Category: Gospels
Doston Jones on Studying the Bible as Literature
Back in July, Doston Jones asked whether the New Testament authors were influenced by Greco-Roman literature. This may seem absurd: how could they not have been influenced? But there are certain Christians of the fundamentalist variety who think that the New Testament is utterly… Continue Reading “Doston Jones on Studying the Bible as Literature”
Book Review: The First Biography of Jesus by Helen Bond
A review of Helen Bond’s book ‘The First Biography of Jesus.’
Helen Bond: The “Social and Cultural Ramifications” of a Writing a Bios of Jesus
Helen K. Bond, The First Biography of Jesus: Genre and Meaning in Mark’s Gospel (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2020), 92.
Helen Bond: Hazardous Reading of Ancient Texts
Helen K. Bond, The First Biography of Jesus: Genre and Meaning in Mark’s Gospel (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2020), 8.
Matthew Thiessen: The Jesus of the Gospels Argues on the Basis of Torah
Matthew Thiessen, Jesus and the Forces of Death: The Gospels Portrayal of Ritual Impurity within First-Century Judaism (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2020), 173.
Matthew Thiessen: Jesus is Divinely Equipped to Deal with Ritual Impurity
Matthew Thiessen, Jesus and the Forces of Death: The Gospels Portrayal of Ritual Impurity within First-Century Judaism (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2020), 20.
Joel Marcus: No External Evidence for the Barabbas Incident
Joel Marcus, Mark 8-16: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 930. While it is probable…that some members of the Jewish hierarchy pressed Pilate to put Jesus to death (Mark 15:1, 3, 11), and while a revolutionary… Continue Reading “Joel Marcus: No External Evidence for the Barabbas Incident”
Wayne Pitard: Garbled Facts in Oral Tradition and the Book of Genesis
Wayne T. Pitard, “Before Israel: Syria-Palestine in the Bronze Age,” in The Oxford History of the Biblical World, Michael D. Coogan, editor (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 27. There are many reasons to be skeptical of [the Patriarchal] narratives as historically accurate accounts of… Continue Reading “Wayne Pitard: Garbled Facts in Oral Tradition and the Book of Genesis”
Bart Ehrman on What It Would Mean If We Had the “Original” Gospels
Over on his blog, NT scholar Bart Ehrman addresses the question, “What if we had the ‘original’ Gospels?” Apologists seemingly believe that if we had an original copy of Mark or Matthew that it would give what they wrote some degree of credibility. In… Continue Reading “Bart Ehrman on What It Would Mean If We Had the “Original” Gospels”
Jesus is the Prodigal Son: καταπέτασμα’s Interpretation
There are many ways of reading the story of the Wayward Son (Luke 15:11-32). In the context of the other two parables Jesus offers, it is fundamentally a story about the joyous response to one who repents and turns to God: “[T]here is joy… Continue Reading “Jesus is the Prodigal Son: καταπέτασμα’s Interpretation”
The Amateur Exegete 