Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
The “heretic” Marcion is a significant figure in the history of early Christianity but the sources for our dates for his activity are contradictory. It is quite possible that if we attempt to understand the reasons for these contradictions in the sources we will see that Marcion’s influence on our canonical New Testament texts as … Continue reading “Tradition and Invention: & the date of Marcion”
The question of the authenticity of the Last Supper passage (1 Cor. 11:23-26) in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians came up in a discussion recently, and having not long ago read Winsome Munro’s Authority in Paul and Peter (1983) I found myself presenting a case that not only that passage, but a good slice of … Continue reading “Pastoral interpolation in 1 Corinthians 10-11”
The Acts of Paul show a remarkable series of affinities with the pastoral epistles, particularly 2 Timothy. There are differences as well, but they are the sorts of differences that one expects to find in stories repeated orally. Someone is labelled as a coppersmith, now was that Alexander or Hermogenes? Paul always teams up with … Continue reading “Pastoral Epistles & the Acts of Paul (+ canonical Acts)”
A possible objection Traditional attempts to explain Christian origins have had to rely on hypotheses about oral traditions (and more recently memory theory), on hypothetical constructions of long lost Christian-like communities. The letters of Paul have been read by and large at face value, ignoring the scholarship that should warn us that such a reading … Continue reading “A Beginning of Christianity — An Objection; and the Role of Asceticism”
Continuing reading Nina Livesey’s [NL] The Letters of Paul in their Roman Literary Context, we now come to the question of the stark differences between the Paul of the letters against the Paul of the Acts of the Apostles. In Acts Paul is submissive to the Jerusalem authorities and sympathetic to law-keepers; in the letters … Continue reading “The Fiction of Paul and the Church Communities”
Previous posts in this series: Jesus Mythicism and Historical Knowledge, Part 1: Historical Facts and Probability Jesus Mythicism and Historical Knowledge, Part 2: Certainty and Uncertainty in History Jesus Mythicism and Historical Knowledge, Part 3: Prediction and History * For an excellent introduction to Bayes‘ approach to problem solving read Sharon McGrayne’s The Theory That … Continue reading “Jesus Mythicism and Historical Knowledge, Part 4: Did Jesus Exist?”
The Cyrus Cylinder is not evidence that the Persian king Cyrus commissioned a return of Judeans to restore their temple (as explained in the previous post) but it does show us why the biblical authors proclaimed Cyrus to be the “anointed one” as their central character in their mythical narrative of that return. In the … Continue reading “Origin of the Cyrus-Messiah Myth”
This post continues a series I began with The Hebrew Bible – Composed only 300 years before Christ In my opening post setting out the initial grounds for thinking that the biblical literature was no older than 300 BCE I noted with only minimal explanation that the current mainstream view of the far greater antiquity … Continue reading “Most Ways of Dating the Old Testament Older than 300 BCE are Flawed”
While recently attempting to relate the views of the anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse to what we know of Christian origins, I decided to turn to an obliging dialog partner for assistance — ChatGPT. For background you might want to skim through what I wrote about Whitehouse’s models at https://vridar.org/2020/06/20/modes-of-religiosity/ Me: Given Harvey Whitehouse’s description of the … Continue reading “A Dialog with ChatGPT on Christian Origins”
Two weeks ago I posted my notice of a translation of Gustav Volkmar’s 1857 study of the Gospel of Mark that had been written for a general audience. This post is to notify interested readers of the availability of a translation of his far more academic 1876 work, Mark and the Synopsis of the Gospels … Continue reading “Gustav Volkmar — a second translated work”
Here is a copy of what I have posted as a standalone page — see the right side margin under Pages and scroll down to Gustav Volkmar. . . . . Gustav Volkmar (1809-1893) has been referenced a few times in this blog but the most detailed synopsis of his views on the Gospel of … Continue reading “Finding Paul in the Gospel of Mark — Volkmar translation”
Update 25th September 2023 — I have now translated two of Gustav Volkmar’s works: The Religion of Jesus (1857); Mark and the Synopsis of the Gospels (1876). — note that this file is being updated regularly with corrections and improvements. Most recent update is 28th September 2023. You may need to clear your cache to … Continue reading “Gustav VOLKMAR — 2 Translations“
Some critics have portrayed me as being like a moth fluttering to the nearest flame, as one who is always attracted to the latest most radical viewpoint, and therefore my views cannot be taken seriously. What those critics generally fail to recognize, however, is the consistency of my readings of the sources and the fact … Continue reading “Gospel and Historical Jesus Criticism — Method and Consistency”
Update: 3rd August 2023 I somehow managed to complete a first draft of a translation of the entire near 700 pages of the work that significantly contributed to the case for the Gospel of Mark being the first gospel. It can be accessed here on my vridar.info page. Link is to a PDF – 27 … Continue reading “Christian Gottlob WILKE — Der Urevangelist Translated into English“