humanity as interpolations or metaphors?”
Anyone who is familiar with Earl Doherty’s site will probably find this post superfluous. The mysterious origin of R. Joseph Hoffmann’s views of Doherty Dr Jeffrey Gibson is on record as saying he has no intention of reading any of Doherty’s books but that did not prevent him from pulling out a critical line from … Continue reading “How and Why Scholars Fail to Rebut Earl Doherty”
The evidence historians use to assert that Jesus’ crucifixion is a historical fact does not match the evidence for the death of Socrates. Normal guidelines for secular historians that are used in their approach to sources are very rarely followed by biblical (in particular historical Jesus and early Christianity) historians. Paula Fredriksen, in her Jesus … Continue reading “Evidence for the UNhistorical “fact” of Jesus’ death”