Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
The Acts Seminar Report (Acts and Christian Beginnings) maintains that, contrary to the view that has long been widely held among biblical scholars, the author of Acts (with the routine caveats we call him Luke) did know and use the letters of Paul. I begin with some comments by one of the Acts Seminar Fellows, … Continue reading “Paul’s Letters As Sources for Acts (Acts Seminar Report)”
The Acts Seminar was a Westar Institute sequel to the Jesus Seminar. It met between March 2000 and March 2011. It was charged with the task to develop methods for determining the reliability of Acts and produce a comprehensive guide to Acts as history. (Acts and Christian Beginnings: The Acts Seminar Report, p. 1) The … Continue reading “Top Ten Findings of the Acts Seminar”
. Continuing the series on Thomas Brodie’s Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus: Memoir of a Discovery, archived here. This post concludes chapter 17 where Brodie is analysing John Meier’s work, A Marginal Jew, as representative of the best that has been produced by notable scholars on the historical Jesus. Brodie’s discussion of the … Continue reading “Making of a Mythicist — ch 17 . . . Jesus in Greco-Roman Sources & General Conclusions”
Continuing the series on Thomas Brodie’s Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus: Memoir of a Discovery, archived here. In chapter 17 Brodie is analysing John Meier’s work, A Marginal Jew, as representative of the best that has been produced by notable scholars on the historical Jesus. We saw from the opening post on Brodie’s … Continue reading “Making of a Mythicist — ch 17 . . . The Evidence of Josephus”
Continuing the series on Thomas Brodie’s Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus: Memoir of a Discovery, archived here. In chapter 17 Brodie is analysing John Meier’s work, A Marginal Jew, as representative of the best that has been produced by notable scholars on the historical Jesus. Brodie subtitles this section with: Sceptics See Only … Continue reading “Making of a Mythicist — ch 17 . . . Was Jesus a Carpenter?”
. Continuing the series on Thomas Brodie’s Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus: Memoir of a Discovery, archived here. . Brodie is analysing John Meier’s work, A Marginal Jew, as representative of the best that has been produced by notable scholars on the historical Jesus. Having begun by identifying the two key problems of … Continue reading “Making of a Mythicist — ch 17 . . . Did Jesus Model Himself on Elijah?”
Continuing the series on Thomas Brodie’s Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus: Memoir of a Discovery, archived here. (I am breaking up Brodie’s chapter 17 into a series of smaller posts, and adding more of my own commentary in the process. I hope I keep the distinction between my own thoughts and Brodie’s clear.) … Continue reading “Making of a Mythicist — ch 17 . . . Unreliable Criteria”
Continuing the series on Thomas Brodie’s Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus: Memoir of a Discovery, archived here. Chapter 17 A MARGINAL JEW: RETHINKING THE HISTORICAL JESUS — THE MONUMENTAL WORK OF JOHN P. MEIER Thomas Brodie selects for discussion John Meier’s work, A Marginal Jew, as representative of the best work that has … Continue reading “Making of a Mythicist, Act 4, Scene 6 (Two Key Problems with Historical Jesus Studies)”
Continuing the series on Thomas Brodie’s Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus: Memoir of a Discovery, archived here. Chapter 16 PAUL: THE PENNY FINALLY DROPS The last post in this series concluded with If Brodie’s analyses are correct then it is clear that the epistles and Luke cannot be taken at face value in … Continue reading “Making of a Mythicist, Act 4, Scene 5 (How Paul Was Made)”
As their weapon of choice against the Christ Myth hypothesis (“mythicism”), theologians, religion and Biblical scholars appear from where I stand to regularly deploy the instruments of propaganda. The motivations appear to me to be to maintain their status and reputation in a society infested with critical and anti-establishment influences, and their control over the … Continue reading “The Propaganda War Against Mythicism”
Continuing the series on Thomas Brodie’s Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus: Memoir of a Discovery, archived here. . Chapter 15 PAUL’S BIOGRAPHY – INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT . Chapter 15 of Thomas Brodie’s discovery memoir (Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus: Memoir of a Discovery) surveys what can happen when one applies comparative literary … Continue reading “Making of a Mythicist, Act 4, Scene 4 (The Crumbling Evidence for Paul)”
Chapter 14 THE SHIPPING FORECAST: DEEPS BELOW AND A STORM AHEAD . Chapter 14 of Thomas Brodie’s Memoir of a Discovery is probably one of the volume’s most significant and it is to be regretted that some of Brodie’s critics have so totally avoided its message. This chapter strikes at the heart of what most … Continue reading “Making of a Mythicist, Act 4, Scene 3 (Deeps Below, Storms Ahead)”
Chapter 13 The Quest for History: Rule One . The theme of chapter 13 in Thomas Brodie’s Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus: Memoir of a Discover syncs well with a recurring theme on this blog. I have posted on it repeatedly and alluded to it constantly. I even posted on the contents of … Continue reading “Making of a Mythicist, Act 4, Scene 2 (“What Is Rule One?”)”
. Chapter 12 The Funeral: ‘Oral Tradition’ And Its World . Chapter 12 of Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus by Thomas Brodie addresses the problems Brodie came to see with oral tradition as an explanation for Gospel sources. I have covered Brodie’s arguments on oral tradition in depth here (see Two Core Problems … Continue reading “Making of a Mythicist, Act 4, Scene 1 (“We need a gentle funeral”)”