The runner-up essay<\/a> in the 2010 contest<\/a> actually highlights a theme that I\u2019m reading a paper on in SBL in Atlanta in November. The term in the New Testament that many assume means \u201cNazarene\u201d as in someone from Nazareth is very likely to mean something else, and\u00a0is probably\u00a0related to a self-referential term used by the Mandaeans. That essay gets details about Mandaic language and literature wrong, and illustrates well that this isn\u2019t a scholarly competition (if anyone was in any doubt). But the topic itself is an important one, and I\u2019m looking forward to spending time working in this area between now and November.<\/p>\n It appears that others have received the same e-mail I did. The good news is that mythicists only charge non-mythicists for the chance to win the big bucks. You can win $1,000 with no entry fee if you make the case that Jesus did not exist. So why spend $50 to make a case when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-3430299837524486853?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\")