Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
The gospels and book of Acts do not contain the names of their authors. The first evidence we have that Luke, a companion of Paul, was the author of the canonical gospel and Acts is found in Irenaeus, AH 14.4.1: But that this Luke was inseparable from Paul, and his fellow-labourer in the Gospel, he … Continue reading “Luke — his first appearance as author and companion of Paul”
Following from previous post re Hoffmann’s arguments for an early date for Marcion: Marcion is generally said to have launched his heresy from the mid-second century — that is, long after the completion of our New Testament writings. Some of the Pastoral epistles are said to have been completed as late as the early second … Continue reading “Dating Marcion early (2)”
One of Luke’s changes to the Gethsemane account found in the Gospel of Mark was in the way he chose to describe the kiss of Judas. Luke changes the wording in Mark in preference for the same wording in the Greek Septuagint uses in Genesis to picture Jacob kissing his father Isaac in deceit. (This … Continue reading “More on Luke’s use of Genesis”
Mario Liverani in his Israel’s history and the history of Israel explains that the idiom of people “going out” and “going in” to a land was used to describe a change in political dependence without any literal movement of the people from one place to another.
As a past student of American history and society I relished catching up with more recent publications a couple of years ago and one of the more interesting was America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism (2004) by Anatol Lieven. Sharing some notes from one section of this book — a discussion of … Continue reading “Millenarians and Nationalists”
Continuing notes from Leaving the Fold by Marlene Winell, with added comments and discussion. Other posts in the series are archived here. I see an awful lot of suppressed anger in fundamentalists — which is expressed politically. It’s also expressed toward children, who are treated in ferocious ways “You will behave. You will do these … Continue reading “Dysfunctional fundamentalist families (10): physical and sexual abuse”
Luke 1:1-4 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also … Continue reading “Luke’s Prologue: the How question. (A question only)”
JD Walters in his Cadre website has begun a lengthy series of responses to my responses to Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. JD’s words are in black and indented. Mine are in blue. (I hope there are not too many people who feel they have nothing better to do than to read this exchange, by … Continue reading “Bauckham: reply to JD Walters”
Any encounter with Christopher Hitchens’ talent with words is always a richly rewarding experience. And while reading his newly published “God is Not Great” I was at times painfully reminded of my failure at this point to have completed my review of the last chapter of Bauckham’s Eyewitness book on this blog. (I really will … Continue reading “Rationalist Hitchens vs Eyewitness Bauckham”
ABC’s RN had the good sense to play a repeat of a Hindsight program on Anzac Day — a lecture by Robert Manne disussing the direct link between Gallipoli and the Armenian Genocide. It’s talks like these that remind me why I’m an internationalist, not a nationalist. No transcript or podcast of the talk, but … Continue reading “Gallipoli and the Armenian Genocide”
Elaine Pagel’s The Gnostic Paul cites the many gnostic interpretations of Paul’s letters. The point is well made that our interpretation of Paul is inherited from the founders of the orthodox church today. Yet this interpretation was not so universal in the second century. Irenaeus took issue with the gnostics for claiming to have secret … Continue reading “A gnostic mind game with Paul and Mark”
Appendix: Papias as Eusebius’s Source in Hist. Eccl. 3.24.5-13? At the end of chapter 16 Bauckham addresses the argument of Charles Hill that Eusebius paraphrased a section of Papias that discussed the gospels of John and Luke. Hill’s argument contradicts Bauckham’s by implication:
13. Eyewitness memory Richard Bauckham uses this chapter to relate modern studies in memory psychology “to gospel traditions in a systematic way”. RB acknowledges that others like Crossan have addressed memory studies before but B is attempting to apply them more specifically in a range of cases of eyewitness recall and as the sources of … Continue reading “Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Chapter 13”