“Halfway up the slope, Callahan turned back.
‘I do not apologize for my beliefs,’ he said, ‘but if I have complicated your work here in the Calla, I’m sorry.’
‘Your Man Jesus seems to me a bit of a son of a bitch when it comes to women,’ Roland said. ‘Was He ever married?’
The corners of Callahan’s mouth quirked. ‘No,’ he said, ‘but His girlfriend was a whore.’
‘Well,’ Roland said, ‘that’s a start.'”
– Stephen King, Wolves of the Calla, The Dark Tower V, Part 3, Chapter 1: Secrets.
- Joann Scurlock looks at the bronze basin featured in Solomon’s temple. She connects the basin to creation mythology, both in Israelite religion and in Mesopotamian tales.
- Free book alert! You can download the PDF of Gideon Bohak, The Sentencing of Jesus (Gzar-dina de-Yeshu): The ‘Authentic’ Jewish Protocols of the Trial of Jesus (Open Book Publishers/University of Cambridge) for free!
- Over at Reconstructed Bible, Michael digs into Amos 6:1 and posits that, despite claims that the Hebrew is corrupted (“clunky”), there is a “fossil” that can be uncovered carefully.
- John Nelson hosted a conversation between Mike Licona and Dale Allison about the resurrection of Jesus. I have to admit, nothing either scholar had to say swayed my own view on the resurrection (it didn’t happen) but I do appreciate the back and forth.
- Brandon Grafius has a new book coming out on horror and the Bible entitled Concerning Dust and Ashes: Affects of Horror in the Hebrew Bible (Oxford University Press). But why is it over $100?!?!?
- Robyn Walsh talks about whether non-canonical texts are “dangerous.”
- Texas Monthly had a really interesting piece on the late Paul Pressler, a leader in the Southern Baptist Convention, who was a serial abuser, and the attempt by SBC leadership to cover it all up. It gave me the ick. I read it through my Apple News+ subscription.
- 29/52!
The Amateur Exegete 
Cool, it’s the weekly round-up!
Regarding the debate over the historicity of the resurrection, Licona is probably one of those names that comes up frequently among apologists. But I think any sort of “minimal facts approach” is still going to have to reckon at some point with the fact that there doesn’t seem to be any sort of corroboration of the burial from early hostile or neutral sources (e.g. Josephus or Bar-Serapion), let alone the obvious slant of the gospels.
The (possible) reference from Bar-Serapion is interesting since he appears to consider “the King of the Jews” as another philosopher founding a school of followers. Given that he lived in 1st Century Syria, he probably would have been well-positioned to learn of the creed of an early church. So the notion that Jesus “survived” through his teachings kind of makes you wonder…
There’s an open letter I came across on a skeptical website asking for a formal proof of the resurrection that would hold up in a court of law. To my knowledge, the retired lawyer who wrote it has yet to receive a response.
Thanks,
J Source
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Regarding Jesus’s burial, I recently read a really interesting paper by Tim Carter entitled “A Tomb Fit for a Prophet: An Investigation into the Historical Plausibility of the Gospel Burial Accounts” (JSNT 48, no. 4). In it he argues that at the time of Jesus’s death there was a “program” wherein Jewish elites were building tombs dedicated to the prophets of old. Joseph of Arimathea may have been involved in such a project and perhaps he felt guilty enough about Jesus’s death that he bribed Pilate to hand over the body for burial in one of these tombs. It was an interesting paper. I have issues with it (e.g., the historicity of Joseph himself), but it definitely piqued my interest.
You can find it here: https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/jnta/48/4
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Cool. I’ll have to add it to my reading list.
If the empty tomb narrative was historical, my current suspicion would be that there was either some sort of temporary burial by the Sanhedrin, a group of sympathizers (outside of the disciples) disturbed the body, or the location of the tomb was originally unknown to his followers. I’ll definitely have to keep an eye out for other thoughts on the subject though.
One analogy off the top of my head is (strangely enough) that famous video of “bigfoot” in California. To the best of my knowledge, no one has provided a definitive explanation of how it was staged or what it really shows. But it doesn’t seem plausible that a large species of primate exists and has managed to avoid being captured on camera all of these years- especially given the proliferation of satellites and cell phones. So it seems reasonable to simply reject the claim that runs counter to what we would expect based on experience and demand extraordinary evidence in the meantime. (Let alone the fact that other alleged supernatural events are dismissed quite easily by those who would argue for the resurrection.)
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Sorry, just to clarify, my comment on bigfoot was regarding the fact that no clear or up-close footage has ever been produced. Every alleged video or photo is fairly blurry or from a distant point of view.
It’s also kind of humorous that he’d probably have to have at human-level intellect (or beyond) to escape detection all of this time, given all of the advanced recording technology in existence.
I guess it’s hard to say if there’s any cryptid I’d actually want to exist. Maybe selkies or the kraken, but the later would pose a grave risk to humanity. And then there’s Nessie…
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I love cryptids. For a while I was obsessed with the Mothman. I think things like that are super interesting, even if it is very unlikely they’re real.
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I completely get it- in my saved websites, there are a few directories/wikis on fictional/legendary creatures. It’s fun to think about things like whether centaurs would go to a doctor or a vet or what it would be like to have kitsune girlfriend.
At the risk of sounding a little weird, I do enjoy a good animal/monster transformation comic or video sometimes. And there’s one really corny TV show I watched where the residents of a town were monster/legendary hybrid creatures- it did have neat CGI effects if you could overlook the acting.
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Related to that free download? This relatively new book overviewing the Toledoth Yeshu: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7858056556
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