Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
Christ, meaning Messiah, is, of course, not a proper name but a title, like King or High Priest. Yet Paul’s letters use Christ as if it is a proper name for Jesus. Dunn writes in response to Price (The Historical Jesus: Five Views) what is well known to all scholars: As often noted, the fact … Continue reading “Jesus Christ: Maybe BOTH names are titular? (Dunn on Price, again, too)”
Just two points from James D. G. Dunn’s response to Robert M. Price’s chapter, “Jesus at the Vanishing Point”, in The Historical Jesus: Five Views are addressed here. Maybe will address more over time in other posts. Dunn’s responses are lazy and insulting dismissals of Price’s arguments, not rebuttals based on logic or evidence, as … Continue reading “Historical Jesus: two vacuous responses from Dunn on Price”
Two archaeologists, one Israeli (Israel Finkelstein) and one American (Neil Asher Silberman), have bizarrely managed to repackage a Taliban-like ancient biblical legal code into a modern enlightened expression of human rights, human liberation and social equality. Presumably this is done in order to preserve some (mythical) legitimacy for traditional claims among certain Jewish quarters that … Continue reading “More nonsense from biblical archaeologists: turning a Taliban text into a proclamation of human rights and dignity!”
I have been recently addressing some common misconceptions about mythicist arguments. Another one is that “mythicism” places strained interpretations on passages that refer to Jesus as “the seed of David” and as being “born of a woman.” This post does not explore all the ins and outs of the arguments, but briefly points to what … Continue reading “Seed of David, born of woman, and mythicism”
Philo was a Jewish philosopher in Egypt who died around 50 ce. Much of his literary work was an attempt to explain Jewish beliefs in the language of Greek (or Hellenistic) philosophers. Curiously (for us at least) he spoke of “a second God” who was a manifestation of “the High God”. This second God was … Continue reading “How Philo might have understood Christ in the NT epistles”
A modern reader will be excused for not seeing at first glance any connection between King Saul as an anointed one (i.e. “messiah”) and the concept of messiah as it applies to Jesus. But Thomas L. Thompson has brought out some interesting concepts in common. Saul was a messiah of Israel, and as a messiah … Continue reading “An Old Testament Messiah Struck Down by God”
Continuing from Rick Strelan’s article notes in Fallen Watchers of Enoch and the 12 Disciples in Mark’s Gospel I’m taking notes from Strelan’s article without much modification and only little of my own comment. Readers can decide for themselves the strength of his case, how suggestive it might be . . . . The Gospel of … Continue reading “Peter and the 12 Disciples; Satan and the Fallen Watchers”
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 strangest thought hit me while sight-seeing yet another Buddhist shrine or worship area – this time in the Ancient Siam park (official site still calls it The Ancient City). Attached to (certainly nearby) probably every Buddhist public temple area is a place where one can buy appropriate offerings (such as flowers, prayer sticks, candles) … Continue reading “Jesus and the lotus petals, and the missing dimension in historical Jesus studies”
In The Historical Jesus: Five Views, Luke Timothy Johnson responds to the 5 principles for historical enquiry as laid out by Robert M. Price in his opening chapter of that book. I discussed these in overview in my recent 5 more commandments post. The five are: 1. The Principle of Analogy 2. The Criterion of … Continue reading “Luke Timothy Johnson’s Response to Robert Price”
The Gospel narratives provide strong positive evidence for why their authors chose to write about Jesus’ siblings. They explicitly meet a clear and specific requirement for the portrayal of a man of God who is to both follow and emulate the prophets who came before him. They also serve to illustrate a moral instruction of … Continue reading “The imaginary siblings of Jesus”
Following is a silly post, one of the silliest I have ever written. Maybe the silliest. Its only point is to foolishly respond to baseless and ignorant slurs written and spoken by Associate Professor James McGrath against people who argue Jesus was a mythical or legendary figure, not a real historical one. I do not … Continue reading ““Creationist” slurs have no place in an honest mythicist-historicist debate”
Further thoughts from earlier post on rival gospel traditions. . . . . It is easy to overlook that the gospels of John and Luke say that the Jews themselves, not Roman soldiers, crucified Jesus with Pilate’s permission. This is as is narrated in the Gospel of Peter and elsewhere, as per the above post. … Continue reading “Gospel of Luke, reconciler of the Herod and Pilate gospel narratives?”
For the sake of completeness I have to tag these notes (Gospel of Mark 14:1 -16:8) alongside the previous two looking at chapters 11-12 (entry into Jerusalem) and chapter 13 (Olivet prophecy). Once again: Red are the quotations Purple are the allusions Blue are the influences Black italics represent material from sources other than Kee … Continue reading “Jewish Scriptures in Mark’s Passion and Resurrection Narratives”