Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

The first people who believed in a resurrected Jesus were Jews. I think that Paul’s description of Jesus as the “first fruits” of the general resurrection is likely to be early. In the gospels there is the phrase Son of Man. I argue that once Jesus is seen as being in heaven he is identified firstl...

The Babylonians conquered Judah in 586 BCE and the Persians took over control of Palestine after 539 BCE. Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332 BCE and in 164 BCE Judas Maccabeus conquered Jerusalem and in 63 BCE the Romans ended the Maccabee kingdom. Persian influence would have had 200 years...

Thank you for making it clear that you think Mark is writing a "mystery cult story". Well, I think it's more than that. The mystery cult theme is just one aspect of the story. The main source is Jewish scriptures. I thought that the idea of resurrection in Judaism arose because of the inf...

Oh men! I should criticize you harshly for squeezing this story into schemes that have little to do with it and thereby overlooking the essential point. Until this moment, GMark was a story in which the characters following Jesus were men. The role of the unnamed women was limited to the home and a...

the description mystery cult context of Christianity might apply to the type found in the epistles its not clear if its the earliest type then if the role of the women is still there its as messengers of it continuing after loss of the leader, viz they were the true believers. it doesn't matter if ...

The quotation from Adela Yarbro Collins argues that the pouring of aromatic oil on Jesus, and the women going to the tomb on the Sunday to anoint the body are not historical. What is interesting is that either could be historical but it is unlikely both can be, not that I am arguing that either is ...

Anybody who's familiar with the mystery cult context of Christianity can see that the "mourning women" who anoint him throughout the Gospels and witness his death, burial, and resurrection are in the role of the mourning women/goddesses of the mystery cult stories and rituals. It's always ...

You quoted from Nicola Denzey Lewis quoting Ulansey The theme of the ‘setting right’ of the cosmos through the power of a celestial Redeemer has parallels in other religious movements of the second century ce, and thus appears to have been a more-or-less standard way of conceptualizing divine power...

There is nothing explicit to indicate that Lucius has died and been raised in emulation of Osiris. One could argue that the explicit solar imagery, (Lucius clearly is in some sense identified with the sun), implies that Lucius is identified with Osiris, but I am not convinced. Right, the text doesn...

The problem with this is that it ought IMO to be a comparison between Pauline baptism and what we solidly know about the Late Hellenistic mysteries of Isis Dionysus etc. However it seems to cover a lot of material some of which (e.g. Ulansey on Mithras) is extremely speculative and some of which (e...