Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
From time to time someone – lay person or New Testament scholar – publicly insists that there is no more bias among the professional scholars of the Bible than there is among any other academic guild. The question arose recently on the Bible Criticism and History forum and I found myself scrambling quotations from members … Continue reading “Unrecognized Bias in New Testament Scholarship over Christian Origins”
Matthew Ferguson of the Κέλσος blog has posted an interesting discussion on Dennis MacDonald’s defence at the recent Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) conference of his thesis that a significant influence of the Homeric literature can be found in the New Testament writings, especially the Gospel of Mark and Book of Acts. For those wondering what the … Continue reading “Homer in the Gospels: Recent Thoughts”
Way back in the previous century, I attended Ohio University at Athens. A young, naive freshman, I headed off one gloomy autumn day to the campus library, searching for source material for an astronomy paper. The stacks were vast; I was looking at more books than I had ever seen in one place. By New World … Continue reading ““It is absurd to suggest . . .” — Shirley Jackson Case on The Historicity of Jesus“
Another lifetime ago, back when I was a U.S. Air Force field training detachment commander, one of our instructors came into my office with a worried look. He told me he had been teaching basic circuitry to a group of enlisted students. “Lieutenant,” he asked, “when you were in school what did they teach you … Continue reading “The Memory Mavens, Part 4: The Analytical Power of Failure”
As you may recall from the first part of this series, Maurice Halbwachs wrote an important and detailed treatise on social memory and its relation to memorialized places (les localisations), which he called The Legendary Topography of the Gospels in the Holy Land: A Study of Collective Memory (La topographie legendaire des evangiles en terre sainte: Etude … Continue reading “The Memory Mavens, Part 3: Bethlehem Remembered”
Legends that stick Some myths have extraordinary staying power. Because modern media causes us to believe we’re witnesses to real events, we often reject good evidence that disproves what we think we saw and heard personally. I grew up thinking that the embarrassing mistakes Kermit Schaefer presented on his record albums were completely authentic. We all rolled … Continue reading “The Memory Mavens, Part 2: A Case Study at Ellis Island”
A muddle of mavens For several months now, I’ve been poring over works written by a contingent of New Testament scholars who I like to call the Memory Mavens. This group claims that “memory theory” offers new perspectives on Jesus traditions and provides new insights on how those traditions eventually found their way into the … Continue reading “The Memory Mavens, Part 1: A Brief Introduction to Memory Theory”
Part 3: John Displaces and Rewrites the Cleansing of the Temple All four evangelists recount Jesus’ cleansing of the temple at Jerusalem. The Synoptics (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) place the event during the week before the crucifixion, while John sets it near the very start of Jesus’ ministry. In the ancient church, many, if not … Continue reading “How John Used Mark: Investigating the Methods of the Fourth Evangelist (Part 3)”
. This post concludes my series on Crossley’s Why Christianity Happened: A Sociohistorical Account of Christian Origins (26-50 CE). The previous post is here. All posts on this book, both the recent ones from 2014 and those from 2010-11, are archived here. . Misguided equivalence How is one meant to respond to the words of … Continue reading “A Secular Approach to Christian Origins Compromised by Faith and Theology”
This post continues on from The Secular Approach to Christian Origins, #3 (Bias) and addresses the next stage of Professor James Crossley’s discussion on what he believes is necessary to move Christian origins studies out from the domination of religious bias and into the light of secular approaches. In the previous post we covered Crossley’s dismay that scholarly conferences … Continue reading “Good Bias, Hidden Bias and the Phantom of Jesus in Christian Origin Studies”
Alvar Ellegård (November 12, 1919 – February 8, 2008) was a Swedish scholar and linguist. He was professor of English at the University of Gothenburg, and a member of the academic board of the Swedish National Encyclopedia. . . . He also became known outside the field for his work on the conflict between religious dogma … Continue reading “Theologians as historians”
Gregory Jenks has posted a new article on academia.edu, What did Paul know about Jesus? Jenks is a senior lecturer of theology at Charles Sturt University. Among other things he is a Fellow of the Jesus Seminar and has a blog with the byline revisioning faith . . . shaping holy lives. I met Gregory Jenks in … Continue reading “What Did Paul Know About Jesus?”
Under the Grip I just noticed over on the Cakemix that Dr. McGrath is once again comparing Jesus mythicism to creationism. He writes: Mythicism says: universities are so much under the grip of Christianity that mythicism cannot get a fair hearing. As you know, the good doctor finds this idea laughable. Implicit in his short … Continue reading “Under the Grip of Christianity: New Testament Scholars and the Myth of Transparent Fiction”
I’m continuing here with John Drury’s analysis of the parables in the Gospels. Anyone paying attention to the previous posts (What Is a Parable? and Jesus Did Not Speak In Parables – the Evidence) knows that the meaning of “parable” in the Gospels derived from its usage in the Septuagint (Greek) Old Testament. It could range … Continue reading “The Sermon on the Mount: Matthew’s (not Jesus’) Creation”