Another deep dive into an interesting question with a new suggestion, with Platinum member Omar Robb! ****************************** In this article we will propose a solution to the following puzzle: How did Jesus teaching pass and flourish from its local limited domain (the Jewish community in Palestine) to a foreign domain (the Greek-Roman world) in less than 20 years? But we need first to discuss the Pythagorean Movement: Pythagoreanism originated in Greece from about the 6th century BC. However, I am going to argue here that Pythagoreanism didn’t really have much influence on the communities. They did have a huge influence on knowledge and wisdom through history, and the current human knowledge and wisdom can be related back to the first Pythagorean Philosophers (including Socrates and Plato), but my argument here is about the influence of these philosophers on the daily life of the masses at ancient times, and my assumption here is that they had little influence over the life of the ordinary people at that time. Now ... I don’t have a solid proof [...]

  Hey Platinum Members, Time to vote on your favorite platinum guest post from relatively recent times.  Here are four to choose from, all of them interesting and important!  Pick one and name your preference, not as a comment here but by letting Diane know at [email protected]   She'll tally the votes and then we'll annouce the winner, and I'll post the post. So... what are yiur druthers?   April 10, 2023 The Quest for the Legendary Jesus. Robert Droney April 14, 2023 Baptism and the Macbeth Effect Douglas Wadeson April 28, 2023 Is 2 Thessalonians a Forgery?  From 132 CE? Omar Robb May 3, 2023 Did The Twelve Become Only Three? Doug Wadeson

I'm pleased to present this well-researched Platinum post by Dan Kohanski, on one of the most intriguing (at least for me) questions about the Passion narrative.  It's a highly controversial passage and Dan makes a highly controversial suggestion!   He makes a good case!  What do you think? Remember: you too can make a Platinum guest post for other Platinum members.  It doesn't have to be highly learned and sophisticated -- just something you're thinking about connected with the stuff we do on the blog.  If you have something, send it along to Diane at [email protected].   ****************************** “You Have Heard His Blasphemy!” Said the High Priest—But Did They? The trial of Jesus as described in the gospel of Mark, and particularly the part where the high priest charges Jesus with blasphemy, is one of the most hotly debated stories in the New Testament. Here is the heart of the passage: Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” Jesus said, “I am; and ‘you will see the [...]

A Platinum post for Platinum members from Platinum member Steve Clark: ****************************** It was a cold winter morning, the exciting music of the 1970’s was in my head. I was learning to play guitar and learning to be cool. Mostly failing at both but kept trying. What else was a young man to do in the 70’s? I was walking around Georgia State University in downtown Atlanta (my friends called it the concrete campus) and had a spring in my step as I stepped into Philosophy 101 class. In the days to come we were assigned materials to read and one of them was Why I am not a Christian by Bertrand Russell.   Like many in the South grew up in a conservative Southern Baptist environment. And like many had never heard anyone criticize Jesus. Ever. Why would they and what would there be to criticize? The short portion of the lecture Russell pens (and pins) directly on Jesus is extremely mild. He appears borderline apologetic about it. For me though, fitting with the [...]

  ****************************** Was Jesus a simplistic person or an extraordinary one? Omar Abur-Robb omr-mhmd.yolasite.com   Suppose you were in a hill overseeing a large lake, and suddenly you noticed a wave propagating quickly outward. You will instinctively realize that this wave has originated from its center, and you can probably pinpoint this center with ease by looking at the wave. However, your eyes will open wildly in astonishment and your scientific mind will turn upside down when you see the wave reaching the shore then jumping to the next lake and start propagating there. This is going to be a very weird phenomenon. But this exact phenomenon needs to be included in our explanatory models for the expansion of Christianity: The point of propagation for Christianity was the point of establishment at 30AD, and in less than 20 years, the teaching of Jesus managed to propagate outside its local domain to many foreign domains. This is an extraordinary phenomenon. Notice that the Greek Christians were very serious in their faith to the point that many [...]

A post for Platinum members only from Rizwan Ahmed ****************************** “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened” (Matthew 24:34, Luke 21:32) A little over a century ago, Albert Schweitzer, through his famous book “The Quest of the Historical Jesus”, revolutionized and reshaped our understanding of the historical figure of Jesus. He convincingly argued that Jesus should be best understood as an apocalyptic Jewish prophet. That is, a prophet who heralded the coming end of the world, in which God would intervene in history and finally bring about absolute justice and righteousness to the world. A tremendous event in which all who ever lived would be raised from the dead and judged. The good would be rewarded with eternal life while the wicked would suffer eternal punishment. This was a popular concept within Jewish thought even prior to Jesus and continued to be so during his days. While the Synoptic Gospels make it clear that Jesus espoused such views, the question arises as to when this [...]