Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
Continues from part 1 . . . . Philip Jenkins in his reaction, The Myth of the Mythical Jesus, has an even more blunt response to anyone who ventures into the “far swamps of extreme crankery” by pursuing questions that have no place among biblical scholars: “Scholarship is what scholars do, and if they don’t do … Continue reading “Biblical Scholars Reacting . . . Part 2”
René Salm has been posting some interesting articles on his Mythicistpapers website lately. His most recent is Brodie, McGrath, and the increasing polarization of biblical studies—Pt. 2. James McGrath has prided himself on rarely taking a cutting edge stand but always remaining steadfast in the middle of controversial issues. He calls it The Radical Middle! I was once … Continue reading “The Polarization of Biblical Studies”
Recently an interesting collation of observations on thematic and literary similarities between New Testament narratives and wider Greek literature was posted by commenter John MacDonald. I’ve set his points out again here (with only slight editing) for those interested. (John’s more complete comment can be read here.) Some of the parallels are actually less to … Continue reading “New Testament in the Greek Literary Matrix”
The genre of the gospels is an important question. Genre is an indication of the author’s intent. Does the author want to make us laugh at human foibles or weep over human tragedy, to escape into an entertaining world of make-believe, to be inspired and instructed by historical or biographical narratives, to mock establishment values, … Continue reading “The Gospels: Written to Look Like (the final) Jewish Scriptures?”
I won’t repeat the arguments of Samuel Sandmel here. Too many words. Pictures are easier to read. Not too long ago when I was visiting Indonesia’s island of Lombok I saw the following pair of pictures in the stairway of my hotel and recognized them instantly — yet I had never seen them before. What I … Continue reading “When is a parallel a “real parallel”?”
I’d like to comment on one section of the inaugural lecture of Prof Chris Keith, Chair of the New Testament and Early Christianity at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham. Its title is ‘Social Memory Theory and the Gospels: Assessing the First Decade.’ Keith is a co-blogger of The Jesus Blog. Both Tim and I have … Continue reading “Does Social Memory Theory Advance Historical Jesus Studies?”
An unexplained or unjustified phrase that I encounter with depressing regularity in works of Biblical scholars is “so and so’s argument does not convince” or “is not persuasive” — and the various equivalents of these, of course. This blot is too often found even in what can be the most informative of academic works. Of … Continue reading “But WHY Does It Not Convince?”
Matthew Ferguson of the Κέλσος blog has posted an interesting discussion on Dennis MacDonald’s defence at the recent Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) conference of his thesis that a significant influence of the Homeric literature can be found in the New Testament writings, especially the Gospel of Mark and Book of Acts. For those wondering what the … Continue reading “Homer in the Gospels: Recent Thoughts”
Among biblical scholars today are those who quite rightly are concerned with the ideology and values that are implicitly exprestext the sed in what otherwise seem to be works of objective fact and analysis. One such problematic theme that has often been expressed in publications about Christian origins is the portrayal of Christianity in terms that … Continue reading “How Ideology Creates a Historical Jesus”
This post is an overview of chapter 4 of Jesus in an Age of Neoliberalism by James Crossley and is part of the series reviewing this book. Crossley’s stated purpose of this chapter is to show that a dominant feature of the quest for the historical Jesus — Jesus as Great Man — works in … Continue reading “Jesus and the “Great Men” View of History”
Genre can be a highly fluid concept. In studies of Gospels I’ve noticed that discussions of genre sometimes overlap with intertextuality. Moreover, we may conclude that an ancient narrative belongs to the genre “history”, but once we learn what “history” could mean to the ancients we quickly move into discussions about the place of fictional … Continue reading “Genre of Gospels, Acts and OT Primary History: INDEX”
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)”
Continuing the Jesus and Dionysus posts (sharing the 2006 Hermathena article by John Moles) . . . The status of Christianity against Judaism The Dionysiac myth also serves as a framework through which to address the status of Christianity in relation to Judaism. The god came to Thebes, to his own people among whom he … Continue reading “Functions of Dionysiac Myth in Acts, #2”
Thomas Brodie argues that the Gospel narratives are in large part sourced not from oral traditions but from the Greek versions of the Jewish scriptures. I recently posted a chapter from one of his books in which he presents the minute details of an argument for the literary indebtedness of one scene in the Gospel … Continue reading “Parallels, Drum Majorettes and Brodie”