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The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, 2nd edition
I get asked a lot about my various books, and I often mention one of my books when no one has asked (you may have noticed). It occurred to me that it might be useful for me to present some blog posts on what each book is about. Probably my best known academic book was The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture (Oxford University Press, 1993). Twenty years after it was published I was asked to do a second edition, in which I would explain where the thing had originally come from (in my head) and what had happened in the field since it’s original publication. Here is the Afterword to the 2nd edition (slightly edited) where I try to explain why I wrote it and what I was trying to accomplish with it. (It includes reflections on an alleged “original text” of the New Testament). *******************************
July 6, 2024
Are Scribes of Texts Actually Authors?
In my overview of the responses to my book The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture in the Afterword I wrote of the 2nd edition, I began to address some major questions. In the book I argued that scribes of the New Testament intentionally changed the text in places in order to make it more orthodox in its theology or to circumvent its use by “heretics” who had other views. That raises a question: are scribes who change the text to make it say something different actually *authors* instead of mere copyists? Here’s how I discuss the issue at the beginning of my Afterword. ************************
July 7, 2024
How Can We Possibly Know a Scribe’s Intentions? My Most Important Theoretical Reflection
Can we know what a scribe intended to do when he changed the text? Is it actually possible to know what anyone INTENDS? Isn’t that technically impossible, unless we get into their minds somehow? I had to deal with this issue in the Orthodox Corruption of Scripture and there I laid out the theoretical premises I have/had, to allow me to say that a scribe intended to change a text. It’s a view that most readers completely overlooked, including a bunch of my critics. *********************** Intentionality as a Functional Category The other theoretical claim that I made in Orthodox Corruption involved the broader concept of what it means to describe a scribal alteration of the text as “intentional.” I have been deeply interested in the question of “intention” for many years, as a philosophical problem (there is considerable philosophical discourse on it, of course), an issue in literary interpretation (especially since Wimsatt and Beardsley’s famous “Intentional Fallacy”), and, naturally, as it relates to scribes. Most textual critics have unproblematically talked about scribal changes being either accidental or […]
July 9, 2024
Blog Dinner in Tampa Fl. Friday January 17. You Interested?
I will be in Tampa next week and would like to do a Blog Dinner on Friday, January 17, with any blog members who happen to be around or can, well, get around. Probably around 6:30 or so for drinks to start (for whoever is interested in quenching thirst before satisfying hunger), and location TBD. You interested? I’ll limit the table to 8, me and the perfect number 7. For those who come there are no obligations other than: Being a blog member Showing up Talking Paying for whatever you ingest. Whatever you exgest is free. If you’re interested, do NOT reply here as a comment. Send along an email at [email protected]. Hope some of you can come!
January 8, 2025
My First Trade Book: Jesus, Apocalyptic Prophet
I have started a thread discussing the books I’ve written for broader audiences. My first actual “trade book” was Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (Oxford University Press, 1999) (uh, that would be 25 years ago!). Here is how I explain the book and it’s raison d’etre in the Preface. In case you wonder — I still hold the same basic views of Jesus now that I did then, and still find the arguments I adduce convincing. ****************************** Preface When anyone has asked me why I’m writing a book about the historical Jesus, I’ve usually replied, “Well, it’s about time someone did.” Actually,
July 10, 2024
Lost Scriptures
I was reluctant to write my first trade book (Jesus the Apocalyptic Prophet: see previous post), and had to be dragged into writing my second. I just wanted to devote myself to technical scholarship. But, well, I yielded in the end, and I’m glad I did. My second trade book ended up being two books. I had agreed to write about the “heretical forms” of Christianity and their Scriptures, but then my publisher, Oxford University Press, talked me into not only doing that study (Lost Christianities) but also an accompanying anthology of texts, Lost Scriptures. Once again I was reluctant (!) but I lost out again, and again I’m glad. It’s been the better selling of the two books, to my great surprise. Here I’ll explain what it contains, taken from the Introduction to it (OUP, 2003). This will take two posts.
July 11, 2024
More Lost Scriptures
How did we get our books of the New Testament, and what do we know about the ones that were “left out”? Here I continue my Introduction to my book Lost Scriptures, as started in my previous post. ****************************** When was this New Testament finally collected and authorized? The first instance we have of any Christian author urging that our current twenty-seven books, and only these twenty-seven, should be accepted as Scripture occurred in the year 367 CE, in a letter written by the powerful bishop of Alexandria Egypt, Athanasius. Even then the matter was not finally resolved, however, as different churches, even within the orthodox form of Christianity, had different ideas — for example, about whether the Apocalypse of John could be accepted as Scripture (it finally was, of course), or whether the Apocalypse of Peter should be (it was not); whether the epistle of Hebrews should be included (it was) or the epistle of Barnabas (it was not); and so on. In other words, the debates lasted over three hundred years.
