Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
Theological Explanation of the Gospels Die theologische Erklärung der Evangelien by Bruno Bauer 1852 Foreword When I appeared with my critique of evangelical history twelve years ago, two years prior, a fortunate and thorough effort had initiated a turning point in research, placing the question that Christian theology had struggled with in an … Continue reading “BRUNO BAUER: Theological Explanation of the Gospels – Foreword”
Critique of the Gospel History of the Synoptics by Bruno Bauer Volume 3 —o0o— 278 § 89. The trial of Jesus before Pilate. 1. The Report of the Fourth. John 18:33-40. 19:1-16. The Jews who have their Passover lamb at hand stay outside remain standing outside when they have handed Jesus over to the … Continue reading “§ 89. The trial of Jesus before Pilate”
Critique of the Gospel History of the Synoptics by Bruno Bauer Volume 3 —o0o— 264 § 88. The interrogation before the high priest. 1.The interrogation before Annas. John 18, 12-14. 19 – 24. The fourth would have to know the matter quite well and his report would have to be the most reliable, if he … Continue reading “§ 88. The interrogation before the high priest”
Critique of the Gospel History of the Synoptics by Bruno Bauer Volume 3 —o0o— 216 § 85. The last supper of Jesus. The meal which, according to the fourth evangelist, Jesus enjoyed with the disciples at the end, is not the Passover meal of which the Synoptics speak, but that it is nevertheless said to … Continue reading “§ 85. The last supper of Jesus”
Critique of the Gospel History of the Synoptics by Bruno Bauer Volume 2 —o0o— 40 § 31. The Request of Two Disciples. Matth. 8, 19-22. As Jesus is on the way to the ship or perhaps already in the act of boarding it – for at the end of this shorter section it says: … Continue reading “§ 31. The Request of Two Disciples”
345/346 VIII. The Completion of the New Testament Literature. 1. A Great History and a Late Poem. In a series of images, we have seen the fate of the Empire, the nationalities, and the social classes of the first two centuries of our era unfold before us. As diverse as the figures were that moved … Continue reading “BRUNO BAUER: Christ and the Caesars – VIII. The Completion of the New Testament Literature”
276 VI. Hadrian and Christian Gnosis. 1. The Empowered Nero. Among the five emperors who, after the fall of the last Flavian, allowed the Senate free hand in legislation, Hadrian occupies the same position as Nero in the line of Julio-Claudian princes. Those five had risen above the embittered mood with which the first emperors … Continue reading “BRUNO BAUER: Christ and the Caesars – VI. Hadrian and Christian Gnosis”
244 V. Trajan and the Emergence of Christianity 1. The Happiest Epoch for Humanity in Roman History. This is the title of an essay that has brought the admiration for Trajan, Antoninus, and Marcus Aurelius from the previous century to the present, and presents itself to us as an explanatory guide upon entering a memorable … Continue reading “BRUNO BAUER: Christ and the Caesars – V. Trajan and the Emergence of Christianity”
183 IV. The House of Flavia and Judaism. I. The Invasion of the West by the East. Rome was not able to enjoy its power, at its peak, with a joyful heart. In the rising and setting of the sun, there were images of terror and danger that it did not feel capable of facing … Continue reading “BRUNO BAUER: Christ and the Caesars – IV. The House of Flavia and Judaism”
Some regular readers will know that I am in the process of translating Bruno Bauer’s criticism of the gospels (scandalous in his time!) into English. I recently completed his discussion of Jesus “soul struggle” in Gethsemane and thought one of his observations worth bringing to more general notice here. In sum, Bauer notes that heroic … Continue reading “Jesus’ Unheroic Moment in Gethsemane – and a return to Vridar/Vardis Fisher”
Most of us have been conditioned by the conventional wisdom that the Old Testament books were written between the eighth and fifth centuries. But there is no independent evidence for the existence of any of the Bible’s books or any knowledge of biblical traditions (Davies, 1992 and Vridar.info notes), nor any evidence for the practice … Continue reading “Where Did the God of the Bible Come From? – [Biblical Creation Accounts/Plato’s Timaeus-Critias – 8]”
The stately narrative of the creation of the cosmos in six days crowned by a sabbath rest comes to an abrupt end as the reader is swept into a totally different dimension: an announcement of the “generations of heaven and earth”, a world of animals being created after the man, a garden with mythical geography … Continue reading “The Second Creation Story in Genesis — [Biblical Creation Accounts/Plato’s Timaeus – 6]”
Similarities between the Pentateuch and Greek literature have long been noted and discussed in scholarly literature, but most of those discussions have assumed that the Greeks and the authors of the biblical books were independently drawing on Asiatic stories or even that some Greeks were exposed to translations of parts of the Pentateuch. (Evangelia Dafni … Continue reading “Biblical Creation Accounts and Plato – 1”
All posts reviewing Nathanael Vette’s Writing With Scripture are archived at Vette : Writing With Scripture With thanks to T&T Clark who forwarded me a review copy. I have come to a turning point in my reading and review of Nathanael Vette’s Writing With Scripture. I first learned of the book on the Biblical Criticism … Continue reading “Clarification of the Thesis — a review of Writing with Scripture, part 8”