CADRE Comments

PART 6: SPECIAL AUTHORITATIVE SNOWFLAKES SHATTERING ON A TOMB In recent parts of this series (which starts back here) , I've been looking at how various subtle problems around the empty tomb in the Gospel narratives, just don't mesh well with the idea that GosMark's author invented the empty tomb. I've passed by the topic of today's entry a couple of times already, but now I'm going to focus a squinty eye on it more closely. (If I sound not that reverent to some parts of the topic, that's because per Part 1 I'm talking about why I would think GosMark's author did not invent the empty tomb even if I was an atheist.) 6.) The canonicals, including GosMark, jump through hoops to make the blundering apostles relevant authorities to their readers, especially thanks to being eyewitnesses to the risen Jesus who posthumously reaffirms their authority, gives them spiritual power, etc. But in none of the accounts, including GosMark, and even including t...

PART 4: LOVE A TOMB At this point rather than providing a summary, it's probably better to just start back at Part 1 with the introduction of the question, or Part 2 with the first decisive reason why I answer, "Nope, I don't think it's possible that GosMark's author did invent the empty tomb," and why I would argue that even if I was an atheist. But in Part 3 , I ended by pointing out that even though the tomb story was clearly accepted by Christian groups broadly without any known early competition against it and without any evident problems in itself, tomb stories did still tend to come with associated problems. And those associated problems, I'll be arguing, add to the evaluation. One such problem, mentioned back in Part 1, is that, whenever GosMatt was written, at least some Jewish opponents were appealing to a very early accusation, with authoritative force, of disciples having stolen the body; an explanation that, despite its own associate...

PART 1: A SEPULCHRAL NO GosMark's author sheerly invented the empty tomb of Jesus of Nazareth! {/clickbait} This has long been an article of faith for fringe sceptical theories; the most recent wave of which was kicked off back in the 90s by Burton Mack popularizing the theory during the heydey of the Jesus Seminar. Ideas that Mark invented the empty tomb tend to be associated with developmental theories of John Dominic Crossan as well, although he actually argues (somewhat notoriously in how he goes about it and what he tries to make of it) that someone else invented the empty tomb tradition much earlier than Mark did! (For sake of expediency I'm using "Mark" as a shorthand for "the author", without intending an assumption of author identity. More on this qualification soon.) JDC essentially argues that Mark borrowed written material, much later also found in GosPeter. The actual argument for pre-Markan written tomb material (even from Cross...

New to the series? I recommend tracing back through previous entries to catch up. Part 8 is here. Part 9: Some Body, Give Us A Summary! I have covered plenty of ground since I began discussing the Key (GosMatt 28:11b-15); so a reminder and summary of developed positions may be handy. I have arranged the positions in a rough combination of evident chronology and topicality. 1.) A man named Jesus existed--the same man whom GosMatt's writer (and his sources, if any) wrote about (and more importantly, for this study, were talking about to some Jews): i.e., Yeshua bar-Yosef, Jesus son of Joseph, Jesus the Nazarene, who came to be called by some: Kristos, Hamaschia, Messiah, the Anointed One. (The Jewish opposition to GosMatt's writer and his audience, or the ones our author had in mind anyway, were not saying "This guy never existed" or "You've got the wrong guy, you should be talking about..." They were saying "Yeah, and his disciples stole his body!...

New to the series? I recommend tracing back through previous entries to catch up. Part 7 is here. Part 8: So Why a Theft? On top of everything else so far, I can build some more inferences from the fact that the counter-Christian report (being addressed by the author of GosMatt in the Key) was "the •disciples• •stole• the body". I will present the most remote and tenuous inference first. If the disciples had to "steal" the body, then by implication the disciples had no legal right to its possession. This (if I am not inferring too far) would be an indication that whoever did have the body, was not one of the people commonly recognized to be Jesus' disciples. Yet neither (certainly) did any of the State Departments have total possession of the body. Yet (again) whoever controlled the body was someone who had enough clout to keep one of the State Departments (namely the Sanhedrin, who set the guards over the body) from simply taking the body themselves and putti...

This post represents the fourth in a series of responses to an article entitled Biblical authority reveals little-known facts about Jesus which is available through the online edition of the Wilmington Star . The first can be found here , the second can be found here , and the third can be found here . The article features nine little-known facts about Jesus as revealed by John Dominic Crossan, one of the founding members and best known stars of the Jesus Seminar . As will be seen, several of the "facts" when taken at face-value are, in fact, true about Jesus or Christianity. However, many of Dr. Crossan’s quotes following the facts show that Dr. Crossan doesn’t quite have a firm grasp on why they are true. Fact 7. Jesus was not traveling to Jerusalem to provoke the Romans. Again, I find I am in complete agreement with the phrase used by Crossan. Sure, I agree wholeheartedly that Jesus' purpose in traveling to Jerusalem wasn't to provoke the Romans. The Bible doesn...

This post represents the third in a series of responses to an article entitled Biblical authority reveals little-known facts about Jesus which is available through the online edition of the Wilmington Star . The first can be found here and the second can be found here . The article features nine little-known facts about Jesus as revealed by John Dominic Crossan, one of the founding members and best known stars of the Jesus Seminar . As will be seen, several of the "facts" when taken at face-value are, in fact, true about Jesus or Christianity. However, many of Dr. Crossan’s quotes following the facts show that Dr. Crossan doesn’t quite have a firm grasp on why they are true. Fact 5. The kingdom of God is about the here and now. Once again, I find myself nodding in agreement with what Crossan says because, taken at face value, it is certainly true that the kingdom of God is about the "here and now" provided it is understood that it is not exclusively about the her...

This post represents the second in a series of responses to an article entitled Biblical authority reveals little-known facts about Jesus which is available through the online edition of the Wilmington Star . The first can be found here . The article features nine little-known facts about Jesus as revealed by John Dominic Crossan, one of the founding members and best known stars of the Jesus Seminar . As will be seen, several of the "facts" when taken at face-value are, in fact, true about Jesus or Christianity. However, many of Dr. Crossan’s quotes following the facts show that Dr. Crossan doesn’t quite have a firm grasp on why they are true. Fact 4. John the Baptist was more important to Jesus than just as his baptizer. This is obviously true, but not for the reason that Crossan states. First, John the Baptist (or "John the Baptizer" as he is called by people who want to avoid suggesting that John the Baptist had a denominational affiliation with the Baptist Chu...

Who knows more about the history of Jesus Christ than John Dominic Crossan? So begins an article entitled Biblical authority reveals little-known facts about Jesus which is available through the online edition of the Wilmington Star . Personally, I think that the quick answer to her question would be that anyone who understands that the miracles described in the Bible are the result of God's miraculous intervention into our human world and not the result of the early Christians making up stories about Jesus knows more about Jesus than John Dominic Crossan. Crossan, who is one of the founding members and best known stars of the Jesus Seminar (a group who I personally find to be bent upon the destruction of Biblical Christianity while pretending to be Christian), is one of my least favorite expositors of the Bible because of his faulty assumptions (many of which are spelled out in articles that are linked to the CADRE Jesus Seminar page ). Despite the fact that the interview was wit...