If you’re following the Naked Bible Podcast we’ve had several episodes where we get mired in the quagmire that is ancient chronology. Years ago I read the book Centuries of Darkness by Peter James. It’s fundamental exposure to why the accepted...
Biblical History
The Location of Mount Sinai and the “Yahweh’s March from the South” Passages: An Addendum to the Naked Bible Podcast Episode
[Note: I added the material at the bottom about Rephidim. It relates to the “march from the South” and I forgot it the first time. – MSH] Those of you who follow the Naked Bible Podcast know that recently we covered Exodus 3:1 in three episodes. That...
Review of Prof. Maurice Casey’s Scholarly Critique of the Work of Jesus Mythicists
I blogged a short time ago to alert readers about this book. Maurice Casey was a New Testament scholar and Aramaic specialist. He was also nowhere close to being a “Bible believer” – the sort of people that Jesus mythicists love to mock. It’s...
From Jesus Mythicism to Paul Mythicism
Robert Price is one of the few (very few) credentialed scholars who doesn’t think Jesus existed. His work (and work put forth by others in the same vein) has been debunked by scholars ranging from the evangelical variety to atheists. I’ve blogged about...
Irrealis in the Book of Esther
I was chatting with my friend and Logos colleague Steve Runge on Friday about this paper: “Irrealis in Esther: On Being Told What was Not” (by Hebrew scholar Fred Putnam). Steve described it to me and it sounded fascinating. It is. Basically, the paper is...
Wallace and Kruger Destroy NEWSWEEK Christmas Hit Piece on the Bible
[NOTE: this post was updated on 12/30/2014 to include Dr. Kruger’s second installment.] I have to admit it’s like shooting fish in a barrel, but we can’t expect anything intellectually accurate or honest from those who write for these sorts of...
Did Jesus Exist?
This impending article from BAR popped into my reader this morning: Lawrence Mykytiuk, “Did Jesus Exist? Searching for Evidence Beyond the Bible,” Biblical Archaeology Review (January/February 2015) It’s an excellent survey of the ancient...
The Barely Historical Jesus: Thoughts on Jesus Mythicism from a Disinterested New Testament Scholar
Hat tip to Prof. James McGrath for this. Jesus mythicism, for the uninitiated, is the belief that Jesus never existed — that he is an imaginary creation derived from a handful of ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean mythological figures. This post by R. Joseph...
Jesus as a Figure in History: Book Review
In today’s RBL (Review of Biblical Literature) email I found a review on this worthwhile title by Mark Allan Powell: Jesus as a Figure in History, Second Edition: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee I have the older edition of this work and...
Larry Hurtado on Bart Ehrman’s Book, How Jesus Became God
Larry Hurtado has a thoughtful, even-handed review of Ehrman’s book here. This subject area is one of Hurtado’s areas of expertise, his criticisms, though irenic in tone, are telling. My only addition would be toward the end. Ehrman seems completely...
Calculating and Fixing the Date of Easter
I’m once again feeling wearied by all the nonsense (pagan and fundamentalist Christian in equal doses) about how the date of Easter was the result of some sort of deliberate paganizing conspiracy. Personally, I don’t like the modern trappings of Easter. A...
Review of Bart Ehrman’s Latest Book, How Jesus Became God
Dr. Andreas Kostenberger just posted his review of Ehrman’s most recent work, How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee . The review is more of an overview of problems he sees with Ehrman’s thinking. He leaves analysis of those...
Joseph Atwill’s Josephus Code
I’ve blogged this subject over at my Naked Bible blog, but it also belongs here at Paleobabble. What follows is borrowed from that post and appended with reviews and updates. Joseph Atwill, self-proclaimed (and credential-less) biblical scholar has recently...
Josephus Code Follies
I’ve gotten a half dozen emails about the new (it’s not really new) Joseph Atwill book and “Covert Christianity” PR launch (er . . . conference). The big media event is really about Atwill’s rehashing of his material in a 2006 book called...
Review of Reza Aslan’s Book About Jesus
By now many of you will have heard about the controversial new book by Reza Aslan on Jesus (Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth). The book has generated controversy since Aslan is a Muslim and inflated his credentials for writing the book on a recent Fox...