Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
220 13. Die zweite Sabbathsverlehung. C. 9 — C. 10, 12. 13. The Second Sabbath Forgiveness. C. 9 – C. 10, 12. 220 Allerdings kennt der Vierte keinen würdigeren und ergreifenderen Schluß für die Streitreden seines Herrn als den Wuthausbruch der Juden, die nach den Steinen greifen, um nach ihm zu werfen, — wie wenig … Continue reading “Bk 1. Fourth Gospel. Ch 13 – Second Sabbath Forgiveness”
168 10. Fortsetzung des Streits über die erste SabbathsVerletzung. C. 7. 10. Continuation of the dispute about the first Sabbath violation. C. 7. 168/169 Das Pascha hatte ausnahmsweise dießmal Jesum nicht nach Judäa gerufen, weil seine Nähe dazu diente, ein Wunder und ein Gespräch in die Atmosphäre zu versetzen, die dem Evangelisten für sie nothwendig … Continue reading “Bk 1. Fourth Gospel. Ch 10 – Sabbath Dispute Continued”
Note the historicizing imagination at work…. We find this same phenomenon with Chateaubriand. He writes at the beginning of the fifth part of his Itinerary from Paris to Jerusalem: On October 10, early in the morning, I left Jerusalem through the Ephraim Gate, always accompanied by my trusted Ali, with the aim of examining the … Continue reading “The Gospels as Figurative Narratives (Charbonnel continued)”
Page 3 1. Das Zeugniß des Täufers und die Findung der Jünger. C. 1., 19. — C. 2., 2. 1. The Testimony of the Baptist and the Finding of the Disciples. C. 1, 19. – C. 2, 2. 3/4 Das Geschick, mit dem der vierte Evangelist im historischen Eingang seiner Geschichtsarbeit den Vorläufer seines Herrn … Continue reading “Bk 1. Fourth Gospel. Ch 1 – John the Baptist & Disciples”
Arthur Droge has made available on his academia.edu page an article in which he presents a strong case for that “rulers of this age … crucified the Lord of Glory” passage in 1 Corinthians not being part of the original letter reasons to think the passage was added to the letter around 140 CE evidence … Continue reading “Celestial or Earthly Christ Event? Why So Much Confusion About Paul?”
The point of this post is to demonstrate how easy it is to read documents from the perspective of commonly accepted knowledge and mistakenly misread them, thinking they say what we have always assumed they say, and to fail to register that the original texts are not quite as clear in their meaning — nor … Continue reading “Getting History for Atheists Wrong (Again) — #4”
We have been following Nanine Charbonnel’s view that the Jesus character we meet in the gospels was constructed entirely from ancient and well-understood Jewish literary-theological methods. In other words, the gospel figure of Jesus is most economically explained as a literary-theological construction of the evangelists (authors of the gospels) and that there were no oral … Continue reading “The Jewish Origin of the Incarnation: continuing Nanine Charbonnel’s Jésus-Christ, Sublime Figure de Papier”
Last month I posted Another Pointer Towards a Late Date for the Gospel of Mark? but this morning I was reminded of an article I read and posted about some years back that surely calls for a date soon after 70 CE. That article does not address the date per se but it does raise … Continue reading “Spit at a Late Date for the Gospel of Mark?”
A Short Excursus on Descensus In previous posts, we looked at dying-and-rising gods as a category, specifically as a Weberian ideal type, which could help us compare Christianity to other religions in late antiquity. Jonathan Z. Smith (among many others) found the category misleading and lacking any firm foundation. Robert M. Price took Smith to … Continue reading “Did Jonathan Z. Smith Really Not Understand Ideal Types? (Part 4)”
It’s been too long since I visited our French scholars of the Bible so here I continue with part 5 of Nanine Charbonnel’s table setting out the “Old Testament” sources of the Gospel narratives. In Jésus-Christ, Sublime Figure de Papier Charbonnel is presenting a case for the gospel figure of Jesus Christ being created entirely … Continue reading “Gospels Cut from Jewish Scriptures, #5”
My original plan for a single post has now stretched out into four. Time to wrap up with Russell Gmirkin’s explanation for the relationship between the Solomon narrative and Assyrian records of Shalmaneser’s ninth century conquests and subsequent (eighth century) Assyrian building accounts. The close correspondence between Sennacherib’s building account of Solomon’s temple and palace … Continue reading “How the Story of Solomon Emerged from Assyrian and Babylonian Elites — part 4”
This post derives from my reading of Some Hellenistic Elements in Primitive Christianity by Wilfred L. Knox (1942). For other posts on various aspects of a relationship between Heracles and Jesus see Heracles, A Fitting Substitute for Jesus Christ. Let’s once again imagine the canonical gospels in the thought-world of the ancient Greco-Roman world. … Continue reading “Jesus the Logos in Roman Stoic Philosophers’ Eyes”
This post is based on some of the citations in the early pages of Hercules-Christus, a 1947 article by Dutch Radical Critic Gustaaf Adolf van den Bergh van Eysinga, translated into German by Frans-Joris Fabri and posted on Hermann Detering’s RadikalKritik webpage. I have supplemented some of van Eysinga’s references in places. Other posts addressing … Continue reading “Hercules, a Fitting Substitute for Jesus Christ”
Continuing from Ascension of Isaiah: Other Questions. . . . . . . . Earl Doherty without doubt was the major contributor to the Jesus myth perspective from the 1990s through to the early 2000s. I highly respected his grasp of both the big picture and the detail, his clear-headed engagement with the scholarship, and his … Continue reading “Ascension of Isaiah: Questioning Three of Earl Doherty’s Arguments”