Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
Anyone who has read the works of Earl Doherty, Robert M. Price and others (even my own posts) knows that our blogger Maurice Casey’s attempts to critique them are unbearably lightweight — except for the unbearably depressing personal vitriol. My guess is that for most part he is reading selections fed to him by a … Continue reading “Concluding Response of Blogger Neil Godfrey to Blogger Maurice Casey of TJP®©™”
Blogger Casey (of The Jesus Process ®©™ blog series now published on the internet) expresses regret and shock at the “frightful” work of Earl Doherty, notably because with a regrettable lack of information about conventional scholarship, he shows no knowledge of the fundamental work of the anthropologist E. T. Hall, who introduced the terms ‘high … Continue reading “Blogger Godfrey’s Blog Reply (2) to Blogger Casey’s Blog Post on the Internet”
Maurice makes sure I know my place when he twice identifies himself as Emeritus Professor Maurice Casey and nine times identifies me as Blogger (Neil) Godfrey. The “Internet”, for Emeritus Professor Maurice Casey, is a hotbed of “hopelessly unlearned people”, “Christian apologists and determinedly anti-Christian atheists” who are “impervious to evidence and argument”, in “closed-minded” … Continue reading “Blogger Godfrey’s Reply (1) to Emeritus Professor Maurice Casey of The Jesus Process ®©™”
I am continuing here with another quick and easy response because real-life distractions prevent me at this time from addressing Hoffmann’s and Casey’s posts against mythicism. I will address both when work and family situations permit. Right now I am relaxing after sharing with family experiences in Kakadu — plan to return tomorrow some time. … Continue reading “Neil Godfrey’s response 2: @ Stephanie Fisher”
[This post concludes my review of “Mark’s Missing Ending: Clues from the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Peter,” by Dr. James F. McGrath. You may want to read Part 1 and Part 2 first.] Fish stories At the end of part 1, I mentioned that McGrath commits the fallacy of relying on other gospels to … Continue reading “McGrath’s “Missing Ending”: What Was Mark’s Story? — Part 3”
Oh the searing intellectual prowess that is being brought to bear against the mythicist case and mythicist bloggers such as myself! How can we withstand this pulverising assault? This shock and awe! Steph and Maurice have found a post of mine from 2010 in which I explained that though I was a librarian I never … Continue reading “Neil Godfrey’s response 1 to Maurice Casey and Stephanie Fisher”
Three Voices on the Historical Jesus – No. 3: 1 Clement (with Addendum on the Epistle of Barnabas) Issue of the authenticity of 1 Clement Does 1 Clement know any Gospels? Christ speaking out of scripture Clement knows of the Passion through Isaiah 53 Christ’s sacrificial ‘blood’ and ‘flesh’ belong in the mythical dimension Prophecy … Continue reading “13. Earl Doherty’s Response to Bart Ehrman’s Case Against Mythicism – Pt.13”
Stopping short In his paper, “Mark’s Missing Ending: Clues from the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Peter,” Dr. James F. McGrath asks some interesting questions about the last chapter of Mark and what “story” the author may have understood to lie beyond it. This sort of question reminds me of the difference between the … Continue reading “McGrath’s “Missing Ending”: What Was Mark’s Story? — Part 1″
American novelist Vardis Fisher (it’s not coincidental that the name of this blog is a partial acronym of this name, and an “autobiographical” character in one of his novels) included at the back of his novel Jesus Came Again: A Parable, a discussion of the scholarly views of his day on the historicity of Jesus. … Continue reading “1950s Scholarship on the Historicity of Jesus – Vardis Fisher’s summary”
Let’s sit down and look at the score sheet. Richard Carrier kicked 11 “errors of fact” at the net of Bart Ehrman’s book Did Jesus Exist? Carrier says he could have kicked many more but that it was getting dark and the referee told him he had limited time. Since beginning to write this post … Continue reading “The Facts of the Matter: Carrier 9, Ehrman 1 (my review, part 2)”
I have decided to do my own review, or series of reflections, on Bart Ehrman’s book. I think it could be worthwhile writing about it through the context of both Richard Carrier’s response to it and Bart Ehrman’s replies to Carrier. It is interesting, perhaps instructive, to see the way Bart Ehrman’s tone has changed … Continue reading “Carrier versus Ehrman: Reflections”
Bart Ehrman assures us he did. So what led to the doubts in the first place? The Bible Geek broadcast of April 12, 2012: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/21808446 About four minutes in Robert Price says: I and others have expressed that while we are not at all surprised that NT scholars don’t buy the Christ Myth hypothesis for … Continue reading “Did Bart Ehrman read the books?”
I asked Bart Ehrman if it were true that he did not read the books he reviewed in Did Jesus Exist? and this is his emphatic reply: It is absolutely false! What would make him say such a thing? Where would he have even gotten this information? Is he wrongly speculating, or just lying? In … Continue reading “Bart Ehrman assures us he read all the mythicist books himself — “very carefully””
I have been studying the first half of Richard Carrier’s chapter 3, “Introducing Bayes’s Theorem”, in his recent book Proving History: Bayes’s Theorem and the Quest for the Historical Jesus. I mean studying. I want to be sure I fully understand the argument before tackling the second half of the chapter, headed Mechanics of Bayes’s … Continue reading “Carrier’s “Proving History”, Chapter 3(a) — Review”