Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Bultmann is the most famous example of the "bare historicity of Jesus." Thomas Thompson may be the contemporary example of "minimalist history." Their methods are largely the same. The major difference noted is that the former includes the historicity of Jesus and that the latter...

I think what he's saying is that non-historicist writers think about the documents but not about the communities behind them. If they thought about the communities behind them, they might realize why they are wrong about the historicity of Jesus. (Yes, not sure why, but that seems to be his point.) ...

It's posturing. First you'll need a Ph.D. to have an opinion, then you will need peer-reviewed publications, then you will need tenure, then you will need a headcount of like-minded peers, then you will need a session at the SBL for the subject, and then they'll slap you on the back and say you were...

Blogged this, with some changes of wording:
http://peterkirby.com/mission-impossible.html

We can easily distinguish between nine different and irreconcilable approaches to the study of Christian origins, characterized by the amount of intrinsic weight given to the two main sources of ideas that could guide and limit the multiplication of hypotheses: (1) Statements made by the Christian s...

Perhaps we'll have to agree to disagree then. I don't see that there are any particular assumptions necessarily inherent to the mere use of the word "pagan" by modern historians. If I did, then I might agree with you.

Victor Paul Furnish has some brief words to say against a crop of writers questioning the historicity of Jesus, including: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/reviews/is-this-not-the-carpenter/ "Moreover, most of the contributors take little account of the role of the Christian communities withi...

There aren't that many highly visible opportunities - especially for someone who might otherwise be "socially undesirable" (old, fat, disabled, etc.) - to have a regular and supportive social gathering weekly, outside of the institutions that have aped the Jewish, Christian, and other reli...

How often does Josephus refer to anyone as "the brother of"? Plenty. https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aearlyjewishwritings.com+josephus+%22brother+of%22&oq=site%3Aearlyjewishwritings.com+josephus+%22brother+of%22&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.6794j0j4&sourceid=chrome&espv=2...

Right away I like how this guy thinks. I can't believe historians actually use the dumb Christian slander "pagan" as if it were appropriate or even meaningful. Hellenic is not a direct equivalent to "pagan." I don't think historians, in general, like the etymology of "pagan...