Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
The Casey-Holding Theory of Pauline High-Context Culture We were treated recently to another dose of apologia run amok in Maurice Casey’s “frightful” diatribe against Earl Doherty. Following in the footsteps of fellow apologist, J.P. Holding, Casey explains away Paul’s silence regarding the earthly Jesus by a misapplication of Edward T. Hall’s cultural context paradigm (ref. … Continue reading “When Is Paul’s Silence Golden?”
* The Pauline Epistles – Part Two . COVERED IN THIS POST: “Words of the Lord”: from earth or heaven? Why doesn’t Paul quote Jesus more extensively? The epistles exclude an historical Jesus Paul’s conversion chronology Paul’s crash course on Jesus from Cephas and James How much interpolation in Paul? Surveying the counterarguments Ehrman answering … Continue reading “19. Earl Doherty’s Response to Bart Ehrman’s Case Against Mythicism – Pt. 19”
* The Pauline Epistles – Part One . COVERED IN THIS POST: Born of woman, born under the Law: authentic to Paul? Jesus ministering to the Jews a “missing equation”: Paul’s Christ = the Gospel Jesus Romans 1:3 – “of David’s seed kata sarka“ “brother(s) of the Lord”: a preliminary look “the twelve” Paul’s “Lord’s … Continue reading “18. Earl Doherty’s Response to Bart Ehrman’s Case Against Mythicism – Pt.18”
I am continuing here with another quick and easy response because real-life distractions prevent me at this time from addressing Hoffmann’s and Casey’s posts against mythicism. I will address both when work and family situations permit. Right now I am relaxing after sharing with family experiences in Kakadu — plan to return tomorrow some time. … Continue reading “Neil Godfrey’s response 2: @ Stephanie Fisher”
* Earl Doherty’s Response to Bart Ehrman’s Case Against Mythicism – Pt.6 What Did Jews Have to Say? . COVERED IN THIS POST: Philo of Alexandria Josephus the Testimonium: entirely interpolation or an authentic residue? is an authentic residue “neutral”? is the Testimonium intrusive or a digression? silence of Christian commentators on Testimonium before Eusebius … Continue reading “6. Earl Doherty’s Response to Bart Ehrman’s Case Against Mythicism: Jewish Sources”
Ken Humphreys posted what I think is a brilliant review of Bart Ehrman’s Did Jesus Exist? on the Freethought and Rationalism Discussion Board, or FRDB, on 5 April. (Or was it first posted on Ken’s own website, JesusNeverExisted?) Steven Carr’s comments alerted me to it on FRDB, and when I read it I was envious. … Continue reading “Review: Ehrman’s “Did Jesus Exist?” – Apologetics Lite (by Ken Humphreys)”
I have been studying the first half of Richard Carrier’s chapter 3, “Introducing Bayes’s Theorem”, in his recent book Proving History: Bayes’s Theorem and the Quest for the Historical Jesus. I mean studying. I want to be sure I fully understand the argument before tackling the second half of the chapter, headed Mechanics of Bayes’s … Continue reading “Carrier’s “Proving History”, Chapter 3(a) — Review”
Until I can get time to do my own reading and comments on Bart Ehrman’s “new book”© I invite anyone who has not yet checked it out to visit the Freeratio discussion board and enjoy the discussion there. Bart Ehrman himself has made an appearance, though a none too auspicious one. He apparently attempted to … Continue reading “Bart Ehrman’s New Book: Did Steven Carr’s Prophecies Come True?”
Continuing here my series of posts from Paul-Louis Couchoud‘s The Creation of Christ. Full set of posts are archived at Couchoud: Creation of Christ. In this chapter Couchoud finds a pivotal place for the Epistle to the Hebrews as a significant stepping stone between Paul’s Jesus, who had nothing more than “an appearance or form” … Continue reading “How Christ Jesus became Flesh – the role of the Celestial High Priest (Couchoud continued)”
This post continues Couchoud’s account of the nature of the Christ found in the Book of Revelation and how he epitomizes the “false Christ” that Paul denounced his apostolic rivals for promoting. Couchoud has been tracing the rise of Christianity from the Enochian community in “pre-Christian” times and the evolution of the Christ idea in … Continue reading “The Christ of John’s Revelation — Nemesis of Paul’s crucified Christ (Couchoud continued)”
Continuing here my series of outlining Paul Louis Couchoud’s work The Creation of Christ (English translation 1939), with all posts in the series archived, in reverse chronological order, here. The previous post in this series presented Couchoud’s argument that Paul’s Christ was a God crucified in heaven, the result of a combination of feverish interpretations … Continue reading “The War of the Heavenly Christs: John’s Sacrificed Lamb versus Paul’s Crucified God (Couchoud continued)”
Continuing from the previous post, “The Struggles of Paul” . . . . (The full series is archived here.) Troubles in Ephesus Having sent his “terrible letter” to the Corinthian ekklesia Paul was beset by mounting troubles where he was staying in Ephesus. He had been banned from the synagogue so assembled his church in … Continue reading “The sufferings of Paul (Couchoud continued)”
Couchoud follows the main outline of Acts in his account of the missionary career of Paul. Where and why he occasionally deviates from Acts is explained in context below. (All posts in this series, along with a few extras, are archived here.) At first glance it appears that C is merely repeating a well-known set … Continue reading “The struggles of Paul (Couchoud continued)”
Unfortunately this is not my favourite chapter in Couchoud’s book The Creation Of Christ. But I’ve set myself a target and I have to get through this one to finish the book, so here goes. (The series is archived here.) (I personally suspect the stories in Acts are inspired more by Old Testament and Classical … Continue reading “Earliest divisions in the Christian movement (Couchoud continued)”