Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
I have always found the account of Simon Magus in the Acts of the Apostles empty of any real significance. It contains nothing to advance the plot. The “magician” wants to buy a bottle of holy spirit from Peter so he can perform miracles, he says, but that leaves me cold: it lacks any sense … Continue reading “Trying to make sense of Simon Magus”
Last month a National Church Life Survey found that only 49% of Australians believe that “Jesus was a real person who actually lived”. From NCLS Research: Is Jesus Real to Australians? That finding (although the sample size surveyed was small — 1286) was too depressing for one somewhat prominent Christian scholar in Australia who dashed … Continue reading “Bearing False Witness for Jesus”
You have heard of priests who are closet atheists. Have you ever wondered why they stay in the Church? What are they thinking? Here is an explanation from one Catholic priest who lost his faith. It’s from the autobiography of Joseph Turmel who was eventually excommunicated. I have copied the passage from the online edition … Continue reading “When a Priest Loses His Faith”
Continuing from Getting History for Atheists Wrong (Again) — #4 An examination of the claim that “Paul refers to his teachings that Jesus made during in his earthly ministry, on divorce . . .” Source-Data Interpretation External facts / context related to interpretation 1 Corinthians 7:10-11 To the married I give this command (not I, but … Continue reading “Did Paul Quote Jesus on Divorce? — Getting History for Atheists Wrong (Again) — #5”
How is it possible that a collection of texts from ancient and alien cultures has personal relevance for millions of believers today? Once again I find the research of Brian Malley in How the Bible Works: An Anthropological Study of Evangelical Biblicism provides meaningful answers. I’ll start with his four-fold model of what is actually … Continue reading “The Indefinite Interpretability of the Bible”
At some point in the not-too-distant future (we hope), you’ll be able to buy a new book, an anthology of papers related to Jesus mythicism. In it, you’ll find essays from the usual suspects, including Neil and me. While neither of us would characterize himself as a mythicist (I still think of myself as an … Continue reading “Cultural Context and Confirmation Bias: Why We Loved Edward T. Hall”
The Greek Mythicists website has posted a (Greek language) interview with Thomas L. Thompson. The interview page is Συνέντευξη με τον Thomas L. Thompson: Ο Βιβλικός Μινιμαλισμός και ο ιστορικός Ιησούς. The person responsible for the site, Minas Papageorgiou, has kindly sent me an English translation. It is very lengthy so I will only post … Continue reading “Interview with Thomas L. Thompson #1”
I discuss here my reading of Chapter 5 of Raphael Lataster’s Questioning the Historicity of Jesus. Here he looks at the problematic nature of the gospels and extra-biblical sources for Jesus. Lataster discusses how historical Jesus scholars attempt to get around the problem that there are no primary sources for a historical Jesus. This absence … Continue reading “Review part 5: Questioning the Historicity of Jesus / Lataster (Case for Agnosticism – 2, Sources)”
I’m back to blogging again after being seconded to actually do certain household maintenance jobs I had been promising and giving much on-and-off thought to for some weeks now. (I’m a firm believer in not rushing into certain tasks without careful and protracted thought beforehand.) the real offense of [certain critical biblical scholarship] is . … Continue reading “If They Treat Their Own This Way, What Hope for Us Outsiders?”
It’s a human thing. Not limited to one religious heritage. I’m talking about the foibles of scholarship as it delves into its own heritage. So we have the language of apologetics being used where it does not belong. Recall a post that detoured into a discussion of confessional language in scholarship. Recall some of the … Continue reading “Scholars of Christianity are Not Alone”
Three posts will be enough. The first one responding to Tim O’Neill’s Jesus the Apocalyptic Prophet on his History for Atheists site is Examining the Evidence for Jesus as an Apocalyptic Prophet The second is Response #2 to History for Atheists’ “JESUS THE APOCALYPTIC PROPHET” In the first post we presented a case that there is no evidence to … Continue reading “Final (#3) post responding to O’Neill’s Jesus the Apocalyptic Prophet“
Jonathan Bernier has posted “three basic means by which to date a biblical text” which I think are reasonably useful but can be improved upon. His focus is primarily on the New Testament chronology. Bernier calls his first tool “synchronization” and it’s pretty basic. If a text declares that the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed … Continue reading “A Better Way to Date a Biblical Text”
I begin by repeating Earl Doherty’s maiden post to Crosstalk. I have colour coded different discussion threads. Links below are to the archive.org site where Earl’s Jesus Puzzle website is as it existed at the time of the Crosstalk exchange. For the current site see http://www.jesuspuzzle.com/jesuspuzzle/index.htm I have decided to present this early conversation to allow … Continue reading “Earl Doherty’s First Day with Biblical Scholars on Crosstalk Forum”
Earl Doherty, author the The Jesus Puzzle website, The Jesus Puzzle and Jesus Neither God Nor Man and other books, and contributor to The Journal of Higher Criticism, made his “public appearance” on a biblical scholars forum on Tuesday, the 9th of February, 1999: Crosstalk. In the light of some unfortunate mischaracterizations of the tone … Continue reading “The Day Earl Doherty (author of ‘The Jesus Puzzle’) Personally Entered the Global Forum”