Reading Time: 12 minutes The Empty Tomb has, for years, been a mainstay for Christian apologists, who claim Jesus rose from the dead in a glorious Resurrection. The Empty Tomb was used as one of the “minimal facts” to “prove” the resurrection of Jesus. So, what exactly is the Empty Tomb apologetic? According to all four gospels (attributed to […]
Gospel of Luke
Posted inReligion
You say ‘Gerasa’ and I say ‘Gadara’
Reading Time: 8 minutes This is a guest post by Lex Lata (prompted by Jonathan MS Pearce’s video, Biblical Contradictions: Demons and Gadara vs Gerasa). In the matter of proper names, the Greek copies are often incorrect, and in the Gospels one might be misled by their authority. The transaction about the swine, which were driven down a steep place by […]
Posted inHistory
No, the Gospel Writers Weren’t Eyewitnesses
Reading Time: 7 minutes A recent comment from the resident Catholic troll commenter seemed to show incredulity at the idea that we might believe that the Gospel authors were not eyewitnesses of Jesus and his ministry. Now, obviously, literalists and conservative Christians maintain they are, but this is hardly surprising. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, on the […]
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Jesus as the New Moses and Theology Historicised
Reading Time: 12 minutes Oddly, you might think, I will start this piece off with something commenter Cath Olic said in reply (that was in no reply at all) to a post about an interview dissecting the origins of religion in Israel and the genesis of Judaism: Today I heard part of an interview with Dr. Holly Ordway who […]
Posted inHistory
Is the Betrayal of Jesus by Judas Historical?
Reading Time: 4 minutes In the closing stages of writing my latest book, The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK] (please grab yourself a copy!), I had a few test readers. One was David Austin, down in Australia, who has provided a few guest articles for your delectation. Here is another one – thanks muchly to him (as […]
Posted inUncategorized
Anointing of Jesus: Fact or Fiction?
Reading Time: 5 minutes In the closing stages of writing my latest book, The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK], I had a few test readers. One was David Austin, down in Australia, who has provided a few guest articles for your delectation. Here is another one – thanks muchly to him: The Anointing of Jesus – Fact […]
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Goodacre on Markan Priority and the Gospel Datings
Reading Time: < 1 minute I listened to some Mark Goodacre some years ago and have referred to him in my own texts, and it was great to watch him here. I loved this talk. I got a lot out of this especially the talk of the destruction of the Temple and the so-called prophecies, and the discussion of Q […]
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Luke 1 & 2 Infancy Narratives as a Later Interpolation
Reading Time: 13 minutes Luke 3:1 opens with an elaborate chronological statement: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was … the word of the Lord came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness”. This surely reads as if it was originally written as the opening section of a book. The impression […]
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Nativity, Census, Quirinius: Refuting Very Poor Christian Apologetics Again. Even More.
Reading Time: 14 minutes As I explained yesterday (perhaps read it for context), I was linked to a vicar apologist challenge for skeptics to lay out a Nativity contradiction. It went like this: I was linked into some challenge from a vicar apologist who was seeking skeptic challengers to find nativity contradictions that he could slam dunk refute (by Dave […]
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My Nativity Debate with Lydia McGrew: Post-Match Analysis
Reading Time: 8 minutes I had a debate over whether the Nativity in Luke and Mark was fact or fairytale on Friday night for the Unbelievable? show on Premier Christian radio. I was warned that McGrew might try the Gish-gallup approach so I should get it in myself. I ended up being indeed fairly scattergun, though not out of […]