Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
Continuing here my commentary on the points of literary, thematic, religious and cultural contacts between ancient popular literature and the Bible, with the Argonautica as a case study. [See the other posts in this series.] From my initial post: Anyone who treats the Bible too seriously as history needs to take time out to read … Continue reading “Bible and the Argonauts: Chapter 3 (Book 2)”
Continuing the story in Book 1 (links to Seaton’s translation) of the Argonautica. It is one of many ancient works of literature that deserve to be read alongside the Bible to keep everything in perspective. [This is the second part of my little series of posts reading the Bible in the context of popular ancient … Continue reading “Bible and the Argonauts: Chapter 2”
Anyone who treats the Bible too seriously as history needs to take time out to read Jason and the Argonauts, or the Argonautica, composed in the third century BCE by Apollonius of Rhodes. They could also read a lot of other ancient literature, epic poetry, tragic dramas, Hellenistic novellas, to find a more grounded perspective … Continue reading “Bible and the Argonauts: Chapter 1”
Descending Spirit and Descending Gods: A “Greek” Interpretation of the Spirit’s “Descent as a Dove” in Mark 1:10 by Edward P. Dixon was published last year (2009) in the Journal of Biblical Literature (128, no. 4). It is a welcome breeze of fresh sanity into the so many contorted attempts to explain Gospel themes and … Continue reading “Comparing the baptism of Jesus with Greek gods descending like birds and appearing as humans”
This post relates to an earlier one on Keller here. Timothy Keller in The Reason for God makes an astonishing claim meant to reinforce the argument that the gospels could not possibly be fictional: The literary form of the gospels is too detailed to be legend. Modern fiction . . . contains details and dialogue … Continue reading “Timothy Keller: “The literary form of the gospels is too detailed to be legend.””
Immediately before the plot in Mark’s gospel reaches the point where Jesus experiences his final dramatic adventure — passing through betrayal, trial and death before entering the heavenly kingdom — Jesus delivers a long prophetic speech to his disciples. This inclusion of a detailed prophecy prior to the the hero launching out into a new … Continue reading ““The little apocalypse” — its literary function and context”
13. Eyewitness memory Richard Bauckham uses this chapter to relate modern studies in memory psychology “to gospel traditions in a systematic way”. RB acknowledges that others like Crossan have addressed memory studies before but B is attempting to apply them more specifically in a range of cases of eyewitness recall and as the sources of … Continue reading “Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Chapter 13”
Something about the Jerusalem Council meeting in Acts 15 has eluded me — including even the question to help me know what that “something” is. This morning I’m sure I’m catching up with what most others have long known, must surely have been alluded to countless times in the literature not to mention “basic texts”, … Continue reading “Acts 15 falling into its (literary) place at last”
Something I’ve been wanting to start for ages is a compilation of notes from Wesselius’ book as much for my own interest as others. I know it’s not the most popular hypothesis in biblical studies, but gosh it is interesting and at least thought provoking, i think. By the time I finish I may well … Continue reading “Herodotus’ Histories and the Primary History of Israel”