Up until now I have only shared thoughts of others and sometimes added my own commentary. Now I think I am in a position where I can put my years of reading together and propose how it appears to me that “Christianity began”. What we recognize as “Christianity” — embrace of the gospels and letters … Continue reading "Understanding Christian Origins (a thesis — intro)"
The post Understanding…
Rene Salm has posted responses to Nazareth-related arguments in Ken Dark’s last three publications. Richard Carrier relies heavily on Ken Dark for the site of first century Nazareth and has recommended others read Dark’s work carefully. My first recommended reading for Carrier is Salm’s detailed analysis of Dark’s claims. Compare the difference: Carrier’s response to … Continue reading "Two…
Sometimes even PhD persons can keep repeating mistakes in their specialist field and I’d like to correct one that has come to my attention. I did attempt to notify their author a few weeks ago, offering to send some of the following citations, but have had no reply. So for everyone else who is interested…. … Continue reading "No, Jerusalem was NOT an “uninhabited ruin” after 70 CE — sacrifices…
I’ve come across more items of a more general interest in the course of my formal studies these last few days: a very old and a very publication favourably arguing that the “abomination of desolation” can only refer to a statue set up in the Jerusalem temple by Hadrian in the 130s CE. Some readers … Continue reading "The Abomination of Desolation in Jesus’ Prophecy – More Scholars Who Support Its…
though Salm also gets pilloried online (example, example, example). You’ll find some excess trust in him at Vridar, where in critiquing prior work by Dark I see too much reliance on the assertions of Salm, whom I find personally shady and untrustworthy.That’s a snippet from Richard Carrier’s new post in which he delivers another polemical, … Continue reading "On Arguing Against Salm Without…
Iran, imagine a sophisticated modern society — no, not some orientalist scenario of violent religious fanatics, nor some cruel despotic regime ruling by terror. But that alternative vision is very hard to see unless one makes some effort to pull aside the propaganda we are constantly being fed. I am posting the following link because … Continue reading "Iran : two Reality Checks"
The post Iran :…
The following is from ZNet. Z has a header that encourages all to share it widely.As many are aware, my husband, Noam Chomsky, now 97, is confronting significant health challenges after suffering a devastating stroke in June 2023. Currently, Noam is under 24/7 medical care and is completely unable to speak or engage in public … Continue reading "Official Statement From Valeria Chomsky Regarding…
A while ago I posted a case for the two witnesses in the Book of Revelation referring to two of the leaders of the second Jewish war, or the Bar Kochba war of 132-135 CE. (Part A, Part B, Part C, Part D). For most of us who have been long immersed in the view … Continue reading "Overlapping Judean-Christian “Son of Man” Interpretations (Daniel 7)"
The post Overlapping Judean-Christian “Son of…
Bayesian reasoning is already used explicitly in some historical sciences such as phylogeny (Felsenstein 2004, 288–306), archaeology (Buck et al. 1996), cosmology (Hobson 2010), and historical linguistics (Greenhill et al. 2020) to justify inferences of probable knowledge of history. In the historiography of the human past, Richard Carrier (2012, 2014) attempted to apply Bayesian reasoning ……
Fast forward to 3 minutes 25 seconds and listen through to 7 minutes 40 seconds . . . — reports how Netanyahu gave Trump no option, no choice . . .
The post How Israel Compelled the US to Attack Iran — according to the Hebrew Press in Israel appeared first on Vridar.
