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...
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...
Did the Earliest Christians Think Jesus Was an Angel? A Response to Bart Ehrman (Part 2)
Note: This is the second 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.
Ehrman’s core argument is that Jesus was a mere man who gradually, over time, came to be regarded as more and more divine, until he was ultimately (in the fourth century) regarded as the God of the universe. He states, “It will become clear in the following chapters that Jesus was not originally considered to be God in any sense at all, and that he eventually became divine for his followers in some … Continue reading...
Talking Bart Erhman Tonight with Greg Koukl on Stand to Reason
There has been a lot of buzz about Bart Ehrman’s latest volume, How Jesus Became God (HarperOne, 2014). Ehrman tackles the issue of early Christology, in particular how early Christians came to regard Jesus as divine.
Not surprisingly, Erhman rejects the traditional Christian view on the subject, namely that Jesus was regarded as God because he claimed to be God and was, in fact, God. Ehrman offers an alternative thesis:
…It will become clear in the following chapters that Jesus was not originally considered to be God in any sense at all, and that he eventually became divine for his followers in some sense before he came to be thought
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Bible Secrets Revealed: The Complete Series
For the last few months I have been working through the various episodes of Bible Secrets Revealed from the History Channel. This series challenges a number of popular beliefs and conceptions that people hold about the Bible, and raises questions about the integrity and reliability of the Scriptures. In each of the posts below, I summarize the main content of each episode and offer an evaluation and response.
This entire series has reminded me of two critical truths:
1. Our popular culture is prone to distort and misrepresent the teachings of the Bible. I was struck again by how sensationalistic and misleading popular-level programming can actually be when it … Continue reading...