Search Results for: oral tradition

Damascus, code name for the Temple? (Post Script to Jewish Origin… NC’s Jésus-Christ…)

I skipped a detail in my previous post because at the time I could not verify certain information in Nanine Charbonnel’s chapter, but today I have a more complete picture. Recall NC was citing a Qumran scroll as an extra-biblical example of a community identifying themselves with God’s Temple. Here’s the interesting snippet I omitted … Continue reading “Damascus, code name for the Temple? (Post Script to Jewish Origin… NC’s Jésus-Christ…)”

Early Thoughts on Authenticity of the John the Baptist Passage in Josephus

Continuing Rivka Nir’s case for questioning the authenticity of John the Baptist in Josephus’s Antiquities…. (First post is here.) Nir informs us in The First Christian Believer, By the nineteenth and early twentieth century, historians were suggesting that this passage was a Christian interpolation. (p. 42) As a general rule, I like to follow up … Continue reading “Early Thoughts on Authenticity of the John the Baptist Passage in Josephus”

Why was the Gospel Narrative set around 30 CE?

I cannot prove that the gospel narratives are deliberately set in the time of Pilate so that the death of Jesus occurs a generation of forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE but I do think there are several reasons for suspecting that this setting was a conscious decision for theological reasons. … Continue reading “Why was the Gospel Narrative set around 30 CE?”

Jesus embodies all the Jewish Messiahs — continuing Jésus-Christ, Sublime Figure de Papier

Continuing the series Charbonnel: Jesus Christ sublime figure de papier . . . A Messiah to combine the different messianic visions Nanine Charbonnel [NC] has been exploring various ways the Jesus figure of the gospels was drawn to embody certain groups of people and now proceeds to discuss the way our evangelists (gospel authors) also found … Continue reading “Jesus embodies all the Jewish Messiahs — continuing Jésus-Christ, Sublime Figure de Papier”

Rewritings and Composite Contradictions: the Way of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation

There can be little doubt that many of the gospel stories are derived from the Jewish Scriptures: Jesus in the wilderness reworks the nation Israel’s and the prophet Elijah’s sojourn there; Jesus feeding the multitudes and raising the dead are surely inspired by comparable miracles by Elijah and Elisha and many more. What I find … Continue reading “Rewritings and Composite Contradictions: the Way of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation”

No bosses, no wages, no problem

Extract from a “science fiction” novel, understanding that “science fiction is the archaeology of the future” . . . ‘OK, here is how we do things,’ began Kosti’s account of the corporation in which he worked. ‘No one tells anyone what to do. We choose freely the persons or teams that we want to work … Continue reading “No bosses, no wages, no problem”

The Death of John the Baptist — Sources and Less Obvious Contexts

Here’s another contribution to our quest for the origins of John the Baptist as found in the synoptic gospels. Recent discussions have centred on the account found in Josephus — see Is Josephus’s John the Baptist Passage a Chronologically Dislocated Story of the Death of Hyrcanus II? Greg Doudna’s article behind the post, Another Pointer … Continue reading “The Death of John the Baptist — Sources and Less Obvious Contexts”

Did Jonathan Z. Smith Really Not Understand Ideal Types? (Part 3)

Smith and the Ideal Type As you recall from the first post in this series, on several occasions Robert M. Price has accused Jonathan Z. Smith of not understanding and grossly misapplying Max Weber’s ideal type. For example, in Price’s critique of Drudgery Divine (see: Higher Critical Review), he wrote: In the same way, Smith seems … Continue reading “Did Jonathan Z. Smith Really Not Understand Ideal Types? (Part 3)”

Bad History for Atheists (4) — Psychoanalyzing Dissenters

This is the final post covering my response to Tim O’Neill’s interview on MythVision. For other posts, parts one, two, three. In 1959 Khrushchev declared that there were no political prisoners in the USSR, only mentally ill people (Bukovsky). Arrests and trials became their last resort . . . . The authorities preferred other means, … Continue reading “Bad History for Atheists (4) — Psychoanalyzing Dissenters”

The Acts of Solomon as a Neo-Assyrian Composition — part 2

In the previous post we saw that the biblical account assigned the same boundaries as the later Assyrian empire (150 years after Solomon’s near-namesake Shalmaneser III) to the kingdom of Israel in the time of Solomon. And Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines, as far … Continue reading “The Acts of Solomon as a Neo-Assyrian Composition — part 2”

Those Sources the Bible Cites

Here I bring together different scholarly views on the sources cited in the Old Testament books of Kings directing readers to other writings for further information about a particular monarch. I conclude with a new perspective on one of those sources (the chronicles or annals of the kings of Judah) that would actually subvert the … Continue reading “Those Sources the Bible Cites”

Essential Reading for Trump Supporters

When I was a dedicated member of Herbert Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God cult I was aware of the existence of “dissident” literature that had led a few fellow members to “fall away” into the clutches of Satan. I had no desire to seek it out and read it because I “knew” it would be … Continue reading “Essential Reading for Trump Supporters”

The Historical Road Leading Fundamentalist Christians to Trump

This post follows on from Historical Background to President Trump – the Republican Party’s Shift . . . Enter the Christian Right The Christian right . . . . . . was the term widely used during the 1980s to describe a religious social movement, while today the operative term in both self-presentation and in … Continue reading “The Historical Road Leading Fundamentalist Christians to Trump”

part 3 … Biblical Narratives, Archaeology, Historicity – Essays in Honour of Thomas L. Thompson

Earlier posts in this series: 25th August 2020 and 27th August 2020. Thomas Thompson . . . is a pioneer in questioning more or less weak historical reconstructions done by Old Testament scholars, reconstructions that were mainly based on biblical texts and only sometimes supported by a few arbitrarily selected extra-biblical data. I still remember … Continue reading “part 3 … Biblical Narratives, Archaeology, Historicity – Essays in Honour of Thomas L. Thompson”