Mark, Manuscripts, and Monotheism: A Festschrift for Larry Hurtado
It is now public knowledge that there is a new Festschrift coming out for my friend and doktorvater at the University of Edinburgh, Larry W. Hurtado. It is entitled: Mark, Manuscripts, and Monotheism (T&T Clark, 2014). Originally the big announcement was going to be made at SBL this November (with all the contributors present), but the cat was accidentally let out of the bag early.
The collection of essays in this new volume, edited by my fellow Edinburghers, Chris Keith and Dieter Roth, are centered around the themes of the Gospel of Mark, ancient Manuscripts, and early Christology–three subject areas that have dominated Larry’s research. While most of the … Continue reading...
Francis Watson, Gospel Writings: A Canonical Perspective, Westminster Theological Journal 76 (2014)
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Gospel Critics and the Argument from Silence
“You can’t say everything.” This is one of the refrains I often cite to my students as we discuss historical documents. When ancient authors put quill to papyrus (or parchment), we need to remember that they had a limited amount of space, a limited amount of time, a limited number of goals, and often a very specific purpose for which they wrote.
Inevitably, therefore, an historical account will include some things that other historical accounts (of the same event) might omit, and they might omit some things that other historical accounts might include.
This reality is particularly important to remember when the Gospel accounts are analyzed and compared with one … Continue reading...
Did Jesus Claim to be God? A Response to Bart Ehrman (Part 3)
Note: This is the third installment of a series of blog posts reviewing Bart Ehrman’s new book, How Jesus Became God–The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee (HarperOne, 2014). For the prior post see here and here.
Not surprisingly, one of the major tenets in Ehrman’s argument is that Jesus never considered himself to be God, nor ever claimed to be God. In order to make his case, Ehrman summarizes his arguments from his book, Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (Oxford, 2001), and says that Jesus just viewed himself as an apocalyptic prophet who was ushering in the Kingdom of God (basically Albert Schweitzer redivivus).
Here … Continue reading...
My Review of “Gospel Writing” by Francis Watson
I just received the latest issue of the Westminster Theological Journal which contains my review of Francis Watson’s latest volume, Gospel Writing: A Canonical Perspective (Eerdmans, 2013).
This volume is an impressive piece of work, covering a wide range of issues related to Gospel origins. As can be expected with any book, I agreed with some parts, disagreed with others, and am still pondering a few things.
In particular, I was interested in Watson’s view of canon. Without diving into the details of the book, his canonical model is quite similar to the “Canonical Criticism” approach I outline in my book Canon Revisited (p. 48-59). Generally speaking, this was the … Continue reading...