Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
Not long ago I wrote The Jewish Jesus as a Christian Bias. This time I am writing about the Jewish Jesus and Paul as opposed to a Christian bias. Nothing is simple, is it. I do suspect that the focus on the Jewishness of Jesus was originally undertaken with the conscious belief that such a path … Continue reading “Theological Assumptions (Can Christianity handle a Jewish Paul?)”
Did you know that the “New Atheists and their online acolytes” have “a long list” of historical ideas that are “wildly wrong”? If this situation has been causing you sleepless nights then you will be relieved to learn that Tim O’Neill has started a new blog to bring these dimwits to their senses. It’s called . . … Continue reading ““New Atheists Are Bad Historians””
One does expect a little better from someone who makes a living out of biblical studies and even charges audiences for his scholarly wisdom. There was not a Jew on the planet who thought the messiah was going to be crushed by his enemies — humiliated, tortured, and executed. That was the *opposite* of what … Continue reading “And now it’s Bart’s turn”
(Part 1 can be found here: McGrath’s BI Review of Carrier’s On the Historicity of Jesus, 1) McGrath begins his second attempted substantive criticism of Carrier’s On the Historicity of Jesus with the following mischievous introduction: It is obviously very easy to find parallels when one’s standard for positing one text having inspired another is that there … Continue reading “Part 2 of McGrath’s Review of Carrier’s On the Historicity of Jesus“
Daniel Boyarin is a Jewish scholar of some repute. His work is worth consideration alongside what often amounts to little more than Christian apologetics thinly disguised as disinterested scholarship. In The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ Boyarin argues that the Christian belief in a suffering messiah who atones for our sins was far … Continue reading “Suffering Messiah Is a Very Jewish Idea”
James Crossley is to be highly commended for attempting in Why Christianity Happened: A Sociohistorical Account of Christian Origins (26-50 CE) to adapt to the study of Christian origins approaches taken directly from history departments. The task of explaining how Christianity began has generally been the preserve of theologians many of whom (according to scholars like … Continue reading “Why Christianity Happened — Toward a Secular Approach to Christian Origins”
In my last post I finished off with some reservations about Boyarin’s interpretation of the two heavenly figures in Daniel 7 as two deities. This post lets Boyarin explain a little more what he thinks is going on here. We have on the one hand the two figures, one like a son of man and … Continue reading “The God and Dying Messiah Debate Preceded Christianity”
Here is an argument for interpreting Daniel 7’s scenario of “one like a son of man/Son of Man” coming on clouds to the Ancient of Days as a reference to two divinities. It’s from Daniel Boyarin’s small book, The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ (2012). But be warned. I suspect many New Testament … Continue reading “Room for Two Gods in the Book of Daniel”
This post outlines the way Jewish ideas about God appear to have developed until they found a new form in the Christian Messiah, the heavenly Son of Man. I base it on a range of scholarly articles and books (including Black, Boyarin, Erho, Fossum, Knibb, Rowland, Wolfson) but will not reference each detail in this overview. … Continue reading “The Evolution of the Son of Man, the Human & Divine Messiah”
Some passages in the Old Testament throw up bizarre riddles for those of us who have always thought its various authors were strict monotheists in the same sense as we expect modern Jewish rabbis to be no-nonsense monotheists. For starters, there are those most curious passages where we read of an angel engaging earthly mortals in … Continue reading “Jesus Evolved From an Angel?”
Probably most people with more than a casual knowledge of Christianity recognise the following words as quintessentially Christian yet are completely unaware that when first penned these words were Jewish to the core: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All … Continue reading “The Pre-Christian Jewish Logos”
It’s been a long break from blogging for me. I can scarcely recall even writing some of the posts I have returned to see here under my name. But here I am living in a new unit and with a clean bill of health from a doctor so time to resume. Here’s something I found … Continue reading “A Lesson from Scholars of Judaism, Linguistics and Physics”
Warning. Dr Larry Hurtado and others embracing a similar perspective disagree strongly with the views of the scholar to be discussed in this post. I will address some of Hurtado’s criticisms of Dr Daniel Boyarin at a later date. But now you know that what I am covering here is not a consensus view. But … Continue reading “Why Christians and Jews were for so long indistinguishable — even after the flight to Pella”
I disengaged from the question that was being asked, falling on the last resort of the scholarly scoundrel: “I’m just trying to figure out what really happened!” (Daniel Boyarin) Most of us [biblical scholars] are just trying to follow the evidence. (Larry Hurtado) . Forget mythicism or the Christ myth debate. That’s irrelevant. Or should … Continue reading “Who’s the scholarly scoundrel? Scholars of Christian origins bound by bias, immured in myth.”