Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Hi Leucius Charinus, Good luck. Be sure to price the book under $20 so I can afford a copy. If you leave, people will consider me an over-the-edge late dater. While you're here, I can still claim to be a moderate between the 1st century and 4th Century extremists. Warmly, Jay Raskin While many write...

Hi andrewcriddle, This is very interesting. Thanks. It is a little difficult to understand what is happening. It seems to be about some kind of supernatural evil witch named Erichtho. "from the tree drags down a pendent corpse" - I'm not sure what "pendent" means here. She does a...

Hi All, The human brain is not a library. We do not take 16 hours of high quality video and audio each day and put in it on labelled shelves for retrival. Our memories deteriorate very rapidly. Think of the first time you met your spouse or a person very important in your life. If it happened more t...

Hi outhouse, cienfuegos, Your narrative is fine, but how do you explain this piece of text I just discovered which tells a completely different story? Lucian, Thessaloniki, Greece, circa 140 CE Greek: Now that you Jews have been defeated in the war again, I guess you Jews will admit that your God is...

Hi outhouse, I agree that the actual point of the gospel writers were quite different than latter Church fathers who imagined and obsessed over the crucifixion. I think it is important that the crucifixion isn't described. It shows how the Christian imagination has painted their myth story so vividl...

Hi "outhouse" Wiki is incorrect that the gospel writers describe he crucifixion. Which gospel describes Jesus' crucifixion. All we know is he was on a stavros (stake) and he could not get down. What was the size and shape of the stake? Six feet high? ten feet high? Pointed and sharp on top...

Hi John T, I think you missed the point of my quote, which was that saying atheists are religious is like Lewis Carroll's Humpty Dumpty saying "words mean what I want them to mean". There is a generally shared understanding of words and "I" or "you" cannot simply rewrit...

Hi MaryHelena, I have been reading Samuelson methodically regarding nails and nailings in crucifixions. I am not quite finished, but he so far shows about a dozen possible cases. Some I can show straight out problems with, but some seem to suggest that the expression "nailed to the cross" ...

Hi John T. Believing in God is only one of numerous activities that characterize a religion. For example, going to a church and praying is a religious activity even if you pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or sacrificing animals in a temple can be considered a religious activity. One cannot say ...

Hi Andrewcriddle, Thanks for this. I think the position of the Catholic Church in signing the Lateran Treaty is understandable. It had been pursuing its claims for control over Rome for 59 years with numerous Italian governments without success, and it had practically no hope of success, until the i...