Biblical Exegesis

A collection of 283 posts

Biblical Exegesis

Paul Justifies Lying

In writing my forthcoming book on the Resurrection of Jesus, it has been important to look at Jesus' earliest source, Paul. Paul is famous for not actually telling us much at all about Jesus at all. There are some genuinely quite problematic Pauline verses that should raise some eyebrows

Biblical Exegesis

Hitchens's Razor vs Bayes's Theorem

John W. Loftus has just endorsed my forthcoming book on the Resurrection in the following manner: Hitchens’s Razor, not Bayes’s Theorem, is the proper tool to use against the “absolute baselessness” of the resurrection belief (per David F. Strauss, as quoted in this book). There’s no objective

biblical contradictions

Gospel of Mark's Poor Jewish Knowledge

Here is a pretty extensive list of issues in the Gospel of Mark that show the authors lack of knowledge about Jewish customs in Jesus' time. This casts some doubt on the hisstorical reliability of the Gospel and how he treated his sources. The author of the Gospel of

Biblical Exegesis

Genesis & Cosmology: A Debate

Skydivephil has created, with his wife through the eponymous YouTube channel, some staggering good videos on cosmology, having interviewed pretty much most of the leading cosmologists in the world (from Guth to Vilenkin, Hawking to Penrose). He has also contributed to a chapter in a book I was also commissioned

biblical contradictions

Contradictions in the Resurrection of Jesus Accounts

I have recently been in contact with David Austin, in Australia, who has a keen interest in the Resurrection of Jesus and the Gospel accounts thereof. This is his comprehensive offering: We have no "Originals" of any of the NT documents, only copies of copies with many differences.

Biblical Exegesis

What Does Paul Say about the Afterlife?

This is another guest post from Dana Horton, following on from his piece What Does Jesus Say about the Afterlife? What does Paul say about the afterlife? (5 minute read) In an earlier post, we examined what Jesus said, and did not say, about the afterlife. Let’s do a

Biblical Exegesis

The Trial of Jesus

Here is a little excerpt from my forthcoming Resurrection book that I am working on, this time concerning the trial of Jesus (and an added quote for those who have already proofed it through): The Synoptics claim that a “great multitude” of people were present for the capture of Jesus:

Biblical Exegesis

Some Early Endorsements

As many of you already know, I am writing a sister book to my Nativity one (The Nativity: A Critical Examination [UK]), called (unsurprisingly) The Resurrection: A Critical Examination. David Fitzgerald is kindly writing the foreword again, as he did to my Nativity book. It's going through a

Bart Ehrman

Luke 1 & 2 Infancy Narratives as a Later Interpolation

Luke 3:1 opens with an elaborate chronological statement: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was … the word of the Lord came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness”. This surely reads as if it was originally written as the opening section

Biblical Exegesis

Possibiliter Ergo Probabiliter and the McGrew Nativity Debate

Possibiliter ergo probabiliter is a fallacy that Richard Carrier coined to express the ubiquitous technique that theists use to try to explain away issues that pop up in the Bible and this is no more evident in Christian approaches to defending problems within the infancy narratives of Luke and Matthew.

Biblical Exegesis

My Unbelievable Nativity Radio Debate Is up

My Nativity radio debate on Premier Christian Radio is now up. Unfortunately, on the YouTube channel, Matthew Firth, the vicar with whom I was having a spat and who deleted my comments and threads and blocked me and a number of other people, took to outright lying for Jesus about

Biblical Exegesis

Jesus the "Nazarene": More Prophecy Debate

I recently wrote an article about the Matthean prophecy, a prophecy that looks like this (Matt 2): Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, 23 and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfil what was spoken

Biblical Exegesis

Debunking the Nativity: The Philosophical Problems with the Magi Dream-Sequence

Here is one that is slightly different to your usual historical issues with the Nativity accounts. This has a moral dimension. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIYwPyNawaE Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and click that notification bell or whatever it is that

Biblical Exegesis

Nativity, Census, Quirinius: Refuting Very Poor Christian Apologetics Again. Even More.

