Sorting by

×

Albert Schweitzer and the Apocalyptic Jesus

In the current thread I’m trying to establish that Jesus believed he was the messiah.  I have pointed out that his followers would not have considered him the messiah because they believed he had been raised from the dead (since the messiah was not supposed to die and rise again) unless they had already considered him the messiah prior to his death.  But that, of course, does not mean that Jesus *himself* thought he was the messiah.  And so we have to look for evidence from Jesus’ life that indicates that this is what he thought about himself, and my argument is going to be that there are several pieces of evidence that strongly suggest it is, of which my plan is to stress two. As background, in my previous post, I laid out the world view that Jesus himself almost certainly subscribed to, a view that scholars have called Jewish apocalypticism.  I need to develop these thoughts a bit in this post; and the next;  after that I’ll lay out in (very) summary fashion [...]

2025-07-16T17:50:45-04:00November 9th, 2024|Historical Jesus|

Jerusalem Through the Ages! Interested in an Expert Discussion?

Are you interested in the amazing and important history of Jerusalem, from the ancient world till today?  I am!  I am pleased to announce a special event being put on by my Department of Religious Studies. a panel discussion of the new book by my colleague Jodi Magness: Jerusalem Through the Ages: From Its Beginnings to the Crusades.  It will be on Sunday November 17, 1:00, remote via Zoom.   I will be moderating the discussion. Many of you will know about Jodi.  She is one of the world's leading experts on the archaeology of ancient Israel, and has been my colleague at UNC since, well, roughly the beginnings of Jerusalem.    In all these years I have never heard her asked a question she could not answer authoritatively. This book is exceptionally good.  The people on the panel are all smart, interesting, and insightful.  If you're interested, here is the brochure announcing the event.  It is a fund-raiser for my department. We have a departmental fund that I myself started years ago called the Robert Miller [...]

2025-09-10T13:09:40-04:00November 8th, 2024|Public Forum|

An Imagined Dialogue for the Dispute Between Paul & Barnabas in Acts Part 4 by Angus Nisbet

We come now to the final post by Angus Nisbet on the dispute recorded in the NT between Paul and Barnabas, in which he tries to reconstruct what may have really happened (covered up by the NT reporting).  Is it possible that Barnabas actually lashed seriously into Paul and became his enemy?  Is it possible that Paul's enmity with Jewish Christians is what ultimately led to his martyrdom?  Read on!  And Respond! And remember: you as a Platinum member not only get access to all Platinum posts written by other Platinums, but you also can write some yourself!  You don't have to be thoroughly well-versed in the field to write one!  Do you have any thoughts or ideas or curiosities you would like others to see and respond to?  Send us a post!! ****************************** In this fourth post on an Imagined dialogue between Paul and Barnabas for their dispute mentioned in Acts 15: 37-40, Barnabas points out to Paul in the dialogue that Paul’s words about being all things to all people (1 Cor 9: [...]

2025-09-10T13:09:24-04:00November 8th, 2024|Acts of the Apostles, Paul and His Letters, Public Forum|

What Would an Apocalyptic Jew (Jesus!) Mean By Calling Himself Messiah?

In this thread I am trying to argue that Jesus understood himself to be the messiah.  So far I have made one of my two main arguments, with the understanding that *both* arguments have to be considered in order to have a compelling case.  So the first prong doesn’t prove much on its own.  But in combination with the second argument, it makes a strong case.  The first argument is that Jesus’ followers would not have understood him as the messiah after his death (as they did) unless they believed him to be the messiah before his death – even if they came to believe he had been raised from the dead, that would not have made them think he was the messiah.  I’ve explained why in my previous post. The second second involves showing that it was not only the disciples who understood Jesus to be the messiah before his death, but that Jesus himself did.  This is even harder to show, but I think there is really compelling evidence.  There are [...]

2025-09-10T13:09:39-04:00November 7th, 2024|Early Judaism, Historical Jesus|

Can We Know What Jesus Said About Himself?

Do we know what Jesus said about himself? Yesterday I started my two-prong argument for why Jesus probably considered himself the messiah.  The first prong is that Jesus must have been called the messiah during his lifetime, or it makes no sense that he would be called messiah after his death. Even if there were Jews who believed that Jesus was raised from the dead after he was crucified (as indeed there were!  Otherwise we wouldn’t have Christianity), the resurrection of a dead person would never lead anyone to say “Ah, he’s the messiah!”.  No one expected the messiah to be a resurrected person. So Jesus was being called the messiah before his death.  Otherwise, we can’t make sense of the fact that he was called the messiah after his (believed-in) resurrection. Do We Know What Jesus Said About Himself? Several readers have pointed out that this does not mean that Jesus *himself* thought of himself as the messiah.  It simply means that some of his followers did.  That is absolutely right.  [...]

2025-09-10T13:09:39-04:00November 6th, 2024|Historical Jesus, Public Forum|

Take My New Testament Pop Quiz!

A blog member recently asked me if I could post the pop quiz that I used to give t0 my New Testament class on the first day of the semester.  I say "used to" because I have stopped teaching the course, after doing so for 35 years (!), yielding it over to the capable hands of my colleague Hugo Mendez, to allow me to teach small seminar-courses instead here as I progress into geezerhood. I was simply going to refer the blog member to the post where I had given the quiz recently, and ... and I can't find where / when I did!  I'm sure I did! Then again, I'm sure I know where my glasses, keys, and phone are.  But so far as I can tell, it's been years since I did.  So -- well, here it is.  I think this is the post in which I *first* revealed the quiz to interested blog members some ten years ago.  [editor's note: Found it!  My New Testament Pop Quiz].  After some preliminary remarks, I [...]

