Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Occam's razor should be a major player here. For Jesus to have been a historical figure, only 1 of 10 or so semi-independent ancient references to him need to be correct. For Jesus to have been a complete fabrication, all of those references have to be false or fabricated- and a huge conspiracy must...

Risking wrath from the board police, I hunkered down to watch a Carrier video yesterday. First thing he does is say not to take him too seriously, and then he quotes a line from Minnesota Senator Al Franken.

I bailed out. Couldn't take it.

That's not what Josephus is describing. And in context, my reply was to this. You'd think Jospehus would've made more of a mention of Jesus than two vague passages with disputed authenticity, though; especially given his more substantive writing about many others ducking & weaving; gaslighting ...

As the best possible case that can be made for the historicity of Jesus, there is enough ambiguity in the evidence here that we cannot conclude that the problem has been settled once and for all . You did a great job of providing evidence. Hats off great work. No real disagreement by me, nor should...

I'm tired of seeing the guy's name pop up everywhere and suspect he has a well-oiled internet machine pushing his schtick. Here is his thesis: Carrier received a PhD in ancient history from Columbia University in 2008: his thesis was entitled 'Attitudes towards the natural philosopher in the Early R...

His degree is in Ancient History PHILOSOPHY. It could be one of those cobbled-together Ivy League things.

We need a LOT of early manuscripts to nail things down. Slightly OT- I wish a few billionaires looking for something to do with their money would pool resources and excavate the rest of Herculaneum. It was a upper-class town with most likely more than a few private libraries. Some might have escaped...

There are some very curious aspects to Book 18 of Antiquities, no doubt.

A protean post. Folks should dismiss the Talmud if they are looking for the "historical" Jesus. It was written hundreds of years after the events of the first century A.D. Josephus is our only real source- maybe Philo. I maintain if there was a better source, or even ANOTHER contemporaneou...

"Almost always, anyway. Our kind, warm and always friendly Poster, "steve43", produced an interesting retort to some of the Thesis: The claim here is that at least a third of the NT revolves around the events at the death of Herod and the throne being occupied by one Archelaus and thi...