Comments on Earliest Christian History: The problems with eyewitnesses

The most amazing thing about Bauckham's book is th...

2007-11-27T18:15:00.000Z

The most amazing thing about Bauckham's book is the way it illustrates the incredibly low standards of Biblical scholarship.

Such a collection of ad hoc hypotheses, unevidenced assertions, circular reasoning and selective data would never be taken seriously , if the same standards of scholarship were presented in a scientific field.

It is standard Christian apologetic that eyewitnes...

2007-11-27T07:15:00.000Z

It is standard Christian apologetic that eyewitnesses give different accounts of what happened.

Was there one woman present at this SBL session?

Or two women?

Or 3 women?

Or more than 4 women?

Eyewitnesses will vary in saying how many women were there at the SBL session.

Especially if you ask them 30 years after the events.

Roger Aus: you should perhaps get hold of his work...

2007-11-27T06:17:00.000Z

Roger Aus: you should perhaps get hold of his work and read it if you haven't already.

I noticed no one has commented on the most provoca...

2007-11-27T03:46:00.000Z

I noticed no one has commented on the most provocative part of your paper, the relationship of gospel stories to haggadah. What was the name of the scholar you cited for that? I didn't catch it. But I thought that appealing to haggadah as a Jewish form of story invention creates an explanation that undercut Bauckham's objections and is not based on the form critical model with which he has such problems.

There is another possibility, and it is one I have...

2007-11-25T19:36:00.000Z

There is another possibility, and it is one I have convinced myself about for a long time. The documents of the NT were not purely theological produced out of thin air, as West would seem to imply. They are expanded, edited and garbled versions of original documents written by eyewitnesses, and in the case of the Gospel of John possibly derived from a document written by the prophet himself. Indeed the extant texts have all the signs of having been through an extensive editorial process. I cannot believe that the NT text we have did not have behind it a real Jewish prophet and that the original documents were written entirely in and for a Jewish culture. Prophets did signs, not miracles.

James, could you send me your paper? I emailed yo...

2007-11-25T18:02:00.000Z

James, could you send me your paper? I emailed you to ask at your sheffield address and it got bounced back

Almost as frustrating as Tintin. Did they get the...

2007-11-25T03:32:00.000Z

Almost as frustrating as Tintin. Did they get the gist? Not really...

I've opined here:http://drjimwest.wordpress.com/20...

2007-11-25T02:18:00.000Z

I've opined here:

http://drjimwest.wordpress.com/2007/11/24/how-we-now-know-eyewitness-testimony-doesnt-exist/