Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Hi Bernard, We can well imagine that Pliny the Younger is the exact type of educated Roman for whom he was writing Antiquities . His knowledge of Christianity appears to be only that it is a crime: It is my practice, my lord, to refer to you all matters concerning which I am in doubt. For who can be...

Hi All, Thanks for all the replies. I'll respond to some of them when I get a chance. I do want to point out that I don't think the fact that somebody is a theologian or cleric makes their ideas any less important. What does count is the cogency of the arguments themselves and not the backgrounds of...

Hi Bernard, There was no need for Josephus to tell his audience who Pallas was. Pallas was quite famous. Josephus in Antiquities (20.8.9) says: 9. Now when Porcius Festus was sent as successor to Felix by Nero, the principal of the Jewish inhabitants of Cesarea went up to Rome to accuse Felix; and h...

Hi DCHindley, I would call this a home-run. It nicely presents the logic that gets us from text A to text B, C, and D in a very plausible and understandable fashion. Warmly, Jay Raskin Winston Churchill issued the order for D-Day preparations: {Snip} Everything needed to work out the entire problem ...

Hi All, I've seen this list on a number of Christian websites. It apparently comes from a list Louis Feldman published 30 years ago in 1984. It is a list of 35 scholars who held positions that the TF was mostly genuine or had been interpolated but had a core reference to Jesus: (4 scholars regard as...

Hi Metacrock. Whealey counted 13 scholars who regarded the TF as entirely false. I think I found about 40 authors in the Twentieth century when I searched who had claimed Jesus was a myth. I do not believe any of them believed the Testimonium was real. I wonder what her definition of scholar is here...

Hi DCHindley, Good stuff. I think words like Apostaurow and Staurow probably had a variety of connotations and not the singular connotation of a "T-shaped" cross that we have today. A similar term today is perhaps the word "flapper". Today we associate flapper with someone doing ...

Hi Metacrock https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ap9sNjz8L0 I'm so sorry big meanie evil sky man made you feel bad. how dare he think he's God when everyone knows you are. I'm sorry the stupid evil Christian scholars think they know something this stuff becuase they study most of their lives and the st...

Hi jamescarvin, Good catch. So the dating of clear gospel references to 180 CE in book 3 of Irenaeus' Against Heresies is not so clear. Regarding "(oh yes, and that as a fragment through Eusebius)" That's my boy! Everything gets filtered through him. Warmly, Jay Raskin I have been attempti...

Hi Ficino, One can understand why Feldman, being Jewish, does not want to go out on a limb and oppose certain Christian scholars here. Our Catholic Nun-scholar Whealey proposes that it was the Jews who started the idea that Josephus wrote nothing about Jesus. She might respond to Feldman saying that...