When we think about Jesus as the Messiah / King of the Jews, if we think of the virgin birth and Jesus being distanced there from the impurity of the sexual, I wondered what Grok 2 AI might say about sexuality and purity of such kings in the bible. Here’s the response I got: The … Did Jesus Have a Wife? Artificial Intelligence and the Virgin Birth

It is generally accepted by scholars that the New Testament is in part imitative in nature (see The Jewish Annotated New Testament, for instance).  This reflects the practice of mimesis from the Greeks (as Dennis MacDonald and Robyn Faith Walsh show, the New Testament being written in Greek), and Haggadic Midrash for the Hebrew tradition.  … Merry Midrash: A Late Christmas Present with Dr Robert M Price

So often when we consider the Christmas story we think of the Virgin Birth, but often overlook the bloodline genealogies. And this makes sense because if Jesus is not Joseph’s blood child, why should we care about Joseph’s genealogy in Matthew or Luke. But, there may be more going on than meets the eye. I’ll … Christmas and Genealogies: The Adoption of Jesus by Joseph in Matthew and Luke

PREVIOUSLY: Merry Christmas! Jesus’s Bloodline in Matthew NOW: There’s another interesting feature of Matthew’s genealogy. There are women in it who are associated with sexual immorality in the Old Testament, who Spong labeled the Shady Ladies: The incest of Tamar, the prostitution of Rahab, the seduction of Ruth and the adultery of Bathsheba were the … (2/2) Merry Christmas! Jesus’s Bloodline in Matthew

Want to know a fun fact? In Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus (really of Joseph) we see Joseph adopted Jesus into a family with a Davidic royal bloodline. This fits in with the idea that Jesus was to restore the Davidic throne. God, after all, had promised the Davidic throne would be reestablished. Yet in Jesus’s … Merry Christmas! Jesus’s Bloodline in Matthew

Appendix: Response to Richard Carrier’s Review (2024) In the few years since I wrote this essay there have been developments in what scholars call ‘the quest for the historical Jesus.’ One of the main contentions is that if we do not get more rigorous in uncovering the Jesus of history, the idea that Jesus never existed or … (2/2) Response To Richard Carrier And The Christ Myth Theory

A couple of years ago I published a critique of the Christ Myth Theory, which Richard Carrier responded to. Well, hit the refresh button because I’ve updated the essay with an Appendix that responds to Carrier. Check it out HERE!

Over the last few days, these two debates on the historicity of Jesus have popped up: I just watched Richard Carrier’s friend Godless Engineer interview Jacob Berman on the Christ Myth theory.  I liked it very much and Berman said he thought some of the best evidence for the historical Jesus is 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 where … Recent Online Debates on The Christ Myth Theory

In 2011 I was searching for scholarship engaging Christ Myth Theorist Earl Doherty, who argued Jesus never existed, and I found Prof James McGrath’s blog where he was critically blogging through Doherty’s book.  For example: Chapter 1 of Earl Doherty’s Jesus: Neither God Nor Man This year as Public Theology/Philosophy, I tried blogging through “The Next … Complete Index Blogging The Next Quest For The Historical Jesus Anthology Of Essays

As is clear from the genealogies of Jesus, both of which belong to Joseph, Jesus is adopted into Joseph’s bloodline (since he isn’t Jesus’ biological father), just as the new believer is adopted into the family of God through Jesus who Paul calls the first born of many brethren. Jesus’ death is a literary pair … (24) The Next Quest For The Historical Jesus: Violence and Trauma by Nathan Shedd