Moses - A Tippling Philosopher

Jesus as the new Moses

Jesus is many things to many people. To the early Christians, authors of the Gospels, he was certainly a construction of sorts. For example, for Matthew, Jesus was written in a way that emulated Moses in order that he appealed to Matthew's Jewish audience. The use of this

Biblical Exegesis

A study in straw: Apologetics, alphabets, and the Torah

The prevailing consensus among modern scholars of the Bible and Semitic philology (the study of structure and history of languages) is that the Torah—or Pentateuch, if Greek is your cuppa—was largely composed or compiled in its present form during the first millennium BCE. This would place it compiled

Biblical Exegesis

Who Is Jesus and What Is Christianity Without the History and the Torah?

This is the second in a triology of pieces, which started with "Without the History, What are the Torah and Christian Bible?" where I detailed the dismissal of the more problematic portions of the Bible in favour of a more abstract and modern approach. I've been

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

Exodus Sidebar: Jesus As the New Moses, Myth upon Myth

In writing the first couple of chapters for my new book project on the Exodus, I was doing some reading of Raymond Brown again, the masterful Catholic exegete who wrote the superb The Birth of the Messiah. I was reminded of the over the belief theological manipulation that we see

Biblical Exegesis

Debunking the Exodus VI: The Moses Birth Myth Is Nuts and Draws from other Myths.

Unfortunately, over the extensive series concerning the availability of pitch as a waterproofing caulk in the Nile River area of Egypt during the New Kingdom era, we have failed to see the crap for the pitch. Let us get back on an even (thoroughly pitch-caulked) keel by looking at the

archaeology

Exodus Sidebar: Pitch - You Wouldn't Let It Lie!

https://youtu.be/0vECGh9hY68?t=20 Ah, dag nam it. You wouldn't let it lie, Armstrong. You wouldn't let it lie! ;) Okay, I'll spare you all the previous, readers. Here are the links: * Debunking the Exodus V: Moses’ Birth * Exodus Sidebar: Refuting Armstrong’s

ancient history

Exodus Sidebar: The Final Pitch Battle

As part of my debunking the Exodus series, I've been involved in a prolonged debate with Dave Armstrong, in particular, regarding…pretty much everything I have stated. Let me give you a super-quick synopsis of where we are at. One of my arguments was that the Moses birth

archaeology

Exodus Sidebar: Sargon and Moses - the Final Word...?

There has been a back and forth between myself and Catholic apologist (with a bent for biblical literalism) Dave Armstrong on the subject of the Exodus account from the Bible, and specifically recently on Moses' birth story and its dependence on the pre-existing Sargon birth myth (in itself, a

Biblical Exegesis

What's More Likely: Snake or Stake?

A recent comment by WCB on a thread today reminded me of the Exodus claim of Moses' staff: The Staff of Moses is a staff mentioned in the Bible and Quran as a walking stick used by Moses. According to the Book of Exodus in the Bible, the staff

archaeology

Exodus Sidebar: More on Moses and Sargon

I think that Dave Armstrong believes that the purpose of my existence is merely to answer his articles that he writes against me. I hate to burst his bubble, but I have other things to do with my life that take something of a priority over responding to him. On

archaeology

Exodus Sidebar: Refuting Armstrong's "Refutation" on Pitch (but Oddly Not Sargon...)

Oh David, David, David. David "I love science as much as any atheist" Armstrong likes to see himself as the white knight, tackling my "screeds" articles and refuting them. Except, this is rarely what actually happens. He recently claimed to have refuted me on camels but

Biblical Exegesis

Debunking the Exodus V: Moses' Birth

The Exodus is a story that is hugely important to Christians (and Jews), as can be seen by some comments by Christians on the previous articles in this series. I want to continue my claims that the Exodus never happened because of both historical issues and theological/philosophical ones by

Biblical Exegesis

Moses’ Burning Bush

This is another Dana Horton guest post: huge thanks to him for providing these. Moses’ Burning Bush (4 minute read) Let’s look at the Old Testament story about Moses and the burning bush. One of the most confusing parts of that story comes when God speaks directly to Moses

archaeology

The Exodus Debunked: Analysing some "Counter-Evidence"

Time to take the defenders to task. And, I must say, we have a dismal failure on our hands here. As many of you will know, I have been running a series debunking the historicity of the Exodus accounts in the Old Testament. The importance and ramifications of doing this

archaeology

The Exodus Debunked: Narrative Sources

"It is thus clearer than the sun at noonday that the Pentateuch was not written by Moses, but by someone who lived longer after Moses”Spinoza, 1670 I will continue my deconstruction of the Exodus accounts by concentrating on the issues surrounding the claims concerning the typology and the

archaeology

The Exodus Debunked: Moses' Birth

I will continue my deconstruction of the Exodus accounts by concentrating on Moses. The articles so far have been: * The Exodus Debunked: Chronology * The Exodus Debunked: A Ridiculous Story with Ridiculous Claims * The Exodus Debunked: Camels * The Exodus Debunked: Hardening of Hearts I want to compile them all into a

Biblical Exegesis

The Exodus Revisited: Taking a Commenter to Task

I posted some notes I made on the ridiculousness of the Exodus account the other day. It has been met with pretty universal agreement by fellow skeptics, unsurprisingly, on the threads here and on facebook. So it was interesting when I received the following comment: Because you are self-described philosopher,

ancient history

The Exodus from Egypt as Exceedingly Ridiculous

This is from some years ago. It is still the final argument in my God on Trial talk that I do. I have been kindly asked to give a talk to the Dorset Humanists next month, They seemed to enjoy my last few talks so much as to want me

Andreas Schueler

Miracles, plagues, serious God events; still the Egyptians didn't believe...?

Yup, you heard it here. The plagues. God getting involved right up to his neck in magic stuff. People and animals dying all over the shop. Frogs; gnats; darkness; rivers of blood; boils; hail; firstborns of Egyptian families and animals dying. AND THEN the army getting destroyed by a parted sea comi

Moses

Moses vs Santa Claus (for those who are yet to see it) and other hilarities

No intro needed. Just pretty funny! http://youtu.be/0kRAKXFrYQ4 And while you're here, this is sheer genius: http://youtu.be/rjRcPttjOPE And more genius (Jesus as a racist): http://youtu.be/OIVB3DdRgqU And Charlie Brooker on the Pope resigning: http://youtu.be/qrz_uFzAXPU And finally, this