In 2011, Jesus Mythicism, the idea that Jesus never existed, was at peak popularity on the internet with sites like Neil Godfrey’s Vridar and Project Reason’s forum, and I was searching for scholarship engaging with Christ Myth theorist Earl Doherty, and I found Prof James McGrath’s blog where he was critically blogging through Doherty’s book … My Favorite Post of the year: Blogging Through “The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus (2024) by James Crossley (Editor), Chris Keith (Editor)”

Last time we looked a bit about Paul’s claim that Jesus was killed by the archons of this aion (rulers of this age), and this reflected the demonic spirits influencing Pilate and the Jews (eg., the crowd, the supreme council) against Jesus.  This follows the same idea as when the gospels say Satan entered Judas. … (2/2) Did Jesus Exist? Jacob Berman vs Godless Engineer

Jacob Berman and Godless engineer debated the historicity of Jesus tonight regarding Paul and other things: I’m mentioning this because the passage in Paul of The Jews killing Jesus (which I first talked about following Benjamin White HERE) came up, as well as Paul’s claim that the archons of this aion (rulers of this age) killed Jesus (which … Did Jesus Exist? Jacob Berman vs Godless Engineer

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 … Merry Sithmas and Happy Leaving the Pew Year: Cutting Jesus Off At The Arms With my Top Favorite Post of the Year

Check out our 3 Mythmas posts for this year: Christmas and Genealogies: The Adoption of Jesus by Joseph in Matthew and Luke Merry Midrash: A Late Christmas Present with Dr Robert M Price Did Jesus Have a Wife? Artificial Intelligence and the Virgin Birth And, from Secular Web Kids, Darth Harley, Bark Lord of the … MERRY MYTHMAS from The Secular Web / Internet Infidels

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