Bart Ehrman annoys me to no end. Don’t get me wrong. I love reading his books most of the time. He’s one of my favorite apostates. (And I use this term in the correct Greek sense. It means “to stand away from.”) What annoys me about Ehrman is the way he uses rapid fire statements… Read More »
Historical Jesus pt 4 – The Historical Record
In history, as in journalism, second-hand is usually as good as it gets. We can’t speak as historians. But as journalists, we find those Gospel discrepancies very reassuring. That’s how real events get reported. – Ted Byfield1 One of the harshest realities for Christians to accept is that we do, to a certain extent, recreate… Read More »
Historical Jesus, pt 3 – Breaking Down the Narrative
The historical Jesus is summoned, but the image who appears too often is a (thinly disguised) version of ourselves. – Paula Fredricksen1 In order to “properly” dissect the gospels to discover the historical Jesus, the Jesus Seminar and other “Jesus Scholars” make certain assumptions made about the texts. Paula Fredricksen candidly points out that, as… Read More »
Historical Jesus, pt 2 – The New Spirituality
Learning precisely who wrote the gospels may be beyond us. But it may be more important to learn how the church did, and does, tell the story of Jesus vitally in each new generation. – John P. Meier1 Inherent in the development of Jesus scholarship was the development of a new, strange mold of spirituality.… Read More »
Historical Jesus, pt 1 – The Demotion of Jesus
This week, I will be posting a series of discussions on the Jesus Seminar. These documents were originally written in 2006 in response to reading the works of the Seminar and several of its prominent members. If you are unaware of the work of the Jesus Seminar, you have only to pick up any of… Read More »
