Jesus

A collection of 165 posts

conservatism

Christians: Jesus is too woke

I recently described why I think "woke" has become a vacuous word that means little more than "libtard" in modern parlance. It seems apropos, then, that Christianity Today also recently released a piece that saw the editor-in-chief claim (in a previous NPR interview) that evangelical Christianity

Biblical Exegesis

Jesus as the new Moses

Jesus is many things to many people. To the early Christians, authors of the Gospels, he was certainly a construction of sorts. For example, for Matthew, Jesus was written in a way that emulated Moses in order that he appealed to Matthew's Jewish audience. The use of this

Circular reasoning

If Jesus was a man, why does he never do anything wrong?

Christians like circles. Especially arguing in them. I have just started reading the late biblical scholar Hector Avalos' recent book Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Ethics of Biblical Scholarship. In the introduction, he points out a startlingly obvious and yet incredibly important observation. "My project actually began with a

Bert Bigelow

What would Jesus literally do? That is the question.

This is an often-asked question by Christian believers. Usually, the answer they provide to their own question is a preachy sermon, extolling the wonderfulness of Jesus and the religion that is named after him. Or, it’s used to justify some action that an individual intends to take anyway. I

Biblical Exegesis

Part 2 of Us Deconstructing the Resurrection

So here is the second part to the ongoing series with Derek Lambert of MythVision that is unpicking the Resurrection, following my recent book on the subject - The Resurrection: A Critical Examination [UK]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlTAU_E88i4 I hope you enjoy this - I'

Biblical Exegesis

The Author of the Gospel of John

I recently wrote a piece on whether or not the Gospel writers were eyewitnesses of Jesus and his ministry. The short answer is that they were not. Out of that came the ubiquitous question, in these contexts, of who the author was for the Gospel of John, and to whom

Jesus

Check out the First in the MythVision Interview Series

The first in a series of interviews with Derek Lambert of MythVision, the popular YouTube channel, took place last night, and I really enjoyed it. I hope you guys do, too. We went through the book, my latest one on the Resurrection, for two hours and laid the foundation for

Crime & Punishment

Kenyan Lawyer Sues Israel, Italy for Killing Jesus Christ, Once Again

This is a deliciously ridiculous story. Of course, it's true. People are silly. From the UG Standard: A Kenyan lawyer Dolo Ididis is attempting to acquit Jesus of the crimes he was found guilty of committing some 2,000 years ago and overturn the death penalty handed down

Biblical Exegesis

My Resurrection Talk and How the Narrative Was Constructed

As you know, I gave a talk on Saturday on the Resurrection and was worried about my "performance" since only last week, on holiday. I lost the use of my legs for a couple of days. It was scary multiple sclerosis stuffed. I put it down to a

David Austin

The Miracles of Jesus

In the closing stages of writing my latest book, The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK] (please grab yourself a copy!), I had a few test readers. One was David Austin, down in Australia, who has provided a few guest articles for your delectation. As you can

Biblical Exegesis

Who Is Jesus and What Is Christianity Without the History and the Torah?

This is the second in a triology of pieces, which started with "Without the History, What are the Torah and Christian Bible?" where I detailed the dismissal of the more problematic portions of the Bible in favour of a more abstract and modern approach. I've been

Biblical Exegesis

Pilate and Jesus

In the closing stages of writing my latest book, The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK] (please grab yourself a copy!), I had a few test readers. One was David Austin, down in Australia, who has provided a few guest articles for your delectation. Here is another

Biblical Exegesis

Jesus as the New Moses and Theology Historicised

Oddly, you might think, I will start this piece off with something commenter Cath Olic said in reply (that was in no reply at all) to a post about an interview dissecting the origins of religion in Israel and the genesis of Judaism: Today I heard part of an interview

Biblical Exegesis

Is the Betrayal of Jesus by Judas Historical?

In the closing stages of writing my latest book, The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK] (please grab yourself a copy!), I had a few test readers. One was David Austin, down in Australia, who has provided a few guest articles for your delectation. Here is another

Biblical Exegesis

Is the Eucharist historical?

In the closing stages of writing my latest book, The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK] (please grab yourself a copy!), I had a few test readers. One was David Austin, down in Australia, who has provided a few guest articles for your delectation. Here is another

Biblical Exegesis

Steve Mason, Josephus, Jesus and the Testimonium Flavianum

Dr Steve Mason knows him some Josephus, that's for sure. Check this interview out with my friend Tim Mills. Mason goes into some pretty good detail to show that the famous Testimonium Flavianum is most certainly interpolated to some degree, though there appears to have been something already

Biblical Exegesis

Exodus Sidebar: Jesus As the New Moses, Myth upon Myth

In writing the first couple of chapters for my new book project on the Exodus, I was doing some reading of Raymond Brown again, the masterful Catholic exegete who wrote the superb The Birth of the Messiah. I was reminded of the over the belief theological manipulation that we see

Biblical Exegesis

Is the “Empty Tomb” Narrative Historical?

In the closing stages of writing my latest book, The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK] (please grab yourself a copy!), I had a few test readers. One was David Austin, down in Australia, who has provided a few guest articles for your delectation. Here is another

Biblical Exegesis

Anointing of Jesus: Fact or Fiction?

In the closing stages of writing my latest book, The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK], I had a few test readers. One was David Austin, down in Australia, who has provided a few guest articles for your delectation. Here is another one - thanks muchly to

Biblical Exegesis

What Is the Evidence for Jesus?

I am presently grappling with Jesus mythicism. I am, at present, a historicist in terms of whether Jesus existed or not. My evaluation is somewhat intuitive, believing to the confidence of about two-thirds that a real Jesus existed under all the mythological overlay as opposed to one-third confidence in a

Biblical Exegesis

Quote of the Day: Jesus, the Gospels, Paul and His Letters, and so on...

Here is a comment to get your teeth into from the other day. The article was about the minimal facts thesis concerning the Resurrection accounts of Jesus. They come from commenter BensNewLogin: The following may not be as linear as I would like. Please bear with me. There was a

atonement

Carrier's Mythicism Is a Win-Win

Jesus scholarship is often... “a disguise to do theology and call it history, do autobiography and call it biography, do Christian apologetics and call it academic scholarship.” John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography I've read a lot of Richard Carrier's work, but very little on

Biblical Exegesis

Goodacre on Markan Priority and the Gospel Datings

I listened to some Mark Goodacre some years ago and have referred to him in my own texts, and it was great to watch him here. I loved this talk. I got a lot out of this especially the talk of the destruction of the Temple and the so-called prophecies,

Biblical Exegesis

The “Real” “Minimal Facts” about Jesus

In the closing stages of writing my latest book, The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK], I had a few test readers. One was David Austin, down in Australia, who has provided a few guest articles for your delectation. Here is another one - thanks muchly to

biblical contradictions

Irreconcilable Resurrection Differences

In the closing stages of writing my latest book, The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK], I had a few test readers. One was David Austin, down in Australia, who has provided a few guest articles for your delectation. Here is one - thanks muchly to him: