Category: Biblical Studies

The biggie. Much work needs to be done on the children of this category. These need to be greatly reduced in number.

Should this category include the ancient history of Palestine-Judea, including second temple era and Bar Kochba rebellion and rise of rabbinic culture? If so, should Biblical Studies itself be renamed in some way?

2007-10-19

The Meaning of Biblical Chronology

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by Neil Godfrey

Filed under: Biblical Studies, Old Testament
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From Genesis through to 2 Kings and the prophet Ezekiel are many nice round numbers tying together the world’s and Israel’s major events. And when they are added up they point to the rededication of the Temple under Judas Maccabeus.

They therefore imply a prophecy that this event, from which the Jewish nation could be said to be reborn, was ordained from the beginning of time. Creation itself could be inferred to have had its fulfilment in this rebirth of Israel.

The figures also mean that the editing (if not composition) of some of the biblical books happened as late as 164 b.c.e. Continue reading “The Meaning of Biblical Chronology”

2007-10-16

Paul’s basket escape from Damascus: the nonsense of the Acts narrative

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by Neil Godfrey

Filed under: Biblical Studies, New Testament
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Paul in 2 Corinthians informs readers that his escape from Damascus was an escape from the governor under King Aretas.

Luke in Acts informs readers that Paul’s escape from Damascus was an escape from Jews hiding in ambush at the city gates.

Pervo exposes the nonsense of Luke’s narrative and suggests why he chose to re-write 2 Corinthians the way he did. Continue reading “Paul’s basket escape from Damascus: the nonsense of the Acts narrative”

2007-10-14

The Call of Levi not to be one of the Twelve

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by Neil Godfrey

Filed under: Biblical Studies, New Testament, Religion and Atheism
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The Gospel of Mark contains a story about the call of Levi, a tax collector, to follow Jesus as one of his disciples, but then mystifies readers by not listing this person in the ranks of the famous Twelve. The reason this omission is so mystifying is that the call of Levi is described in a way that sounds every bit as if the reader is meant to see his calling on the same level of distinctiveness as the calling of the very leaders of the Twelve, Peter, James and John.

But to me the mystery is clarified when we interpret the two callings through the same frameworks we use to generally interpret Mark’s other double-up stories. Continue reading “The Call of Levi not to be one of the Twelve”

The Twelve Apostles Among the Old Wineskins?

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by Neil Godfrey

Filed under: Biblical Studies, New Testament
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(updated 3:20 pm)
I’ve posted repeatedly reasons for believing the Gospel of Mark was an attack on that school of Christianity that claimed to trace its roots to the Twelve Apostles, and this post is a continuation of that theme although with a couple of new explorations into the interpretation of the gospel.

I’ve relied heavily in the past on the parable of the sower, following Tolbert’s Sowing the Gospel in this. But there is another prominent parable or maxim presented before this one and it is on that one, the sayings about the new cloth being sown into an old garment and new wine being poured into old wineskins, that is the fulcrum of my interpretation of Mark in the following snippet. Continue reading “The Twelve Apostles Among the Old Wineskins?”

2007-10-09

Mark’s Judas problem: binding the kiss and the sword

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by Neil Godfrey

Filed under: Biblical Studies, New Testament
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(updated 6:50 am)

If Mark wanted to show that the Twelve were not reliable witnesses and that they collectively withered and died at the Passion of Jesus, he had a problem with Judas. (For background discussion to this see my earlier post.)

Judas (always labeled “one of the twelve” as if that association alone were enough to taint his reputation) worked well enough to stage a betrayal scene. But the betrayal also created a problem. Continue reading “Mark’s Judas problem: binding the kiss and the sword”

Comparing the myths of Adapa and Adam, prototypes of priest and humankind

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by Neil Godfrey

Filed under: Ancient Literature, Biblical Studies, Old Testament
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I found Liverani’s comparative analysis of the Babylonian and Hebrew myths interesting enough to share here. He dismisses earlier attempts to force relationships between the former with the Genesis account as failures because they attempt to impute themes and meanings where they do not really exist.

Liverani does see a structural relationship between the two myths, however, and when that structure is understood then not only points of comparison stand out, but also an explanation for their differences becomes apparent. Continue reading “Comparing the myths of Adapa and Adam, prototypes of priest and humankind”

2007-10-06

The wrong questions to ask about myths — and the gospels

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by Neil Godfrey

Filed under: Ancient Literature, Biblical Studies, New Testament, Old Testament
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Ancient myths and the gospels are not modern novels but it’s tempting to ask questions about their characters and plots as if they were. Questions like, Why did such and such a person do this and not that? Are there not too many unlikely coincidences in this story to make it plausible? Ancient myths are not concerned with the psychological motivations and development of characters the way modern novels are. Nor do their parts have to hang together in the same unifying way.

Characters can be introduced without any explained motivation for their arrival or the actions they perform. What matters is the consequences they effect.

