The Transfiguration and the Inclusion of Moses

Ascension was nothing new in antiquity.  Richard Carrier jokingly noted that had there been television in antiquity, stories about people who ascend to heaven (or some variant of this) would have been more popular than crime dramas are today.  And, ironically, the New Testament doesn’t deny this. After six days Jesus took with him Peter, [...]

Defining Mythicism: The Signs Gospel and the Figure of Jesus

James McGrath highlights a post by the blog Synoptic Solutions on the Signs Gospel and the figure of Jesus.  I tend to think the post is a little ridiculous.  Here is the offending snippet: In the Signs Gospel, Jesus is not being portrayed as a god on earth. Instead, he is portrayed as very human–a [...]

Noah and the Flood: The Historical Impossibility

Noah’s Ark/Flood Story: Recently there has been an aggressive push by the media to include stories in their coverage about the flood and the Ark.  Here are a few stories from the past few months: Man ‘re-creates’ Ark Ark Builder Says World Much Different Now than During the Period of the Flood Kentucky Tax-Payers to [...]

‘Monotheism’ in 1 Corinthians 8:6

James asks this question on his blog: What do you think Paul meant in this passage? Was Paul a monotheist in exactly the same sense as his other Jewish contemporaries? Please answer in the comments here, or on your own blog! via Paul’s Expanded Shema in 1 Corinthians 8:6 | Exploring Our Matrix. I would [...]

Jesus the Buddhist?

This idea is not new.  Certain Buddhists and Christians have held to conclusions that the two are interrelated in many ways, so much so there is an academic journal dedicated to Buddhist-Christian Studies.  There is even a wiki page, where it offers some early Christian evidence of an awareness of Buddhism.   And the BBC had [...]

Dating Luke-Acts: Joe Tyson on Bible and Interpretation

Joe Tyson has another great article at Bible and Interpretation discussing the various implications for dating Luke-Acts, and argues persuasively in my opinion for a late date.  Please do read the article, entitled ‘When and Why Was the Acts of the Apostles Written?‘.  Here are some snippets: The range of proposed dates for Acts is [...]

Scripture Citing Scripture: Intertextuality

James McGrath remarks on a mythicist position today on his blog: The other problematic criterion claims that, if something in the New Testament resembles some detail in Scripture, that is reason to believe that the story was fabricated on the basis of that Scripture. But James is perhaps unfamiliar with the fact that, as I have said again [...]

Narrative Function in Luke-Acts: Did Luke Have a Historical Source?

James McGrath had an interesting discussion on Paul and mythicism on his blog a few weeks back (alas, I am far behind on my blogging! Still working on a syllogism post which is nearly complete!); while I am still in the process of working on my next installment of ‘Defining Mythicism’ and the ongoing discussion [...]

Creating Biblical Figures – Thomas L. Thompson

This is an old article from Thomas, but quite interesting and worth the read.  Here is a snippet: Job, in his utopian, king-like role in Job 29, provides me with a useful paradigm for the biblical figure of the messiah (Th.L. Thompson and H.Tronier, Frelsens Biografisering, Museum Tusculanum: Copenhagne, 2004, 115-134) and an internal coherence [...]

Historicized Scripture: A Response to James McGrath on Neil Godfrey

James McGrath has an interesting article analyzing Neil Godfrey’s blog post from earlier today.   But while I enjoyed the read (James seems to be more open about a lot of these issues, even possibly allowing for a state of uncertainty–something I am quite impressed with), I did have some concerns and would like to stress [...]