July 13, 2024
Lost Christianities
How diverse was early Christianity? I had been transfixed by this question for a long time when I decided to write a trade book, Lost Christianities. It was a blast to write and in some ways launched my career of writing for general audiences. My earlier book Jesus, Apocalyptic Prophet was definitely directed to that crowd, but it was with Lost Christianities that I started kicking broader communication to a wider readership into gear. Here’s I’ll excerpt by explanation of the book in its Introduction (from Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. Oxford University Press, 2003). This will take three posts. ********************* It may be difficult to imagine a religious phenomenon more diverse than modern-day Christianity. There are Roman Catholic missionaries in developing countries, who devote themselves to voluntary poverty for the sake of others, and evangelical televangelists with twelve-step programs to assure financial success and prosperity. There are New England Presbyterians and Appalachian snake handlers. There are Greek orthodox priests committed to the liturgical service of God, replete with set […]
July 14, 2024
More Lost Christianities
In my previous post I discussed the wide variety of early Christianities and their ranging views. Here I consider some aspects of the Scriptures known and used by these various groups. Again, this comes from the Introduction to my book Lost Christianities (Oxford Press, 2003). ****************************** The Lost Scriptures The Gospels that came to be included in the New Testament were all written anonymously: only at a later time were they called by the names of their reputed authors, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But at about the time these names were being associated with the Gospels, other Gospel books were becoming available, sacred texts that were read and revered by different Christian groups throughout the world: a Gospel, for example, claiming to be written by Jesus’ closest disciple, Simon Peter; another by his apostle Philip; a Gospel allegedly written by Jesus’ female disciple Mary Magdalen; another by his own twin brother, Didymus Judas Thomas.[1] Someone decided that four of these early Gospels, and no others, should be accepted as part of the canon – the […]
July 16, 2024
What If Another Christianity Had Won?
If only one form of early Christianity won the contest for domination, what were the results — what the gains and losses from that “triumph”? And what would have happened to world history if things had gone in another direction? This is my third and final post on my book Lost Christianities, taken from its Introduction (Oxford Press, 2003). ******************************* The Stakes of the Conflict Before launching into the investigation, I should perhaps say a word about what is, or at least what was, at stake. Throughout the course of our study I will be asking the question: what if it had been otherwise? What if some other form of Christianity had become dominant, instead of the one that did?[1]
July 17, 2024
Free Lecture on Paul’s Life and Letters, Thursday (July 11)
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July 8, 2024
The Debacle Over the First-Century Copy of Mark
This morning I had a long interview with BBC4 (radio) in London about a new book that is coming out by renowned expert in ancient manuscripts (mainly classical) Roberta Mazza, that deals at length with the debacle over the alleged first-century copy of the Gospel of Mark. It was a debacle because it was based on bogus claims. I was intimately connected with the beginning of the affair back in 2012, and in looking over the blog see I haven’t dealt with it at any length for many years. I’ve decided to repost a series of blogs that spanned eight years to show how the whole thing unfolded. It took that long for the truth to come out. Here is the first post I made (with a few edits), published about two months after the rather unpleasant business began.
July 18, 2024
More on the Initial Debacle on First-Century Mark (in relation to the Dead Sea Scrolls)
In my previous post — originally put up on the blog in April 2012 — I explained how in a debate I had in February of that year, evangelical New Testament scholar and textual critic Dan Wallace to my surprise (shock!) announced that now for the first time we actually have a copy of the Gospel of Mark from the first century, not long after the book was written, and that it confirms what he has said all along, that we have the original text of the New Testament. But he wouldn’t tell us anything about the copy — how big it was, who established its date, whether the date had been corroborated, etc. Here I continue, again from the post in 2012, edited a bit.
July 20, 2024
ANOTHER Blog Dinner! Thursday, July 18, Wimbledon. Interested?
The first blog dinner I announced (happening tomorrow, Friday July 12) was oversubscribed, and so I’ll be doing a second — this time on my home-away-from-home turf, Wimbledon Village, on Thursday July 18. Seats are limited. Want one of them? I’ll again limit the table to 8, me and the perfect number 7. For those who come there are no obligations other than: Being a blog member Showing up Talking Paying for whatever you ingest. Whatever you exgest is free. If you’re interested, do NOT reply here as a comment. Send me an email at [email protected]. Hope you can come!
July 11, 2024
Would It Matter if We DID Have a First-Century Manuscript of Mark?
