Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
Michelle Goldberg’s description of Christian nationalism in her book Kingdom Coming has been an eye-opener for this non-American on a number of levels. Till having read this book I had heard or read the odd strange comment from a US citizen that implied they believed the framers of the US constitution were divinely inspired, or … Continue reading “the creation of past golden ages, or beware what you dream . . .”
(continuation of the series) ii. Lydia, Lydia and Lydians The first convert of Paul is a woman who has gained much wealth from selling “purple”. Purple is, of course, a colour that was indicative of rulership and worn by a select few, mostly Romans of authority. The name Lydia was well-known to Romans as … Continue reading “The We-Passages in Acts: a Roman audience interpretation. Pt 10”
Persia, Iran, the Orient — images of cruelty, despotism, oppression and suffering of the masses beneath their tyrannical overlords, extremists, bloodthirsty, unnaturally libidinous, filled with murderous rage against the modern outside world that they cannot understand, deceitful, conniving, greedy, bribers, disloyal, cowardly, servile, childish even …. that is the Orientalist view that still today pervades … Continue reading ““I am the LORD who says the King of Persia shall carry out all my purpose” — Isaiah 44″
Despite the hopes I expressed in my previous post I simply cannot complete even one more response to Tom Schmidt’s Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ. Instead, I will place here my draft that addresses only one small part of Schmidt’s rationale for finding the Jesus account placed in the midst … Continue reading ““Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence” – Review 5A – ‘the placement of the Testimonium Flavianum’.”
Continuing from Review 1 . . . Who am I to discuss the meaning of an ancient Greek word? This is something new for me so I must justify this foray. Up until this year I only had a self-taught level of understanding of koine Greek (the Greek of the New Testament) and would never … Continue reading ““Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence” – Review 2 – ‘a teacher of . . . truisms’”
I use two sources for this post. The first is a widely used text for advanced studies (seminaries and universities) in the “biblical history of Israel”. The second is a research conference paper by a specialist in the Middle Bronze Age Levant.Let’s get our bearings with respect to the various ages that will be referenced … Continue reading “Problems Dating Israel’s Exodus and Conquest of Canaan”
I was recently somewhat startled to learn that the Elijahs, the Isaiahs, the Ezekiels and Jeremiahs of the Bible were familiar characters in diverse ancient Near Eastern cultures long before biblical Israel appeared on the scene. I am talking about ancient Syria 900 years before the emergence of the kingdom of Israel in the archaeological … Continue reading “Meet the Prophets of Israel’s Predecessors”
Others have translated several of Hermann Detering’s works into English and these are available on Radikalkritik.I have translated a number of additional works of his but copyright prohibits me from making some of them public. Some works that are otherwise only available in German on HD’s Radikalkritik website can be made public — as far … Continue reading “Hermann Detering’s works translated to English“
The universality of religion across human society points to a deep evolutionary past.The universality of religion across human society points to a deep evolutionary past. However, specific traits of nascent religiosity, and the sequence in which they emerged, have remained unknown. Here we reconstruct the evolution of religious beliefs and behaviors in early modern humans … Continue reading “Origins of Religion”
Recent posts relating to King Josiah’s reforms: Why Josiah’s Reforms “Must Have Happened” – part 1 (2024-03-30) Why Josiah’s Reforms “Must Have Happened” – part 2 (2024-03-31) Why Josiah’s Reforms “Must Have Happened” – part 3 (conclusion) (2024-04-01) The Discovery of the Law in Josiah’s Day Compared with Like Discoveries (2024-04-02) Caught out (2024-04-04) Did … Continue reading “Finding a Place for King Josiah in the History of Biblical Israel”
I cited a book chapter by R.J. van der Spek in my previous post relating to the historical reality behind the myth of ancient Persia’s “tolerance” of religions of its subject peoples. Here I quote some other extracts that relate directly to the problem of religious tolerance and how that question relates to monotheism: It … Continue reading “The Curse of Monotheism”
If the Old Testament books were not written before the Hellenistic era as a number of scholars have argued and as I have posted about for some years now, why would their authors have chosen a very favourable Persian empire as the narrative setting of the restoration of Judea after the Babylonian exile? We know … Continue reading “Why the Bible Gives Persia Such Good Press: a Hellenistic Perspective”
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”
In my book collection I have a massive (both in size and weight) Reader’s Digest 1971 version of the King James 1611 translation of the Bible. On page 377, the second page into the Book of Ezra, is this image and caption:The page has other images and captions:King Cyrus of Persia proved to be a … Continue reading “No Evidence Cyrus allowed the Jews to Return”
Recent posts have focussed on the case for the earliest books of the Bible being composed as late as the Hellenistic era, that is less than 300 years before Christ. The longstanding conventional wisdom has understood the first biblical narratives go back to the time of King David (around 1000 BCE) or at least to … Continue reading “Comparing Samaria and Judah/Yehud – and their religion – in Persian Times”
I am continuing here with my responses to criticisms raised on the earlywritings forum against the proposal that the first biblical texts were composed as late as around 270 years before Christ. (I had looked forward to continuing the discussion on that forum until I lost confidence in the sub-forum’s promise to be an “academic … Continue reading “Questioning the Hellenistic Date for the Hebrew Bible: Elephantine ‘Jews’”