Category Archives: History

Authorial Third Person Narration–in Thucydides, Josephus, Xenophon, and Caesar–Versus the Gospel of Matthew

Posted on July 18, 2018 by

One of the issues that pops up frequently, when discussing the authorial anonymity of the Gospel of Matthew, is how a number of Classical authors refer to themselves in the third person, when narrating historical events in which they themselves … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Exegesis, History, Literary Theory | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Readers’ Mailbag: Should Legendary Development Have Occurred More Rapidly for Alexander the Great than Jesus?

Posted on June 16, 2018 by

Recently in response to my blog essay “Are the Gospels Ancient Biographies?: The Spectrum of Ancient Βίοι”–in which I discuss how the NT Gospels resemble the more novelistic and fabulous biographies from antiquity, such as the Alexander Romance (in contrast to … Continue reading →

Posted in Ancient Biography, Ancient Novel, Classics, Historical Jesus, History, Mailbag, Miracles | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

David Bryan on N.T. Wright and the Argument from “Anachronistic Anastasis” by Eric Bess

Posted on April 1, 2018 by

[Below is a guest blog by my friend Eric Bess, which deals appropriately with a topic pertaining to Easter and how to interpret the nature of the resurrection event.] General Problems of Reasoning and Rhetoric One of the most common … Continue reading →

Posted in Exegesis, Guest Blogs, Historical Jesus, History, Miracles, Resurrection | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Bart Ehrman and Jodi Magness on the Burial of Jesus and the Empty Tomb

Posted on January 20, 2018 by

It’s been almost four years since Bart Ehrman’s How Jesus Became God was published, and one of the points of controversy that arose when the book was first released is the fact that Ehrman does not endorse the historicity of … Continue reading →

Posted in Exegesis, Historical Jesus, History, Resurrection | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 89 Comments

Numismatic Evidence that Corroborates Suetonius’ Life of Otho and Contradicts the Gospels

Posted on January 12, 2018 by

To follow up on my previous review of Christian scholar Craig Keener’s “Otho: A Targeted Comparison” in Biographies and Jesus, I’d like to briefly discuss the relevance of numismatic evidence in evaluating Suetonius’ Life of Otho in comparison to the NT Gospels. … Continue reading →

Posted in Ancient Biography, Apologists, Classics, Historical Jesus, History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 29 Comments

Nicholas Covington Reviews “The Case for Christ: The Movie”

Posted on January 7, 2018 by

Nicholas Covington, who blogs at Hume’s Apprentice, has recently written a review on Amazon of the new The Case for Christ movie edition. Covington’s review discusses issues such as the preponderance of post-mortem hallucinations in religious movements, the growing legendary … Continue reading →

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Dialogue with Classicist Trevor Luke on Roman Imperial Ideology and the Miracles of Jesus: Part 1

Posted on December 17, 2017 by

About two years ago I met Classicist Trevor Luke (Associate Professor of Classics, Florida State University) at the Society for Classical Studies national annual meeting in San Francisco. Luke was presenting a paper at the time on his research regarding the … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Guest Blogs, Historical Jesus, History, Miracles, Religious Studies, Resurrection | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments