Jesus’ first public miracle in the Gospel of Mark is an exorcism (Mark 1:23-26) This is no coincidence; neither is the fact that it is contained within a pericope portraying Jesus as a teacher (vv. 21-28). On a narrative level, the Markan author desires to show how Jesus is the one with unique authority: he... Continue Reading →
To view all posts in this review series, please go to its index. INTERVIEW #8 – DOUGLAS GROOTHUIS What happens when God doesn’t intervene? What does the believer do when miracles don’t come? In ch. 13 of The Case for Miracles, Strobel opens with a personal anecdote concerning his wife Leslie who suffers with fibromyalgia. For those who don’t know what... Continue Reading →
INTRODUCTION The central question of the Markan Gospel is found near its narrative center in Mark 8:27-30. “Who do people say that I am?” he queries the disciples on their way to Caesarea Philippi (v. 27). A flurry of answers proceeds: people have speculated he is John the Baptist or Elijah or one of the... Continue Reading →
INTRODUCTION Earlier this year I wrote a short piece on the Matthean and Lukan versions of the death of Judas (Matthew 27:3-10, Acts 1:18-19).[1] In it I argued that the two accounts are fundamentally incompatible and that the standard attempts to reconcile them fall flat for a number of reasons. Recently, blogger Triggerman wrote a piece on what... Continue Reading →
Acknowledgment: I stole the title for this post (i.e. "SJ's Biblical Blunders") from @CounterApologia in a conversation he and I had on Thomason's piece. It was too good not to use! INTRODUCTION I’ve been busy with a major project that will hopefully be out either by the end of this year or the beginning of... Continue Reading →
Note: This is a post written by Chris H. (@unicornwiz) in response to comments made by Richard Carrier (see note #1 below). Chris can be reached on Twitter or at his email address biblicalhistoryskeptic32ad@gmail.com. Richard Carrier apparently responded to my article in a text message to a fellow on Facebook[1] claiming that my knowledge and reading of... Continue Reading →
The first season of Amateur Exegesis is in the books and available on iTunes, Google Play, and other podcast platforms. But I realized that it had no presence on YouTube and so I uploaded all ten episodes onto my channel for your listening pleasure. The entire first season is right at three hours and therefore... Continue Reading →
"This is the only life that we know we get: use it in the best way you know how. Don't wait around for a bonus life that may never come." -@Paulogia0 @Paulogia0 published a video entitled "Why I am Not a Christian" over at his YouTube channel. It isn't intended to be an exhaustive explanation... Continue Reading →
Note: This is a post written by Chris H. (@unicornwiz) in response to a recently published piece by @GodlessEngineer entitled "Inanna's Descent Matches Jesus' Passion Narratives." Chris can be reached on Twitter or at his email address biblicalhistoryskeptic32ad@gmail.com. *Prenote: this revision was made possible thanks to Digital HammurabiWell, today I’m going to do a basic... Continue Reading →
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