Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
Read almost any commentary on the Gospel of John and one learns that the conventional wisdom is that this Gospel is littered with sure signs that it has been pieced together over time by several authors, revisers or editors. One of the most obvious indicators of this strikes most readers when they read the speeches … Continue reading “The Gospel of John as a Unified Work”
Page 11 of the Introduction to ‘Is This Not the Carpenter?’ explains that one of hopes of its collection of essays is to open a direct discussion of the question of historicity [of Jesus] much in the spirit of the more than decade-long discourse and debate by the European Seminar on Methodology in Israel’s History, … Continue reading “The Gospel of John as a Source for the Historical Jesus: ‘Is This Not the Carpenter?’ chapter 9”
Recently I posted an introduction to Burton Mack’s and Earle Hilgert’s suggestion that the pre-Passion narrative in the Gospel of Mark has striking affinities with Philo’s first volume of On the Life of Moses. I have since caught up with more of the background reading to their argument, but I have also taken their suggestions … Continue reading “Understanding Mark’s Jesus through Philo’s Moses?”
* Did Mark Invent Jesus of Nazareth? . COVERED IN THIS POST: How much did Mark invent in his Gospel? John’s dependency on the Synoptics John’s changes and innovations Lazarus and the Signs Source How independent of Mark are Matthew and Luke? Robert Price on no “M” and “L” sources Trusting Luke’s Prologue again Ehrman’s … Continue reading “30. Earl Doherty’s Response to Bart Ehrman’s Case Against Mythicism — Part 30 (Did Mark Invent Jesus of Nazareth?)”
Did the Jewish philosopher Philo influence the story-line and character-portrayals that we read in the Gospel of Mark? I cannot yet commit myself to believing he did but I am keen to follow up the question since encountering it in Reimagining Christian Origins: A Colloquium Honoring Burton L. Mack. (Mack, of course, is famous for … Continue reading “Is the Gospel of Mark Creatively Emulating Philo’s Life of Moses?”
[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”
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″
Bart Ehrman claims that the Gospel of John is testimony to the existence of traditions or sources about the life of Jesus that were independent of anything that was known to the other Gospels. Therefore, so it is implied, the Gospel of John is a witness to Jesus that stands independently of the other Gospels. … Continue reading “Ehrman: “It is simplest to assume”? How the Gospel of John IS Dependent Upon Gospel of Mark”
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?”
This post continues Couchoud’s account of the nature of the Christ found in the Book of Revelation and how he epitomizes the “false Christ” that Paul denounced his apostolic rivals for promoting. Couchoud has been tracing the rise of Christianity from the Enochian community in “pre-Christian” times and the evolution of the Christ idea in … Continue reading “The Christ of John’s Revelation — Nemesis of Paul’s crucified Christ (Couchoud continued)”
Continuing here my series of outlining Paul Louis Couchoud’s work The Creation of Christ (English translation 1939), with all posts in the series archived, in reverse chronological order, here. The previous post in this series presented Couchoud’s argument that Paul’s Christ was a God crucified in heaven, the result of a combination of feverish interpretations … Continue reading “The War of the Heavenly Christs: John’s Sacrificed Lamb versus Paul’s Crucified God (Couchoud continued)”
This post follows on from my earlier post on The Secret Book of John, possibly a Jewish pre-Christian work, as translated and annotated by Stevan Davies. Stevan Davies’ translation of the Secret Book/Apocryphon of John is available online at The Gnostic Society Library. The Prologue is said to be a Christian addition to an earlier … Continue reading “The Gnostic Gospel (Apocryphon) of John – 2”
The Jewish historian Josephus writes about both genuine historical persons and events and mythical characters and events as if they are all equally historical. Adam and Vespasian, the siege of Jerusalem and the last stand at Masada, are all documented in a single work of ancient historiography. Is there some method or rule that can … Continue reading “Sifting fact from fiction in Josephus: John the Baptist as a case study”
The Gospel of John is notorious for its several awkward transitions and these have led a number of scholars to argue that the present Gospel we know is quite different from what must have been its first edition. A recent discussion led to the question of what scholarly publications there are on the original version … Continue reading “The First Edition of the Gospel of John (1)”