Search Results for: myth

Another Name to Add to the Who’s Who Page of Mythicists and Mythicist Agnostics

Bart Ehrman has a new critic. I have just been notified (thanks, emailers!) of a new paper uploaded to academia.edu by a philosophy lecturer at the University of Oslo, Why Jesus Most Likely Never Existed: Ehrman’s Double Standards by Narve Strand (link is to CV). I especially liked his conclusion since it expresses my own … Continue reading “Another Name to Add to the Who’s Who Page of Mythicists and Mythicist Agnostics”

Mischievous Mythicists At It Again

We saw it first on Valerie Tarico’s website, and now, right on the eve of Easter, it pops up in full bloom on Alternet:   Or go to the original base: What if Jesus Never Existed? An Interview with History Writer David Fitzgerald  

The Golan Heights: the Myth versus the Historical Record

It is an article of faith among Israelis that the Golan Heights were captured in the Six-Day War to stop the Syrians from shelling the settlements down below. — Avi Shlaim … The State of Israel took control of the Golan Heights in 1967 to safeguard its security from external threats. — Donald Trump … … Continue reading “The Golan Heights: the Myth versus the Historical Record”

How “Case for Christ” Author Lee Strobel Fabricated His Best-Selling Story — The Old Road to Damascus Myth

I’m probably one of the last persons to catch up with this interview but at least to have it on record that it did make a blip on Vridar here it is, an interview by Valerie Tarico with David Fitzgerald: How “Case for Christ” Author Lee Strobel Fabricated His Best-Selling Story—An Interview with Religion Critic … Continue reading “How “Case for Christ” Author Lee Strobel Fabricated His Best-Selling Story — The Old Road to Damascus Myth”

The “Good War” Myth of World War 2

Andrew J. Bacevich has a review in The American Conservative of Richard Drake’s Charles Austin Beard: The Return of the Master Historian of American Imperialism: Charles Beard: Punished for Seeking Peace. The review sent me looking for the book and happily it is accessible on scribd. One detail about WW2 that has often bemused me … Continue reading “The “Good War” Myth of World War 2″

Justin Martyr Answers a Second Century Jesus Christ Mythicist

We return here to the question of the Testimonium Flavianum, the passage about Jesus found in our copies of Antiquities of the Jews by the first century Jewish historian Josephus. Not many years back Earl Doherty wrote for this blog: Trypho Finally, there is the question of what is meant by Trypho’s remark in Justin’s … Continue reading “Justin Martyr Answers a Second Century Jesus Christ Mythicist”

Greek Myths and Genesis

Stephen Fry comments on the similarity between a couple of Greek myths and stories in Genesis in his recently published retellings: Mythos and Heroes. I am reminded of posts I completed some years back discussing Philippe Wajdenbaum’s Argonauts of the Desert. One story was about the requirement of a god for a king (so he … Continue reading “Greek Myths and Genesis”

Scholarship and “Mythicism”: When the Guilty Verdict is more important than the Evidence or Argument

I recently wrote in a blog post: Roger Pearse, for instance, goes even further and without any suggestion that he is aware of Doherty’s arguments says they are “all nonsense, of course.” A theme I come back to from time to time is the gulf between many biblical scholars and scholars of early Christianity. We … Continue reading “Scholarship and “Mythicism”: When the Guilty Verdict is more important than the Evidence or Argument”

An interesting website for Greek Myth lovers

From Stephen Fry’s Mythos (which I have just finished reading) The one website I would most heartily recommend is theoi.com – a simply magnificent resource entirely dedicated to Greek myth. It is a Dutch and New Zealand project that contains over 1,500 pages of text and a gallery of 1,200 pictures comprising vase paintings, sculpture, … Continue reading “An interesting website for Greek Myth lovers”

Once more: My Position on the Jesus Mythicism Question

I have been asked once again to explain concisely why I believe Jesus is a myth. My initial response to that question is “Who doesn’t believe Jesus was a myth?” There is no dispute among biblical scholars, or at least among critical biblical scholars (let’s leave aside the apologists) that the Jesus of our canonical … Continue reading “Once more: My Position on the Jesus Mythicism Question”

Simon Gathercole’s Failure to Address Mythicism: (#5)

The abstract to Simon Gathercole’s article in the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus begins The present article seeks to show that the case for the mythical Jesus is seriously undermined by the evidence of the undisputed Pauline epistles. By way of a thought experiment, these letters are taken in isolation from other … Continue reading “Simon Gathercole’s Failure to Address Mythicism: (#5)”

An experiment comparing gnostic and orthodox myths

This post is a follow up from Jesus’ Baptism in the Context of the Myth of Water, Flight and Wilderness. I may come to see this attempt to compare the structures of the myths as a sad misadventure but till then, let’s see what happens. We begin with the “gnostic myth” of the advent of an … Continue reading “An experiment comparing gnostic and orthodox myths”

Jesus’ Baptism in the Context of the Myth of Water, Flight and Wilderness

An important consequence follows. If a myth is made up of all its variants, structural analysis should take all of them into account. — Claude Lévi-Strauss (435) The structural analysis developed by Claude Lévi-Strauss invites one to compare the variants of a myth so as to define the rules that led to their transformation. . … Continue reading “Jesus’ Baptism in the Context of the Myth of Water, Flight and Wilderness”

Debunking myths of Judas the Galilean, the Zealots, and causes of the war with Rome

Jewish zeal for both liberty from foreign rule and a passion to be ruled “by God alone” are generally thought to be the causes of Judaea’s war with Rome that ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 70 CE. Hence, goes the common view, the many Jews who were influenced by this … Continue reading “Debunking myths of Judas the Galilean, the Zealots, and causes of the war with Rome”