Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

It all comes down to one question- could the Jewish believers in antiquity have accepted the idea that 'God' (i.e. the godhead) was unaware of or wasn't involved in the destruction of the temple. Stephan, I have a lot more reading to do on this subject, but weren't Jews (at least, those with a phil...

Luke, John and Acts also work hard to make it appear that someone named Annas or Ananias was high priest during Jesus' trial and during Paul's trial, even though neither is likely true.

There's a recent interview with BeDuhn about Marcion and his book here:
http://religionforlife.podomatic.com/en ... 6_20-08_00

Now you're being uncharitable, Toejam. I'm not alleging any conspiracy. I am , on the other hand, trying to come up with hypotheses that are based on sources — especially those written long before the Gospels. They describe a heavenly Christ who was crucified in secret (Paul, Ignatius), who acts as ...

Thanks for the reply, Toejam. Although I'm not a huge fan of Reza Aslan's latest book, I agree with him that the two most probable things about the historical Jesus are his crucifixion and his Jewish identity. I think you'll agree, though, this description does not establish even a minimal historica...

I don't think it's as easy as prematurely dismissing them as pure myth. Are they full of propaganda and developing legend? Of course! But does that mean we write them off completely? I see the gospels as something similar to the "biography" of L.Ron Hubbard on the official scientology web...

Why don't you wait until you can read his full argument instead of judging it by a single sentence? :) I suspect his argument is something like "the characteristics of the Gospels are such that a mythical figure is just as likely implied as a historical one", and thus they don't directly f...

Just wondering. My copy is still in the mail somewhere.

I didn't know this existed. I'm sure BeDuhn brings something new to the table, or Westar wouldn't have published it.

Edit: Just bought it.

Interesting idea, Robert. I'd like to see a study of other Hellenistic texts in which "see" is used in such a manner. The "more than five hundred brothers at once" seems like a poor fit. Unlike "the twelve", it doesn't sound like a set group, but rather an unexpected ev...