Why a volume of essays in honour of Thomas L. Thompson? The opening paragraph of the Introduction explains (with my highlighting): Thomas L. Thompson has been, for the past five decades, behind some of the – if not all – major changes in Old Testament historiography, if we consider that his criticism of the patriarchal … Continue reading “Biblical Narratives, Archaeology, Historicity – Essays in Honour of Thomas L. Thompson”
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#. From Adapa to Jesus (2019-02-07) This post is not part of the main series but a standalone on but one detail, addressing one mythical trope and its apparent recycling and refashioning through changing circumstances and experiences: the myth of Adapa and the South Wind is discussed against the story of Jesus stilling the … Continue reading “From Adapa to Enoch (Sanders)“
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I have been posting on points of interest in Seth Sanders’ From Adapa to Enoch: Scribal Culture and Religious Vision in Judea and Babylon and have reached a point where I cannot help but bring in certain contrary and additional perspectives from another work I posted on earlier, Russell Gmirkin’s Plato and the Creation of … Continue reading “Who Influenced Biblical and Second Temple Jewish Literature?”
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Questioning the historical existence of Jesus attracts something other than mere curiosity or intellectual debate among many biblical scholars and some of the public who don’t even have any personal interest in religion. I can understand people with a personal faith in Jesus either simply ignoring the question with disdain or amusement or responding with … Continue reading “Understanding the Hostility to the Christ Myth Theory”
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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”
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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?”
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This post is a presentation of a few of the key points set out by Steve Mason in his 2016 study A History of the Jewish War, AD 66-74. The points are taken from the first part of his second chapter titled Understanding Historical Evidence. I found his explanation a most enjoyable read because it … Continue reading “Understanding Historical Evidence”
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I am copying here a comment that Philippe Wajdenbaum made in relation to another post. (I have reformatted the original.) Many thanks for this post, and for the quality of your blog. Russell Gmirkin’s “Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible” is a most important book that will elicit a paradigm shift in biblical … Continue reading “Genesis to Kings, the work of a single authorship?”
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I have made a correction to a serious error in my recent post How Plato Inspired Moses: Creation of the Hebrew Bible. In that post I took credit for identifying many parallels between the Hebrew Bible and Plato’s Laws prior to reading Russell Gmirkin’s book. I should have acknowledged — and I have now made … Continue reading “Correction to my latest post on Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible“
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Plato’s Laws provides the only example in antiquity of an ethical or national literature comparable to the Hebrew Bible. . . . . . . . One may therefore reasonably propose that the biblical authors not only found in Plato’s Laws a blueprint for the creation of a persuasive legal code, but a mandate and … Continue reading “How Plato Inspired Moses: Creation of the Hebrew Bible”
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Here are all the posts I have completed so far on Russell Gmirkin’s book, Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible. You can also read an extended abstract or chapter by chapter outline by Gmirkin himself on his academia.edu page. As you can see I have not yet begun to post anything on the … Continue reading “Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible – Post #32”
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There is a review by Stéphanie Anthonioz of Russell Gmirkin’s Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible on The Bible and Interpretation site. Review of Russell E. Gmirkin, Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible I have been discussing this book — see Archives: Gmirkin: Plato and Creation of Hebrew Bible — and … Continue reading “Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible – review”
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In some texts written by authors who had lost their state and been conquered by others, as may have been the case with the Yahwist, one can also see evidence of culture myths being used to delegitimize the conquering state. McCants, William F.. Founding Gods, Inventing Nations: Conquest and Culture Myths from Antiquity to Islam … Continue reading “Christianity as a counter-cultural myth to delegitimize Rome”
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One of the oddities for us moderns of the Genesis creation account is that the sun, moon and stars are not created until the fourth day of the week even though light was created on the first day and vegetation on the third. How can light exist without the sun? That’s our first thought. (If … Continue reading “Why the Sun, Moon, Stars Were Created So Late in the Week”
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