As I explained yesterday (perhaps read it for context), I was linked to a vicar apologist challenge for skeptics to lay out a Nativity contradiction. It went like this: I was linked into some challenge from a vicar apologist who was seeking skeptic challengers to find nativity contradictions that he

Biblical Exegesis

Debating Quirinius with a Christian

I had the dubious pleasure of debating a number of different aspects of the Nativity with a Christian apologist (a Cambridge astrophysics graduate and vicar) whom I had been linked to on Facebook after he had posted this: Time for my annual Christmas challenge. Skeptics say that there are contradictions

Biblical Exegesis

My Nativity Debate with Lydia McGrew: Post-Match Analysis

I had a debate over whether the Nativity in Luke and Mark was fact or fairytale on Friday night for the Unbelievable? show on Premier Christian radio. I was warned that McGrew might try the Gish-gallup approach so I should get it in myself. I ended up being indeed fairly

Biblical Exegesis

I Will Be Debating Lydia McGrew on the Nativity

Unbelievable, the show hosted by Justin Brierley on Premier Chrisitan Radio, has found someone to debate me on the Nativity, and she's something of a big hitter in the philosophical world. Lydia McGrew is a conservative Christian analytic philosopher forming a pretty formidable team with her husband Timothy

Biblical Exegesis

Totally Disingenuous: William Lane Craig Woefully Mischaracterises Me in His Podcast

I have just been made aware of a podcast in which William Lane Craig takes a couple of my short articles to task. The ones in question are: * The Resurrection, Fideism and Circularity * Supernaturalism (and Motivated Reasoning) He absolutely hammers me. Well, he thinks he does. Because what really happens

Biblical Exegesis

To Bethlehem or Not to Bethlehem (II)

[A second post on Bethlehem excerpted from my book The Nativity: A Critical Examination (UK), which has just received a reprint to clear up a few bits and pieces, long overdue. Please grab a copy! It is worth reading the first post for this to make much sense.] And this

Biblical Exegesis

To Bethlehem or Not to Bethlehem (I)

[Excerpted from my book The Nativity: A Critical Examination (UK), which has just received a reprint to clear up a few bits and pieces, long overdue. Please grab a copy!] Bethlehem is a very important place for the average Christian. It is the birthplace of Jesus. But it is more

Biblical Exegesis

How the psychology of grief might have affected the origins of the Resurrection story

Here is an excerpt from a brilliant book by anthropologist of religion, Homuyan Sidky - Religion, Supernaturalism and the Paranormal: An Anthropological Critique - concerning the psychology of grief and how it leads to hallucinations. The book is an academic title that commands quite a price. The Psychology of Grief

Biblical Exegesis

The Door to the Empty Tomb

Here is a short little section regarding the tomb itself, that Jesus supposedly rose from death from, that I am working on for my book on the Resurrection: Before I go on, I would like to quickly discuss the tomb itself. Or, more pertinently, the stone that supposedly enclosed it.

Biblical Exegesis

The Resurrection Belief Supervening on the Holy Trinity Belief

As most of you already know, I am writing a book on the Resurrection of Jesus, looking critically at the historical and theological claims involved. I wrote this aside section to highlight that without a coherent or working understanding of the Holy Trinity, the belief in a (Trinitarian) resurrection is

Biblical Exegesis

Moses’ Burning Bush

This is another Dana Horton guest post: huge thanks to him for providing these. Moses’ Burning Bush (4 minute read) Let’s look at the Old Testament story about Moses and the burning bush. One of the most confusing parts of that story comes when God speaks directly to Moses

Biblical Exegesis

The Resurrection: What We Do and Don't Have

John Loftus's The Case Against Miracles (UK) is looking like it should be a cracker of a book as an anthology of chapters from different authors presenting a very strong case against the notion of miracles. I am loving his own chapter on the Resurrection ("The Resurrection