A Ten-Year Project – Part 2
Before deciding what topics and issues to cover in my multi-volume critique of Christianity, I want to look over some lists of common topics in (a) Christian Apologetics, (b) Systematic Theology, and (c) Philosophy of Religion. I looked through the table of contents of a number of handbooks on Christian Apologetics to come up with … A Ten-Year Project – Part 2
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 15
Part of MJH (the Minimal Jesus Hypothesis) is that Jesus was a Jewish male. Jesus was “Jewish” in both senses of the word: he was an adherent of the religion of Judaism, and a male descendant of the Hebrew people, according to MJH. We saw in Part 14 that Mark represents Jesus as both a … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 15
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 14
Mitt Romney is a lying sack of human excrement. Which is one of the reasons why he lost the election. Among MR’s many moral failings was his promotion of a racist religious tradition: Mormonism. MR grew up in a publically and openly racist Mormon church. As a young man he went to France to encourage … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 14
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 13
I have taken a quick look at the L-source passages in Luke, and my conclusion is that the L source does represent Jesus as a flesh-and-blood person. So, Bart Ehrman is clearly the winner of the first round. But there are several more rounds to go before I will have enough facts and data to … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 13
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 12
Back in Part 10, I took a look at Mark and (in the Comments section) Q, and determined that they both represent Jesus as a flesh-and-blood person. Now I’m looking into the M-source, the unique material used by the author of the Gospel of Matthew, to see whether M also represents Jesus as a flesh-and-blood … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 12
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 11
I will now take a brief break from answering the 44 questions about Mark, Q, M, and L. For your reading enjoyment, I bring you John Crossan’s brief defense of the historicity of the crucifixion of Jesus: Jesus’ death by execution under Pontius Pilate is as sure as anything historical can ever be. For, if … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 11
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 10
In my previous post on this topic, I argued that we need to answer 44 specific questions in order to come up with fact-based initial evaluation of Bart Ehrman’s Seven Gospels Argument (SGA). The first question is whether Mark (one of the seven sources that Ehrman points us to) confirms the following attribute claim: A1. … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 10
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 9
The current version of the Minimal Jesus Hypothesis (MJH) has five parts:=======================There was a flesh-and-blood person who was…1A. named Yeshu’a, and2A. an adherent of Judaism, and a male descendant of the Hebrew people, and3A. living in Palestine as an adult (in his twenties and/or thirties) in the 20s C.E., and4A. known to be a preacher … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 9
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 8
In Did Jesus Exist?(hereafter: DJE) Bart Ehrman argues for something like the Minimal Jesus Hypothesis (MJH), which I have clarified and tweaked a bit to get to this formulation: ======================= There was a flesh-and-blood person who was… 1A. named Yeshu’a, and 2A. an adherent of Judaism, and a male descendant of the Hebrew people, and … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 8
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 7
For the following discussion of the chronology of Jesus’ ministry, I’m drawing upon the evidence and reasoning and conclusions presented by John P. Meier in his book A Marginal Jew, Volume 1: The Roots of the Problem and the Person, Chapter 11 “‘In the Fifteenth Year’…A Chronology of Jesus’ Life” (hereafter: AMJv1). Jesus was crucified … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 7