Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
Continuing notes from Tyson’s Marcion and Luke-Acts . . . . Last post looked at Tyson’s arguments for the Infancy Narratives in the Gospel of Luke, this one at the final chapter with the Resurrection appearances. Notes below that are in italics are my own additions and not, as far as I recalled at the … Continue reading “Luke’s Resurrection chapter: its ties to the Infancy stories, Acts and Marcion”
Continuing from 3 criteria for authenticity . . . . (this little series was prompted by Evans accusation that no historian “trained in history” would ever come to the sorts of conclusions about Jesus that some radical critics have arrived at.) Historical Coherence When the Gospels tell us things that cohere with what we know … Continue reading “More criteria for authenticity: Historical Coherence (Fabricating Jesus / Evans)”
Broken links fixed — 25th November 2009 The Infancy Narratives of Luke, the first 2 chapters of this gospel, are well integrated into the larger narrative of the rest of Luke and Acts (Tannehill). But that does not preclude the possibility that they were added later to an original Luke, with the final redactor reworking … Continue reading “Luke’s Infancy Narratives (Luke 1:5-2:52) as an integrated response to Marcionism”
Continuing the series the evolution of the offering of Isaac into a Jesus story; earlier posts here. Levenson argues that much of the early christology derives from a midrashic combination of verses associated with Isaac, the beloved son of Abraham, the suffering servant in Isaiah who went, like Isaac, willingly to his slaughter, another miraculous … Continue reading “Jesus displaces Isaac: midrashic creation of the biblical Jesus . . . (Offering of Isaac . . . #6)”
Christianity was surely up and running at least a hundred years before someone thought to assign a special day for its birthday. And one might well read the evidence in a way that indicates “orthodox” theologians hijacked Pentecost from the Jews to use it as a hostage in their campaign against “heretical” — Marcionite — … Continue reading “Pentecost, belated birthday of the church”
Continuing notes from reading of Tyson’s Marcion and Luke-Acts. . . . After discussing the shifting directions of the scholarly debates over Paul’s characterization in Acts vis a vis the Paul we find in the epistles, Tyson asks if a more definitive answer is to be found to the question of whether the Paul of … Continue reading “Dating the Book of Acts: Characterization of Paul”
The three rejects — Paul Paul in his letter to the Galatians equates the namesakes of the three leading apostles in Mark (Cephas/Peter?, James and John) as holding an unimpressive rank in his eyes (Gal. 2:6), and who became the leaders of the hypocrites at Antioch (Gal. 2:13), and were thus cursed teachers of “another … Continue reading “Tracing the evolution of the Twelve Apostles from monkey rejects to angelic pillars.”
Since Marcion is assumed to be “anti-Jewish” it seems nonsense at first blush to associate his “heresy” with the “Jewish error” in the Pastorals. But in fact what Marcion rejected was the typographical or allegorical reading of the Jewish scriptures. He read them literally and was accused of believing a form of Jewish error. See … Continue reading “The anti-Marcionite character of the Pastoral epistles?”
Marcion presented a formidable challenge to those who opposed his theology and practices. Indeed his opponents spent extraordinary energy in combating his influence, attacking his theology, and constructing alternatives to his practices. It was a massive effort, not only because many people found Marcionite Christianity attractive, but also because his was a complex challenge that, … Continue reading “Marcion’s Challenge”
Continuing my notes from Tyson’s Marcion and Luke-Acts: A Defining Struggle . . . . Tertullian’s entire fourth book attacking Marcion is a comparison of Marcion’s gospel with canonical Luke. Marcion’s opponents never accused Marcion of adding to the Gospel of Luke, but only of omitting sections and changing the wording in places. Knox compared … Continue reading “Marcion’s Gospel, its character and contents”
Marcion’s “heresy” was justifiably seen as the main threat to Christian “proto-orthodoxy” in the second century, but I suspect the reason had less to do with his doctrine of two gods and some form of docetism and more to do with what might have been branded his “Jewish error”. That will sound like nonsense to … Continue reading “Literal and allegorical Scriptures in Orthodoxy and Heresy”
Baur argued that Acts was written in the mid second century, around 140-150 C.E. Baur saw Acts as an attempt to heal a rift in Christianity between two factions originally led by Peter and Paul. Christianity in Baur’s view had been divided between Jewish Christians who saw Jesus as the hope of their historical expectations, … Continue reading “Dating the Book of Acts: 3, Evidence for the late date (Baur)”
Spong in his new book, Jesus for the Non-Religious: Recovering the Divine at the Heart of the Human (2007), lists four reasons that he claims leave no doubt about the historicity of Jesus: No “person setting out to create a mythical character would [ever] suggest that he hailed from the village of Nazareth . . … Continue reading “(revised) Spong on Jesus’ historicity: John the Baptist and the Crucifixion”
Joseph of Arimathea is most commonly viewed as something of a partial redemption of the harsh conclusion of Mark, given that he is said to have had courage where courage failed the disciples; and Pilate is seen as almost an innocent bystander in some ways. But I’m playing with an interpretation here that suggests their … Continue reading “Is Mark mocking Joseph of Arimathea, and Pilate?”