Help me locate this quote: “This isn’t simply the approach of “liberal” Bible professors. It’s the way historians always date sources. If you find a letter written on paper that is obviously 300 years old or so, and the author says something about the “United States” — then you know it was written after the Revolutionary War. So too if you find an ancient document that describes the destruction of Jerusalem, then you know it was written after 70 CE. It’s not rocket science! But it’s also not “liberal.” It’s simply how history is done. If someone wants to invent other rules, they’re the ones who are begging questions!”
It’s from ehrmanblog.org. I copied long ago (around 2014) to Wikipedia and I cannot find it anymore. I know that Bart Ehrman’s post had typos, perhaps that’s why I don’t find the post anymore. If I remember well, it was Ehrman’s reply to a comment from the blog.
BDEhrman – January 24, 2014 at 10:24 pm
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If you find a letter written on paper that is obviously 300 years old or so, and the author says something about the “United States” — then you know it was written after the Revolutionary War.
So too if you find an ancient document that describes the destruction of Jerusalem, then you know it was written after 70 CE.
It’s not rocket science!
_Redating the New Testament_ (1976), 369pp. by John A.T. Robinson, on 14
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Bo Reicke begins a recent essay with the words:
“An amazing example of uncritical dogmatism in New Testament studies is the belief that the Synoptic Gospels should be dated after the Jewish War of AD 66-70 because they contain prophecies _ex eventu_ of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the year 70.”
[B. Reicke, ‘Synoptic Prophecies on the Destruction of Jerusalem’, in D. W. Aune (ed.), _Studies in New Testament and Early Christian Literature: Essays in Honor of Alien P. Wikgren (NovTest_ Suppl. 33), Leiden 1972, 121-34.]
Is it the case that the book of Daniel “describes the destruction of Jerusalem”?
BDEhrman
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