(2/2) Current Events: The Richard Carrier Controversy
So, last time I pointed out Carrier’s spicy blog post that religious studies scholars are simply not fact-checking evidence for the existence of Jesus, because if they did more people would agree with Carrier’s mythicism. Again, here is Carrier’s post:
(Speaker 6) New Insights Into The New Testament: The Gospels In Review (CONFERENCE)
Robyn Faith Walsh spoke next, and raised the issue that the gospel writers were not literate spokesmen for their faith communities, but highly educated Greek speaking Christians working within a network of writers, as was the practice in the ancient world. Given this, if there are sophisticated Greek literary allusions in the gospels, how does … (Speaker 6) New Insights Into The New Testament: The Gospels In Review (CONFERENCE)
New GOP Speaker Mike Johnson
CNN KFILE: GOP House speaker Mike Johnson once wrote in support of the criminalization of gay sex, calling it a “dangerous lifestyle” Get to know the new GOP speaker Mike Johnson, because being a superstitious fundamentalist Christian is still viewed as conducive to wise leadership:
(Speaker 5) New Insights Into The New Testament: The Gospels In Review (CONFERENCE)
Jodi Magness talked about the archaeology evidence from Jesus’ day. In some ways, the archaeological record contradicts the biblical record. The archaeological evidence contradicts the biblical record of the walls of Jericho falling down, for instance. If temples always had a commercial areas, why would Jesus have gotten so mad? Magness says perhaps Jesus was … (Speaker 5) New Insights Into The New Testament: The Gospels In Review (CONFERENCE)
(Speaker 4) New Insights Into The New Testament: The Gospels In Review (CONFERENCE)
Mark Goodacre was the next presenter and he raises the issue of the empty tomb. Interestingly, the idea of an empty tomb doesn’t fit with what we know of burial practices at that time. All the tombs that have been unearthed from that area and period were communal tombs, and so for instance our earliest … (Speaker 4) New Insights Into The New Testament: The Gospels In Review (CONFERENCE)
(Speaker 3) New Insights Into The New Testament: The Gospels In Review (CONFERENCE)
Our third speaker is Hugo Mendez, who is an expert on the Gospel of John and argues the gospel and the three letters of John are a lineage of literary forgeries. For instance, the gospel of John pretends to be written by Jesus’ beloved disciple, even though this is false. John is full of cryptic … (Speaker 3) New Insights Into The New Testament: The Gospels In Review (CONFERENCE)
(Speaker 2) New Insights Into The New Testament: The Gospels In Review (CONFERENCE)
The second speaker Candida Moss looks at Jesus’s parentage and that Jesus was seen as the stepson of Joseph in some of the gospels and the Son of God. In our oldest gospel, Mark, Jesus does not have a biological relationship with God, but is adopted by God in the tradition of Julius Caesar adopting … (Speaker 2) New Insights Into The New Testament: The Gospels In Review (CONFERENCE)
Current Events: The Richard Carrier Controversy
In a recent post, Dr. Richard Carrier has claimed that scholars who affirm the historical Jesus have “no genuine interest in actually checking if Jesus’s historicity is something we should be confident in.” See: https://www.youtube.com/@potentialtheism
America doesn’t need more God. It needs more atheists. (Article: Kate Cohen for The Washington Post)
New Opinion Piece in The Washington Post From the article: See the article here
(Speaker 1) New Insights Into The New Testament: The Gospels In Review (CONFERENCE)
As I mentioned previously, I attended the first annual NINT conference this year. On Day 1: The first speaker was Dr. Bart Ehrman and his introductory speech explained the various rubrics for understanding the text: The word “criticism” above doesn’t mean “criticize,” but is closer in meaning to assess and evaluate, and in this way … (Speaker 1) New Insights Into The New Testament: The Gospels In Review (CONFERENCE)