Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Very interesting, indeed. I have added the article to my little bibliography on this text.

This question fascinates me, too. There have been many studies on the nature and origins of religious ritual and one starting point I found useful is "To perform, or not to perform? A theory of ritual performance versus cognitive theories of religious transmission1" by Robert A. Yelle, in ...

Paul and Mark appear to have been continuing in the tradition of rewriting scriptural narratives for audiences who identified as a new Israel or people of God, learning from stories of the old failed Israel. Lemche and others trace this practice through the canonical and other second temple texts. T...

I have just been reading Van Seters' The Primeval Histories of Greece and Israel Compared and have learned that the Trojan War was understood to be more than just a great war, but was rather the event that was sent by Zeus to all but destroy humanity, like the biblical flood. As the Flood ended the ...

Importantly, Matthew himself seems aware of this version of the story, since in his conclusion to the parable he has Jesus advise his disciples to stay awake: 13 "Stay awake [γρηγορεῖτε] then, for you do not know the day nor the hour." This appears to be a holdover from the version of the...

There's an interesting contradiction there actually: in the gospels of Mark/Matthew and John the brothers of Jesus, James specifically, also Thomas the Twin in John, are said NOT to recognize/believe in Jesus. with an unique exception: John the Baptist was made a cousin of Jesus and recognizing him...

And on first beholding (this Jesus, that soul) recognises Him as its own peculiar brother , but the rest as bastards. The first euhemerizers invented carnal relation with Jesus, à la James 'brother of Lord according to flesh'. There's an interesting contradiction there actually: in the gospels of M...

Given that he is referring to a known parable, and that this known parable has ten virgins, five foolish and five wise, do you have a better candidate for what he may be referencing? I mean, it is possible that he is ignorant of the parable in Matthew and referring to a form now lost to us, but is ...

Hayden White's theories of the place of narrative in historical writing may be criticised for relying upon the way history was written in the nineteenth century, but another historian has opposed postmodernist arguments by coming to the defence of narrative in contemporary history. Beverley Southgat...

Where do we see the earliest acknowledgement of Matthew's version? Tertullian is a candidate in, for example, On the Soul 18: It is from this philosophy that they eagerly adopt the difference between the bodily senses and the intellectual faculties,-a distinction which they actually apply to the pa...