2025-09-10T13:09:39-04:00November 5th, 2024|Public Forum|

November Gold Q&A: Ask Your Questions!

Update: Here is a link to the replay of this Q&A. Hey Golds and Platinums: Mark your calendars – we've got a monthly Gold Q&A coming up on Sunday November 17th at 7pm Eastern. If you can, join us for the live session—it’s a chance to dive into your burning questions and catch the conversation as it unfolds! Can’t make it live? Not to worry; the replay and audio will be available shortly afterward. You can join the live recording via Zoom using this link. Got a Question? Send it to [email protected], and Jen will compile and send me the list. Remember, brevity is key—short, focused questions will rise to the top! Question Deadline: Thursday, November 14th, by 11:59pm (whenever that occurs in your time zone). (Note: We'll send out reminders in the Friday Recap emails leading up to the 17th.) Looking forward to another lively round of inquiries and insights!

2025-09-10T13:09:40-04:00November 4th, 2024|Public Forum|

An Imagined Dialogue for the Dispute Between Paul & Barnabas in Acts Part 3 by Angus Nisbet

Now we come to the third of four posts by Platinum member Angus Nisbet on the dispute between Paul and Barnabas recorded in the book of Acts, where he maintains that Mark (as in John Mark, allegedly the author of the Gospel!) was a spy who ratted Paul out.  And it involves a connection with the Essenes who produced the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Whoa!  Check it out and tell us what you think! Remember: you as a Platinum member not only get access to all Platinum posts written by other Platinums, but you also can write some yourself!  You don't have to be thoroughly well-versed in the field to write one!  Do you have any thoughts or ideas or curiosities you would like others to see and respond to?  Send us a post!! ****************************** In this third post on the Imagined dialogue between Paul and Barnabas for their dispute mentioned in Acts 15: 37-40, the dialogue uses verses from Paul’s letter to the Galatians in which Paul attacks those whom he refers to as false [...]

2025-09-10T13:09:23-04:00November 4th, 2024|Acts of the Apostles, Paul and His Letters, Public Forum|

Island Hopping with History: Join Our Greek Odyssey this May!

I will be giving lectures on another glorious tour to some of the Greek Islands this coming May 14-26. This will be fantastic. Some blog members came with me on a similar trip last year, but to different islands. It was life-long-memorable. If it’s humanly possible, think about joining up! Space will be limited – so if you’re interested, check out the brochure I provide below at the bottom of the post. It will give you all the details you would need to know, and I’m happy to address any questions you have. Here is what I say about the trip in the description. ************************* The Greek Islands are some of my favorite places on earth. I’ve been on a number of occasions, and this Thalassa Journey is taking me there again. Wanna come with me? We will be island-hopping to some of the most scenic sites in the world – stunningly gorgeous landscapes and seascapes, incredibly beautiful villages and towns, museums, monasteries, churches, and archaeological sites: some of the oldest remnants of western civilization. [...]

2025-09-10T13:09:40-04:00November 3rd, 2024|Public Forum|

Would the Resurrection Make Anyone Believe Jesus Was the Messiah?

I have been talking about the early Christian understandings of Jesus as the messiah.  Not just the messiah, but the “crucified messiah,” a concept that would have seemed not just unusual or bizarre to most Jewish ears in the first century, but absolutely mind-boggling and self-contradictory.  I’ve been arguing that it was precisely the contradictory nature of the claim that led almost all Jews to reject the Christian claims about Jesus. Several readers have asked me whether I think Jesus understood himself to be the messiah.  Probably those who know a little bit about my work and my general views of things would think that my answer would be Absolutely Not.  But, well.... I think Jesus did consider himself the messiah.  But not the to-be-crucified-messiah.  The key to understanding Jesus’ view of himself is to recognize what he *meant* by considering himself the messiah.  I will get to that in a later post.  For now I want to give the evidence that Jesus thought that in *some* sense (a sense distinctive to Jesus) [...]

2025-09-10T13:09:39-04:00November 2nd, 2024|Historical Jesus|

An Imagined Dialogue for the Dispute Between Paul & Barnabas in Acts Part 2 by Angus Nisbet

Here Angus Nisbet continues his discussion of Paul and Barnabas and the dispute they had, where he gets into more fascinating issues, involving what might lie behind the dispute and how non-canonical writings that did not make it into the NT might help us figure it out.  There are some controversial views here.  What do you think? Remember: you as a Platinum member not only get access to all Platinum posts written by other Platinums, but you also can write some yourself!  You don't have to be thoroughly well-versed in the field to write one!  Do you have any thoughts or ideas or curiosities you would like others to see and respond to?  Send us a post!! ******************************* In this second post on the imagined dialogue between Paul and Barnabas for their dispute mentioned in Acts 15: 37-40, I begin the first of 3 sections of the dispute dialogue, in which of Paul’s responses to Barnabas make use of Paul’s actual writings from his New Testament letters.  In this first section of the imagined dialogue, [...]

2025-09-10T13:09:23-04:00November 1st, 2024|Acts of the Apostles, Paul and His Letters, Public Forum|
Go to Top