burning flames

and are their claims mirrored in other scholarly work?

http://www.rationalrevolution.net/ar...th_history.htm

http://www.rationalrevolution.net/ar...ospel_mark.htm

Zeichman

They do not represent scholarly consensus in the least.

burning flames

so they are some guy reandomly going through the gospel and relating it to the old testament? its fairly convincing...

Zeichman

There's a huge matter of the excluded middle; appeal to epic traditions does not preclude historicity. He also overlooks important issues like multiple attestation of various stories, earlier forms of stories, etc.

Several of his parallels are extremely dubious and should be attributed to common cultural concerns of the time which strike the modern reader in a way they would not a person of antiquity.

If you're looking to get started in terms of critical biblical studies, I'd suggest looking into NT introductions written by Bart Ehrman or Steph(v?)en Harris, who are well qualified and present accessible and scholarly presentations of where biblical studies are at, without appealing to a Christian paradigm. What, specifically, are you looking for in terms of your study?

Toto

These are by Malachi151, who posts here.

burning flames

well im interested in where christianity may have come from if it is not true, I just want to know more about it. I want to know everything. I want to know about its basis in other world myths if that is the case.

Zeichman

Scholars do not think highly of the idea of Christianity "borrowing" from other religions such as mystery cults and whatnot. Though that's pretty popular online, you'd have a tough time finding scholars assert that. That said, there was a certain amount of Hellenistic and Roman cultural and intellectual influence on the Jews who were later identified as Christians. I think familiarizing yourself with major issues and concepts in study of the New Testament might be a good way to start. If you read a good introduction to the NT, you'll probably find something that'll really pique your interest (Historical Jesus, a specific gospel, Paul, Q, other epistles, etc.). Harris, from what I recall, does decent job of introducing the intellectual (and religious) world of First Century Palestine.

The New Testament: A Student's Introduction (or via: amazon.co.uk) by Stephen Harris (who is my preference) and A Brief Introduction to the New Testament (or via: amazon.co.uk) by Bart D. Ehrman are both really solid. They're not the cheapest books, but since they're frequently textbooks, you can probably find a used copy at a really reasonable price.

For something that requires less of a financial commitment, I would strongly suggest Mark Goodacre's NT Gateway website. http://ntgateway.com/ He differs from the consensus at some points, but nonetheless provides a great resource with that website.

Toto

You are thinking of Christian scholars?

Is this just not a more politically corrent version of your first sentence? Hellenistic Judaism was a vibrant religion around the time of Christianity.

Mythra

Thanks, Zeichman, for those references. I'm going to get the Stephen Harris book and check it out. After all the discussion about Burton Mack we had in another thread, I went ahead and ordered "Who Wrote the New Testament" by him. Are you familiar with Mack or this book?

Michael

Zeichman

No. I simply thinking of individuals with PhDs in the New Testament who are alive today.

I don't think so... Perhaps you could elaborate.

I'm not too fond of the term "Hellenistic Judaism" either, I think it's been rather unfashionable as of late. Galilean, Judean, Samaritan, and Diaspora Judaisms, I think, are the preferred nomenclature.

Mythra:
I'm very familiar with Mack. He, aside from Price, is debatably the most radical scholar in NT studies today. Though I disagree with a lot of his exegesis, he rightfully places a large emphasis on theory and does a valiant attempt to get out of the Luke-Acts/Eusebian paradigm for Christian origins. It's probably a good idea to balance him out with someone like Harris, which I see you're doing. Mack does a great job of making extremely complex ideas very accessible. Even though I disagree with a lot of what he says, I get something new from his books EVERY time I read them. I'd be delighted to discuss him more once your book comes. He's a very exciting author, and I'm glad to have seen him speak once.