Criticism of the Bible explained

See also: Historicity of the Bible. Criticism of the Bible refers to a variety of criticisms of the Bible, the collection of religious texts held to be sacred by Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and other Abrahamic religions. Criticisms of the Bible often concern the text’s factual accuracy, moral tenability, and supposed inerrancy claimed by biblical literalists. There remain questions of biblical authorship and what material to include in the biblical canon.

In direct opposition to such criticisms are devout Christians who regard the Bible as the perfect word of God (fundamentalist Jews have held the Hebrew Bible in similar high regard).

Authorship

See main article: Authorship of the Bible, Authorship of the Pauline epistles, Documentary hypothesis and Mosaic authorship. At the end of the 17th century, only a few Bible scholars doubted that Moses wrote the Torah (also known as the Pentateuch, traditionally called the "Five Books of Moses"), such as Thomas Hobbes, Isaac La Peyrère and Baruch Spinoza,[1] but in the late 18th century some scholars such as Jean Astruc (1753)[2] began to systematically question his authorship. By the end of the 19th century, some such as Julius Wellhausen and Abraham Kuenen[3] went as far as to claim that as a whole the work was of many more authors over many centuries from 1000 BC (the time of David) to 500 BC (the time of Ezra) and that the history it contained was often more polemical rather than strictly factual. By the first half of the 20th century, Hermann Gunkel had drawn attention to mythic aspects, and Albrecht Alt, Martin Noth, and the tradition history school argued that although its core traditions had genuinely ancient roots, the narratives were fictional framing devices and were not intended as history in the modern sense.

The modern consensus amongst Bible scholars is that the vast majority of the authors of books of the Bible are unknown.[1] Most of them are written anonymously, and only some of the 27 books of the New Testament mention an author, some of which are probably or known to be pseudepigrapha, meaning they were written by someone other than whom the author said he was.[4] The anonymous books have traditionally been attributed authors, though none of these, such as the "Five Books of Moses", or the four canonical gospels "according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John" have appeared to stand up under scrutiny.[1] [4] Only the 7 undisputed Pauline epistles appear to have most likely been written by Paul the Apostle, the Book of Revelation by John of Patmos (not by John the Apostle, nor by the author(s) of the other 'Johannine literature'). Scholars disagree whether Paul wrote the "Deutero-Pauline epistles" and whether Simon Peter wrote First Epistle of Peter; all other New Testament books that mention an author are most likely forgeries.[4] Though, for the Pastorals, this can be a result of mainly a passing down the tradition of "scholarly consensus" vs. merited by the evidence.[5]

In the 2nd century, the gnostics often claimed that their form of Christianity was the first, and they regarded Jesus as a teacher or an allegorical figure.[6] Elaine Pagels has proposed that there are several examples of gnostic attitudes in the Pauline epistles.[7] Bart D. Ehrman and Raymond E. Brown note that some of the Pauline epistles are widely regarded by scholars as pseudonymous,[8] and it is the view of Timothy Freke, and others, that this involved a forgery in an attempt by the Church to bring in Paul's gnostic supporters and turn the arguments in the other epistles on their head.[9] [10]

Canonicity

See main article: Development of the Hebrew Bible canon, Development of the Old Testament canon and Development of the New Testament canon. Specific collections of biblical writings, such as the Hebrew Bible and Christian Bibles, are considered sacred and authoritative by their respective faith groups.[11] The limits of the canon were effectively set by the proto-orthodox churches from the 1st throughout the 4th century; however, the status of the scriptures has been a topic of scholarly discussion in the later churches. Increasingly, the biblical works have been subjected to literary and historical criticism in an effort to interpret the biblical texts, independent of churches and dogmatic influences.[11]

In the middle of the second century, Marcion of Sinope proposed rejecting the entire Jewish Bible. He considered the God portrayed therein to be a lesser deity, a demiurge, and that the law of Moses was contrived.[12] A similar view is referred to as Jesuism, which does not affirm the scriptural authority of any biblical text other than the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels.

Judaism discount the New Testament[13] and Old Testament deuterocanonicals. They, along with most Christians, also discredit the legitimacy of New Testament apocrypha.

Ethics

Elizabeth Anderson, a professor of philosophy and women's studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, states that "the Bible contains both good and evil teachings", and it is "morally inconsistent".

