nativity

A collection of 34 posts

Biblical Exegesis

"Historical" Bookends to a Historically Vacuous Life

This is an early draft section for one of the first chapters in my new book-in-the-writing, The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story: The birth and death of Jesus are historical bookends to the life of Jesus, obviously, even if the theology continues in Acts and the Epistles

Biblical Exegesis

Mental Contortions Required of Christians to Believe the Nativity Accounts

[caption id="attachment_6023" align="alignleft" width="113"] My book. Dig it.[/caption] It's that time of year again. I have, at different Christmases, run some series debunking the historical claims within the Bible (specifically the Gospels of Matthew and Luke) to

Biblical Exegesis

Debunking the Nativity: Daniel's Magi

[caption id="attachment_6023" align="alignleft" width="113"] My book. Dig it.[/caption] It's that time of year again. I have, at different Christmases, run some series debunking the historical claims within the Bible (specifically the Gospels of Matthew and Luke) to

Biblical Exegesis

Debunking the Nativity: A Christmas Round-Up

[caption id="attachment_6023" align="alignleft" width="113"] My book. Dig it.[/caption] It's that time of year again. I have, at different Christmases, run some series debunking the historical claims within the Bible (specifically the Gospels of Matthew and Luke) to

Jesus

Mother Mary Joins the #MeToo Movement

This video pokes some fun at the Virgin Mary conception of Jesus story, all of the points of which I mention in my book The Nativity: A Critical Examination (UK). Check them both out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Eo2t8gSMBo Thanks to the video makers for letting me know

apologetics

William Lane Craig Given "Difficult" Questions to "Answer"

This comes from the New York Times, questions from Nicholas Kristof: I question William Lane Craig of Talbot School of Theology and Houston Baptist University about Christianity. This is the latest installment in my occasional series of conversations about Christianity. Previously, I’ve spoken with the Rev. Timothy Keller,Jimmy

Biblical Exegesis

Challenging the Theological Truth of the Nativity

As many will know, I have written a book that sets out to particularly debunk the historical narrative of the birth accounts of Jesus - The Nativity: A Critical Examination. It simply didn't happen like that. The full gamut of posts on the subject appears at the bottom

Biblical Exegesis

Returning to Debunking the Nativity: A Christmas Round-Up

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

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

nativity

Conflicting Genealogies of Jesus and JohnM's Thesis of a Matrilineal Bloodline Refuted. Again.

It's all so painful, watching apologists insist and insist on a thesis in light of it being thoroughly refuted. So here I go again, in some kind of masochistic use of my time. I will say this again, as I did a few years ago, because the same

Biblical Exegesis

Debunking the Nativity: Ancestral Maths

As I have pointed out numerous times, the census as claimed in the Gospel of Luke, is simply incoherent.  I have given out a challenge to one of the commenters here. Here is my challenge in the form of statements that the apologist has to address: 1. A client kingdom

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

The Nativity Census Challenge: Answer This.

My Christmas goodwill and patience has evaporated like a week-old pan of mulled wine left on the slow-burning hob. Infamous commenter here, See Noevo, most of the time just has no ability to see his own comments and behaviour in an objective light. He suffers very much from the Dunning-Kruger

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

Debunking the Nativity: A Christmas Round-Up

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

Biblical Exegesis

Christmas Crackers: To Bethlehem or Not to Bethlehem

This came up in conversation and so I will present the issues concerning Bethlehem in the nativity accounts in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. These posts concerning the nativity sit alongside my book The Nativity: A Critical Examination. Bethlehem is a very important place for the average Christian. It

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

Jesus

Casting Doubt on the Nativity of Jesus again

My usual seasonal spiel goes something like this... Holidays are coming, holidays are coming... It's that time of year, you know, the interminable run-up to Christmas when big corporations vie for your hard-earned cash in an attempt to exploit the seasonal goodwill brought on by the imaginary birth

Biblical Exegesis

Merry Christmas Everybody, but It Never Happened Though...

Christmas is upon us; the season of joy and merriment. I have a book called The Nativity: A Critical Examination, which is a topical read, methinks. Given the time of year, let us look at the claims of the (only two) Gospels that actually mention the birth of Jesus. Which

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 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: 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

Biblical Exegesis

Conflicting Genealogies of Jesus and the Thesis of a Matrilineal Bloodline Refuted

In one of my recent (indeed, the last) posts about the Nativity, it has been pointed out that some Christians defend a particular harmonisation of a biblical difference. I would like to set it out here in order to show that his epistemological approach is somewhat dodgy and that the

Biblical Exegesis

Debunking the Nativity: The Male Genome

This is the third instalment in the "Debunking the Nativity" series and I will concentrate on the virgin birth. These posts sit alongside my book The Nativity: A Critical Examination. Continuing along the theme of the conception of Jesus, let us look at biological problems that have theological

Biblical Exegesis

Debunking the Nativity: The Mistranslation of "Virgin"

This is the third instalment in the "Debunking the Nativity" series and I will concentrate on the virgin birth. These posts sit alongside my book The Nativity: A Critical Examination. Remaining on the subject of the virgin birth, it is worth noting the issue involving the mistranslation of