Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

In his account of the siege and fall of Masada Josephus mentions its provisions (War VII:295-296): The provisions laid up inside were even more astonishing in their abundance as well as their perfect preservation. The stores included a large quantity of wheat that had been stored here, enough to las...

Two elements 1. In The Political Paul on page 20 popular philosophers in the Hellenistic world are discussed: Poor, cherishing manual labor, valuing hardship, little interested in the comforts of family life, nomadic and fired by a consciousness of possessing a divine mission, speaking audaciously a...

All right, here is the "Reader's Digest" condensed version of Galatians ... "Original" GAL 1:1a Paul, 1b [...], 2 and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia: 3a Grace to you and peace 3b - 4a [...], 4b according to the will of our God and Father; 5 to whom ...

Jesus cannot be speaking of himself because the language in John 3:13 indicates that someone must first ascend into heaven so as to descend . Jesus, however, descended first, and ascended afterward. The passage is applicable to Paul, who describes his revelation as being caught up to the third heav...

I suggest to look in a different direction, as I already did in an earlier thread on this forum: Vespasian, the king in the parable of the ten pounds? I concluded the OP as follows: In my opinion this fragment of Luke discusses the Roman emperor Vespasian, his coming to power, his financial policy, ...

Third, your third point above (c) is part of those famous issues in verses 9-10. Being awake versus asleep is, in these two verses, either a metaphor for being alive versus being dead, exactly as it is in the first half of the entire passage in question, or it is a metaphor for being morally alert ...

One more little stage on the Flavian trail. Isn’t it remarkable that an identical healing miracle is ascribed to Vespasian and to Jesus? Both messianic figures are reported to have healed a blind man. As the story in GJohn 9:1-12 is more elaborate it gives the impression to be based on the report of...

A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the insurrection. (Mark 15:7) I don't want to interpret it as one of the seditious clues pointing to a historical rebel Jesus (à la Bermejo-Rubio). What if 'Mark' had a previous source where that particular 'i...

The verses on the coming of the Son of man in the synoptic Apocalypse do not use the Greek παρουσια. .... Matthew seems to use the word παρουσια, which is absent in Mark and Luke, to emphasize the suddenness and the unexpectedness of the coming of the messiah. Are Matthew 24.27, 37, 39 not about th...

My research on the origins of Christianity shows that the Gospels are much more political in nature ... Really? Let me guess - you thought everything comes down to politics in some form BEFORE you studied the gospels. Not so sure the horse is really leading the cart with your research. Like choosin...