Anderson criticizes commands God gave to men in the Old Testament, such as: kill adulterers, homosexuals, and "people who work on the Sabbath" (Leviticus 20:10; ; Exodus 35:2, respectively); to commit ethnic cleansing (Exodus 34:11–14, Leviticus 26:7–9); commit genocide (Numbers 21: 2–3, Numbers 21:33–35, Deuteronomy 2:26–35, and Joshua 1–12); and other mass killings. Anderson considers the Bible to permit slavery, the beating of slaves, the rape of female captives in wartime, polygamy (for men), the killing of prisoners, and child sacrifice. She also provides several examples to illustrate what she considers "God's moral character": "Routinely punishes people for the sins of others ... punishes all mothers by condemning them to painful childbirth", punishes four generations of descendants of those who worship other gods, kills 24,000 Israelites because some of them sinned (Numbers 25:1–9), kills 70,000 Israelites for the sin of David in 2 Samuel 24:10–15, and "sends two bears out of the woods to tear forty-two children to pieces" because they called someone names in 2 Kings 2:23–24.

Anderson criticizes what she terms morally repugnant lessons of the New Testament. She claims that "Jesus tells us his mission is to make family members hate one another, so that they shall love him more than their kin" (Matthew 10:35–37), that "Disciples must hate their parents, siblings, wives, and children (Luke 14:26)", and that Peter and Paul elevate men over their wives "who must obey their husbands as gods" (1 Corinthians 11:3, 1 Corinthians 14:34–35, Ephesians 5:22–24, Colossians 3:18, 1 Timothy 2:11–12, 1 Peter 3:1). Anderson states that the Gospel of John implies that "infants and anyone who never had the opportunity to hear about Christ are damned [to hell], through no fault of their own".

Simon Blackburn states that the "Bible can be read as giving us a carte blanche for harsh attitudes to children, the mentally handicapped, animals, the environment, the divorced, unbelievers, people with various sexual habits, and elderly women".

Blackburn criticizes what he terms morally suspect themes of the New Testament. He notes some "moral quirks" of Jesus: that he could be "sectarian" (Matthew 10:5–6),[14] racist (Matthew 15:26 and Mark 7:27), and placed no value on animal life (Luke 8:27–33).

Blackburn provides examples of Old Testament moral criticisms, such as the phrase in, ("Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.") which he says has "helped to burn alive tens or hundreds of thousands of women in Europe and America". He states that the Old Testament God apparently has "no problems with a slave-owning society", considers birth control a crime punishable by death, and "is keen on child abuse". Additional examples that are questioned today are the prohibition on touching women during their "period of menstrual uncleanliness (Leviticus 15:19–24)", the apparent approval of selling daughters into slavery (Exodus 21:7), and the obligation to put to death someone working on the Sabbath (Exodus 35:2).

Historicity

See main article: Historicity of the Bible. The historicity of the Bible is the question of the Bible's "acceptability as a history". This can be extended to the question of the Christian New Testament as an accurate record of the historical Jesus and the Apostolic Age.

Scholars examine the historical context of the Bible passages, the importance ascribed to events by the authors, and the contrast between the descriptions of these events and other historical evidence.

Archaeological discoveries since the 19th century are open to interpretation, but broadly speaking they lend support to few of the Old Testament's narratives as history and offer evidence to challenge others.[15] [16] However, some scholars still hold that the overall Old Testament narrative is historically reliable.[17]

Biblical minimalism is a label applied to a loosely knit group of scholars who hold that the Bible's version of history is not supported by any archaeological evidence so far unearthed, thus the Bible cannot be trusted as a history source.[18] [19] Author Richard I. Pervo details the non-historical sources of the Book of Acts.[20]

Historicity of Jesus

See main article: Historicity of Jesus.

