Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
. A recent book by Jacob Licht, Storytelling in the Bible (Jerusalem, 1978), proposes that the “historical aspect” and the “storytelling” aspect of biblical narrative be thought of as entirely discrete functions that can be neatly peeled apart for inspection — apparently, like the different colored strands of electrical wiring. This facile separation of the … Continue reading “Why the Gospels Are Historical Fiction”
How was Brodie’s method of arguing that the Gospel narrative of Jesus is indebted to the OT narrative of Elijah and Elisha received by his scholarly peers before he published his conviction that there never was an historical Jesus? Was it laughed out of the academy as an unfortunate attack of “parallelomania” (as McGrath would … Continue reading “Reviews of Brodie’s Works: Elijah-Elisha Influence on Gospel Narratives”
Part 9: “A searching critical blitz of the Schmidt hypothesis” The previous post in this series began a critical analysis of an essay by John C. Meagher, delivered at the Colloquy on New Testament Studies back in 1980, before such well-known figures in the New Testament world as Charles H. Talbert, Vernon K. Robbins, and William R. … Continue reading “The Genre of the Gospels: How the Consensus Changed (Part 9)”
Part 1: A Sea Change Ultimately, the problem with identifying the genre of the synoptic gospels as Hellenistic biographies or Graeco-Roman histories is that these terms are insufficient to describe their form, genesis, and purpose. Published in 1989 by SCM Press, Studying the Synoptic Gospels remains one of the best resources for learning about the … Continue reading “The Genre of the Gospels: How the Consensus Changed (Part 1)”
Previous posts in this series are archived here. Another review of this chapter can be read at Aaron Adair’s blog. I liked Ingrid Hjelm‘s chapter, “‘Who is my Neighbor?’ Implicit Use of Old Testament Stories and Motifs in Luke’s Gospel”, for several reasons: it presented the first cogent explanation I have ever encountered for why … Continue reading “‘Is This Not the Carpenter?’ Reviewing chapter 11, Luke’s Sophisticated Re-Use of OT Scriptures”
As signalled in a comment on my recent post on the single authorship of Genesis to 2 Kings, I have decided it best to back-track a little before continuing that series and posting a little on how oral tradition came to be a ruling paradigm among Biblical scholars and why an increasing number of scholars, … Continue reading “Oral Tradition Behind Gospels and OT: Unfounded, Unworkable and Unnecessary”
Revised 23rd May 2016 Jens Schröter writes what in many respects is an admirable lesson for scholars of Christian origins on how really to do history. I can only spot what I believe is one oversight in his lesson where one suddenly hears in his words echoes of apologists and fundamentalists. This post concludes my … Continue reading “Confusing “Narrative Voice” of Gospels with “Historical Truth Claims”. . . . Jesus, Criteria, and the Demise of Authenticity, ch. 2 final”
Why is it that all the modern commentaries on the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (and to some extent John) include discussions of those works’ literary sources but scarcely any raise that question for the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel that supposedly started it all? Adam Winn (Mark and the Elijah-Elisha narrative : considering the … Continue reading “Discovering the Sources for the First Gospel, 1”
Continuing the series archived here: (I have also marked the name Josephus in bold for easy reference for any interested in the study of Luke’s use of Josephus.) Irenaeus is the first to speak of Luke as the author of our Gospel and Acts dedicated to Theophilus (Haer. iii.1,2). Before Irenaeus we read in Colossians … Continue reading “The earliest gospels 6(c) – Luke’s Gospel (Couchoud)”
One of my first posts on this blog asked why the Gospel of Mark was not more often interpreted in a way we would normally interpret any other form of literature. I was referring to Frank Kermode’s discussion of the Gospel of Mark in The Genesis of Secrecy: On the Interpretation of Narrative. This post … Continue reading “Why are the Gospels so believable?”
6th August: expanded “the trial” comparison into “The face to face confrontation of secular and religious leaders“ Comparing other rabbinic midrash with the Gospels In my previous post I covered Galit Hasan-Rokem’s comparisons of some early Christian and rabbinic midrash. In this post I comment on Hasan-Rokem’s discussions of other tales in the midrash of … Continue reading “Messiahs, Midrash and Mythemes — more comparisons with the Gospels”
Jewish scholars of midrash have recognized that “midrashic” techniques, methods of interpretation of texts in the Hebrew Bible, have been creatively woven into Christian Gospel narrative and teaching material as much as Jews worked creatively with midrash in their own literature. Jon D. Levenson Jon D. Levenson wrote The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved … Continue reading “Midrash and Gospels 3: What some Jewish scholars say (and continuing ‘Midrash Tales of the Messiah’)”
Would it not be wonderful if our Gospels were all signed and dated so there could be no debates about who wrote them or when? The hermeneutic of charity would rule and only the hypersceptical and “minimalists” would entertain any doubts. Well, there is one gospel that is signed, addressed and dated. It was written … Continue reading “How Late Can a Gospel Be?”
Understanding the nature of a text is a significant factor in knowing how to interpret it and how to use it as historical evidence. Many scholars today, following Burridge, accept that the Gospel of Mark is a biography of the life of Jesus. The Gospel of Mark is widely considered to be the first written … Continue reading “Second thoughts on the Gospel of Mark as Biography”