My favorite typo in a book about the Bible (noticed in an advance draft, and so it presumably won’t make it into the published version) is now a reference to a “lager biblical theme.” It should have said “larger biblical theme.” But since beer can be a biblical theme, either can work. And of course, there are also beers on biblical themes, as well as references to beer in the Bible. My second favorite typo in the same manuscript was the reference... Read more
I recently had the opportunity to read an advance copy of Daniel Kirk’s forthcoming book, which he blogged about recently. The book is called A Man Attested by God: The Human Jesus of the Synoptic Gospels. I cannot emphasize enough what an important study this is. I am hopeful that it will radically shift the direction of the field, and put an end to facile and unpersuasive claims that this or that in the Synoptic Gospels reflects the depiction of Jesus as himself... Read more
Above is a video with just the piece MYOverture, composed by Alex McGrath for the 20th anniversary of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra. Below are two more videos from yesterday’s concert: Cathy Morris’ “Duck (Watch Out)” and Duke Ellington’s Read more
Historians should not entertain the possibility that Jesus predicted in advance exactly how he was going to die, foreseeing that it would be by crucifixion. And so too historians cannot view Jesus as having called his followers to take up their crosses behind him. But there is a third option between accepting the Gospels’ depiction, and the alternative that all such material is simply invented from scratch after the fact, to make it seem that Jesus had predicted his death, and... Read more
Today at Hilbert Circle Theater in downtown Indianapolis, a concert was held celebrating the 20th year of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra. Mayor Joe Hogsett was in attendance, and the CEO of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra read a proclamation declaring today “Betty Perry Day.” Betty Perry is the founder and director of the MYO, and the MYO is now one the ISO’s community outreach programs. In addition to the mayor’s proclamation, the video includes a piece composed by a current MYO member... Read more
It has been interesting to revisit the death of Jesus in my historical Jesus class this year. I’ve passed through phases of naive credulity and extreme skepticism with respect to the Gospels and other early Christian sources, and am now trying to find a place of balance between the two. On the one hand, there is no escaping the difficulties created by the overlay of later Christian theological interpretation on the stories, as Christians sought to make sense of the... Read more
Part two of my discussion of mythicism on the show Talk Gnosis is now available – in podcast form for anyone, and as a video for subscribers. Click this link and go have a listen or watch! Read more
Pliny the In Between has illustrated what most mythicists seem unable to grasp. Accepting the existence of a historical Jesus is not about accepting a miracle working human, much less a deity. But in another sense, mythicism is much worse than mainstream historical criticism for those whose aim is to disprove the existence of deities. Historical study shows that, in our earliest Gospels, Jesus is a human figure and not a deity. But if one rejects that result of historical... Read more
Reading student papers this past week, it seems to me that students are in universal or near universal agreement about at least one thing: that no two people hold the same view. I cannot help but laugh at the irony of this state of affairs – that student after student holds this exact same opinion, that no two people hold the exact same opinion. But I still wonder how to get students to move beyond such trite statements, to recognize the... Read more
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