Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
The new addition to my bookshelf and I are going to get along just fine. I feel like I’ve found a long-lost friend, someone who has published exactly the point I have been making on this blog for so long now, only this new friend was saying it long before it ever crossed my mind. … Continue reading “Quest for History: Rule One — from Brodie’s Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus”
Continuing from Historical Method versus Jesus Research: Chapter 2 of Jesus, Criteria and the Demise of Authenticity. . . . Jens Schröter reminds us of flaws with the criteria approach to find the historical Jesus. They encapsulate what I have covered in my posts on Chris Keith’s chapter one: Criteria were designed as a tool … Continue reading “Take Two: Chapter 2 of Jesus, Criteria, and the Demise of Authenticity”
I touched on one brief passage in the chapter by Jens Schröter in my recent post, Historical Jesus Studies ARE Different Methodologically from Other Historical Studies, and it’s now time to return to his chapter from Jesus, Criteria, and the Demise of Authenticity [JCDA] in more depth. Jens Schröter appears at several points to come … Continue reading “Historical Method Versus Jesus Research. Chapter 2 of Jesus, Criteria, and the Demise of Authenticity”
Chapter 7 of ‘Is This Not the Carpenter?’ presents what I understand are the arguments of mainstream New Testament scholarship that Paul’s epistles testify to the existence of an historical Jesus. Its author, Mogens Müller (MM), is responsible for what has been praised as the best work to date on the expression “Son of Man”. … Continue reading “Paul: Oldest Witness to the Historical Jesus — ‘Is This Not the Carpenter?’”
Niels Peter Lemche is the author of the fourth chapter of ‘Is This Not the Carpenter?’, “The Grand Inquisitor and Christ: Why the Church Does Not Want Jesus”. He frames his case around the parable in Dostoyevsky’s novel, The Brothers Karamazov, that tells of Christ being arrested on his return to earth in the time … Continue reading “Why the Church Does Not Want Jesus — ‘Is This Not the Carpenter?’ chapter 4”
* Ehrman’s Picture of the Apocalyptic Jesus . COVERED IN THIS POST: Preaching the kingdom Differing teachings of Jesus and Paul Jesus and the Jewish Law Salvation: by following the Law or believing in Jesus? Last Judgment and End of the world Jesus’ miracle-working Jesus’ associates and disciples Believing in Judas Iscariot Did Jesus aspire … Continue reading “33. Earl Doherty’s Response to Bart Ehrman’s Case Against Mythicism – Part 33 (Ehrman’s Picture of the Apocalyptic Jesus)”
This concludes my recent post on chapter 2 of Is This Not the Carpenter?, “The German Pestilence: Re-assessing Feuerbach, Strauss and Bauer” by Roland Boer. That earlier post was an overview of Roland Boer’s explanation for the emergence of radical biblical criticism in Germany in the early nineteenth century and surveyed the landmark roles of … Continue reading “Bruno Bauer and Today (“Is This Not the Carpenter?” — chapter 2)”
What is the significance of the title of this book edited by Thomas L. Thompson and Thomas S. Verenna. The subtitle is “The Question of the Historicity of the Figure of Jesus” — “of the Figure of”, not “of Jesus”. Perhaps that helps guard the book from being seen as too bluntly opening up the … Continue reading “‘Is This Not the Carpenter?’ — Introduction”
* 1. Did Jewish Personified Wisdom generate Paul’s Christ Jesus? 2. Was Jesus an Unknown Jew Who Lived a Century Before Paul? . COVERED IN THIS POST: The (partial) mythicism of G. A. Wells The problems in Wells’ interpretation of Paul Jewish personified Wisdom as inspiration for Paul’s Christ Hellenistic Judaism and the Wisdom of … Continue reading “28. Earl Doherty’s Response to Bart Ehrman’s Case Against Mythicism – Part 28 (G. A. Wells)”
It’s good to see Professor Thomas L. Thompson come out and respond to Bart Ehrman’s crude dismissal of his scholarly contribution to the origin of the Christ myth. Here is what Ehrman had written of Thomas L. Thompson’s work: A different sort of support for a mythicist position comes in the work of Thomas L. … Continue reading “Thomas L. Thompson responds to Bart Ehrman’s Did Jesus Exist?”
* Mythicist Claim Three: The Gospels Are Interpretive Paraphrases of the OT . COVERED IN THIS POST: The Gospels constructed out of scriptural midrash Jesus’ passion modelled on a traditional Jewish story The Gospel of the Old Testament according to Robert Price The Gospel Jesus as a new Moses A Jesus miracle modelled on Elijah … Continue reading “24. Earl Doherty’s Response to Bart Ehrman’s Case Against Mythicism – Part 24”
[This post continues my review of “Mark’s Missing Ending: Clues from the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Peter,” by Dr. James F. McGrath. You can find Part 1 here.] Why might Mark’s original audience not have thought the Short Ending was problematic? Last time we discussed why the Short Ending (SE) of Mark is considered … Continue reading “McGrath’s “Missing Ending”: What Was Mark’s Story? — Part 2”
Here they come. The advance warning was R. Joseph Hoffmann‘s Mythtic Pizza and Cold-cocked Scholars. He promises that within a week (apocalypse coming!) we will see on his blog “three essay-length responses to Richard C. Carrier’s ideas: The first by [R. Joseph Hoffmann], the second by Professor Maurice Casey of the University of Nottingham, and … Continue reading “Fight Club! Historical Jesus Scholars Take On the Christ Mythicists!”
I have been studying the first half of Richard Carrier’s chapter 3, “Introducing Bayes’s Theorem”, in his recent book Proving History: Bayes’s Theorem and the Quest for the Historical Jesus. I mean studying. I want to be sure I fully understand the argument before tackling the second half of the chapter, headed Mechanics of Bayes’s … Continue reading “Carrier’s “Proving History”, Chapter 3(a) — Review”