Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
It will be a little while before I set aside the time I would need to prepare a proper review of Richard Carrier’s book, On the Historicity of Jesus, and Raphael Lataster’s Jesus Did Not Exist, but till then I can drop the odd comment on this or that point. But one thing I can … Continue reading “Carrier, Lataster and Background Knowledge Element 4: A Quibble”
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”
Continuing from the previous post . . . . Chris Keith continues with the same authoritative dogmatic lessons for the new student readers when he speaks of Mara Bar Serapion (“Mara does not refer to Jesus by name. Nevertheless, Jesus is certainly the person to whom he is referring”); Pliny the Younger (One of “several Greco-Roman … Continue reading “Introducing new students to HJ studies – 2”
Richard Carrier addresses the question of the historicity of Jesus in On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt in the following order: First, he defines the points that will identify a historical Jesus and those that will be signs of a mythical one. Second, he set out 48 elements that make up all … Continue reading “Ten Elements of Christian Origin”
James McGrath has begun to review Richard Carrier’s On the Historicity of Jesus at the Bible and Interpretation site. The tone of his review makes a striking contrast to his “review” or Earl Doherty’s Jesus: Neither God Nor Man. McGrath explains that he will cover Carrier’s book in several posts. This opening assessment, Did Jesus Die in Outer … Continue reading “McGrath Reviews Carrier: Part 1, the Introduction”
Was Paul persecuted for preaching a crucified messiah? In 1 Corinthians 1:23 we read that the message of “Christ crucified” was a “stumblingblock” or “offence” to the Jews. There is no explanation to inform us exactly why Jews were so offended by Paul preaching that a messiah had been crucified but that hasn’t prevented many readers from knowing the reason … Continue reading “Was Paul Really Persecuted for Preaching a Crucified Christ?”
William Wrede’s The Messianic Secret Part 8: A Different Kind of Messiah? — An astonishingly persistent misconception This unit picks up after our mid-stream break in which we answered the question: “What Is the Messianic Secret?“ Restatement of purpose It is not my main purpose to argue for or against Wrede’s thesis. That isn’t why I’ve … Continue reading “Reading Wrede Again for the First Time (8)”
Here’s a little more on Bruno Bauer’s arguments on Gospel origins. (My recent post on Roland Boer’s discussion has put me on a little roll.) It’s a shame that more of Bauer’s works are not available at a reasonable cost in English. I take this as an indicator that scholarship in the English speaking world … Continue reading “Bruno Bauer (through Albert Schweitzer)”
* A Crucified Messiah COVERED IN THIS POST: Jesus and David Koresh Was a crucified criminal believed to be the messiah? Ehrman’s “story” of a resurrection A story missing in Q and the epistles The actual picture in the epistles Did Jews invent a crucified messiah? Did Jews anticipate a suffering messiah? The sources and … Continue reading “22. Earl Doherty’s Response to Bart Ehrman’s Case Against Mythicism – Part 22”
* “Key Data” in Proving Jesus’ Historicity – The Crucified Messiah . COVERED IN THIS POST: The conflict between messianic expectation and result Assumptions based on the Gospels and Acts Why did Paul persecute the early church? Paul’s gospel vs. Ehrman’s view of early church beliefs Christ as “curse” for being “hanged on a tree” … Continue reading “21. Earl Doherty’s Response to Bart Ehrman’s Case Against Mythicism – Part 21”
What “Messiah” meant at the time of Paul and the earliest Christians Continuing with notes from Christ among the Messiahs: Christ Language in Paul and Messiah Language in Ancient Judaism by Matthew V. Novenson . The messianic idea We saw in Part 1 that interpreters of Paul have confidently concluded that whatever Paul meant by … Continue reading “Christ among the Messiahs — Part 2”
Dr McGrath in a recycled youtube presentation Did Jesus Exist? argues that Jesus was a historical figure in these words: The reason that the crucifixion persuades most historians that Jesus was a historical figure is that a crucified messiah was in essence a contradiction in terms. . . . It needs to be emphasized that … Continue reading “A fallacious argument for Jesus’ historicity”
Richard Carrier has posted a fascinating artticle on the pre-Christian Jewish concept of a dying Messiah and showing the nonsense so thoughtlessly repeated even by scholars the originality of Christianity’s idea that a messiah must die in order to offer saving atonement to his people. Richard’s post is beautifully lengthy exploring much detail from the … Continue reading “The Dying Messiah (refrain)”
Corrected and updated — Neil Godfrey, 1:15 pm 30th July 2011 Comment by Steven Carr — 2011/07/29 It is interesting to see how mainstream scholars are edging towards mythicist ideas. http://nearemmaus.com/2011/07/28/the-future-of-historical-jesus-studies/ ‘The old idea that exalted epithets such as “Son of God” or “Son of the Most High” applied to Jesus reflect Greco-Roman thinking, rather … Continue reading “The Messiah in the Dead Sea Scrolls — how like the Gospel Messiah”