Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
1. Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible (2016-10-16) Russell Gmirkin in his new book, Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible draws attention to striking similarities between the Pentateuch (the first five books of the “Old Testament”) on the one hand and Plato’s last work, Laws, and features of the Athenian constitution … Continue reading “Plato and the Hebrew Bible (Gmirkin)“
A week ago we saw Stéphanie Anthonioz‘s review of Russell Gmirkin’s Plato and the Hebrew Bible on The Bible and Interpretation. See Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible – review. Today we can read Russell’s response: A Response to Stéphanie Anthonioz, “Review of Russell E. Gmirkin, Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew … Continue reading “Hebrew Bible of Hellenistic Origin – Gmirkin responds to Anthonioz’s review”
I originally wrote the following as an introduction to my next post on Russell E. Gmirkin’s new book, Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible. On reflection, it was too long to be part of a post addressing the book so here it is a separate introductory post instead. Our historically conditioned deafness to … Continue reading “Some preliminaries before resuming Gmirkin’s Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible“
Seeking, but not finding I think I have been searching in the wrong places for the origin of the Jesus figure in our New Testament writings. Of course it would be easiest to assume that there is some truth to the gospel narratives and that there was a historical preacher by that name who was … Continue reading “Not Finding the First Jesus? Look for the Last ….”
I intend in this post to throw an idea into the ring for consideration. I have very little with which to defend the idea but I find it of interest. I have nothing stronger than that as my motive for posting it here: that the serpent in the Garden of Eden was an allusion to … Continue reading “Seeking a Plausible Origin for the Seducing Serpent in the Garden of Eden”
A couple of months ago I posted Why Bible Authors Wrote Anonymously and with Contradictions. I was setting down in writing my thoughts as informed by my latest reading at the time. But doubts remained. In that post I said that ancient Near Eastern authors corrected details in an existing narrative by adding contradictory statements … Continue reading “Understanding Contradictions and Incongruities in the Bible – Or Not…”
Recent posts relating to King Josiah’s reforms: Why Josiah’s Reforms “Must Have Happened” – part 1 (2024-03-30) Why Josiah’s Reforms “Must Have Happened” – part 2 (2024-03-31) Why Josiah’s Reforms “Must Have Happened” – part 3 (conclusion) (2024-04-01) The Discovery of the Law in Josiah’s Day Compared with Like Discoveries (2024-04-02) Caught out (2024-04-04) Did … Continue reading “Finding a Place for King Josiah in the History of Biblical Israel”
One of my primary interests has been to understand how the religions of the Bible (Judaism and Christianity) and the Bible itself (both the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament and the Christian New Testament) came about. There are other far more important questions pressing on us at the moment and I will address those as … Continue reading “Two Ages and the Inventions of Four Religions”
If the Old Testament books were not written before the Hellenistic era as a number of scholars have argued and as I have posted about for some years now, why would their authors have chosen a very favourable Persian empire as the narrative setting of the restoration of Judea after the Babylonian exile? We know … Continue reading “Why the Bible Gives Persia Such Good Press: a Hellenistic Perspective”
Recent posts have focussed on the case for the earliest books of the Bible being composed as late as the Hellenistic era, that is less than 300 years before Christ. The longstanding conventional wisdom has understood the first biblical narratives go back to the time of King David (around 1000 BCE) or at least to … Continue reading “Comparing Samaria and Judah/Yehud – and their religion – in Persian Times”
Having surveyed what the archaeological evidence tells us about religious practices of the Judeans in Elephantine (see the previous post) let’s now compare the evidence for Judah and Samaria in the same period. This time I am quoting only two sources, a chapter by Reinhard G. Kratz in A Companion to the Achaemenid Empire and … Continue reading “Judah and Samaria in Persian Times — the Evidence (and a way out of a quandary)”
My title refers to the anonymous texts in both the Old and New Testaments and why among those anonymous works we encounter numerous contradictions, even within the same works. I came across one of the clearest explanations to this question in David’s Secret Demons by Baruch Halpern. Halpern explains why “Near Eastern” writing is so … Continue reading “Why Bible Authors Wrote Anonymously and with Contradictions”
Continuing from Why Josiah’s Reforms “Must Have Happened” – part 2 The Deuteronomistic History (DH) is a modern theoretical construct holding that behind the present forms of the books of Deuteronomy and Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings (the Former Prophets in the Hebrew canon) there was a single literary work. In the late 19th century, … Continue reading “Why Josiah’s Reforms “Must Have Happened” – part 3 (conclusion)”
Continuing from Why Josiah’s Reforms “Must Have Happened” – part 1 Rainer Albertz is disputing the arguments of Philip R. Davies that the book of Deuteronomy could not have been written as early as the time of King Josiah. Argument 1: According to Davies, since Deuteronomy uses the name “Israel” to refer to all of … Continue reading “Why Josiah’s Reforms “Must Have Happened” – part 2”