A Virtual File Cabinet for Our Studies of Christian Origins & Hebraic Faith
This post contains the positions of Witherington, Tabor, Charlesworth, and Ehrman. Below those long entries is a short paragraph relating to the paper of Marcus Blue, a BSA member. Summary of the info below this table: Scholar Choice Various “For” Arguments Various “Against” Arguments Tabor James James is head of Movement and as his family […]
Continue ReadingFor a great summary go to The Gospel of John in a Nutshell, February 19, 2025, by Dr. Bart Ehrman. Extracts – Despite the broad similarities, this Gospel is very different from the others. Most of the stories about Jesus’ ministry – his encounters, his miracles, his confrontations with Jewish leaders – are different here; […]
Continue ReadingThe article by the same title as this page at the BAS Library provides pros and cons as well as “a way out” of the debate. It is by Otto Betz. Bible Review 6.6 (1990). It is also a great summary of the varying beliefs of the different Essene communities. This page is for our personal use […]
Continue ReadingBart’s video embedded below provides a 25 minute or so conversation with Megan Lewis hitting the high points of where Josephus mentions Jesus and James his brother. Text below the embed is from the transcript of this video that is in the Scholars/Bart Ehram directory in DropBox. All italicized text below was said by Bart. […]
Continue ReadingThe Sator Square or The Rotas-Sator Square. From Wikipedia: The most direct sentence translation is: “The sower (or, farmer) Arepo holds the wheels with care (or, with care the wheels)”.[1][10][14][4][17] Similar translations include: “The farmer Arepo works his wheels”,[18] or “Arepo the sower (sator) guides (tenet) the wheel (rotas) with skill (opera)”.[19]
Continue ReadingFrom Bart Ehrman Luke 22:19-20 contains the Last Supper speech. Scribes inserted atonement after Luke removed it. Bart discusses the issues in the podcast as well as his post Why Would a Scribe Change Luke’s Account of the Last Supper? September 30, 2015. and the followup articles here and here. The passage has to do […]
Continue ReadingJesus and Mary Magdalene – Below was extracted from here. Note that Mary Magdalene did not recognize him. John records the first meeting between Mary Magdalene and Jesus after Jesus’ death and resurrection (John 20:14–18). Jesus begins the conversation with two questions. Jesus said to her: “Woman,[1] why are you crying? Who is it you […]
Continue ReadingAlthough there is no firm evidence linking John the Baptist with the Qumran community, many scholars believe that he had contact or even links with the Essenes during his ministry. There are four reasons for this assessment. (1) John’s family background and lineage fit with the beliefs of the Qumran covenanters. The report that he […]
Continue ReadingUPDATE: The Reaction to Karen King’s Gospel Discovery When a divinity scholar unveiled a papyrus fragment that she says refers to Jesus’ “wife,” our reporter was there in Rome amidst the firestorm of criticism by Ariel Sabar, Smithsonian Magazine. See the video at the end of the article.
Continue ReadingJerusalem’s Essene Gateway – Where the Community Lived in Jesus’ Time by Bargil Pixner ” I sincerely thank Professor James Tabor of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Dr. Rainer Riesner of the University of Tübingen and Professor James Strange of the University of South Florida for their great help in preparing this article.” The […]
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