See also: Historical Jesus, Christ myth theory and Jesus in comparative mythology. The validity of the Gospels is challenged by writers like Kersey Graves[21] and Gerald Massey,[22] who argue that the story of Jesus incorporates elements from mythic tales, such as those of Horus[23] and Greek myths.[24] Comparative mythology examines these parallels and suggests that Christianity may be based on a mythical creation rather than a historical figure. Some critics propose that Jesus was the Jewish manifestation of a Pan-Hellenic cult known as Osiris-Dionysus.[25]

Christ myth theory proponents[26] claim that the age, authorship, and authenticity of the Gospels can not be verified, thus the Gospels can not bear witness to the historicity of Jesus.[27] [28] This is in contrast with writers such as David Strauss, who regarded only the supernatural elements of the gospels as myth, but whereas these supernatural myths were a point of contention, there was no refutation of the gospels' authenticity as a witness to the historicity of Jesus.[29] Critics of the Gospels such as Richard Dawkins and Thomas Henry Huxley note that they were written long after the death of Jesus and that we have no real knowledge of the date of composition of the Gospels.[30] [31] Annie Besant and Thomas Paine note that the authors of the Gospels are not known.[32] [33]

In modern scholarship, the Christ myth theory is considered a fringe theory and is virtually dismissed by most scholars.[34] [35] [36]

Internal consistency

See main article: Internal consistency of the Bible. There are many places in the Bible in which inconsistencies—such as different numbers and names for the same feature, and different sequences for the same events—have been alleged and presented by critics as difficulties.[37] Responses to these criticisms include the modern documentary hypothesis, the two-source hypothesis, and theories that the pastoral epistles are pseudonymous.[38]

However, authors such as Raymond Brown have presented arguments that the Gospels contradict each other in various important respects and on various important details.[39] W. D. Davies and E. P. Sanders state that: "on many points, especially about Jesus' early life, the evangelists were ignorant ... they simply did not know, and, guided by rumour, hope or supposition, did the best they could".[40] Yet, E.P. Sanders has also opined, "The dominant view today seems to be that we can know pretty well what Jesus was out to accomplish, that we can know a lot about what he said, and that those two things make sense within the world of first-century Judaism."[41] More critical scholars see the nativity stories either as completely fictional accounts,[42] or at least constructed from traditions that predate the Gospels.[43] [44]

For example, many versions of the Bible specifically point out that the most reliable early manuscripts and other ancient witnesses did not include, i.e., the Gospel of Mark originally ended at Mark 16:8, and additional verses were added a few hundred years later. This is known as the "Markan Appendix".[45] [46] [47]

Regarding the errors in between the Gospels, many scholars and bible critics abnegate the Christian belief, that the Bible is inspired by God or the literal word of God, taken from the exegesis of . To argue the claim, scholars have found many errors, contradiction, and forgeries, which are supposed to disprove the claim.

With regards to the Old Testament, there is an error in where it says Ahaziah of Judah was 22 when he became king, but in 2 Chronicles 22:2 it says he was 42 when he began to reign. According to some Christian apologists one of the explanations to this would be that he first reigned at 22 as is stated in 2 Kings 8:26, was then kidnapped by the Arabians and Philistines for 20 years and then came back to the throne at 42, as is stated in 2 Chronicles 2:22. In other transcripts of 2 Chronicles, such as in the Septuagint, it states that he reigned for 20 years instead of 42.[48] This suggests a possible translation error.[49]

Translation issues

See main article: Biblical manuscript, Textual criticism and Biblical inerrancy. Translation of scripture into the vernacular (such as English and hundreds of other languages), though a common phenomenon, is also a subject of debate and criticism.[50] For readability, clarity, or other reasons, translators may choose different wording or sentence structure, and some translations may choose to paraphrase passages. Because many of the words in the original language have ambiguous or difficult to translate meanings, debates over correct interpretation occur. For instance, at creation, is רוח אלהים (ruach 'elohiym) the "wind of god", "spirit of god"(i.e., the Holy Spirit in Christianity), or a "mighty wind" over the primordial deep? In Hebrew, רוח (ruach) can mean "wind", "breath" or "spirit". Both ancient and modern translators are divided over this and many other such ambiguities.[51] [52] [53] [54] Another example is the word used in the Masoretic Text[55] to indicate the woman who would bear Immanuel is alleged to mean a young, unmarried woman in Hebrew, while 2 Matthew follows the Septuagint version of the passage that uses the Greek word parthenos, translated virgin, and is used to support the Christian idea of virgin birth. Those who view the Masoretic Text, which forms the basis of most English translations of the Old Testament, as being more accurate than the Septuagint, and trust its usual translation, may see this as an inconsistency, whereas those who take the Septuagint to be accurate may not.

