PREVIOUSLY In This Series Ehrman on Jesus’ Revolutionary Ethics Bart Ehrman and did Jesus Found Modern Morality? New Blog Series: A New Christian Theory of Ethics and Personhood with Ehrman and Goicoechea Bart Ehrman on Whether Jesus Invented Charity Bart Ehrman and the Surprising Truth Behind Love Thy Neighbor Ehrman sums up the thesis he … (2) New Blog Series: A New Christian Theory of Ethics and Personhood with Ehrman and Goicoechea

Last time I put forth my interpretation of the Philippian Christ Hymn. In contrast, here is Robert Price’s reading: Our Catholic pseudepigraphist or redactor has incorporated in 2:6-11 what virtually all scholars recognize as a hymn fragment. It is archaic compared to the surrounding Catholic text, whose author no longer grasps the meaning of it. … (4b) Some thoughts on my History Valley Podcast with Jacob Berman Presentation: Robert Price and The Philippian Christ Hymn Part 2

The Philippian Christ hymn appears to be a piece of poetry (experts deny it is music, although we call it a hymn) outlining Jesus’ transition from a pre-existent heavenly creature to a man who suffers and dies for humanity.  In other words, it is taken as our earliest attestation of the incarnation, although this isn’t … (4) Some thoughts on my History Valley Podcast with Jacob Berman Presentation: The Philippian Christ Hymn

In the Greek and Roman world, Ehrman argues there isn’t a universal neighbor ethics like a Greek should love every other Greek. This is on the other hand present in the Old Testament with every Israelite should love every other Israelite, stranger or not. Jesus radicalizes this teaching, such as with the parable of the … Bart Ehrman and the Surprising Truth Behind Love Thy Neighbor

Mark presents a satirical view of Jesus and his world.  With Mark’s Gospel, Mark does numerous things lampooning Jesus and his world, like having Jesus predict the apocalypse and his return during the listeners’ generation, though by Mark’s time that never happened.  He had the absurdity of Jesus repeatedly explaining his resurrection/crucifixion to his disciples, … (3) Some thoughts on my History Valley Podcast with Jacob Berman Presentation: Who Killed Jesus?

Regarding objects, it is clear today philosophers tend to privilege the physical object, the object of inquiry in physics, and so interpret the anthropological object, sociological object, mathematical object, psychological object, geographical object, historical object, indeed the object of inquiry in general in this light.  By “meta-physics” we thus usually mean the most fundamental physics: quarks, general relativity, … Rethinking Metaphysics

One of my first slides in the presentation I wrote: Again, we see the idea of blame for Jesus’ death being transferred to the Jewish elite. Just as we saw the difference between the John the Baptist of Josephus vs the John the Baptist of the gospels, we see the caricature of Pilate in the … (2) Some thoughts on my History Valley Podcast with Jacob Berman Presentation: Pilate

It has long been known that the gospels have to some extent appropriated the famous figure John the Baptist and repurposed him for Christians purposes to note that while John is the greatest among men, the newly developed Christian community was greater: In Matthew 11:11, Jesus declares that among those born of women, no one … (1) Some thoughts on my History Valley Podcast with Jacob Berman Presentation: Jesus and John the Baptist

Bart’s new book that I’ll be blogging about on Jesus’ revolutionary ethics will be out soon, and here is a taste about Jesus and charity.