The Secular Frontier

I made some changes to the part 1 post so do check it out: (Part 1) Blogging Through Richard Carrier’s new book “The Obsolete Paradigm of a Historical Jesus (2025)”  In this chapter, one thing that caught my eye was Carrier rejecting the Q sou ... Read Article

This chapter is The Inadequacy of Critical Responses So Far. In this chapter Carrier responds to some of the responses to his work.  In general, he concludes: The most typical maneuvers are to (1) misstate an argument and rebut that, rather than any ... Read Article

Chapter 2 is called Updates, Developments, Trendline: What I’ve Published, New Developments, Has Any Background Knowledge Changed? Here are a couple things that stood out to me: 1. But it also includes a more direct comparison with the Helleni ... Read Article

POST UPDATED! The modern incarnation of the Christ Myth theory, the idea that Jesus was originally thought to be a celestial being who was later Euhermerized or put in stories on earth, is generally thought to be inaugurated by Earl Doherty’s “ ... Read Article

Previously, I looked at Plutarch’s Parallel lives and how the dead crucified Jesus on the cross converting the Roman soldier seems to be derived from the dead crucified Cleomenes III converting onlookers in Plutarch.  There is much such parallelism ... Read Article

Last time we looked at the Gospels viewing the destruction of the temple in 70CE as divine punishment for the Jews collaborating with the Romans to wrongfully kill Jesus. This was thought in the light of the two angels sent to Lot / Sodom and Gomorrah to ... Read Article

Helen Bond argues that Mark views Jesus’ death as the reason the temple was destroyed in 70 CE.  Bond notes in Mark, Mark thinks the temple was destroyed in 70CE because of sin and the Jewish leadership killing Jesus, like the first temple fell to the ... Read Article

It has long been suspected by New Testament scholars that there was a now lost Q source which contained sayings by Jesus found in Matthew and Luke that did not come from Mark, and may have been very early. The earliest layer of these sayings seems to be ... Read Article

Ehrman argues central to Jesus’s teaching was the need to repent in preparation for the coming Kingdom of God. Those who returned to God would be graciously forgiven for their transgressions, with no penalty or payment required. After Jesus’ death his ... Read Article

The Bible includes numerous references to eyes being opened, beyond the account of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:7 (where their eyes were opened to their nakedness after eating the forbidden fruit). These instances often symbolize gaining physical sight, spir ... Read Article

Bart Ehrman recently hosted the 2025 NINT conference on the Historical Jesus made up of an elite team of New Testament specialists. The conference was aimed at an audience who are not themselves PhD New Testament specialists. I have provided brief summar ... Read Article

SUMMARY In this lecture Ehrman is inquiring into the literacy of Jesus.  Most people in that time couldn’t read unless they belonged to a wealthier class, and even fewer could write, as that was taught at a more elite level of education, and beyond ... Read Article

Last time in the Analysis section about Ehrman’s first talk we thought about the lens of the Absurd with the example of God making a covenant with Abraham to have a great line of descendants, and then telling him to kill his son Isaac.  Abraham was the ... Read Article

Speaker: Bart Ehrman Topic: A Core Teaching of Jesus. And Why His Followers Abandoned It Overview: Central to Jesus’s teaching was the need to repent in preparation for the coming Kingdom of God. Those who returned to God would be graciously forgi ... Read Article

One of the key foundations of the historical Jesus is the crucifixion, and this has come out in the conference. One thing I have been thinking about is Livesey and the possible lateness of Paul's letters, and so perhaps the early Q source presents an ori ... Read Article

Here are some thoughts that the first group of presenters were a catalyst for in my thinking: In the 2nd temple period generally and more specifically around the time of Jesus, many thought the Jewish elite were corrupt.  Corruption among the Jewi ... Read Article

Speaker: Paula Fredriksen Topic: Turning the Tables on the ‘Purification’ of the Temple Overview: E.P. Sanders in Jesus and Judaism challenged the idea that Jesus was somehow objecting to the way the temple was being run when he upset the tables ... Read Article

Previously I did a brainstorm / activating prior knowledge here: Jesus and the Law: Prep for the Joel Marcus Lecture Overview: It is difficult to pin down the attitude of the historical Jesus to the Mosaic Law, since our main sources, the first three ( ... Read Article

So, if Jesus really didn't do miracles, what were they doing in the New Testament. We have John's testimony. In the crucial passage in the Gospel of John, Jesus says: “Go to the festival yourselves. I am not going to this festival, for my time has ... Read Article

Overview: What might one make of the miracle stories in the canonical gospels? Christians have traditionally used them to establish the truth of Christianity. But many believe that their prominence in the narratives challenges their historicity. Are t ... Read Article

I'm brainstorming and activating prior knowledge in preparation for listening to a conference presentation on Jesus and the law. Jesus is the law incarnate, guided by the spirit of the law rather than just manipulating it like a lawyer ignoring God's int ... Read Article

Is Jesus a proper name or a granted name, like the Roman senate gave Octavian the name Augustus?  For Joshua is his Hebrew name, Yehoshua (or Yeshua in its shorter form), which means “Yahweh is salvation.”  With Jesus, his name, Yeshua (Greek: Iēso ... Read Article

Previously, I posted the video. Now, the conclusion SLIDES: RESEARCH NOTES: History Valley talk with Jacob Berman: Issues With Dating ... Read Article

If anyone is interested, 2 members of The Heidegger Circle (including me) are hosting an open online discussion of Heidegger's Origin of the Work of Art November 3, 2025 at 6 pm EST. Location: https://iu.zoom.us/j/5415673650 ... Read Article

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnfhOL08qho ... Read Article