Earl Doherty

[archibald]

It's been a while since I've seen Earl Doherty's name pop up, as it recently did in a link on another thread.

Does anyone know if he actually has a degree in history (specifically a BA with distinction in Ancient History and Classical languages) as he claimed, or can for example say when or where he got it?

Last I heard, which was quite some time ago, it was questioned.

Can anyone shed light on this?

[Giuseppe]

It seems (surprisingly!) that for you the reading of the his books is not sufficient (sic) to qualify him as a great scholar, ignored unjustly from the guild.


Even his translation of Hebrews 8:4

If he were on earth, he would not be a priest

as rather:

if he had been on earth, he would not have been a priest.

...can't be confuted, but remains the concrete possibility of an authentic mythicist smoking gun.

[DCHindley]

It's been a while since I've seen Earl Doherty's name pop up, as it recently did in a link on another thread.

Does anyone know if he actually has a degree in history (specifically a BA with distinction in Ancient History and Classical languages) as he claimed, or can for example say when or where he got it?

Last I heard, which was quite some time ago, it was questioned.

Can anyone shed light on this?

Ever since he retired from online participation with e-groups, discussion boards, blogs, etc., he's kept a very low profile. See if Peter's search engine is working today (it wasn't about a week ago), and I seem to remember someone asking him what his credentials were, for fact checking purposes. I do not remember what his response was, but there must be some trace of it out there. It may have seemed reasonable so I did not make a special point to memorize the events or text. A BA is pretty much standard here in the USA for most middle managers and semi-professionals. Hell, even I have one of them*!

We have "honors" and summa cum laude programs but no one seems to promote that sort of thing unless we include it in a work resume. Achyra S also claimed a degree with all sorts of distinctions, but I do kind of think she was after the limelight, unlike Earl. He didn't come across as a "publicity hound," in fact, I don't think he was in his comfort zone at all in the forum discussions. Still he kept it up for a good while.

So I doubt he was intending to glorify himself (a la Richard Carrier). He was very meticulous with his research, although I thought he sometimes made leaps of reasoning that I did not feel were warranted. Maybe he learned how it was done in college and just continued on with it. But he could also have had a science degree, but if so, why was he running a copy center? I could understand that if it was in something like History or Ancient Literature, which are not fields of education that most businesses recruit heavily from. Yet Ben has what seems to be a fairly decent job.

Ben has a degree in Classics, although I know not the institution. Regardless, I am pretty sure it was a "legit" one, not Sam & Jerry's College of Plausible Presentation. Andrew may have a similar, "legit" degree.

DCH

* no distinctions, though

[Ben C. Smith]

Ben has a degree in Classics, although I know not the institution.

The University of California at Irvine, home to the TLG. (Not that I had anything to do with the TLG personally, but one of my favorite professors closely assisted Theodore Brunner on it.)

[neilgodfrey]

It would be very surprising if Earl did not have a degree in classical languages given his ability to more than hold his own in discussions with scholars on the old Crosstalk forum whenever the nuances of forms and usages of Greek words arose.

[neilgodfrey]

He didn't come across as a "publicity hound," in fact, I don't think he was in his comfort zone at all in the forum discussions. Still he kept it up for a good while.

So I doubt he was intending to glorify himself (a la Richard Carrier).

Earl once told me that Richard Carrier had an "an ego as big as a bus" and that was probably what advancing mythicism needed, implying he was very much at the opposite end of the spectrum. (That was before Carrier gained a reputation for imprudent responses to some critics and launched prematurely a few untested arguments.) He always wanted the focus on the arguments, not himself.

I miss Earl. But I can understand his retreat. He was insulted, abused, cheated (his books were pirated on the web), misrepresented, mocked. Before he withdrew I noticed he was starting to hit back a few times in a way he never used to. It was clear the pressure was taking its toll.

I think in the long run his contributions will surpass anything on the Christ Myth theory from anyone else in the last 50 years.

[Bernard Muller]

to Giuseppe,

Even his translation of Hebrews 8:4
If he were on earth, he would not be a priest
as rather:
if he had been on earth, he would not have been a priest.
...can't be confuted, but remains the concrete possibility of an authentic mythicist smoking gun.

However, for your second translation, you would have to explain how a descendant of the tribe of Judah never was on earth, as specified in the same epistle.
"For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests." Heb 7:14

More evidence from 'Hebrews" for an earthly & human Jesus: http://historical-jesus.info/40.html

Cordially, Bernard

[Peter Kirby]

Does anyone know

Yeah. Doherty knows.

where he got it?

A few people have asked. Doherty didn't respond.

Don't believe in it if you don't want to! It doesn't change anything.

Carrier has a Ph.D. from Columbia, and that doesn't change anything either.

Academically speaking, saying you have a Bachelor's is a bit like saying you wear underpants. The opposite is the shocking thing.

[Peter Kirby]

If the name of the degree is accurate, my google-fu is strong, and nobody's renamed majors...

I can't find any place but the University of Newcastle that offers an undergraduate major in "Ancient History and Classical Languages." So maybe it's a degree from Australia. If it exists. If there really is an Earl Doherty.

[MrMacSon]

Wikipedia says Earl's nativity was in 1941, so the earliest he would have been doing undergraduate studies is in the late 50s or early 60s. At that time, an undergraduate major in "Ancient History and Classical Languages" would have been available in the sub-lunar realm.