2014-01-27

"Fantastic. I’m so glad you’re helping to spread these ideas!"

Nancy Fraser - June 2019 (personal email)
"By the way, my thanks to Neil for an ongoing superb job of exposing Jim’s review for what it is: a farcical and none too effective exercise in mythicism assassination, nothing to do with rational, let alone unbiased, scholarship. I’m also happy to see even Jim giving Neil credit where credit is due."

— Earl Doherty, June 2011
"I want to say here that this site is so resourceful and highly on top of the most modern scholarship in the areas discussed here. . . I know of no other site which offers a wide range of topics related to careful critical analysis of historically and scripturally related issues."

-- Martin Lewadny, - March 2009
"Note that I do not use the term ‘amateur’ pejoratively. . . . In fact, Godfrey is extremely well read and his librarian skills have brought many important academic works to my attention."

Raphael Lataster - August 2019
"Vridar is consistently thought-provoking, well-informed, and asking the right questions. There are intelligent, thoughtful comments and commenters regularly offering productive discussion. Books and publications are covered with a range of perspectives with attempts at fair and accurate representation of others’ arguments and content (where there are occasional and inevitable missteps on that I notice Neil making corrections and apologies where warranted, which wins points with me). Please carry on."

— Gregory Doudna, – January 2019
"I have found your website really valuable as an interpretive filter for Biblical scholarship, especially the origins of Christianity and historicity of Jesus issue. Your clarity of expression, fair comments and personal insights are much valued. I refer to your site frequently as yet more names and publications pop up requiring an academic critique and helpful recommendations for book purchases. So, please continue to delve deeply and share this intellectual sustenance with your grateful readers."

— Mary Booker, – February 2020 (personal email)
"Neil, this is actually rather useful. Good job."

— R. Joseph Hoffmann, – June 2014
"Thanks for this detailed interaction! I’ll try to offer something more substantial than 'Thank you' in response at some point, but I didn’t want to wait . . . to express appreciation for your detailed interaction with what I’ve written!"

— James McGrath, – June 2009
"I’d like to thank you for this very nice representation of what I was trying to show in the book. It’s always gratifying when a reader zeroes in on exactly those aspects I thought were most interesting and most central to my argument. Thank you for this careful and engaged reading of my work – much appreciated!"

— Eva Mroczek, – June 2017
"Thanks much for this book review. I think it expands, and contributes to, the effort in honouring Thomas that we with Lukasz originally had in mind with this volume. Best, Emanuel"

-- Emanuel Pfoh - August 2020
"Thanks for your very elaborate review! I realized that I hadn’t added your blog to our blogroll. This oversight has been corrected. Looking forward to more segments."

— Anthony Le Donne, – September 2009
"For an excellent example of generally high-quality scholarship by someone who isn’t a biblical studies professor, see Neil Godfrey’s work posted on the website vridar.org."

— Tom Dykstra, – JOCABS 2015
"Neil Godfrey and Tim Widowfield, who both write at Vridar . . . happen to be some of the most astute and well-read amateurs you can read on the internet on the subject of biblical historicity. I call them amateurs only for the reason that they don’t have, so far as I know, advanced degrees in the subject. But I have often been impressed with their grasp of logic and analysis of scholarship. I don’t always agree with them, but I respect their work."

— Richard Carrier, – March 2014
"These reviews of yours are so bloody weird!"

— James Crossley, – April 2010
"I find your blog most interesting and appreciate your ongoing effort to keep to the evidence for the issues discussed!"

-- Thomas L. Thompson, - April 2020
"I think you have a high quality blog that provides a positive public service by discussing academic topics within a wider audience."

— Russell Gmirkin, – October 2016
"Neil, for what it is worth it is obvious to me that if you had earlier in life tracked into a graduate program at one of the world’s leading research universities you would be one of the world’s formidable ones. You are doing essentially the same quality now (apart from the philology and languages) except mostly sticking to commenting on others’ work as informed comment/discussion."

— Gregory Doudna, – January 2019
"I’ve even been cited by atheists with approval (which I really don’t know how to take, so thanks, I think, but I’m not sure, Vrider (even though I feel like I need to take a shower now))."

-- Jim West, – September 2010
"I still wonder at all the material you turn out for Vridar. The more I read your stuff (and I still do, of course), the more I realize how much we all owe you. Your voice is unique."

— Earl Doherty, November 2013 (personal email)
"Neil, You’ve done a clean job in your posting on ‘Jesus the Healer’. It reflects well on you. Best, John"

— John Moles, September 2011 (personal email)
"Very good. This post is going straight to the March 2016 Biblical Studies Carnival."