William Wrede’s The Messianic SecretPart 12: Secrecy in the Gospel of JohnI can hardly believe that my last post in this series appeared here a decade ago. Yes, I knew I hadn’t finished, but never underestimate the power of inertia. Oddly enough, a random YouTube video caused me return to Wrede (and the scholars who … Continue reading "Reading Wrede Again for the First Time, Part 12"
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So Richard has stooped to changing his post in the light of my critique and I am unable to leave a reply to him on his blogsite. (He points out that he made a change to respond to me but only at the very end of a long comment trail.) Carrier initially wrote: Vridar’s critiques … Continue reading "Twice, Richard Carrier Does Not Read What He Argues Against"
The post Twice, Richard Carrier Does…
Two weeks ago I posted How Israel Compelled the US to Attack Iran — according to the Hebrew Press in Israel but I have since been reminded of a 2009 Brookings Institute policy paper, Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy Toward Iran, that discussed the pros and cons of that narrative … Continue reading "Revisiting the “Israel Compelled the US to Attack Iran” Narrative"
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Why is this important? If we want an honest discussion about what Wrede got wrong or right, we need to know what he really said. Scholars often make two variations on the same mistake. 1. Claiming Wrede said something he actually never said. 2. Claiming Wrede failed to say something that he actually did say. … Continue reading "Wrede Club: Some Recent Examples of “Wredegeheimnis” (1)"
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My studies have led me to another item I think will be of a wider interest: a hypothesis to explain the origin of a “heavenly Christ” myth. It is from Christoph Markschies’ Valentinus Gnosticus? (1992). Valentinus, Marcion and “proto-orthodox” Christian leaders migrated to Rome after the Bar Kochba war and engaged in discussions and debates … Continue reading "How Gnostic Myths Arose from The…
If we read the Gospel of Mark as one of the foundational documents of what became “orthodox Christianity” — it is, after all, widely acknowledged to be the earliest of our canonical gospels — we might do well to read it “on its own terms”, and not through the perspectives of Matthew, Luke and John. … Continue reading "The Gospel of Mark as a Dark, Honest Beginning for Confused and Disoriented…
In this post, we’ll examine the arguments against Wrede presented by Ian Mills on Derek Lambert’s Mythvision Podcast. I’ll start with a list of things he gets right, and then we’ll see where he flies off the rails. What Ian Gets Right He doesn’t call William Wrede “Wilhlem.” Surprisingly, this is still a problem. Here’s … Continue reading "Wrede Club: Some Recent Examples of “Wredegeheimnis”…
This post will conclude our analysis of Ian Mills’s arguments against Wrede, presented on Derek Lambert’s MythVision Podcast. “Faithful” translations There are no nails or crosses here, only trees. Before we get to Wrede, I’d like to quote from the Acts of the Apostles. First, from the Contemporary English Version, which proudly claims to be … Continue reading "Wrede Club: Some Recent Examples of…
If only I was achieving these results in my 20s…..
The post Vridar’s Current Qualifications appeared first on Vridar.
Here is another snippet from my studies research that also has a place here . . . .Ian Mills has a newly published book, The Hypothesis of the Gospels: Narrative Traditions in Hellenistic Reading Culture, that explains one important facet of the literary culture in which the gospels were written. It is a distillation from … Continue reading "Understanding Why Narratives about Jesus Differ — and…
Persia, Iran, the Orient — images of cruelty, despotism, oppression and suffering of the masses beneath their tyrannical overlords, extremists, bloodthirsty, unnaturally libidinous, filled with murderous rage against the modern outside world that they cannot understand, deceitful, conniving, greedy, bribers, disloyal, cowardly, servile, childish even …. that is the Orientalist view that still…
We are familiar enough with the claims that the mention of the sons of Simon of Cyrene who carried the cross of Jesus indicates that they were real people: the first audience of the Gospel of Mark must have known them personally because there is no other mention of them in the other gospels. Well, … Continue reading "Once more on Alexander and Rufus, the sons of Simon of Cyrene"
The post Once…
The usual way of doing history is to start with the ancient sources and move forwards. So for Christian origins we might start with the canonical gospels, sift out what is not plausible (e.g. rising from the dead), massage a little what seems plausible for the times of the story setting (e.g. a would-be messiah … Continue reading "Doing History Backwards — and Discovering Christian Origins (or…
The post Finding the Author of the First…
