Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Secret Alias has consistently refused or proved incapable of engaging with the substance of any argument for the Hellenistic thesis, has simply ignored the many detailed attempts to respond patiently and painstakingly to his questions by both Gmirkin and myself and repeated the same rhetorical quest...

Biblical studies attracts all kinds of hypotheses from both professional scholars and amateur hobbyists and everyone in between. In other history disciplines I don't think we have such an extreme variety of options on the table. The reason, in my view, is that there are no independent controls used ...

Could you clarify which Hellenistic Era works you mean ? I thought we were discussing links between the Jewish scriptures and Plato. But Plato is normally regarded as Classical period rather than Hellenistic. Andrew Criddle Well, per Gmirkin, Manetho and Berossus for starters, but he identifies a n...

Would I be right in understanding the main fault Banner finds with Gmirkin's work is that he expresses himself too confidently and that he should be more cautious -- proposing parallels for further study. I can buy that.

φάντασμα was the word Josephus used to describe the divine Man who wrestled with Jacob. φάντασμα was a nuanced terminology. The Church Fathers deliberately ridiculed it. We are left only with the parody of the original Jewish understanding. This is what the church fathers ridicule led to: Screen Sh...

While I can't contribute much to this discussion beyond "I suppose it's not impossible, but it just doesn't feel right," I gather that the argument is that there are at least references to Plato's works by others before the oldest manuscripts we currently have, but no one appears to menti...

The scene from Schindler's List shows a German official pretending to evaluate the work performance of a Jewish work. He has a stopwatch. He even remarks about the quality of his work. Nevertheless the evaluation is unfair. Presumably because the worker is Jewish. The Jewish worker is also presumab...

Neil has explained me that the mere occurrence of Chrestus is a coincidence (a mere name for slaves); Neil has explained me that the mere occurrence of Jewish rioters expelled by Claudius is a coincidence (a mere racial riot). But how do you explain the presence, in the same phrase, of Chrestus and...

In determining the beliefs of Ignatius’ opponents we may examine next the solution which posits that they were purely docetic, believing that Jesus “had no contact, however fleeting, with matter.” Such a definition of Docetism is widely, if unreflectively, employed,24 though it does not really fit ...

. . . . I'm not calling the writers of the Jewish scriptures charlatan's per-se, but why certain things are done may be very different if one is engaged in a faithful act vs being engaged in a deceptive act. So, certain techniques may be used to intentionally mislead people. Certain techniques are ...