Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

I tend to think Christianity grew out of Jewish groups that had no access to the temple (like the Yahad) and imagined they had a superior heavenly high priest who gave sacrifices on their behalf, as we read in Hebrews. Historicization occurred later and provided numerous advantages, including a sta...

Answering your questions above: 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. Second to that, I would simply say that I see the broad outline of the gospels as being ...

^The gospels are 2nd and 3rd generation Christians writing their foundation history in the most rosy way possible. 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 ...

I ordered it a week ago from bookdepository.com but it hasn't arrived yet. I live in Australia, so my guess is another week or so. I ordered Richard Bauckham's "Jesus & the Eyewitnesses" along with it - I'm assuming the only similarity between these two authors will be their first name...

^Do we have any idea roughly how many copies of Josephus' work would had been produced by the 4th Century? Are we talking a handful? tens? hundreds? thousands? I think the answer to that question would have a large baring on the significance of the problem Carrier is raising.

Thanks DC for that list!! Makes it much easier! I find it hard to get my head around all these characters with similar names and titles. A list like this helps heaps.

Geza Vermes - Catholic priest Vermes was a priest in his youth, but from my understanding he was practically an agnostic / liberal Jew for the majority of his adult life. He claimed to have "grown out of" Christianity by his mid-30s (c.1950s - 30 years before Feldman's study). I think it's...

... Besides, I think the passage about James is more important anyway. A lot more hangs on that passage than the TF in my opinion. The passage in Antiquities 20 that makes mention of Jesus ben Damneus? a passage that is more about why Ananus was deposed as high priest? http://www.earlychristianwrit...

Unless new Josephus manuscripts are found, I don't think this issue will ever be resolved. I simply don't think it can be with what we have access to at the moment. People will continue to produce 'arguments' for it's partial authenticity and its complete forgery. But it's a lost cause. Besides, I t...

Bart Ehrman has finally got around to posting his views on the GJW. As expected, he's suspicious of its authenticity:

http://ehrmanblog.org/more-on-jesus-wife/