Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
One thing bugs me when I read an article by a scholar or student who is attempting to demonstrate that an author like Dennis MacDonald (The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark) has lost his marbles and supposedly proclaims even the “absence of parallels” is evidence of parallels. And that one thing is ignorance … Continue reading “Re a common error made when critiquing “parallelomania””
This post is nothing more than a bit of idle trivia per se. But maybe Kakadu Dreamtime wisdom somewhere says “Clever bower bird can find something among trivia to relocate so it has power to attract a mate.” The data comes primarily (not exclusively) from two sources: The Gospel of Mark as Midrash on Earlier … Continue reading “The Twelve Disciples: their names, name-meanings, associations, etc”
This post is moving beyond my original interest in posting notes from Tyson’s hypothesis about the influence of Marcionism on the composition of Luke-Acts, but it completes his final chapter, and so also completes this series of posts. Looking here at: Literary achievement Theological achievement Historical achievement Christian-Jewish relations
final editing about 2 hours after first posting . . . In my last post on Fabricating Jesus I discussed Craig Evans’ put-down of sceptical conclusions on the grounds that “no-one trained in history” would entertain such “extreme” doubts as to whether we can know anything historical about Jesus at all or even if … Continue reading “Some “training in history” for Craig A. Evans, Richard Bauckham, et al.”
Revised May 8 2008 Continuing from a previous post: Wright argues that the narratives of the resurrection appearances in our canonical gospels are based on traditions that were set and hardened well before the gospels came to be written. Discussed one in previous post and attached comments. Two more to go: the different gospel accounts … Continue reading “Resurrection: Response to Wright, 4”
Traveling through Thailand one cannot avoid the national focus on the Thai king as benefactor of the poor, the good shepherd of all his people. (Sound familiar to any of us raised in company of a religious tradition with Mid-Eastern roots?) So on a long drive back to Bangkok from a beach resort this evening I could not help … Continue reading “A slightly revised parable of the pounds for modern times”
Continuing notes from reading of Tyson’s Marcion and Luke-Acts. . . . After discussing the shifting directions of the scholarly debates over Paul’s characterization in Acts vis a vis the Paul we find in the epistles, Tyson asks if a more definitive answer is to be found to the question of whether the Paul of … Continue reading “Dating the Book of Acts: Characterization of Paul”
The gospels and book of Acts do not contain the names of their authors. The first evidence we have that Luke, a companion of Paul, was the author of the canonical gospel and Acts is found in Irenaeus, AH 14.4.1: But that this Luke was inseparable from Paul, and his fellow-labourer in the Gospel, he … Continue reading “Luke — his first appearance as author and companion of Paul”
Following from previous post re Hoffmann’s arguments for an early date for Marcion: Marcion is generally said to have launched his heresy from the mid-second century — that is, long after the completion of our New Testament writings. Some of the Pastoral epistles are said to have been completed as late as the early second … Continue reading “Dating Marcion early (2)”
One of Luke’s changes to the Gethsemane account found in the Gospel of Mark was in the way he chose to describe the kiss of Judas. Luke changes the wording in Mark in preference for the same wording in the Greek Septuagint uses in Genesis to picture Jacob kissing his father Isaac in deceit. (This … Continue reading “More on Luke’s use of Genesis”
Mario Liverani in his Israel’s history and the history of Israel explains that the idiom of people “going out” and “going in” to a land was used to describe a change in political dependence without any literal movement of the people from one place to another.
As a past student of American history and society I relished catching up with more recent publications a couple of years ago and one of the more interesting was America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism (2004) by Anatol Lieven. Sharing some notes from one section of this book — a discussion of … Continue reading “Millenarians and Nationalists”
Continuing notes from Leaving the Fold by Marlene Winell, with added comments and discussion. Other posts in the series are archived here. I see an awful lot of suppressed anger in fundamentalists — which is expressed politically. It’s also expressed toward children, who are treated in ferocious ways “You will behave. You will do these … Continue reading “Dysfunctional fundamentalist families (10): physical and sexual abuse”
Luke 1:1-4 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also … Continue reading “Luke’s Prologue: the How question. (A question only)”