Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
Is it “hyper-critical” to approach ancient historians like Livy, Plutarch, …. with caution? In response to my previous post on why I do not think of myself as a “Jesus mythicist” one person insisted that we have every right to accept the words of Tacitus and Josephus about some incident that they say happened a couple … Continue reading “The evidence of ancient historians”
The plague of Athens is one of the most detailed, vivid and life-like accounts of any event from ancient times. The historian who penned it (Thucydides) assures all readers that he relied upon eyewitness reports and that he personally investigated what had happened in order to be sure of leaving a record that would be … Continue reading “How Ancient Historians Constructed Dramatic Fiction: Thucydides and the Plague”
This continues from my previous post on A.J. Woodman’s argument. History ain’t what it used to be. It is all too easy for us moderns to read a work by an ancient historian, say Josephus or Tacitus or Thucydides (some would even add a few biblical authors), and think that by making allowances for pre-modern … Continue reading “The Best of Ancient Historians Following Homer and the Epic Poets”
This continues from my previous post on A.J. Woodman’s argument. There are good reasons for approaching the Book of Acts and other historical writings of the Bible from the perspective of the wider literary culture of their day. Thucydides, the Greek historian of the Peloponnesian War, is generally thought of as an outstanding exception among … Continue reading “Ancient Historians: Thucydides, historian of realism, not reality”
Was it acceptable for Greek, Roman and Jewish historians to invent accounts of the past? Did even historians imitate and creatively reproduce entire passages from the great epic poems and tragic plays of their day? Can we trust ancient historians who declare they relied upon eyewitness reports? How does our understanding of history differ from … Continue reading “How History Was Done in Bible Times: Myths about Herodotus and Thucydides”
One of my earliest posts asked what Josephus might have said about the worth of the Gospels as history had he read them. In preparation for my final post on historical-critical methods with Stephen’s martyrdom as a case study I have come across (as another commenter also did) a chapter in Lies and Fiction in … Continue reading “Is Luke Among the Lying Historians?”
“Jesus and Dionysus in The Acts of the Apostles and early Christianity” by classicist John Moles was published in Hermathena No. 180 (Summer 2006), pp. 65-104. In the two years prior to its publication the same work had been delivered orally by John Moles at Newcastle, Durham, Dublin, Tallahassee, Princeton, Columbia, Charlottesville and Yale. The … Continue reading “Jesus and Dionysus in The Acts of the Apostles and early Christianity”