Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
While one sometimes hears it said that the gospel message when first heard in the early Roman empire was “shocking” and “turned the world upside down”, it is in fact more correct to say that the gospel message was a product of its age. In the century or so leading up to the common era … Continue reading “Christianity and the “let’s turn the world upside down” bandwagon”
The classical Greek myths related to the founding of the colony of Cyrene in North Africa (Libya) are worth knowing about alongside the biblical narrative of the founding of Israel. This post is a presentation of my understanding of some of the ideas of Philippe Wajdenbaum found in a recent article in the Scandinavian Journal … Continue reading “Greek Myths Related to Tales of Abraham, Isaac, Moses and the Promised Land”
The concluding paragraph of the first chapter of Mandell’s and Freedman’s The Relationship Between Herodotus’ History and Primary History is worth framing. The principle it addresses would, if applied to New Testament studies, relegate to the scrap heap a good deal of scholarship investigating oral sources behind this or that detail in the Gospels. Since … Continue reading “When literary analysis trumps historical analysis”
Some of the most interesting work I read to help expand my understanding of early Christianity comes not from traditional biblical scholarship but from classical literature and Jewish studies. Here are a few new questions about the religious world from which Christianity emerged I would like to investigate. They came to mind as I read … Continue reading “Jewish Mysticism and Heavenly Ascent Legends and the Context of Christian Origins”
Sara Mandell and David Noel Freedman give us some valuable tips on how to read the pagan Greek work of “History” by Herodotus much of the biblical history of Israel (Genesis to 2 Kings) and the Gospels in their 1993 volume The Relationship Between Herodotus’ History and Primary History (Genesis to 2 Kings). Among several … Continue reading “How to Read the Gospels”
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, but doesn’t quite quack like a duck, then maybe it is not a duck. Just because we see one or even a few features in the gospels that we recognize from historical or biographical writings, we cannot assume that the gospels are therefore history or … Continue reading “Historical Imitations and Reversals in Ancient Novels — and the Gospels?”
Let’s cut to the chase. If all you have are the gospels then what can you say about the historicity of Jesus? If all we have is a story that has no corroboration external to the narrative itself to attest to its historical status, then at the most basic level we have no way of … Continue reading “When all you have is a story what can you say about history?”
Understanding the nature of a text is a significant factor in knowing how to interpret it and how to use it as historical evidence. Many scholars today, following Burridge, accept that the Gospel of Mark is a biography of the life of Jesus. The Gospel of Mark is widely considered to be the first written … Continue reading “Second thoughts on the Gospel of Mark as Biography”
In this post I outline the points of Burridge’s influential argument that the gospels belong to the genre of ancient biography. Richard A. Burridge has been central to the development of wide scholarly agreement that the Gospels are biographies (or technically βιος) with the publication of his doctoral thesis, What Are the Gospels? A Comparison … Continue reading “Are the Gospels Really Biographies? Outlining and Questioning Burridge”
I know I said I would not touch Casey’s book (Jesus of Nazareth) again for a while, but Mike Kok’s review of chapter 3 (Historical Method) on the Sheffield Biblical Studies blog does call out for some response. No archaeological evidence for Nazareth in early first century I ignored Casey’s critique of Zindler’s and Salm’s … Continue reading “Nazareth fictions, Aramaic blindspots and scholarly bias: Filling some gaps in Sheffield’s review of Casey’s ‘Jesus of Nazareth’”
Let’s make this my last post for a little while on Maurice Casey’s ad hominem stained book on the historical Jesus (Jesus of Nazareth) that will surely long stand alone as a truly independent tribute to the Huckleberry Finn criterion for historical authenticity. (robertb will heave a sigh of relief.) This post looks at the … Continue reading “The Twelve Disciples: New Insights from Emeritus Professor Maurice Casey”
Edited 13th November Maurice Casey argues that the author of the Gospel of Mark translated written Aramaic sources about Jesus as early as within ten years of the crucifixion. He expresses impatience with scholars such as those like John Dominic Crossan who “spend their whole lives in detailed examination of these primary texts” (p. 21) … Continue reading ““Make a Path”: Maurice Casey’s evidence of an Aramaic source for Mark’s Gospel, or Creative Fiction?”
I discuss here Goguel’s critique of the Christ Myth as seen through the eyes of two biblical scholars, mainly R. Joseph Hoffmann, and very briefly Christopher Price. I conclude with my own understanding of the reason (bias) underlying Hoffmann’s perspective of Goguel in his anti-mythicist arguments, and an alternative perspective from Earl Doherty. Hoffmann compares … Continue reading “Goguel’s critique of the Christ Myth. Hoffmann’s response. And Doherty”
Continuing my little series of posts reading the Bible in the context of popular ancient fiction, specifically with the Argonautica. Book 4 — Seaton’s translation of the fourth and final book of the Argonautica. (Ignore the chapter numbering in the title.) This post covers only the early portions of this book. Escape adventure and happily … Continue reading “Bible and the Argonauts: Chapter 5 (Book 4)”