CADRE Comments

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 Good Portion Now at their going (says the Scholar), Jesus went into a certain village. [Footnote: Bethany, according to other story contexts--what we would call a suburb of Jerusalem over on the other side of Olivet Hill, where Jesus would often stay at night when He was in the area.] And a certain woman named Martha entertained Him in her home; and she had a sister named Mary, who sat at the feet of the Lord (i.e. learning as a disciple from a rabbi), hearing the Word of the Lord. Now the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered together around Him when they had come from Jerusalem (say the Follower and the Disciple); and seeing that some of His disciples are eating their bread with impure hands... --that is, unwashed (explains the Follower for his audience), for the Pharisees and al...

Geza Vermes is one of the top scholars on the life of Jesus and perhaps the leading scholar on the Dead Sea Scrolls. In this book, he turns his attention to the resurrection of Jesus. Unfortunately, the book lacks depth and fails to grapple seriously with alternative scholarly perspectives. References to other works are few. There are no footnotes, though there are a few non-referenced endnotes. That is not to say that Vermes is not an accomplished scholar. He surely is and because of that I was interested in his conclusions. But the conclusions of even a respected scholar cannot be divorced from his reasoning and interaction with other scholarship. Vermes covers the usual bases, albeit briefly. He discusses the development of resurrection belief in early Judaism, the interim period, and then during Jesus’ time, including the New Testament. Few of his conclusions are beyond the pale, but time and again Vermes reaches them with little discussion and almost no interaction with ...

On February 3, 2008, atheist mathematician John Allen Paulos wrote an article for ABC News in which he raises a series of questions that he thinks ought to be asked of the Presidential candidates (primarily on the Republican side) about faith and the Presidency. To my knowledge, the article entitled Putting Candidates' Religion to the Test: Twelve Irreligious Questions for the Candidates Before "Tiw's Day's" Elections was not answered by any of the candidates. While some of the questions are directed specifically towards Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, I thought that the questions alone were so loaded that it would be worthwhile to evaluate the questions. I thought that the best way to do so would be to answer the questions that he posted as if I were the candidate running. Hence, just for giggles, here is how I would have answered his questions if I were running for President (substituting my pseudonym for that of the Presidential candidate to whom a particular q...

Last year, a book with accompanying film entitled "The Jesus Tomb" claimed that the burial box of Jesus -- the same Jesus revered as the risen Savior by millions of Christians -- had been found. Published on this blog were several articles (many of which can be found here ) that contained arguments and resources for reasonably concluding that the claims by the authors/filmmakers were . . . well, more than a bit forced. As time has passed, it seems to me that few people, if anyone, still claims that this particular tomb at Talipot was the tomb of the same Jesus, son of Joseph, who is revered in the Bible. Now, apparently some new filmmakers have decided to follow in the footsteps of the original film and book. They have chosen to re-examine the evidence and in the process interview the very same experts that the original filmmakers used to buttress their rather weak arguments. The result of these new filmmakers' efforts is a new documentary film entitled "The Jesus To...

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.) Blind Sheep, Blind Shepherds, and the Door of Life Now (says the Evangelist, telling of something several months later), the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles (early-to-mid autumn) was near. So the brothers of Jesus said to Him: "Leave here and go into Judea, so your disciples (there) may also behold your works which you are doing. For no one does anything in hiding when he is seeking publicity--if you are doing these things, reveal yourself to the world!" For not even His brothers were trusting Him (to know what He was doing). Jesus therefore said to them, "This is not My season yet; but the season for you is always here. The world cannot hate you; but it hates Me, because I testify about it that its acts are evil. "Go up to the feast yourselves; I am not going up to this fe...

CADRE contributor, the Dawn Treader, has announced on his blog that Chuck Colson will be visiting and exchanging comments on the blog on Wednesday. According to The Dawn Treader's Monday entry : Attention Dawn Treader readers. Chuck Colson, author and founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries and Breakpoint radio and worldview ministry, will be paying a visit to Dawn Treader this Wednesday, March 5th. What brings Chuck Colson to this little corner of the blogosphere? I asked Mr. Colson a question related to his new Zondervan book, The Faith . He will respond to my question and engage with you and me in the comments of that post. Look for Wednesday's post! Let's get a good discussion going.

On February 5, 2008, Dr. Francis Collins gave a talk to a packed house at Stanford, discussing his ideas on God and science. The Stanford Review has given a really nice review of his thoughts in an article entitled The Language of God: Francis Collins Speaks at Stanford . One of the interesting parts of the article is a report on Collins' discussion of the limits of naturalism. The article notes: According to Collins, “naturalism has its limits,” and “science also requires faith.” For example, scientific laws require a certain faith that the world will behave in “certain predictable ways.” Collins emphasized, however, that science does not provide us with the right instruments to prove the existence of God because God is outside of nature, contrasting his argument to that of atheist-biologist Richard Dawkins, author of the book The God Delusion. He went so far as to say that such thinking is a “logical pothole,” which Dawkins, who is scheduled to speak at Stanford in the near futur...

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.) This chapter was longer than usual, so I'm presenting it in two parts. The scripture references will be given at the end of this part. Passings Over (Part 2 of 2) On that morning (tells the Evangelist, alone for this part of the story), the crowds standing over on the other side of the lake (where Jesus had taught the day before) saw there was no other small boat there, except one, and that Jesus had not gotten into this boat with His disciples but had gone away alone. Other small boats from Tiberias (about 3-1/2 miles across the lake from Bethsaida-Julias, in the southwest quarter of Lake Galilee, by which the Romans named the lake 'Tiberius' as the Evangelist says) came near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks. When the crowds therefore saw th...

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.) This chapter is longer than usual, so I'm presenting it in two parts. The scripture references will be given at the end of part 2. Passings Over (Part 1) Now the birthday of Herod (Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee) had come (tells the Follower, with the Disciple--sometime in early spring, based on various implications); and for his birthday he made a feast inviting his captains and magnates and other foremost men of Galilee. And at the feast, the daughter of (his wife) Herodias enters and dances in their midst, pleasing Herod and those who lay back with him (at the dinner table). Now the king said to the maiden, "Ask me whatever you want, and I will give it to you!" And he (even) swears an oath to her: "Whatever you may be asking of me, I will give you--up to half my kingdom!...

The webmaster over at Daylight Atheism (henceforth DA for short) has written a ' response ' to John Haught's article in the Christian Century about the 'soft-core' atheism of the likes of Dawkins, Dennett and Harris. I put the word 'response' in brackets because as is so often the case with atheist polemic he(?) manages to misconstrue just about everything Haught says and hasn't taken the trouble to put the article in context or even read it carefully. His first accusation is that whereas Haught says he is committed to exposing his students to the best arguments for nonbelief, "when it comes time for practical application of that policy, he swiftly pivots and says, in effect: 'I'm going to decide which arguments for atheism are most convincing, and take it from me, these guys aren't saying anything worthwhile! It's not necessary for you to read what they're writing. Trust me.'" Then he goes on to assert that "Despi...