"What would lead people to make all this stuff up – all of it – from scratch? Not just embroidering or adding to existing stories about an existing person, but inventing all of the above, including the bits that clearly work against their purposes? So far, I have not heard an adequate explanation for this.... Continue Reading →
For other posts in this series, please visit the series' page. The Christian Defenders' second reason for believing that the Bible is true is that the Bible contains "embarrassing details." They begin, If I were to create a religious book I would make sure its theology, details, and people were flawless. I wouldn’t leave questions... Continue Reading →
"For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people... Continue Reading →
"The assertion by the opposing narrative that Elijah’s wife was a prostitute and later, that Elijah ate her son, does seem a little over the top and may indicate that the opposing narrative itself was propaganda and was responding to an even earlier narrative. But that is a mirror-reading of a mirror-reading, and it’s difficult... Continue Reading →
Gerd Luedemann, The Resurrection of Jesus: History, Experience, Theology (Fortpress Press, 1994), 135. [There] is no really no longer an appearance tradition in [Matthew 28:18-20], although with his meagre 'when they saw him', Matthew is indicating that he wants to relate an Easter story. Rather, what we find here is Easter theology, which forces any vision that happened... Continue Reading →
Gerd Luedemann, The Resurrection of Jesus: History, Experience, Theology (Fortpress Press, 1994), 120-121. It seems to me that the thesis of Elias Bickermann must be discussed once again. He referred to the numerous stories from Christian legends of the saints and Hellenism (including the story of Aristeas related above), in which the empty tomb proved the... Continue Reading →
Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, In the Company of Jesus: Characters in Mark's Gospel (Westminster John Knox Press, 2000), 64-65. Perhaps one's initial impression is of a certain irony to the women's silence: throughout the narrative Jesus asks various characters to be silent and they rarely are; here the "young man" who speaks for Jesus asks the women... Continue Reading →
Gerd Luedemann, The Resurrection of Jesus: History, Experience, Theology (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1994), 107. Conclusion: The appearance before the 'more than 500' [1 Corinthians 15:6] as a historical phenomenon can plausibly be represented as mass ectasy which took place in the early period of the community. Given the nature of mass psychology, the stimulus towards it... Continue Reading →
From Gerd Luedemann, The Resurrection of Jesus: History, Experience, Theology (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, Press, 1994), 99-100. To further an understanding of Peter's "mourning" and "vision", reference should be made in this connection to investigations at Harvard into cases of mourning and the painful loss associated with them. The researcher followed forty-three widows and nineteen widowers through... Continue Reading →
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