Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
An illustration of how evidence is manufactured to support historicity in biblical studies: the twelve disciples (The following criteria are taken from John Meier’s defence of the historicity of the Twelve, JBL, 116/4 (1997) 635-672 that promises to apply “with rigor” “the criteria of historicity” (636). This post is also in one sense a complement … Continue reading “Manufacturing “evidence” for the historicity of 12 apostles”
Back into Josephus and the TF. I think my original draft really began at the heading Continuing the context of TF in Book 18 below — that is probably the best place to start for continuity with my previous post. I can scarcely recall where I left off now, and the first part of this … Continue reading “Cuckoo in the nest, 3 — why ALL proposed TFs are unJosephan”
Further thoughts from earlier post on rival gospel traditions. . . . . It is easy to overlook that the gospels of John and Luke say that the Jews themselves, not Roman soldiers, crucified Jesus with Pilate’s permission. This is as is narrated in the Gospel of Peter and elsewhere, as per the above post. … Continue reading “Gospel of Luke, reconciler of the Herod and Pilate gospel narratives?”
continuing from jesus in josephus/cuckoo in the nest 1 . . . The Nest — Book 18 of Antiquities (The Greek and English can be seen side by side on this PACE page.) [Link is no longer active. 3rd August 2015] v. back to the native Josephus Josephus opens Book 18 with the theme of … Continue reading “Cuckoo in the nest (2) — Jesus in Josephus”
Continued from my earlier post Testimonium Flavianum: more clues from Eusebius Eusebius quotes a reference in Josephus to Jesus that survives today in all manuscripts: Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of … Continue reading “Jesus in Josephus — Eusebian clues — point 4”
I have updated my previous post’s timeline of the apparent birth of the passage about Jesus found in Josephus to include all known pre-Eusebian Christian references to Josephus. In this post I begin to discuss the detailed evidence that this passage (the Testimony of Flavius Josephus, or the Testimonium Flavianum, or TF) was composed by … Continue reading “The Testimonium Flavianum: more clues from Eusebius”
Still continuing the Margaret Barker series, but interrupting to toss in a couple of posts on another aspect of the Gospel of Mark in the meantime. This continues from the previous post on Mark 13. Everyone knows how indebted the Passion Narrative is to allusions to the “Old Testament” scriptures (e.g. Psalm 22), and few … Continue reading “Gospel of Mark’s use of Jewish scriptures for Jesus’ Jerusalem entry narrative”
The “little apocalypse” or “Olivet prophecy” of Mark 13, Matthew 24 and Luke 21 is often cited as a key passage for dating the gospels. The idea is to match the events described in this passage with what seems to be the best fit historically. Others have questioned whether we are right to attempt to … Continue reading “The little apocalypse of Mark 13 – historical or creative prophecy?”
Margaret Barker wrote an interesting book, The Great Angel: A Study of Israel’s Second God, a few years back, in which she argued that prior to the rabbinic Judaism that emerged after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 c.e. the Jewish concept of God was not so monolithic as understood today. A bit of serendipitous … Continue reading “Israel’s second God. 1: The Son of God”
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”
It’s surely a curious thing why certain issues, and not others, become the main media focus at this or that time. I recently commented on what I saw as the total lack of perspective, and even some fabricated reports, over the attention given to the Tibetan protests in relation to the Olympics. Very few reports … Continue reading “controlled violence good, uncontrolled violence bad”
Continuing notes from Tyson’s Marcion and Luke-Acts . . . . Last post looked at Tyson’s arguments for the Infancy Narratives in the Gospel of Luke, this one at the final chapter with the Resurrection appearances. Notes below that are in italics are my own additions and not, as far as I recalled at the … Continue reading “Luke’s Resurrection chapter: its ties to the Infancy stories, Acts and Marcion”
Continuing the series the evolution of the offering of Isaac into a Jesus story; earlier posts here. Levenson argues that much of the early christology derives from a midrashic combination of verses associated with Isaac, the beloved son of Abraham, the suffering servant in Isaiah who went, like Isaac, willingly to his slaughter, another miraculous … Continue reading “Jesus displaces Isaac: midrashic creation of the biblical Jesus . . . (Offering of Isaac . . . #6)”
First of a couple of backtracks here before completing the Offering of Isaac’s / Sacrifice of Jesus series. Based on Levenson’s The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son. According to what Eusebius tells us in his Praeparatio Evangelica, one passage Philo of Byblos wrote of sacrifice among the gods: It was a custom of … Continue reading “Beloved and Only Begotten Sons Sacrificed by Loving Fathers (Offering of Isaac, 5)”