****************************** 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 [...]

For Platinum members, from Platinum member Omar Abur-Robb: ****************************** Was Jesus literate or Illiterate omr-mhmd.yolasite.com   Scholars are in difference regarding whether Jesus was literate or not, and I would like to explore this subject. Most of the people who lives in Galilee at the time of Jesus were peasants, and most of the peasants were poor, and most of the poor peasants were illiterate. Therefore, we can conclude that Jesus was illiterate. But the above conclusion was based on a “null hypothesis”. “Null hypotheses” are statements of probability. So ... Let Sam be one of the people who lived in Galilee at that time. We know nothing about Sam except that he lived in Galilee. Therefore, the probability of Sam being a poor illiterate peasant is very high, and the probability otherwise is very low. Therefore, the “null hypothesis” (that is the “initial assumption”) about anyone living in Galilee is that they were poor illiterate peasants. However, there is no evidence that every single peasant in Galilee was poor illiterate. In the contrary, you [...]

  ****************************** Was Levi of Alphaeus the "the Beloved Disciple"? A Redaction Critical Approach   Since the discovery of the Gospel of Peter, scholars have speculated about the missing words after the mention of "Levi of Alphaeus" in the final sentence, which breaks off. The sentence reads, "But I, Simon Peter, and my brother Andrew, having taken our nets, went off to the sea. And there was with us Levi of Alphaeus whom the Lord [blank]," (Tr. Raymond Brown). How should we fill in the blank? Could it be "whom the Lord [loved],"? Many scholars have wondered whether this mention of Levi of Alphaeus in the Gospel of Peter might solve the mystery of the identity of "the other disciple" in the Gospel of John, "the one whom Jesus loved".   I have discovered literary clues to support this suspicion. "Levi son of Alphaeus", a major character in Mark's gospel, becomes utterly obscure in Matthew's redaction of Mark's story. My hypothesis is that the identity of John's "other disciple" borrows from Matthew's peculiar literary penchant [...]

A Platinum post for fellow Platinum members from Omar Abur-Robb:   ****************************** The Father and the Son omr-mhmd.yolasite.com   When and how the people of the Christian faith started to refer to God as “The Father”? Jews today refer to God as Adonai, Hashem, or Elohim. Karaite Jews do refer to God as Yahweh, but the Rabbinic Jews don’t use this name as they regard it sacred. But (to my understanding) there are no Jews (Karaite or Rabbinic) who refer to God as “The Father”. Also (to my understanding) there are no Jews in history who have referred to God as “The Father”. Therefore, I can establish the following null-hypothesis that Jews at the time of Jesus didn’t refer to God as “The Father”. Now ... if someone managed to extract a paragraph from an ancient Jewish manuscript (for example: one of the books of Philo, Josephus, or the dead sea scrolls, etc.) that demonstrate that Jews at the time of Jesus did refer to God as “The Father” then the previous hypothesis will fall [...]

Here is a Platinum guest post by Robert Droney where he objects (rather vigorously) to my self-identification as a "Christian atheist."   As always, he has a reasoned set of arguments!  I won't be replying here, but, well, what to *you* think? And remember, you too can write a Platinum guest post for other Platinum members, with the possibility of it being posted to the entire blog.   If you have one, or just an idea of one, let us know; zap an email to [email protected] *********************************   I think that most people and are familiar with Saul’s conversion story. Saul was a “Jew’s, Jew.”[1] A well-educated and zealous Pharisee who persecuted early Christians for their heretical belief that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah.[2] However, on the road to Damascus, Jesus appears to Saul to reprimand him for his persecution of Christians.[3] Because of this experience, resulting blindness, and receipt of the Holy Spirit, Saul mends his ways, ceases persecuting Christians and becomes a fervent advocate for the belief in Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.[4] Personally, I find [...]

I am happy to post this guest post to Platinum members by fellow Platinum member Omar Abdur-Robb.  The trinity is a complicated issue in early Christianity, closely related to Greek philosophical thought (it's not just some idea someone came up with once....).   Here Omar explores a key aspect of how it may have happened. Remember: you too can post a platinum guest post!  Simply send your submission to [email protected] ****************************** The road from the "Duo of Philo" to the "Trinity of Nicaea" Omar Abur-Robb omr-mhmd.yolasite.com   There is a clear relationship between the early Greek Christianity and the Greek metaphysical philosophy, and we will explore this here. But let us first show the genius of the Greek thinking process: Let us take an object. This object can be divided into two objects. Then each one can be divided into two objects, and so forth. But this process of division cannot continue forever; otherwise all objects are just a combination of zeros. Therefore, there need to be an elementary object that cannot be divided. The Greek [...]

Early Christianity had many stories about the adventures of the Twelve Apostles after the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Thomas is tricked into becoming a missionary to India.1 John travels about evangelizing while demonstrating control of bedbugs!2 Andrew was said to travel to the area now known as Ukraine to evangelize there – I’ve been there several times and a statue of Andrew is seen outside their parliament building and elsewhere.3 The vast majority of these stories are so fanciful and written so late that scholars do not take them as factual, but they have worked their way into Christian traditions. What did the Apostles do after Jesus? Did they even remain faithful, let alone evangelize?   All four Gospels hint at doubts among the Apostles, even after Jesus’ reported resurrection appearances. Mark, our earliest gospel, portrays the Twelve as mostly clueless throughout Jesus’ ministry. At Jesus’ arrest “His disciples all left Him and fled” (Mark 14:50). In the original ending, at 16:8, the women flee the tomb and do NOT tell the other [...]