2015-07-14

What Is Vridar? (updated 19th December 2016)

See Tim Widowfield’s post What Is Vridar covering

Why are we here?
No adverts here
Not asking for anything
Not here to debunk Christianity
About our non-biblical posts

(I have added a few points in the comments there.)

See also: Atheism, Vridar and Blogging Research in Religion, History, Politics, Science. . . . for the origin of the name Vridar and its relevance to the themes covered here.

Bio
Latest Posts

Neil Godfrey

Neil is the author of this post. To read more about Neil, see our About page.

Latest posts by Neil Godfrey (see all)

Why Genesis 1-3 is Different from Other Myths — [Biblical Creation Accounts/Plato’s Timaeus – 3b] - 2022-10-03 08:14:33 GMT+0000
Genesis = Science + Myth + Theology — [Biblical Creation Accounts/Plato’s Timaeus – 3a] - 2022-10-02 23:08:12 GMT+0000
Genesis 1 “Amazing” “Unique” — [Biblical Creation Accounts/Plato’s Timaeus – 2] - 2022-09-30 06:37:40 GMT+0000

5 thoughts on “What Is Vridar? (updated 19th December 2016)”

lloyd dettering says:

2016-04-09 23:22:55 GMT+0000 at 23:22

If Jesus never existed, then tell me who told the parable of the prodigal son? Who said that he could destroy his temple (his body) and rebuild it in 3 days? Who taught the Lord’s Prayer?

Reply
1. David Ashton says:
  
  2016-04-10 00:26:41 GMT+0000 at 00:26
  
  Some gifted but anonymous “mute inglorious Miltons” of the 2nd century, apparently.
  
  Reply
2. Peter Tobias says:
  
  2021-10-14 21:32:43 GMT+0000 at 21:32
  
  That’s an old critique of the critics indeed: if Jesus didn’t exist, how could the four evangelists create such a powerful figure?
  
  Reply
  1. Paul Rogers says:
    
    2021-11-25 23:40:36 GMT+0000 at 23:40
    
    Ever hear of Ulysses, for one?
    
    Reply
Pingback: Vridar » Reply to Larry Hurtado: “Why the “Mythical Jesus” Claim Has No Traction with Scholars”

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

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

— April DeConick, – November 2007
"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
"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
"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."

-- Martin Lewadny, - March 2009
"These reviews of yours are so bloody weird!"

— James Crossley, – April 2010
"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
"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’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, 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
"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
"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
"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)
"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
"Neil, this is actually rather useful. Good job."

— R. Joseph Hoffmann, – June 2014
"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)
"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

Neil Godfrey on Biblical Creation Accounts and Plato – 1: “You have a distinctive ability to read the letter of selected words and miss their intent and context, taking the…” Oct 3, 20:05
Stephen Goranson on Biblical Creation Accounts and Plato – 1: “Oh, so not *exactly*? Well, perhaps, NG, you forgot reading what Russell Gmirkin wrote on Biblical Criticism and History Forum…” Oct 3, 19:58
Neil Godfrey on Biblical Creation Accounts and Plato – 1: “According to RG’s thesis, Plato’s program was not copied slavishly in every detail by the authors of biblical books nor…” Oct 3, 19:18
Neil Godfrey on Why Genesis 1-3 is Different from Other Myths — [Biblical Creation Accounts/Plato’s Timaeus – 3b]: “Sorry, Clarke — can you clarify for me exactly what you mean by “order” of composition? Thanks.” Oct 3, 19:04
Stephen Goranson on Biblical Creation Accounts and Plato – 1: “If, on the c.273-272 Torah creation hypothesis, Judaeans/Samaritans/Israelites had no national literature, what was there to “erase”? And if, hypothetically,…” Oct 3, 13:29
Clarke Owens on Why Genesis 1-3 is Different from Other Myths — [Biblical Creation Accounts/Plato’s Timaeus – 3b]: “Can we infer from your opening paragraphs that this argument includes, or constitutes, an argument about the order of composition?” Oct 3, 13:09
Neil Godfrey on Biblical Creation Accounts and Plato – 1: “Thanks for the correction, though someone in another place had alerted me to the error and I had fixed it…” Oct 2, 21:58
Stephen Goranson on Biblical Creation Accounts and Plato – 1: “Concerning “This traditional view holds that the Bible grew out of the literary matrix of Mesopotamia and Syria-Canaan. Possible Greek…” Oct 2, 15:16
Neil Godfrey on Biblical Creation Accounts and Plato – 1: “It’s back.” Oct 2, 11:26