Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Hello Giuseppe
I think the answer to your question is tucked into verse 32 where MT says, "when they climbed into the boat". I'm thinking that the "they' refers to both Jesus and Peter entering the boat, so in vs. 33 all twelve of the disciples are onboard. Those are just my thoughts.

The Shroud is certainly one of the most fascinating religious objects in the world (well, the Shroud and Thomas Aquinas' finger). One thing that I love about it, is that it is just soooooooo strange.

An interesting idea. I certainly am not knowledgeable enough to weigh in with any serious criticism for or against, but this was sort of my "first impression": 1. Claudius died in 54 and I assume his deification came quickly after that, so is Bolt dating Mark to roughly that period? 2. You...

I would say purely from a statistical point of view that Jesus had to have brothers and sisters. Today the birthrate of the most underdeveloped countries is about 6:1. I would assume that a similar birthrate could be found in the ancient Middle East (more or less). Just a guess on my part, but it ce...

That's a very good point. I think it's always wise to be suspicious when the perfect evidence to prove a point just "happens" to show up at the perfect time. But, on the other hand, was Marcion just being an idiot and denying the obvious? Well, it certainly has happened before. To wit: &q...

[/quote] Thank you for being polite, but to draw such a conclusion from this single line in Justin would be much more than "a bit of a stretch." :) There are rather many reasons to be at least suspicious of the datum that Jesus had blood brothers who were well known in the early church. On...

Hello Guys: It seems like a bit of a stretch to me to draw a conclusion about Jesus' paternal relationships based on one line from Justin Martyr. It looks to me like Justin is simply saying the Apostles are Jesus' spiritual brothers (see MK 3:34-35) without thinking about all the implications of tha...

The whole concept of reconcialtion that you bring up is one I havn’t treated above directly. Jesus says in Mark 3 that all will be forgiven the sons of men except blasphemy against the holy spirit. I suggest this means rejection of the gospel in general, in the sense of denial that the gospel is a ...

Ben C. Smith's post (above) defining "Blasphemy Against the Spirit" and a far better, and more exhaustive effort than I could offer. I would certainly defer to it.

Stefan: I found Part A to be excellent. It's very well articulated and includes an outstanding exposition of the Old Testament relationship to the New via the hermeneutic of the Kingdom. I think you are correct to read chapter 4 in context of the preceding three chapters. Mark is too finely a woven ...