Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

I have actually explained that I see the midrash content of the loaves and fishes miracle as helping to explain the social function of the myth while not engaging with the cosmological function. The midrash shows how the miracle was constructed in literary and social terms, not why. I should have e...

So how do we end up with Judaism, Samaritanism and Christianity basically walking in lockstep in the early third century confessing their belief in a single all powerful 'ruler of the world.' The success of Imperial pressure brought to bear during the reign of Commodus and Septimius Severus. That's...

Why do mythicists seem to argue that the existing evidence is on the one hand so weak that it provides no evidence FOR a historical Jesus but strangely is 'so strong' that they can have certainty that Jesus never existed? . . . . Carrier, Price, Wells, Thompson, Droge, Noll, Carr, myself -- we've a...

I should mention, Neil Godfrey misquoted me in asserting that I argue Midrash in the loaves and fishes miracle is 'padding'. I never said or implied that. Neil is quoting himself and attributing it to me. Sigh, sigh, sigh . . . . Okay Robert, you did not use the word "padding" when you ex...

I don't think Steph Fisher wrote the whole book but I do suspect certain parts of it are written by her and maybe redacted a bit by Casey. A number of published and respected scholars have privately told me also they either don't believe in the historicity of Jesus or are agnostics. They are best kn...

Might one be allowed to conclude that without #1 points #2 to #5 are so banal as to be pointless. Is not the point of Mark's pericope the impossibility of #1? Without that the baptism of Jesus has no special meaning at all. It is not the introduction of a new movement or career. It is no different f...

Neil, please don't think that I'm seeking to downplay the role of imagination in living a life that is more than simple existence. And yes, people are willing to die for their dreams. But that does not grant any sort of validity to their dreams. It is not dreams of pure imagination that have anythi...

Likewise, an ahistoric/mythicist theory that would proposes that the gospel story is wholly some sort of spiritual/intellectual exercise is inherently flawed. Such a myth would not have the inherent ability to sustain itself. All in the mind, pure imagination, does not produce a meaningful story, a...

Just curious, but how could Josephus son of Matthias (Flavius Josephus) come to bury Jesus, when he wasn't born until around 30 CE? At the time of Jesus' death (say 29-30 CE) Josephus would not have been much more than what Popeye would call an "infink." Even if Jesus died in 36 CE (Kokki...

Robert, your arguments are at a very high conceptual and philosophical level. I understand that approach, but for it to be effective you really need to demonstrate how his philosophical umbrella actually demonstrates the invalidity of the nuts and bolts of his methods -- these in fact could still be...