The Memory Mavens, Part 7: When Terms Matter
In foreign policy, the United States — especially in the last hundred years or so — has tried to have it both ways: assiduously following the Constitution and domestic law, as well as keeping within...
View ArticleBart Ehrman: Jesus Before the Gospels, Basic Element 1: Maurice Halbwachs
Nearly a year ago, while reading Bart Ehrman’s blog, I became aware that he was writing a book on memory. That news gave me no joy. My sense of unease, if not distress, did not diminish even when he...
View ArticleBart Ehrman: Jesus Before the Gospels, Basic Element 2: Form Criticism
In my previous post, I discussed the basic element of Bart Ehrman’s understanding of Maurice Halbwachs, the founder of the study of collective memory. This time, I’d like to focus on his remarks...
View ArticleLittle White Lies: Is the NT the Best Attested Work from Antiquity?
What does it mean to say that a written work from ancient times is “well attested”? If you browse Christian apologetic web sites, you’ll read that the manuscript evidence for the New Testament is...
View ArticleBart Ehrman: Jesus Before the Gospels, Basic Element 4: Genre
In the last installment, we covered oral tradition. As I look over the post now, I see that I missed several opportunities to add the adjective, “rich.” Biblical scholars love to write the words “rich...
View Article“In Most Worlds, You Don’t Even Exist”— Miracles and Probability
Recently, while watching our favorite apoplectic antimythicist discuss “The Case of the Historical Jesus,” something the Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature said caught...
View ArticleBart Ehrman: Jesus Before the Gospels, Basic Element 5: Memory Distortion
In our last post, we discussed the genre of the gospels. We saw that Bart Ehrman, at least for this book (Jesus Before the Gospels), chooses to gloss over the issue of genre, and simply assumes that...
View ArticleJust How Dangerous Is Mythicism?
In hindsight, I think we were unnecessarily cruel to Mr. Griffin, our misfit freshman science teacher. Behind his back, we referred to him by his initials, R.A.G., and sang that old “Rag Mop” song. He...
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