Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

John, for example, invented the 3 Passover story to claim that the Jesus mission was longer than what was stated by heretic Gnostics (who did insist that Jesus was only few days on this earth). I think it's the other way around: the Gnostics invented a Jesus who stayed only a few days on earth, the...

Could John have been written independent of the synoptics? -ie. not dependent on them? In short: John knew the gospel of Mark and used some of its material, the core story (= the Passion) in the first place. But John also knew what really happened, and so he provides us with some unique historical ...

What revolutionary taxing did you have in mind, Frans? Jesus arrives in Jericho at the head of a large number of armed Galilean rebels and their families. After several days underway they are tired and hungry. The irritation of Jesus' captains is shown in the incident with the blind man on their ar...

Deuteronomy 19:15: "A single witness shall not suffice to convict a person of any crime or wrongdoing in connection with any offense that may be committed. Only on the evidence of two or three witnesses shall a charge be sustained." Indeed Lena, and there is not only a third, but also a f...

To Frans: I have yet to read your book next days but I know from Internet that your view about Paul is that he believed in a coming Christ, not in a Christ already crucified in the past. And therefore any occurrence of 'Jesus' in the epistles would be late interpolations. A question that my future ...

In all three synoptic Gospels, we read of a mysterious event when Jesus and his disciples are going across the Sea of Galilee to "the country of the Gerasenes" (in Mark and Luke), or "the country of the Gadarenes" (in Matthew). The first odd thing about this is that neither Gera...

Perhaps we should also consider that the name of the historical Jesus was Jesus. Perhaps those of us in this forum, at least, could consider a change in terminology and a change in emphasis. eg. stop using the term historical Jesus, and consider using the term NT-Jesus for the biblical Jesus, and c...

Earlier in this thread (page 2) I wrote about the two demoniacs in Gerasa/Gadara, who had both dwelled in the tombs. And I made a comparison to the two rebel leaders during the final struggle in Jerusalem -- Simon bar Giora and John of Gischala -- who, when all is destroyed (mostly by them) go hidi...

Perhaps we should also consider that the name of the historical Jesus was Jesus.

Mark 13 is a prophecy, whereas Jannaeus was past tense by the time that Gospel was written. is that not a contradiction? Lena, what prophecy? I thought it was all about history, history in subtext but history nevertheless. Above I discussed Mark 13, which might contain a chronological clue that the...