Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
We know the story of Elisha retrieving the iron axe head by having it float to the surface of a river. It is in 2 Kings 6:1-7: The company of the prophets said to Elisha, “Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. Let us go to the Jordan, … Continue reading “From Hermes to Yahweh”
Here I bring together different scholarly views on the sources cited in the Old Testament books of Kings directing readers to other writings for further information about a particular monarch. I conclude with a new perspective on one of those sources (the chronicles or annals of the kings of Judah) that would actually subvert the … Continue reading “Those Sources the Bible Cites”
The previous posts in this series: 25th August 2020 (introduction and Part 1 and half of Part 2) 27th August 2020 (completion of Part 2) 28th August 2020 (first half of Part 3) This post concludes my overview of the festschrift to Thomas L. Thompson on his 80th birthday. I hope to post soon a … Continue reading “conclusion … Biblical Narratives, Archaeology, Historicity – Essays in Honour of Thomas L. Thompson”
Excerpts from Philippe Wajdenbaum’s Argonauts of the Desert (related to an earlier post, Biblical Scholars, Symbolic Violence, and the Modern Version of an Ancient Myth) where he draws upon the study of structures of myths by anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss: . . . to give an interpretation of a myth is to create a new variant … Continue reading “Historical Jesus Scholarship and Mythmaking”
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”
1. Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible (2016-10-16) Russell Gmirkin in his new book, Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible draws attention to striking similarities between the Pentateuch (the first five books of the “Old Testament”) on the one hand and Plato’s last work, Laws, and features of the Athenian constitution … Continue reading “Plato and the Hebrew Bible (Gmirkin)“
We have two models for the origin of the biblical and its ancillary literature. According to Seth Sanders in From Adapa to Enoch we have a progression from the late Iron Age to the Seleucid era. The early period (during the time of the kingdom of Judah before its exile) we have “public genres of … Continue reading “More Thoughts on Origins of Biblical and Pseudepigraphical Literature”
How reliable as historical records are the genealogies of patriarchs and the different tribes of Israel? 1977 saw the publication of Robert Wilson’s thesis, Genealogy and History in the Biblical World, a work that set the main framework for further studies of biblical genealogies. Wilson used two different studies of genealogies as a basis for … Continue reading “The Sons of Jacob and the Sons of Heracles”
Chaim Milikowsky gives his answer to the question in the title, or at least he answers the question with respect to rabbinical literature. I have added the connection to our canonical four gospels, and I could with equal justice add Acts of the Apostles. I read CM’s answer in Ancient Fiction: The Matrix of Early … Continue reading “Why the Rabbis (and Gospel Authors, too) Wrote Fiction as “True History””
Stephen Fry comments on the similarity between a couple of Greek myths and stories in Genesis in his recently published retellings: Mythos and Heroes. I am reminded of posts I completed some years back discussing Philippe Wajdenbaum’s Argonauts of the Desert. One story was about the requirement of a god for a king (so he … Continue reading “Greek Myths and Genesis”
I have posted many times on the works of scholars who have argued that none or very little of the Hebrew Bible can be dated before the Persian or Hellenistic periods: Thompson, Lemche, Davies, Whitelam, Gmirkin, Wajdenbaum, Wisselius, Mandell & Freedman(?) and possibly others whom memory fails at this moment. So what does the “other side” … Continue reading “The Age of the Hebrew Bible — the other view”
An important consequence follows. If a myth is made up of all its variants, structural analysis should take all of them into account. — Claude Lévi-Strauss (435) The structural analysis developed by Claude Lévi-Strauss invites one to compare the variants of a myth so as to define the rules that led to their transformation. . … Continue reading “Jesus’ Baptism in the Context of the Myth of Water, Flight and Wilderness”
The question of parallels has been raised in different posts and comments lately on Vridar. Firstly, I questioned Joseph Atwill’s claim that there was a parallel between Jesus calling disciples to become “fishers of men” beside the “sea of Galilee” and a scene in Josephus’ War where Romans kill drowning Judeans in a battle that … Continue reading “When is a parallel a real parallel and not parallelomania?”
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…. There was once a very pious man who lived in a city that had been taken over by very wicked people. Messengers from the deity came to visit that pious man and were very impressed with his hospitality toward them even though he did not know they … Continue reading “Two Mini-Apocalypses, Greek and Biblical & A Common Mythic Grammar”