Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
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”
This post continues from my previous one in which I began my review of Richard Carrier’s Proving History: Bayes’s Theorem and the Quest for the Historical Jesus. Chapter 2: The Basics Here Carrier pauses before addressing Bayes’ theorem in order to establish fundamentals that ought to be part of the basic mechanics of every historical … Continue reading “Carrier’s “Proving History”, Chapter 2 — Review”
This is the first installment in a comprehensive response by Earl Doherty to Bart Ehrman’s Did Jesus Exist? We plan on publishing one or two installments per week. Upon completion, the full series will be converted to an e-book and made available on Amazon Kindle. Earl Doherty’s response (title yet to be finalized) will essentially … Continue reading “Earl Doherty’s Response to Bart Ehrman’s Case Against Mythicism: Introduction”
This post is an appendix to Ehrman’s Most Bizarre Criticism Of All Against Doherty. In a recent post I pointed out that Ehrman fully agreed with Doherty’s portrayal of the ancient mystery cults as most likely having a quite different understanding of traditional myths from the way the philosophers interpreted them. (The only pity is … Continue reading “Ehrman’s and Doherty’s Arguments: Spot the Difference”
In my previous posts on Bart Ehrman’s assertions about the argument of Earl Doherty’s Jesus: Neither God Nor Man, I think I have uncovered enough evidence to demonstrate that Ehrman at best only very patchily skimmed a few pages of the book. Was he perhaps merely attempting to grasp directions from some of Doherty’s critics … Continue reading “Did Bart Ehrman Not Even Read the Cover of Earl Doherty’s Book?”
I am posting here Earl Doherty’s comment — originally made on FRDB — about my recent posts on Bart Ehrman’s treatment of his book, Jesus: Neither God Nor Man. ————————- I hope that all of you are following the postings on Vridar by Neil Godfrey relating to Bart Ehrman’s presentation of statements and arguments in … Continue reading “Earl Doherty’s comments on my posts about Ehrman’s treatment of his book”
Edited an hour or so after original posting to add: And any reading of the broader content would have made clear to Ehrman that Doherty addresses a wide range of ancient world views; and much later, added a longer paragraph by Ehrman demonstrating his persistent misreading of Doherty’s words. I don’t know how to portray … Continue reading “Bart Ehrman’s false or careless assertions and quotations concerning Earl Doherty”
First let it be clear where I am coming from. This is not an attack on any scholar or the scholarship of theologians in general. It is an attempt to address what strikes me as very muddled thinking in many works about the historical Jesus. That is not a denigration of the scholars in question … Continue reading “Historical Jesus Studies As Pseudo-History — Bart Ehrman’s Jesus As a Case-Study”
Roger Parvus has posted an intriguing comment about the Gospel of Mark’s narrative of Jesus casting out of the “Legion” of devils (the story where he sends them all into a herd of pigs who then run off a cliff and drown) on Tim Widowfield’s discussion of Wrede’s Messianic Secret. He wonders if the story … Continue reading “Jesus’ Journey Into Hell and Back — told symbolically in the Gospel of Mark?”
Dr Bart Ehrman has written for the Huffington Post a quite a curious article attacking mythicism and advertising his new book which promises more of the same. It is a curious article because it leaves a reader who knows anything about mythicist arguments and historical Jesus scholarship with the impression that Ehrman knows very little … Continue reading “Bart Ehrman’s Huffing and Posting Against Mythicism”
First let it be clear where I am coming from. This is not an attack on any scholar or the scholarship of theologians in general. It is an attempt to address what strikes me as very muddled thinking in many works about the historical Jesus. That is not a denigration of the scholars in question … Continue reading “Historical Jesus Studies As Pseudo-History — Bart Ehrman As a Case-Study”
Accommodating the unaccommodatable I was taken aback when I saw that the pingback on my previous post, Miracles and Historical Method, was from the Doctor of Whoville. Since we know McGrath doesn’t read Vridar, somebody must have told him about it. I kid. We love the good doctor. Salt of the earth and all that. … Continue reading “Leap of Faith or Failure of Reason?”
William Wrede’s The Messianic Secret Part 4: Mark — “Some Preliminaries on the General Picture of the Messianic History of Jesus.” This unit covers Part 1, Section 1 of Wrede’s The Messianic Secret. Layers upon layers One of the things that struck me while reading this section is Wrede’s clarity of thinking, especially when it comes to … Continue reading “Reading Wrede Again for the First Time (4)”
William Wrede’s The Messianic Secret Part 3: Introduction Gospels are stories In the previous installment, we read through the front matter of Wrede’s The Messianic Secret. This time, we’re going to look at the Introduction, which while technically part of the front matter, is a meaty chapter unto itself. Quite recently, Neil remarked on this blog: The … Continue reading “Reading Wrede Again for the First Time (3)”