Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

The serious answer to Stephen G's question: The all-Constantine-Christian-creation proposal makes no appeal to independent evidence but seeks to explain why there is no evidence for its interpretation of origins of the existing documents. The all-c.273-272-Torah-creation proposal is about publishing...

I get the impression that you are proposing what is in fact a "perfect crime" that was so cleverly and so comprehensively organized that not a single clue was left to be found that would lead to doubts. Is that a fair description? If various authors were manufactured to appear to have wit...

Imagine Socrates was a fictional person invented by Plato. No historical Socrates. Our later manuscripts include a play, The Clouds, by Aristophanes that pokes fun at Socrates. Another manuscript collection contains very different philosophical discussions from those of Plato, these by one claiming...

The value of the case advanced by Zeddies is that it offers a half-way decent explanation for -- the origins of Jesus as a figure of worship, -- as a heavenly messiah, -- for the absence of historical details about Jesus in Paul's writings, -- the explanation for how Paul found Jesus in the Scriptur...

Alas, I do not - I was merely citing the source to which the claim that Tyre was flourishing within 30 years of Alexander the Great's seige is attributed on Wikpedia. Okay, inter-library loan it is. Apologies for the late self-insertion into this thread but I have only gotten around to reading this...

There is a response in the same journal to Gathercole's article. Unfortunately it's behind a paywall but a library membership should be able to give you access to it at least at a reduced cost. Zeddies, Michael T. “Communal Incarnation: The Corporate, Collective Jesus of Paul’s Letters.” Journal for...

I get the impression that if one can argue from Paul that Jesus was an earthly figure that Jesus was therefore a historical human. How does that follow? Was it not a truism in the ancient world that, if you wanted the best and most reliable witnesses to a man’s words, deeds, life and character, you...

I get the impression that if one can argue from Paul that Jesus was an earthly figure that Jesus was therefore a historical human. How does that follow?

fwiw, I responded to Simon Gathercole's article at the time it first appeared in 2018: Addressing Simon Gathercole’s “Historical and Human Existence of Jesus” (#1) Addressing S. Gathercole’s Case for Jesus’ Humanity: “Born from a Woman” (#2) Addressing S. Gathercole’s Case: “Born from a Woman” (#3) ...

Imagine Socrates was a fictional person invented by Plato. No historical Socrates. Our later manuscripts include a play, The Clouds, by Aristophanes that pokes fun at Socrates. Another manuscript collection contains very different philosophical discussions from those of Plato, these by one claiming...