Biblical Exegesis

A collection of 283 posts

Biblical Exegesis

Noah's Ark and Its Problems

Yes, as mentioned before, the Noah's Flood story is a complete mess. Here, NonStampCollector shows just how problematic it is, as a coherent account. Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_BzWUuZN5w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLr5vl-n0Bo

Biblical Exegesis

Women Should Remain Silent - Were Paul's Words an Interpolation?

The Apostle Paul has some infamous words regarding the position of women. Here he is in 1 Corinthians 14: 34 The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says. 35 If they

Biblical Exegesis

Why Should the Bible and Qu'ran Need Commentaries?

I was recently reminded of this conversation that I had a few years back with Jayman, a Christian commenter who sometimes posts here: Over on a thread about the challenges I have met in my claims of Islam, a Christian commentator asked this question: I agree with you that Islam

biblical contradictions

Rebutting Armstrong's Double Reference Prophecy Defence

I am having to defend my claims of biblical contradictions and issues with the infancy narratives against Dave Armstrong, fellow Patheos writer, but for the Catholic channel. I have previously taken him to task over his attack on my Herod and census piece, and found his position seriously wanting. Now

Biblical Exegesis

My Views on Jesus Mythicism Revisited

I recently expressed my views on Jesus mythicism and my position was quite robustly critiqued, which is great. I mean, that's why I do this. However, I was only expressing my conclusions rather than giving a full run-down of my analysis. Let me, for those who missed it,

Biblical Exegesis

When Your Everyday Catholic Doesn't Get It

See Noevo is no doubt a committed Catholic, but what he said recently really illustrated much of the problem in debating laymen. I don't mean this to be a personal attack on him and to use "laymen" pejoratively, but my point is important. My piece in

Biblical Exegesis

Responding to Criticism on the Herod/Census Problem

This is my second rebuttal to the efforts Dave Armstrong is putting in to trying to debunk my claims of contradictions in the Bible. The first rebuttal, completed yesterday, looked at his criticisms of my case that there are contradictions involved in the accounts of Jesus alighting on the shore

biblical contradictions

The Demons! The Demons! Replying to Armstrong on Biblical Contradictions

As you no doubt know by now, Dave Armstrong and myself are having a new religious war. Or something. Putting the deconversion accounts to one side, let's see what he makes of my claimed biblical contradictions. We shall start with my claims about the demoniacs and the where

atheism

MR on Veiled Threats and Belief

There is an interesting thread over on another post, part of which is a conversation between Jim Dailey and MR. MR produced a number of quotable quotes, two of which I will lay out here for further discussion. People put so much effort into their comments that they often need

biblical contradictions

The War Continues! Armstrong Tackles My Infancy Narrative Criticisms, and More

As many of you will know, Dave Armstrong, fellow Patheoser (of a Catholic persuasion) has been attempting to take me to task. It started off with criticising Anthony Toohey's deconversion account, and then, springing from this, he looked at tackling claims that a detailed in my book The

biblical contradictions

The Importance of "Insignificant" Biblical Contradictions

I recently made a post about a biblical contradiction that wasn't necessarily the most damning of contradictions. The post on the issue of demoniacs and geography laid out these two issues: We have two problems here: Problem 1 – the Gospels contradict each other on where this took place

biblical contradictions

On Harmonising Biblical Contradictions

This is a post I once made for John Loftus at Debunking Christianity and contradictions came up in a recent conversation with Dave Armstrong, so here it is. Contradictions, as Dave stated, can be harmonised, or found not to be contradictions, or are so insignificant as to not be of

biblical contradictions

Patheos Catholic-Atheist War: It's On! Respectfully Speaking...

The other day, David Armstrong from Biblical Evidence for Catholicism with Dave Armstrong, a blog on the Catholic channel here at Patheos, posted a rebuttal to one of my most recent deconversion accounts. My deconversion series has been running for some time and was the basis, originally, for one of

Biblical Exegesis

Joseph of Arimathea as Fictional

Joseph of Arimathea used to be used by William Lane Craig as a pillar of his truth claims for the Resurrection, itself one of the four cornerstones of his apology. Richard Carrier, amongst others, has provided some very interesting viewpoints on the historicity of this figure (or lack thereof). Craig

Biblical Exegesis

Quote of the Day: Damion Reinhardt on Joseph of Arimathea

Okay, so really the quote of the day is from John Dominic Crossan, but thanks to Damion for posting it. Damion's words are italicised: John Dominic Crossan makes the case that the tomb itself is a literary creation of Mark, in The Birth of Christianity, pp. 553-555. The

Biblical Exegesis

Easter Doubt: Matthew and the Guards at the Tomb

In this post, I am going to look at the resurrection account given by Matthew, in particular his addition found in no other Gospel account, that there were guards stationed at the tomb. According to Matthew, the chief priests were worried that the disciples might steal Jesus’ body to fake

Bart Ehrman

Easter Doubt: On the Skepticism of the Resurrection (part 4) – naturalistic explanations

As mentioned in my previous posts, it is that time of year that the historicity of the Easter accounts gets analysed by us skeptics. And found wanting. Very wanting. [caption id="attachment_6627" align="alignright" width="216"] Tintoretto [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons[/caption]

Biblical Exegesis

Easter Doubt: On the Skepticism of the Resurrection (part 3)

As mentioned in my two previous posts, it is that time of year again where the Resurrection of Jesus requires a thorough going over. Here is continues. There are three aspects to the debunking of the Resurrection: 1) The Gospels are not reliable sources of information; they are poor quality

Biblical Exegesis

Easter Doubt: On the Skepticism of the Resurrection (part 2)

As mentioned in my previous post, someone in Malawi is about to have a debate on national TV with a Christian about the Resurrection accounts and I have been asked to help provide some ideas for the debate, so here goes. There are three aspects to the debunking of the

Biblical Exegesis

Easter Doubt: On the Skepticism of the Resurrection

It's that time again, so I am going to re-run my extensive series on the Resurrection and Easter. Sorry if you've read it before, but there's nothing like a good reminder: Christmas is over, time to get on to Easter. A Few years back,

Biblical Exegesis

Answering Zetes on Yahweh and the Evolution of God

I have, in the past, posted extensively on issues pertaining to the Bible and ideas of God in the form of Yahweh. I maintain that, as the culture theologically evolved, so did the god that they held so high. Originally, Yahweh was one amongst a pantheon, or even council, of

bible

Mud Man and Rib Woman - A Competition!

Submit your concise and humorous interpretation of religious stories in this weird and wonderful competition.

Biblical Exegesis

My Debate on the Nativity with Randal Rauser

Some time ago, I had my first public debate, hosted by the Reasonable Doubts podcast and radio show. Check out my book on the subject The Nativity: A 'critical Examination. As I posted a couple of years back: My pre-recorded debate with Randal Rauser, a Christian apologist from Canada,

Biblical Exegesis

Debunking the Nativity - Quirinius vs Herod and the Ten Year Gap

This is the fifth instalment in the “Debunking the Nativity” series (not including a rebuttal piece) and I will concentrate in this piece on Quirinius and Herod. These posts sit alongside my book The Nativity: A Critical Examination. If you have watched any primary school nativity, you will have seen

Biblical Exegesis

Debunking the Nativity: Boney M

[caption id="attachment_6023" align="alignleft" width="113"] My book. Dig it.[/caption] I have recently been running a series debunking the historical claims within the Bible (specifically the Gospels of Matthew and Luke) to show them as wanting, running alongside my book The