I will continue here with select reposts of the first-century copy of Mark fiasco, in light of my recent interview in the topic and my now renewed interest in the issues involved. (See the previous posts if you’re not aware of the claims from 12 years ago that one had been discovered.) I personally think that there are no shenanigans going on when Dan Wallace tells us that a fragment of the Gospel of Mark has been found and that it can, with reasonable certainty, be dated to the late first century. I’m not saying that I know he is right. Far from it. In fact, one of the most disconcerting things about this claim is that they are not making the papyrus available so real experts can study it and let us know what it really is and to what period it can be dated. But let’s suppose that once it is published – now the date is no longer 2012, as originally stated, or 2015 as stated last week, but 2017 or later, […]
July 21, 2024
How Would a First-Century Fragment of the Gospels Actually Change What We Know/Think?
Here I give a post from 2015, some three years after it was announced that we now have a first-century fragmentary copy of Mark. At this point we still had not SEEN the manuscript and no one would give us any reliable information about it. And I began to wonder, how much difference would it make in how we understand things, assuming it really was a first-century fragment. Here are my musings at the time. ****************************** Assuming, as it is *relatively*, but not absolutely probable that we should, that the fragment in question is simply of a few verses in the middle of Mark’s Gospel that do not vary significantly from what we already have, I’m still obsessing with the question of why evangelical scholars would be so bound and determined to get their hands on it. I’ll deal with that question first. It may not be obvious why it is a puzzle. Here is why. As a rule (a rule to which I do not know a single exception), evangelical scholars of the New […]
July 23, 2024
Not a Game-Changer? Why I’d Still Be Thrilled to Have a First-Century Gospel Fragment
Here again, from years ago, some reflections on the importance of having a first-century manuscript — even if it DID NOT change much of anything we think or know. ******************** In several posts I have been emphasizing – possibly over-emphasizing – that if a first-century fragment of the Gospel of Mark does ever get published, and if it is in *fact*from the first century (which, I should stress, will be almost *impossible* to demonstrate conclusively), that it is very hard indeed to imagine that it will be any kind of game-changer, that it will tell us something different from what we already think. The reason I have been emphasizing this is because the evangelical Christian scholars who are making the headlines with their declarations about the discovery will almost certainly, once it is published, if it ever gets published, claim that it is evidence for their view that we can know what the original text says. See! We have a FIRST-CENTURY MANUSCRIPT!!! So, consider these posts of mine as a kind of
July 24, 2024
The Parables! Have You Signed up for the Course? (This weekend!)
No time to wait! If you haven’t signed up for the course on Jesus’ Parables, you should maybe reflect a bit on Matthew 25:1-13. Well, not exactly. If you don’t come live, you can purchase the course as a recording. But if you do come live you’ll get the recording for life, and why not hear it in the flesh? I’m tellin’ you, this’ll be a good one. Amy-Jill Levine?! On the Parables of Jesus?!? How good can it get? Here’s my original announcement from last month. ******************** I’m really excited about this one. We will be presenting a new remote course on the Parables of Jesus, consisting of four lectures by Amy-Jill Levine. Amy-Jill is one of the top scholars on the historical Jesus and the Gospels on the planet, and is an unusually interesting and dynamic lecturer. If you heard her at the New Insights into the New Testament last year, or taken a Great Courses/Wondrium course with her, you’ll know what I mean. She is unusually sharp, witty, clear, engaged, challenging, and […]
July 18, 2024
My Most Helpful Book? After the New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity
What happened in early Christianity just *after* the period of the New Testament? It’s an unknown period for most people, but of vital importance for anyone interested in the Christian religion. For the next three posts I’ll explain by discussing my book devoted to the topic, After the New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed, 2015) In some ways, I think After the New Testament is the most *useful* book I’ve ever done. It is an anthology of important ancient Christian texts in readable English translations, each with introductions that explain what they are about and why they matter. Some of these are texts you may have heard of. Some, I bet not! But they are all important and intriguing. In these posts I will explain my book by excerpting the General Introduction, which introduces readers to the fascinating world of Christian Origins and shows it’s importance and the problems its study poses for scholars. ******************************
July 25, 2024
Major Issues in the Earliest Christian Centuries (In my Book After the New Testament)
What were the key issues, controversies, developments, and concerns of the Christian communities of the first three centuries? These are the topics considered in my book After the New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed, 2015). In the previous post I explained that the book is a collection of most of the most important writings from the second and third centuries — the period right after the books of the New Testament were themselves written. Here I talk about the various themes that I used to organize my collection, themes that I judged to be the most significant for anyone trying to understand Christianity in earliest times. This will take two posts. ******************************
July 27, 2024