More recently, several discoveries of ancient manuscripts such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Codex Sinaiticus, have led to modern translations like the New International Version differing somewhat from the older ones such as the 17th century King James Version, removing verses not present in the earliest manuscripts (see List of omitted Bible verses), some of which are acknowledged as interpolations, such as the Comma Johanneum, others having several highly variant versions in very important places, such as the resurrection scene in Mark 16. The King-James-Only Movement rejects these changes and upholds the King James Version as the most accurate.[56]

In a 1973 Journal of Biblical Literature article, Philip B. Harner, Professor Emeritus of Religion at Heidelberg College, claimed that the traditional translation of John 1:1c ("and the Word was God" and one of the most frequently cited verses to support the doctrine of the Trinity) is incorrect. He endorses the New English Bible translation of John 1:1c, "and what God was, the Word was."[57]

The Bible and science

See main article: Christianity and science.

See also: Biblical archaeology.

Common points of criticism against the Bible are targeted at the Genesis creation narrative, Genesis flood myth, and the Tower of Babel. According to young Earth creationism, flat earth theory, and geocentrism, which all take a literal view of the book of Genesis, the universe, and all forms of life on Earth were created directly by God roughly 6,000 years ago, a global flood killed almost all life on Earth, and the diversity of languages originated from God confusing his people, who were in the process of constructing a large tower. These assertions, however, are contradicted by contemporary research in disciplines, such as archaeology, astronomy, biology, chemistry, geoscience, and physics.[58] For instance, cosmological evidence suggests that the universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old.[59] Analyses of the geological time scale date the Earth to be 4.5 billion years old. Developments in astronomy show the Solar System formed in a protoplanetary disk roughly 4.6 billion years ago. Physics and cosmology show that the Universe expanded, at a rapid rate, from quantum fluctuations in a process known as the Big Bang. Research within biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, and geology has provided sufficient evidence to show life originated over 4 billion years ago through chemical processes. Countless fossils present throughout the fossil record, as well as research in molecular biology, genetics, anatomy, physiology, zoology, and other life sciences show all living organisms evolved over billions of years and share a common ancestry. Archaeological excavations have expanded human history, with material evidence of ancient cultures older than 6,000 years old. Moreover, 6,000 years is not enough time to account for the current amount of genetic variation in humans. If all humans were descended from two individuals that lived less than 10,000 years ago, it would require an impossibly high rate of mutation to reach humanity's current level of genetic diversity.[60]

Evolutionary creation, the religious belief that God created the world through the processes of evolution, seeks to reconcile some of these scientific challenges with the Christian faith.

According to one of the world's leading biblical archaeologists, William G. Dever,

Archaeology certainly doesn't prove literal readings of the Bible...It calls them into question, and that's what bothers some people. Most people really think that archaeology is out there to prove the Bible. No archaeologist thinks so. ... From the beginnings of what we call biblical archeology, perhaps 150 years ago, scholars, mostly western scholars, have attempted to use archeological data to prove the Bible. And for a long time it was thought to work. William Albright, the great father of our discipline, often spoke of the "archeological revolution." Well, the revolution has come but not in the way that Albright thought. The truth of the matter today is that archeology raises more questions about the historicity of the Hebrew Bible and even the New Testament than it provides answers, and that's very disturbing to some people.[61]

Dever also wrote:

According to Dever, the scholarly consensus is that the figure of Moses is legendary, and not historical.[62] However, he states that a "Moses-like figure" may have existed somewhere in the southern Transjordan in the mid-13th century BC.[63]

Tel Aviv University archaeologist Ze'ev Herzog wrote in the Haaretz newspaper:

Israel Finkelstein told The Jerusalem Post that Jewish archaeologists have found no historical or archaeological evidence to back the biblical narrative of the Exodus, the Jews' wandering in Sinai or Joshua's conquest of Canaan. On the alleged Temple of Solomon, Finkelstein said that there is no archaeological evidence to prove it really existed.[64] Professor Yoni Mizrahi, an independent archaeologist who has worked with the International Atomic Energy Agency, agreed with Finkelstein.

