Category Archives: uncategorized

“Jesus the Nazarene”—Book Review and Excursus, Pt. 2

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A. Jordan, Jesus the Nazarene: The Talmud and the Founder of Christianity         Wipf & Stock, Eugene Oregon. 2023: 173 pp. The prior post presented the views of the linguist, A. Jordan, regarding The Talmudic “Jesus.” Like me, Jordan sees the Jesus of the Talmud—generally called Yeshu ha-Notsri in Jewish records (never “Jesus of Nazareth”)—as being the “real” Jesus. The Talmudic Jesus lived in the early decades of the first century before the common era and had a completely different biography than Jesus of Nazareth, though some elements seem to have survived in the Christian gospels: the radical nature of the prophet’s teachings, his opposition to the Pharisees, success in gaining converts, trial, and execution by crucifixion. In this post we … Continue reading →

Checking in

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This is my first post since “going dark” 10 months ago, following the apocalyptic election of President Donald Trump. In those months I drafted a few posts and put them aside. I will upload them over the next few weeks. One reason is today’s decision by Trump’s FCC to abandon net neutrality. Folks, we don’t know how long controversial content such as this website will exist freely on the Web, and we need to get our opinions out there while we can do so in an unfettered way.   On a personal note, I’ve managed to read a few of the books in my library (as planned)—but nowhere near as many as hoped. I then succumbed, during the summer, to … Continue reading →

How to get rid of historicists

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        I was composing my regular message to the JesusMysteries list the other day—the group which caters to those who believe Jesus never existed—when suddenly my message got posted while I was still typing away. I figured I’d inadvertently hit the “send” button and checked the message list online. Sure enough, the first half of my message was there, but not the unwritten meaty part where I was really going to lay into historicists. I restarted the computer and began a new message, including an apology and continuing into the real attack on the historical Jesus. Bam! Within seconds the message got posted again and I was sure this time that I didn’t go anywhere near the “send” button.         So I … Continue reading →

16 awesomely important talks at the upcoming SBL-AAR convention

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It’s taken me a whole week just to go through the 500-page program book for the annual SBL megaconvention, a task I completed this morning. Whew! My 25-minute talk on Nazareth will be just one of a gazzillion similar presentations taking place Nov. 17-20. The combination SBL-AAR meeting (my first) will happen at the biggest convention center in the world—McCormick Place in Chicago. For four days I’ll be surrounded by thousands of bible scholars, all excitedly communicating the latest cutting edge religious research. Well, “cutting edge” is in the eye of the beholder. The following is a list of presentations drawn from the program book, all cited verbatim: SBL: – Dining to death: stories of death following eating (25 min) … Continue reading →