Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
The baptism of Jesus by John in the Gospel of Mark is stitched together with images from Old Testament passages, and serves the particular theological agenda of Mark that was challenged by later evangelists So, if a passage in the Gospels can be shown to serve a theological agenda of an evangelist, then according to … Continue reading “Baptism of Jesus is not bedrock fact. It is entirely creative literature.”
The metaphor of the messiah . . . is used neither as a direct reference to any contemporary, historical king nor to any known historical expectations before Bar Kochba (c. 135 CE). (Messiah Myth, Thompson, p.291; SJOT, 15.1 2001, p.58.) Those scholars who repeat that there was popular Jewish anticipation of a Messiah to emerge … Continue reading “What might a Davidic Messiah have meant to early Christians?”
R. Joseph Hoffmann has in interesting introduction to his (re)publication of Jesus the Nazarene by Maurice Goguel in which he discusses some aspects of the early history of Jesus mythicism. He notes that the theory that Jesus had never lived at all was first broached in the nineteenth century. He cites three reasons why some … Continue reading “3 reasons scholars have embraced the Mythical Jesus view”
I recently received Earl Doherty’s new book, Jesus: Neither God Nor Man. The Case for a Mythical Jesus, and have finally caught up with a chance to begin reading it. It may take a little while since I have a vicious habit of reading several things at once and a need to attend to real … Continue reading “Introduction to Earl Doherty”
edited and added TLT quote Jan 26, 2010 @ 20:05 I think of myself as neither a “Jesus mythicist” nor a “Jesus historicist”, but as someone interested in exploring the origins of Christianity. Whether the evidence establishes a historical Jesus at its core, or an entity less tangible, then so be it. Nonetheless, I cannot … Continue reading “Responding to standard arguments for Jesus’ historicity (1)”
The following notes are taken from pages 74-76 of Mary Ann Tolbert’s Sowing the Gospel: Mark’s World in Literary-Historical Perspective (1989). A wonderful collection of ancient novels can be found in Reardon’s Collected Ancient Greek Novels (1989). Chariton, Xenophon of Ephesus, Achilles Tatius, Longus and others make fascinating reading as they bring us closer to … Continue reading “Ancient Novels and the Gospels”
8. Anonymous Persons in Mark’s Passion Narrative I enjoyed Backham’s opening paragraph. Until reading this I had not had opportunity to discover some of the more detailed reasons scholars have wondered if the Passion Narrative pre-existed independently before being incorporated into Mark’s gospel. It is logical to conclude that if an author writes the bulk … Continue reading “Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Chapter 8”
Speculative digressions Bauckham follows with a speculative set of digressions suggesting possible reasons why some names were more popular than others. Some, he suggests, were popular because they recalled names with anti-Hellenistic associations of liberation or conquest (e.g. Hasmonean names); others were popular for the opposite reason — because they jelled so easily with similar … Continue reading “Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Chapter 4b”