Gospel of Luke

A collection of 23 posts

David Austin

The Empty Tomb: The claim that the Bible refutes

The Empty Tomb has, for years, been a mainstay for Christian apologists, who claim Jesus rose from the dead in a glorious Resurrection. The Empty Tomb was used as one of the “minimal facts” to “prove” the resurrection of Jesus. So, what exactly is the Empty Tomb apologetic? According to

biblical contradictions

You say 'Gerasa' and I say 'Gadara'

This is a guest post by Lex Lata (prompted by Jonathan MS Pearce’s video, Biblical Contradictions: Demons and Gadara vs Gerasa). In the matter of proper names, the Greek copies are often incorrect, and in the Gospels one might be misled by their authority. The transaction about the swine,

Biblical Exegesis

No, the Gospel Writers Weren't Eyewitnesses

A recent comment from the resident Catholic troll commenter seemed to show incredulity at the idea that we might believe that the Gospel authors were not eyewitnesses of Jesus and his ministry. Now, obviously, literalists and conservative Christians maintain they are, but this is hardly surprising. The United States Conference

Biblical Exegesis

Jesus as the New Moses and Theology Historicised

Oddly, you might think, I will start this piece off with something commenter Cath Olic said in reply (that was in no reply at all) to a post about an interview dissecting the origins of religion in Israel and the genesis of Judaism: Today I heard part of an interview

Biblical Exegesis

Is the Betrayal of Jesus by Judas Historical?

In the closing stages of writing my latest book, The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK] (please grab yourself a copy!), I had a few test readers. One was David Austin, down in Australia, who has provided a few guest articles for your delectation. Here is another

Biblical Exegesis

Anointing of Jesus: Fact or Fiction?

In the closing stages of writing my latest book, The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK], I had a few test readers. One was David Austin, down in Australia, who has provided a few guest articles for your delectation. Here is another one - thanks muchly to

Biblical Exegesis

Goodacre on Markan Priority and the Gospel Datings

I listened to some Mark Goodacre some years ago and have referred to him in my own texts, and it was great to watch him here. I loved this talk. I got a lot out of this especially the talk of the destruction of the Temple and the so-called prophecies,

Bart Ehrman

Luke 1 & 2 Infancy Narratives as a Later Interpolation

Luke 3:1 opens with an elaborate chronological statement: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was … the word of the Lord came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness”. This surely reads as if it was originally written as the opening section

Biblical Exegesis

Nativity, Census, Quirinius: Refuting Very Poor Christian Apologetics Again. Even More.

As I explained yesterday (perhaps read it for context), I was linked to a vicar apologist challenge for skeptics to lay out a Nativity contradiction. It went like this: I was linked into some challenge from a vicar apologist who was seeking skeptic challengers to find nativity contradictions that he

Biblical Exegesis

My Nativity Debate with Lydia McGrew: Post-Match Analysis

I had a debate over whether the Nativity in Luke and Mark was fact or fairytale on Friday night for the Unbelievable? show on Premier Christian radio. I was warned that McGrew might try the Gish-gallup approach so I should get it in myself. I ended up being indeed fairly

Biblical Exegesis

To Bethlehem or Not to Bethlehem (II)

[A second post on Bethlehem excerpted from my book The Nativity: A Critical Examination (UK), which has just received a reprint to clear up a few bits and pieces, long overdue. Please grab a copy! It is worth reading the first post for this to make much sense.] And this

Biblical Exegesis

To Bethlehem or Not to Bethlehem (I)

[Excerpted from my book The Nativity: A Critical Examination (UK), which has just received a reprint to clear up a few bits and pieces, long overdue. Please grab a copy!] Bethlehem is a very important place for the average Christian. It is the birthplace of Jesus. But it is more

Biblical Exegesis

(The Worst) Quote of the Day (Ever): JohnM on Probability and Whatnot.

Holy cow. Get ready for this. I am not trying to be rhetorical here, but these are corkers, and none of them in a good way. The total lack of understanding is almost embarrassing. Should I waste my time dealing with these comments? Probably not. It gets frustrating when an

Biblical Exegesis

The Nativity Census Challenge: Update

For any of you who haven't been reading the threads on the census, a challenge that I set to See Noevo to answer, I would like to update you on what he has delivered by way of riposte: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIIuR-HjFho For longtime readers

Biblical Exegesis

Nativity Plays, Epistemology and Censuses

I recently had the twee pleasure of seeing my twins in their annual Nativity play at their primary school. This is something that goes on in every single primary school up and down the nation, almost without fail. As I point out in my book on the Nativity accounts and

Biblical Exegesis

Christmas Crackers: Why Return to an Ancestral Town for a Census?

Since this has come up in a recent thread, where Christian commenter and biblical accuracy asserter See Noevo has been defending it, I thought I'd run through some of the many myriad issues with the Lukan census. This excerpt is taken from my book, The Nativity: A Critical

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 Exegesis

Debunking the Nativity: The Gospel Sources

I am going to run a series this Christmas time to skeptically evaluate the nativity of Jesus, running alongside my previous book on the subject (The Nativity: A Critical Examination), which I think you should all buy. All of you. This initial piece will concern the sources. And the first

Biblical Exegesis

Why return to an ancestral town for a census?

This excerpt is taken from my book, The Nativity: A Critical Examination, and details why Joseph returning to his ancestral town for a census, as according to Luke is a ridiculous idea.

atheism

Me and Koresh vs the Gospel Writers and Jesus

Christian: Why is it more probable that your god exists than man made him up? We have an exceptionally high prior probability that your god is false given that we both believe that every other god claimed to be true (before and after) is false. Thus, on prior probability, the JC God is HIGHLY

Bart Ehrman

Ehrman on the Nativity

This is the sort of stuff I talk about in my book The Nativity: A Critical Examination, available from the sidebar over there on your right! From Bart Ehrman's blog: - Christianity In Antiquity (behind a members only wall):

Gospel of Luke

"Jonathan Pearce Points Out the Many Questions Raised By The Stories of Jesus' Infancy in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke"

Ed Babinski has recently kindly written about my book, The Nativity: A Critical Examination. Here is his post. Thanks, Ed! Jonathan Pearce has composed a book titled, The Nativity: A Critical Examination in which he asks questions like these (to which I have added a few comments myself below-