Michael Kok is addressing the arguments for and against Q on his blog where he explores the “history and reception of New Testament writings”. In his latest post he raises the question of whether Luke knew Matthew’s account of the baptism of Jesus. Unfortunately his comment policy does not encourage responses from outsiders hence this … Continue reading “Scrutinizing the Case for Q: Why Luke Sidestepped the Baptism of Jesus by John”
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Tom Dykstra writes “a cautionary tale” concerning the unpleasant rift between mythicists (those who dispute the historicity of Jesus) and historicists (those who defend the historicity of Jesus). His primary exemplars are “historicist” Bart Ehrman and “mythicist” Thomas Brodie, Ehrman and Brodie on Whether Jesus Existed: A Cautionary Tale about the State of Biblical Scholarship. His first warning is … Continue reading “Tom Dykstra on Mythicism: Erhman, Brodie and Scholarly Conduct”
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I am finding Raphael Latater’s book, Jesus Did Not Exist: A Debate Among Atheists, a most invigorating and fresh approach to the topic. Caveat: I am taking it slowly and so far have not even completed the first chapter. I have read Richard Carrier’s introductory remarks and Raphael Lataster’s own background introduction and am only … Continue reading “Jesus Did Not Exist — A New Contribution”
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Sometimes I discover the most curious things en route to learning something else. I can’t even remember why now, but for some reason, I recently stumbled upon the definition of pericope (peh-RIH-kuh-pee) at the Oxford Biblical Studies Online site. If you’ve read my posts on the Memory Mavens, you’re no doubt aware that I sometimes … Continue reading “What’s Wrong with the Word “Pericope”?”
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Today’s text comes from Molière’s play, Le Médecin malgré lui (The Doctor in Spite of Himself). We join in as Sganarelle, a poor, drunken woodcutter, posing as an eccentric but brilliant physician, pretends to diagnose Lucinde, the daughter of a wealthy couple. Her parents, Géronte and Jacqueline, along with their servant, Lucas, watch and comment as Sganarelle bamboozles them with a stream of … Continue reading “The Memory Mavens, Part 8: Chris Keith, Post-Criteria Scholar? (2)”
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Let me be transparent from the outset: the authors of the Gospels did not imitate Vergil’s Latin epic. . . . [Rather] the Evangelist was aware of the Aeneid and shaped his book to rival it. The affinities between Luke and Vergil thus pertain to genre or, better, to narrative structure and development, not to imitations … Continue reading “Acts and Virgil’s Aeneid: comparison and influence”
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How do the roots of the Gospels compare to those of classical works? Is the historical evidence for Jesus Christ as good as that of Julius Caesar? People often raise such historical questions critically, claiming the evidence for Caesar’s life is better attested than for Jesus’s. But is this really so? ~ Darrell L. Bock . Professor Darrell … Continue reading “Comparing the sources for Caesar and Jesus”
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Hi there. If I don’t post again soon I’ll feel like I’ll have to introduce myself again. I’ve been taking time off mainly just to read, and especially to read a work that for me at least has been quite challenging. It’s full of coined concepts alongside esoteric ones: ontic as distinct from ontological; existentiell versus … Continue reading “Recovering from a Postmodernist & Jungian Jesus Headache”
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A new post has appeared on the Weststar Institute’s blog, 8 tips for dating early Christian texts. It covers considerable detail for both relative and absolute dating. My earlier post, Scientific and Unscientific Dating of the Gospels, was a summary of Niels Peter Lemche’s explanation of valid methods to arrive at an absolute date range … Continue reading “How To Date Early Christian Texts”
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Last month I began posting on Enrico Norelli’s arguments concerning the Ascension of Isaiah: A New (Completely Revised) Look at the Ascension of Isaiah Ascension of Isaiah: Contents, Manuscripts and the Question of its Composition I am quite sure Norelli’s new perspective won’t be the final word. Before I can come to any view myself, … Continue reading “Ascension of Isaiah: Continuing Norelli’s Argument”
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Professor Stevan Davies has re-published his book Jesus the Healer under a new and probably more appropriate title, Spirit Possession and the Origins of Christianity, a new introduction on the pentecostal origins of the Christian movement (including an account for comparative purposes of the origins of modern pentecostalism since 1906) and added a couple of … Continue reading “Evidence for a Pre-Christian “Christianity”?”
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A volume on linguistics and literary studies published last year contained a chapter by Paul Hopper, Distinguished Professor of the Humanities Emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University, titled A Narrative Anomaly in Josephus: Jewish Antiquities xviii:63. The chapter can now be downloaded from academia.edu. (I was alerted to this through a post by Peter Kirby on Biblical Criticism & History Forum.) … Continue reading “Fresh Evidence: The Forged Jesus Passage in Josephus”
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Let me recap my take on “historical method” in the context of historical Jesus studies and the Christ Myth theory. A question about this was raised at an online video session today with Phil Robinson, Richard Carrier, Dave Fitzgerald, Raphael Lataster and me. It was in response to Maurice Casey’s chapter that he titled Historical … Continue reading “HISTORICAL METHOD and the Question of Christian Origins“
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John Drury, DD, in The Parables of the Gospels, explains why it is very doubtful that Jesus ever spoke the parable of the Good Samaritan. The evidence points towards the real author of this parable being the same person who was responsible for the work of Luke-Acts. For convenience we’ll call him as Luke. The parables of … Continue reading “The Origin of the Good Samaritan Parable and Other Lucan Favourites”
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