Browsed by
Tag: Philo

Philo of Alexandria

Biblical Literalism
The Great Myths 11: Biblical Literalism

The Great Myths 11: Biblical Literalism

Comments 134 comments

It is assumed in much anti-theistic polemic that the Bible has traditionally always been interpreted literally. A lot of criticism of believers is based on how irrational, impossible and anti-scientific such a reading of the Bible has to be and how the current literalism of many fundamentalist Christians simply reflects how the Bible has always been read, with non-literal interpretations simply a modern rear-guard attempt to reconcile the Bible with current understandings of the world. But this is not true….

Read More Read More

Jesus the Apocalyptic Prophet

Jesus the Apocalyptic Prophet

Comments 321 comments

For over a century, scholarship on the origins of Christianity has been dealing with a fundamental issue – the Jesus in the earliest Christian texts is presented as preaching an eschatological message about an imminent apocalypse. Despite ongoing rearguard actions, the idea that the historical Jesus was a Jewish apocalyptic prophet remains the most likely interpretation of the evidence. A Galilean Peasant’s World If in the early first century AD a preacher appeared in a Galilean village proclaiming repentance in…

Read More Read More

Jesus Mythicism 3: “No Contemporary References to Jesus”

Jesus Mythicism 3: “No Contemporary References to Jesus”

Comments 323 comments

One of the more common arguments among online supporters of the Jesus Myth thesis is an argument from silence: “There are no contemporary references to Jesus, therefore he did not exist”. Unfortunately this naïve argument is based on an ignorance of the nature of ancient source material and of how an argument from silence is sustained. As a result, while it may initially seem to have some rhetorical force, it is not an argument that would be accepted by historians….

Read More Read More