The Jesus Discovery

A nice roundup of what we know about the program airing over Easter, based on Prof. James Tabor's "Jesus Discovery", can be found on Jim West's blog, with a wealth of links for those who want to investigate further.  As Jim tactfully puts it...

On April 12th (just at the Easter Season passes) the Discovery Channel will air a program called ‘The Jesus Discovery’.  Watch it if you must.  Buy the book if you must.  But before you do there’s something you need to know: it is a load of nonsense.

Human Bible 3

Bob Price's latest Human Bible podcast is now up.

"...we get up to speed on the many names of God—can't he just pick one already? We answer questions on plagues and virgin births, wonder where C.S. Lewis came up with some of that stuff, and read into the verse that claims Paul took over for Jesus when he wasn't quite suffering enough—wait, what? Don't miss it!"

The Art of Biblical Interpretation?

This graphic appeared on Gary's ex-WCG blog. 

Great reflection on Ehrman's Jesus

John Shuck has packed an awful lot into his post on Bart Ehrman's Did Jesus Exist?  Nothing dogmatic (John isn't the dogmatic type), just some amazing double-edged sword-style questioning. A brief excerpt.

Dr. Ehrman's book deserves to be read.  He also provides a helpful bibliography of both mythicist literature and historical Jesus (and related topics) literature.   Dr. Erhman believes that he has provided a rock solid case.   It could very well be that Dr. Ehrman is right.

I find his apocalyptic Jesus really depressing.   That Jesus is hard to preach.  I am not sure if we have to have Jesus resemble Harold Camping to be a real guy.   We might be skeptical of a Jesus we admire, but we might also be skeptical of a Jesus we despise.  It may be equally hard to accept that Jesus is an onion.  Peel off each layer of fiction until you get to...nothing?  Give this country preacher a break!  I have to encourage the folks, you know?

I do think this book will open this debate wider, not settle it.  All I mean by saying that is that movements that are outside the academy grow when they get a response from someone "inside the beltway" like Dr. Ehrman.   The mythicist movement is certainly uneven.   Much of it as Dr. Ehrman points out is amateurish.  But there are credible academics (Carrier, Price, Thompson and others) whose arguments may get better, more refined, and more accepted over time.   More may join them.

Indeed, and in fact their arguments are pretty refined in the here and now (witness Price's latest book), even if not widely accepted.  That, I think, has less to do with the rigour of those arguments than the domination of the field by those driven by faith commitments. 

Meanwhile Bob Price has announced that an anthology of essays in rebuttal is being planned by the very same scholars who got slagged off in DJE, to be published by American Atheist Press.  This dust storm ain't dying down any time soon...

More Canon Fodder

Debate on the canon continues in America's most distinctive tabloid church publication, The Journal: News of the Churches of God.  A version of my own canon article appears in the latest issue along with the following letter from David V. Barrett.

I see your [Dixon Cartwright's] Bible-canon rethink has created some waves.

It’s a matter of scholarship vs. belief, I suppose. I think you pointed out that the first list of the New Testament as we know it was as late as Athanasius in A.D. 367.

In many early Christian churches several books (Revelation and six epistles including Hebrews) were regarded as “doubtful,” and others (the Epistle of Barnabas, Shepherd of Hermas and Apocalypse of Peter) were often included in the canon.

But even today different parts of Christianity have different versions of the Bible — not just the Catholic and Protestant inclusion or exclusion of the Apocrypha but the Eastern Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox churches—including several extra books.

We tend to take the Bible as “given.” But the complications of its composition, the fluidity of its content—and the authenticity of some of the books such as 2 Peter — really deserve more attention from those who have it as their sacred text.

Speaking of the book of Revelation, imagine how much less apocalyptic certain preachers would have been — William Miller, Herbert W. Armstrong, Harold Camping, Ronald Weinland — if Revelation hadn’t made it in.

I’m giving a talk on failed prophecies of Jesus’ imminent return next week before someone else’s talk on 2012 prophecies. I’ll finish up by saying we won’t need to worry about December 2012 if Ron Weinland’s right about May 27.

David V. Barrett
London, England

Also included in this issue is discussion of women's ordination in the COG tradition, a tribute - along with some interesting historical background - to the late Charles Hunting, formerly a high profile WCG evangelist.  There's a half page ad from William Dankenbring headlined "The Armstrong Era is OVER - It's Time to Move Forward!"  (Guess in which general direction Dankenbring would like you to move!)  And, of course, for COG news addicts, that's just a selection of what's on offer.  Once again Dixon Cartwright has provided a full PDF version of the paper for free download, which you can access here.

Update:  You know this is a better than usual issue of The Journal when LCG's Doc. Thiel throws a hissy fit over its contents.

The latest issue (print date February 29, 2012) of The Journal just arrived here electronically.  The two main topics of this issue were related to the role of women as possible pastors etc. and arguments about the biblical canon... overall, this was one of the most disappointing issues ever of The Journal.  Typically, I quote, link, and comment about certain parts of The Journal, but today I will not quote it nor link to it.

Dopiest BBC Religion Article Yet

Idiot Anglos pontificating - as usual - about what they wot not.  Himmel!

Germans can't escape their Lutheran past.

Biff Baff Bart

It's great entertainment.

Bart Ehrman has waded in on the mythicism debate, and trying to keep up with the responses is likely to give you whiplash.

I'm halfway through the book in question, Did Jesus Exist?  While I'm a fan of Ehrman, I wouldn't count this as his best work.  It's a cursory treatment, with a whiff of sniffing disdain.  Maybe it improves in the second half.  I hope so.  Regardless, it doesn't seem an adequate response to Earl Doherty, Bob Price or even George Wells. 

So did Jesus exist?  Uh, which Jesus?  The Jesus of the Jesus Seminar?  The Jesus of bleeding heart Catholic iconography?  The Jesus of Joel Osteen?  The plaster Jesus that hung above the altar at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in my childhood?

No, no, no, no.

The Jesus of the gospel stories, understood - as most folk do - literally?

Get outa here!

The real Jesus, the bloke obscured behind the layered myth?  Is he, if he lies hidden at the heart of these many legends, recoverable.  If he is, then I side with Ehrman.  He must have been an apocalyptic prophet who only faintly resembled the many projections that Christians have invented in his stead.  If he isn't recoverable, the whole question becomes moot.  The stranger of Galilee remains an utter stranger, and his putative existence doesn't make much difference.

Meantime the battle (should that be bartle?) lines have formed, and the generals are huffing and puffing, talking past each other, clarifying, explaining, re-explaining, reclarifying, taking pot shots.

If you're into this sort of thing it's probably the best show in town.