When the abolitionist movement really began building up in the States, various ministers went to the Bible in order to show that slavery was not just unChristian, but was unBiblical. In response, those supporting slavery also went to the Bible, and what they came up with as a defense revolves around the Curse of Ham,…
There are two really friendly works that deal with this a bit, and one not so friendly work. The first is From Jesus to Christianity by Michael White. It gets you about four generations out from Jesus. So really the formation of the early church. Of probably most importance though is the split from Judaism,…
Short answer, it’s because we learn more about the languages that compose the Bible, as well as find new manuscripts, that allow for a better translation. Long answer: One of the best books on this subject is Bruce Metzger’s The Text of the New Testament. It does get dense though. One of Metzger’s students, Bart…
Seldom do we have concrete proof of the existence of anyone in the ancient past. Largely, we have to work on probability. What is the most probable situation based on the available evidence? As a whole, the general consensus among scholars and historians is that the probability of Jesus existing is virtually a certainty. We…
Every few years, a new Pew study is done, and the media and others use it to claim that the belief in God is in decline. But each time, the results are generally quite misrepresented and show a misunderstanding of religion in general. So let’s just first start with the numbers. In the last decade,…
During college, a good portion of my coursework ended up centering on how the Bible and religion describes otherness. A big question that I ended up exploring was how the Bible defines otherness, and how it tells you to treat those who are others. The Bible has a lot to say about that subject. I…
Before I start, I’m simply looking at this topic from a historical perspective, with the express purpose of detailing what we can know about Jesus. I’m looking at this particular argument and that’s it. Now to jump into the meme. When talking about sexuality in the ancient world, we have to be careful. We have…
There is a new book published by Oxford University Press that has gotten mythicists in a tizzy. That book is none other than T.C. Schmidt’s Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence for the One Called Christ. As some may imagine, Richard Carrier is one such mythicist who has taken an issue with the new book. And…
When you lie about a person, its best to not lie about something when the proof to the contrary is so easily accessible. This is the situation that Jaaron Wingo, of Christ Before Jesus, has found himself in. In a recent TikTok Live, Wingo attacked me personally and made the claim that I was asking…
Was Mary raped by God? Is the Crucifixion a historical event? These were the topics that I had a chance to discuss with the Godless Engineer, John Gleason. While the topics were clearly controversial, the conversation was pleasant. So this summer, I had the chance to participate in two live discussions. While I’ve done a…