It is the same with reading the gospel of Mark. But before discussing that, a look at Mario Liverani’s chapter on the myth of Adapa (I know, Adapa is eons removed from the gospel, but the tools required for interpreting it are more applicable to the gospels than are the tools required for modern literary criticism): Continue reading “The wrong questions to ask about myths — and the gospels”

2007-10-05

Why Judas was singled out after Mark’s gospel

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by Neil Godfrey

Filed under: Biblical Studies, New Testament
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Judas was not much worse than the other disciples in the earliest gospel but by the time we read about him in Matthew, Luke and John he has become the arch villain. In the first gospel a case could be made that Judas was not singularly worse than the rest of the Twelve. Continue reading “Why Judas was singled out after Mark’s gospel”

2007-10-02

keeping biblical scholarship from the people

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by Neil Godfrey

Filed under: Biblical Scholars, Biblical Studies
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“Epilepsy is regarded as demon possession in the same book people use to condemn homosexuality.

“We have not brought biblical scholarship to people in the pews. I guess the clergy are scared to let the genie out of the bottle.”

That’s from a recent newspaper article.

This is what I liked about Spong when I first discovered his books and then had a chance to meet him soon afterwards. (It’s also one of the reasons for this blog.)

Biblical scholarship has too few of the sorts of books that science has, books that popularize without cheapening the findings of modern research for lay readers. Continue reading “keeping biblical scholarship from the people”

2007-09-30

Ananias and Sapphira: tradition or borrowing?

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by Neil Godfrey

Filed under: Biblical Studies, New Testament
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It can be said that the author of Acts knew the story of Ananias and Sapphira as “a piece of floating tradition” and so added it to his novelistic history of the church. But we have no evidence for any such “floating tradition” — this is an assumption based on particular model or hypothesis about the origins of the canonical texts.

It can also be said that the author of Acts got the idea for the story from 1 Corinthians and shaped it to be like a similar story in Joshua. If there is textual evidence for a such a relationship between these accounts, then we have a more economical and preferable explanation for the origin of this story in Acts than the one that assumes a “floating tradition”.

The following is (again) from Pervo: Continue reading “Ananias and Sapphira: tradition or borrowing?”

2007-09-29

4 things Luke knew — but did not say (or hardly said)

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by Neil Godfrey

Filed under: Biblical Studies, New Testament
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Richard Pervo offers much to think about in his work Dating Acts: between the evangelists and the apologists. Justice is not done to Pervo’s arguments by summarizing any small section of them in dot-point form. The dot-point notes that I’ve already presented from this book —

— are intended to pique interest and thought only, not to present “the whole argument” by any means.

Summarizing here one more nugget in that book with occasional other comments. This one is headed Matters About Which Luke Is Silent but Not Ignorant (pp.133-135). . . .

Continue reading “4 things Luke knew — but did not say (or hardly said)”

Doing history, not theology

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by Neil Godfrey

Filed under: Biblical Scholars, Biblical Studies, Historical Methods and Historiography
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Historians — at least the historians I am most used to reading — attempt to explain facts by demonstrating their relationships with other facts. Continue reading “Doing history, not theology”

2007-09-26

The Jesus Genealogies: their different theological significances

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by Neil Godfrey

Filed under: Biblical Studies, New Testament
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A late date and anti-Marcionite context for Luke-Acts not only has the power to explain why Luke may have rejected Matthew’s story of the birth of Jesus, but even more directly why Luke’s genealogy of Jesus is so different from Matthew’s. (The common belief that Luke records Mary’s family line and Matthew Joseph’s is a simplistic rationalization that defies the textual evidence.)

Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus goes back to Abraham and is traced through Solomon. Luke’s bypasses Solomon and traces back to Adam and God himself. Continue reading “The Jesus Genealogies: their different theological significances”

2007-09-25

A reason Luke might have rejected Matthew’s nativity story

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by Neil Godfrey

Filed under: Biblical Studies, New Testament
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There are arguments for and against Luke having known and used the gospel of Matthew, but one of the stronger arguments against him having done so is that his nativity story appears to owe nothing to Matthew’s – indeed appears to have been composed in complete ignorance of it. Matthew tells the story of the star, the visiting Magi, the infant Jesus being whisked off to Egypt to escape the Herod’s massacre of the infants, and eventual settlement in Nazareth. Luke’s story is as much about the miraculous birth of John the Baptist as it is about Jesus, involves shepherds instead of Magi, no Herodian massacre, and a presentation at the Jerusalem Temple rather than a flight to Egypt.

If Luke as we have it was, with the book of Acts, a response to Marcionism (or even an attempt to baptize Paul into orthodoxy quite apart from Marcionism), then it would seem he would have every reason to dismiss the Matthean nativity totally. Continue reading “A reason Luke might have rejected Matthew’s nativity story”