Libby Anne wrote an interesting post recently about the experience of her child encountering the New Testament stories against the background of both other classic children’s mythology as well as more recent stories. And so the child came up with not only the angel Gabriel as “Mary’s fairy godmother” but also (with prompting after some confusion) Jesus as a time lord and thus the Roman centurions as cybermen. For some, this seem like a horrible travesty. But for others, it... Read more
Joseph Hoffmann posted on whether “anything goes” in mythicism, providing a wonderful discussion of the appropriate and inappropriate sorts of “skepticism” and illustrating how historians reason about the evidence regarding Jesus. Around a lengthy treatment of Hegelianism, he writes things like this: To say that Jesus is a plausible figure is thus merely to say the following: (1) His description fits the historical matrix from which it comes; (2) Allowing only for the credulity of writers and listeners of the time, there is... Read more
If your faith can move mountains, it should be able to withstand a little criticism. — Source unknown, via Robert Cargill on Facebook Read more
Jim West has posted his final reminder to those who wish to be part of this month's Biblical Studies Carnival to send their submissions. Read more
In related news, David Bradley will play William Hartnell in a documentary about the origins and early days of Doctor Who! Here’s what that might look like: Read more
Trains. Now you know. Read more
A few things of interest. The Lead asked whether robots could ever replace clergy. It’s science fiction now, but will it always be? Some Turks took offense at what they perceived to be a patterning of a LEGO version of Jabba the Hutt’s palace on the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (not Constantinople). It was, they suggested, an insult aimed at Islam, even though the Hagia Sophia’s origin is as a church. Here’s a mash-up imagining what the trailer for the... Read more
Another gem from Jeff Carter. This time he gives what most Americans seem to think Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: You have heard it said, “Do not resist an evil person,” but I tell you “shoot first,” it’s your second amendment duty to shoot bad guys. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek don’t wait for the police, take charge of the situation yourself and put a bullet in them. And if anyone wants to take... Read more
I laughed out loud when reading a recent post by Neil Godfrey. Most of it was neither laughable nor surprising. He discusses how we know people in the ancient world existed, with his usual shtick depicting historical Jesus scholars as confused bumblers. Nothing surprising, or interesting, except perhaps for his acknowledgment that historians in most fields do not feel the need to constantly revisit the question of a figure’s existence once it has been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the experts. What made... Read more
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