Posts tagged as:

historical Jesus

Treating John with suspicion – even in translation

December 7, 2009

The other day I found myself disagreeing with Wayne Leman of the Better Bibles Blog about whether John’s use of “confess” – ὁμολογέω (homologeō) – was best translated by clear unambiguous modern English (e.g. “declare”) or not. I’ve been thinking about that and the larger related matter of John the Evangelist’s treatment of John the [...]

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And Jesus said to his disciples: “When I was in Glastonbury …”

November 26, 2009

I was alerted to this story by a radio journalist’s enquiry about my views on Jesus’ hidden years. I know nothing more about the mentioned film than is reported in the story, so I’m going to limit my comments about it, until (and unless) I get a chance to see it – if I ever [...]

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Insults with style: Robert Price on Dominic Crossan

September 30, 2009

Dan Reid runs a trailer for a new IVP book on the historical Jesus, with contributions from Robert Price, John Dominic Crossan, Luke Timothy Johnson, James Dunn and Darrell Bock. That’s an impressively diverse line-up and very unlike the IVP of old.
I confess that I think Price is the only one in the line-up who [...]

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The wrong question: James McGrath on Jesus as God

September 24, 2009

James McGrath has one of those posts up today that invites either total incomprehension or a major book by way of responses: Did Jesus claim to be God? Judging by the initial responses he’s getting major incomprehension from those who believe John’s gospel settles the matter.
I can’t help feeling that the question is anachronistic in [...]

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Why DeConick is wrong about history and scholarship

September 17, 2009

April DeConick writes another of those posts on the resurrection which conclude with their own initial presuppositions. So, for example, she writes:
There is a big difference between confessional scholarship and its working assumptions and historical-critical scholarship and its working assumptions, and we must never confuse the two. Confessional scholarship is willing to compromise and apologize [...]

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One book to rule them all – John Anderson’s non meme

September 17, 2009

Earlier this week John Anderson asked the very difficult question:

What ONE book has most shaped your perspective on the Bible and why?

Indeed, it was so difficult I was avoiding answering it, because every time I thought of one book, I was all Vicky Pollard about it (For all you non Little Britain watchers – “Yeah [...]

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A recipe for NT-ignorant journalism

September 8, 2009

Take one famous atheist author (Philip Pullman).
Add one ignorant journalist who knows nothing of early Christian history.
Throw in a PR man’s wet dream of publishing an anti-Christian book at Easter.
Mix.

I give you a story presenting an old, endlessly recycled and hackneyed idea as a masterpiece of original thinking.

The book will provide a new account of [...]

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“You Jews” – I’m not too sure about that

September 7, 2009

I read Peter Enns’ post today on New Atheism and OT Morality with a certain sense of bafflement. I fully agree with the main thrust of his opening point.
One of these issues is the very real challenge to Christians of OT morality. In defending the faith, there has been a tendency to laud the moral [...]

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Jesus: the Indian gap years

August 4, 2009

Periodically I forget how silly people can get about Jesus. Today whiling away some happy hours in Blackwells, I spotted yet another just published book of tripe. When Jesus Lived in India: The Quest for the Aquarian Gospel, the Mystery of the Missing Years.
According to the blurb:

The problem of the ‘missing years’ is one of [...]

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Oh Claude, you’ve been spammed (explaining Jesus away)

June 26, 2009

I have had a visit from the same spammer who left a self-promotion on Claude Mariottini’s site. An author from what I think is a weird Jewish “heretical” sect is trying to get his even weirder book on Christianity promoted. According to the Amazon blurb:

The Real Messiah explodes the myth that Jesus was the long-prophesied [...]

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