—N.T. Wrong, – March 2016
"Here I give an admittedly subjective short list, in random order, of useful, high level and regularly updated weblogs on the study of the Old Testament . . . ‘Vridar: Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science’ (http://vridar.org/) by Neil Godfrey"

-- Klaas Spronk, - Bibliotheca Orientalis LXXI, 3/4 (2014)
"I always enjoy reading Neil’s blog because I think that he is careful, thorough, intellectually fair, and honest."

— April DeConick, – November 2007
"Many thanks for this post, and for the quality of your blog."

— Philippe Wajdenbaum, – November 2018

Neil Godfrey on Nero – Followup #2: “It is slim and slender. How to know of a certain find relates to the fires of Nero’s time or…” Jan 16, 05:06
Neil Godfrey on Rome Burning — and the Christians: A New Study: “I finally found the response to your question that I was looking for, thanks to a kind soul on the…” Jan 16, 01:00
Steve Ruis on Nero – Followup #2: “I should know this, but is there any archeological evidence of a great fire in Rome at that time? We…” Jan 15, 16:39
Gary on Nero – Followup #2: ““What Otho and Vitellius might have thought of Nero deep in their hearts is irrelevant. Their conduct shows that they…” Jan 15, 16:22
Gilbert Gélinas on Nero – the Followup: Reviews of Barrett’s Discussion of the Neronian Persecution: “If nobody mentionned the passage in Tacitus before the fifth century, the reasonable explanation is it didn’t exist. It’s a…” Jan 15, 13:56
Ark on Nero – the Followup: Reviews of Barrett’s Discussion of the Neronian Persecution: “Just out of interest, (do you know?)is Malloch a Christian?” Jan 15, 12:44
francois on OT Sources for the Gospel of Mark, chapters 2 and 3: “Reading Mark as a midrash, Chapter 20: Jesus sends the Twelve Tags: Midrash, Maurice Mergui, Nanine Charbonnel (Mark 6:7-13) Jesus…” Jan 13, 23:30
Mark on What’s a lonely Jesus to do?: “https://biblehub.com/greek/2318.htm Turn up anything new on your Hypsistarians? https://biblehub.com/greek/4576.htm https://biblehub.com/greek/2150.htm Someone who was often in Kandahar during the war reminded…” Jan 13, 22:22
Mark on What’s a lonely Jesus to do?: ““…because there are so many other books that I want to read.” Yes reading others like Lockwood can indeed swallow…” Jan 13, 22:00

Recent Posts

Nero – Followup #2 2022-01-15 12:17:08 GMT+0000

Nero – the Followup: Reviews of Barrett’s Discussion of the Neronian Persecution 2022-01-15 09:12:30 GMT+0000

Rome Burning – the Christian Problem in the Annals of Tacitus 2022-01-13 14:55:18 GMT+0000

Rome Burning – Difficulties with the Tacitus Passage 2022-01-11 11:17:40 GMT+0000

Rome Burning — and the Christians: A New Study 2022-01-10 21:48:19 GMT+0000

After the Transfiguration of Jesus — Some Lesser Known Allusions to Moses 2022-01-05 23:38:48 GMT+0000

What’s a lonely Jesus to do? 2022-01-04 23:52:09 GMT+0000

The Fairy Tale Ideal World of the Gospel Story as a Living Hell 2022-01-03 14:01:47 GMT+0000

The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes 2022-01-02 23:47:55 GMT+0000

A Common Origin – One Wonders 2022-01-01 11:27:06 GMT+0000

Sermon on the Mount – Bruno Bauer update 2021-12-31 08:41:30 GMT+0000

Further updates 2021-12-23 21:53:37 GMT+0000

From Hermes to Yahweh 2021-12-21 22:19:37 GMT+0000

Updates – Late gospels and Josephus’s guilt-inspired prophecy 2021-12-20 10:43:38 GMT+0000

On Charity and Tyrants 2021-12-18 22:01:21 GMT+0000

New Thoughts on Christian Origins 2021-12-17 13:38:17 GMT+0000

Where none shall hunger 2021-12-09 23:28:54 GMT+0000

The Big Question We Should Be Asking of Human History 2021-12-06 22:51:36 GMT+0000

A New History of Humanity — And Hope for Those of Us Who Want It 2021-12-05 09:02:13 GMT+0000

We’ve Been Published — Varieties of Jesus Mythicism 2021-12-01 22:36:41 GMT+0000

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