mythicists

Review of Richard C. Carrier, Proving History

August 7, 2012 By James F. McGrath 96 Comments

I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to review Richard Carrier’s latest book, Proving History: Bayes’s Theorem and the Quest for the Historical Jesus. I am grateful to Prometheus Books for sending me a free review copy. Carrier emphasizes from the outset that this is the first of two books, the second of [...]

Filed Under: Christianity, historical Jesus, Judaism, mythicism, New Testament Tagged With: Bayes' Theorem, Bayesian, Christianity, divine, historians, historical criticism, historical Jesus, history, Jesus, Judaism, logic, methodology, methods, mythicism, mythicists, Rene Salm, Richard Carrier 96 Comments

Quote of the Day (Larry Hurtado)

July 23, 2012 By James F. McGrath 4 Comments

I think I’m not alone in feeling that to show the ill-informed and illogical nature of the current wave of “mythicist” proponents is a bit like having to demonstrate that the earth isn’t flat, or that the sun doesn’t revolve around the earth, or that the moon-landings weren’t done on a movie lot. It’s a [...]

Filed Under: mythicism Tagged With: academic, Bart Ehrman, Larry Hurtado, mythicism, mythicists, New Testament, scholarship 4 Comments

An Odd Diatribe from Thomas L. Thompson

July 6, 2012 By James F. McGrath 25 Comments

In the latest issue of The Bible and Interpretation, Thomas L. Thompson offers a very odd rebuke to Bart Ehrman. Thompson mentions things like Philo's love of allegory and Qoheleth's assertion of our lack of novelty, as though these somehow will allow one to open the door to any and all interpretations of texts, including [...]

Filed Under: historical Jesus, mythicism Tagged With: Bart D. Ehrman, Bart Ehrman, historians, historical, historical criticism, historical Jesus, historicity, Jesus, myth, mytherism, mythicism, mythicist, mythicists, mythology, myths, Thomas L. Thompson 25 Comments

Review of Bart Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist? Part One

April 9, 2012 By James F. McGrath 86 Comments

I’m grateful to have been given the opportunity to participate in the blog tour about Bart Ehrman’s latest book, Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth. Ehrman emphasizes that many mythicists appear to approach the question of Jesus’ existence in the manner of conspiracy theorists, and since such people refuse to change [...]

Filed Under: mythicism, New Testament Tagged With: Bart Ehrman, Christ, Earl Doherty, epistles, G. A. Wells, Gospels, historical, Jesus, letters, Messiah, mythicism, mythicists, Paul, Richard Carrier, Robert Price 86 Comments

Mythicism and Paul’s Claims to Supernatural Revelation

October 18, 2011 By James F. McGrath 180 Comments

Mythicists regularly claim (as one commenter on this blog recently did) regarding Paul that “Our earliest Christian source claimed to have learned nothing from the Christians who came before him. He claimed to know what he knew by divine revelation.” Since the subject has come up once again, in the same form in which it [...]

Filed Under: 1 Corinthians, Galatians, mythicism, Paul and his letters Tagged With: bunk, historical Jesus, mythicism, mythicists, nonsense, Paul, revelation, supernatural 180 Comments

Mythicists and Creationists: Which are More Entertaining?

August 27, 2011 By James F. McGrath 144 Comments

For some, the similarities between mythicists and creationists outweigh the differences, while for others the reverse seems to be true. The latter tend to get very upset when the comparison is made. And so perhaps it is only fair that I emphasize from time to time one of the differences between mythicists and creationists. Having [...]

Filed Under: historical Jesus, humor, mythicism Tagged With: Christ, comedians, creationism, creationists, historical, humor, Jesus, Martha Howell, methodology, mythicism, mythicists, ROFL, unintentionally funny, Walter Prevenier 144 Comments

First Monthly Bibliovlog Carnival (Topic: Mythicism)

August 18, 2011 By James F. McGrath 9 Comments

Joel Watts, inspired by Rodney, posted the following: During the first week of October, I would like to host a carnival or sorts on mythicism. I would like two ten-minute presentations, pro and con. They must be a video of some sort. No, you don’t have to be on the camera, and yes, you can [...]