Critical Commentary and Candid Musings on Biblical Studies, Early Christianity, and Contemporary Topics
If Jesus came to save man from sin, but sin is an encumbrance to belief in Jesus, then it makes no sense to precondition salvation on whether the individual affirms belief in the New Testament Gospel. It’s literally putting the cart before the horse.
Like most people reared in the Christian tradition, I spent my formative years thinking that the New Testament gospels were four independent written accounts of the events surrounding the ministry and crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. I was mistaken. Contrary to popular tradition, the gospels were not written independent of each other. The evidence points [...]
The Bible is typically studied as a work of theology and also as historical narrative. But can we study the Bible as…literature? What might we discover about the Bible if we examine its content from a literary standpoint? How might this impact some of our assumptions about the Bible? The books comprising the Bible were [...]
J. Warner Wallace, apologist and author of best-selling book "Cold Case Christianity", insists that all four of the New Testament gospels were written between the 40s and 60s CE (i.e., prior to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE).[1] Wallace dismisses all other non-canonical gospels as unreliable because he asserts that they were [...]
Daring to Ask... How did the Gospel writers come to know the stories they shared? Were the writers themselves witnesses to the events they describe, faithfully recording the testimony of their experiences with Jesus? Perhaps they were told about them through “oral traditions”? To begin with, none of the New Testament gospels claim to be written by [...]
In my previous article ‘When Were the Gospels Written and How Can We Know?’, I remarked that “the [New Testament] Gospels are actually anonymous writings….the titles we are accustomed to seeing were likely added later by scribes.” Gauging from the initial feedback I received, this statement grabbed the attention of a number of readers - [...]
Greetings all! Alas, I am underway with my new blog in which I will explore a variety of topics related to Biblical studies, paying particular attention to the New Testament and other early Christian literature. With this being my inaugural blog post, I can think of no better topic to kick things off than an [...]
In the posts that follow, I would like to take the reader over the stretch of road that I have traveled and continue to traverse in my engagement with Biblical studies, the history and development of early Christianity, and a variety of other related topics. My exploration will not be constrained by any doctrinal dogma or [...]
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