CADRE Comments

I have a new website that is designed to eventually replace Doxa. I'm just unveiling it so I have still a lot of stuff to up up. It's mostly new material, I have some things form Doxa but I'm trying to update everything and basically just start over. This site is mostly arguments about God and belief at this point, but I expect to cover all the categories covered by Doxa: God, Jesus, Bible, Science, Theology,  Society. It also features a lot of articles from this blog on the problems of atheism. I have included the best arguemnts on my realizing God approach from this blog and other aspects from the blog. The site is here: The Religious A Priori

Scholars frequently pronounce the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist as one of the firmest historical facts about Jesus’ life. See, e.g. , James D.G. Dunn, Jesus Remembered , Vol. I, pages 350 (“This is one of the most securely grounded facts in all the history of Jesus.”); Robert H. Stein, Mark , page 55 (“Jesus’s baptism by John is one of the most certain historical facts we possess concerning the life of Jesus.”). This post will focus on the account of Jesus’ baptism in Mark and a challenge to its historicity from Neil G. at Vridar . Here is the relevant passage. John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey. And he was preaching, and s...

Part 2 of the post is on Doxa

  As with many pieces on my sight it's written to be more like debate briefs than an essay. But don't let that get in the way,  It's a series of quotations with explains about why I'm using them. Jews self censored the Talmud to remove mentions of Jesus, thus modern Jews deny that it is talking about him, while ancient rabbis used examples supposedly speaking of him for centuries. But what cannot be denied is that the Talmud gives evidence of Christians believing in Jesus as a flesh and blood rabbi from the late first century, which contradicts the Jesus myth theory. There is a history of the Talmud The Babylonian Talmud translated by MICHAEL L. RODKINSON Book 10 (Vols. I and II) [1918] The History of the Talmud from Vol I chapter II Thus the study of the Talmud flourished after the destruction of the Temple, although beset with great difficulties and desperate struggles. All his days, R. Johanan b. Zakkai was obliged to dispute with Sadducee and Bathu...

Introductory note from Jason Pratt: see here for the previous entry; and see here for the first entry of the series. (It explains what I'm doing, and how, and contains the Johannine prologue.) The Forerunner of the King (With all the prologues now completed, the Disciple and the Scholar are newly joined by the Follower in telling the story; soon to be joined again by the Evangelist, too.) Jesus continued to grow in wisdom and strength, in favor before God and men. (His cousin John, son of Zechariah, also) continued to grow, becoming strong in the Spirit, and he lived in the wastes until the day of his public appearance in Israel--which happened (says the Scholar) in the fifteenth year of the (Imperial) government of Tiberius Caesar: when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea; and Herod (Antipas, son of Herod the Great) was tetrarch of Galilee; and his brother Philip ruled as tetrarch of Iturea and of the Trachonitis district; and Lysanias ruled as tetrarch of Abilene. ....... The ...