Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
I used to wonder if whoever wrote the Gospel of Mark intended to have Jesus in the last half of the Gospel largely reverse the role he had carved out in the first part of the Gospel. The gospel is characterized by reversals and ironies at many points. The one who raised the dead dies, … Continue reading “Jesus, bearing the diseases he had healed?”
Jesus no more healed people than he was born of a virgin or walked on water or rose from the dead. The Gospels do not portray Jesus as a physician or literal healer of some sort. They portray him as the Christ, or Messiah, and they introduce stories of healings only in order to portray … Continue reading “Jesus was not a healer (1)”
Earl Doherty has argued that the New Testament epistles, unlike the Gospels, portray Jesus as a heavenly being who was crucified by demons in heavenly places, and that it was this event that was revealed to early Christian apostles such as Paul by visionary or mystical spiritual experiences or insights into their readings of Jewish … Continue reading “Jesus crucified by demons (not on earth): The Ascension of Isaiah in brief”
If the gospel narratives have no basis in historical reality then from where might the basic story idea have originated? Do certain modern studies in the origins of the Old Testament narratives point towards possible explanations for the origins of the gospel narratives? An explanation for the OT stories The certain studies of OT origins … Continue reading “Origins of the Jesus myth (Thoughts)”
Continuing from my previous post, this time I’m outlining Spong’s overview of the distinctive way the Gospel of Luke portrays Jesus. Bishop John Shelby Spong himself is renowned for his views on inclusiveness — that the Church should not discriminate against anyone for any role because of their gender or sexuality. In the Gospel of … Continue reading “Jesus the New Elijah, and the Gospel Being a Symbolic Tale According to a Scholarly View”
Continuing my little series of posts reading the Bible with popular ancient fiction in mind, or the other way around, with the Argonautica as the case study. Book 3 — Seaton’s translation of the third of the four books of the Argonautica. (Ignore the chapter numbering in the title.) Change of pace in the story … Continue reading “Bible and the Argonauts: Chapter 4 (Book 3)”
How do we account for Christianity growing out of Judaism yet being so unlike Judaism? Part of one possible answer lies in the recognition that there was no normative Judaism as we understand it prior to the destruction of the Temple in the year 70. Noncanonical Second Temple writings such as the Book of Enoch … Continue reading “Peter, in the Enoch tradition, commissioned to replace the High Priest?”
One of Jesus’ more impressive tricks was to command a raging storm at sea to be quiet and go away so his disciples could continue their sea crossing without fear. Many readers of this tale are reminded of another about Jonah who, like Jesus, was caught sleeping in the boat while the crew were desperately … Continue reading “How Jesus Christ outclassed Julius Caesar”
My recent posts regarding Earl Doherty are largely for the purpose of offering a public corrective to some common claims about his arguments that are, for whatever reason, simply false. My own views are more exploratory than definitive, especially on Paul’s letters. But I do hate to see any misrepresentation so hopefully this post can … Continue reading “Doherty, the sublunar realm, and Paul: correcting some disinformation”
No. (But historicists do argue for interpolations and interpret contrary evidence metaphorically.) This is another misinformed assertion advanced by some who appear never to have read mythicist publications. I most recently noticed it in a response to another post by James McGrath complaining that mythicists do or don’t do or argue this and that, and … Continue reading “Do mythicists read Paul’s references to Jesus’ humanity as interpolations or metaphors?”
Was it possible for Second Temple Jews to have imagined a Messiah who is unjustly killed solely by reading their Scriptures? The Apostles in Acts are said to have preached Christ out of the Scriptures. Paul, and even other epistle writers, claim that their gospel was revealed to them through the scriptures and/or through the … Continue reading “Jewish scriptures as inspiration for a Slain Messiah”
Yishuv refers to the Jewish community in Palestine. The British Mandate period was from 1922 to 1948. This post continues from the same reference (Nur Masalha’s Expulsion of the Palestinians) as in my previous post, and looks at a Palestinian historian’s discussion of the fate of the Palestinian people as planned by the Zionist movement … Continue reading “Redemption or Conquest: Zionist Yishuv plans for transfer of Palestinian Arabs in the British Mandate period”
The metaphor of the messiah . . . is used neither as a direct reference to any contemporary, historical king nor to any known historical expectations before Bar Kochba (c. 135 CE). (Messiah Myth, Thompson, p.291; SJOT, 15.1 2001, p.58.) Those scholars who repeat that there was popular Jewish anticipation of a Messiah to emerge … Continue reading “What might a Davidic Messiah have meant to early Christians?”
I’d love to have the time to cite links and sources for each of the following. Maybe I can catch up with doing that in the future. But for now I like at least the idea of a bare list the examples of resurrection belief and hope in the ancient world as discussed by Richard … Continue reading “The Popularity of Resurrection”