Regarding the Exodus of Israelites from Egypt, Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass said:

See also

References

Sources

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Friedman, Richard Elliott . Richard Elliott Friedman . 2019 . Who Wrote the Bible? . New York . Simon and Schuster . 6 . 9781501192401 . 11 August 2019.
  2. Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Astruc, Jean". Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum.
  3. Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Pentateuch. §2. Theorie van gesplitste bronnen".
  4. Web site: 16: Forgeries in the Name of Paul . Bart D. Ehrman . Lost Christianities . University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . 2002 . 15 July 2018 . 11 August 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190811201146/https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/lost-christianities/forgeries-in-the-name-of-paul . dead .
  5. Book: Luke Timothy Johnson. The First and Second Letters to Timothy: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, vol. 35A, Anchor Yale Bible. Yale University Press. 2008. New Haven; London. 56.
  6. Book: Ehrman, Bart D. . Bart D. Ehrman . Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew . 2003 . Oxford . New York . 978-0-19-514183-2 . 122–123, 185 .
  7. Book: Pagels, Elaine. Elaine Pagels. The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letters. 1 March 1992. Bloomsbury Academic. 978-1-56338-039-6. 162. What perspectives can such analysis offer —if any— on the question of Paul's own relation to gnostics? Much of the discussion, as B. Pearson notes, has focused on allegedly "gnostic terminology" in Paul's letters..
  8. Book: Ehrman, Bart D.. Bart D. Ehrman . The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings . 2004 . Oxford . New York . 978-0-19-515462-7 . 372–3 . Book: Brown, Raymond E. . Raymond E. Brown . Introduction to the New Testament . 1997 . Anchor Bible . New York . 978-0-385-24767-2 . 621, 639, 654 .

    Scholars who hold to Pauline authorship include Wohlenberg, Lock, Meinertz, Thornell, Schlatter, Spicq, Jeremais, Simpson, Kelly, and Fee. Donald Guthrie, New Testament Introduction, p. 622.

  9. Book: Cutner, Herbert. Jesus: God, Man Or Myth. 1 July 1986. Health Research Books. 978-0-7873-0235-1. 33. In his pamphlet Paul the Gnostic Opponent of Peter Gerald Massey proves quite clearly to any unbiased reader that "Paul was not a supporter of the system known as Historical Christianity, which was founded on a belief in the Christ carnalized; an assumption that the Christ had been made flesh, but that he was its unceasing and deadly opponent during his lifetime; and that after his death his writings were tampered with, interpolated, and re-indoctrinated by his old enemies, the forgers and falsifiers, who first began to weave the web of the Papacy in Rome.".
  10. Book: Freke. Timothy. Timothy Freke. Gandy. Peter. The Laughing Jesus: Religious Lies And Gnostic Wisdom. June 2006. Three Rivers Press (CA). 978-1-4000-8279-7. 73. Not only is Irenaeus the first person in history to mention Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and The Acts of the Apostles, he also claims to be in possession of a number of letters by Paul which have not been heard of previously. In these letters, which are known as the 'pastorals', Paul has been transformed from a gnostic into a literalist. Of the thirteen letters attributed to Paul in the New Testament, the three letters that are most widely dismissed by scholars as forgeries are the pastorals, which gnostics at the time also refused to acknowledge as authentic..
  11. "Bible." The Crystal Reference Encyclopedia. West Chiltington: Crystal Reference, 2005. Credo Reference. 29 July 2009
  12. Book: Vincent L. Milner. Hannah Adams. Religious Denominations of the World: Comprising a General View of the Origin, History, and Condition, of the Various Sects of Christians, the Jews and Mahometans, as Well as the Pagan Forms of Religion Existing in the Different Countries of the Earth; with Sketches of the Founders of Various Religious Sects. 1860. J. W. Bradley. 325. He [Marcion] further maintained that the law of Moses, with its threats and promises of things terrestrial, was a contrivance of the evil principle in order to bind men still more to the earth..
  13. Book: Jackson, S H.. The Jew; being a defence of Judaism against all adversaries, and the attacks of Israel's advocate [publ. by the American society for meliorating the condition of the Jews], ed. [really written] by S.H. Jackson. 1824. 86, 90. Inquiry into the nature of any proposition is absolutely necessary ; particularly in matters offered for our [the Jews] conversion. And it is a very just observation of Mr. Basnage, who says, "We must prove the divine authority of the Gospel (to the Jews) before we engage in the particulars of other controversies." (History of the Jews, b. 7. c. 34.) And I add, till this is done, and the Jews admit the divine authority of the New Testament, nothing can be urged from thence for their conversion : for, in controversies, neither party can, with the least shadow of reason, make use of any authority which is not admitted or granted by the other. [...] I conclude that the writers of the New Testament could not be under the infallible guidance of God ; neither do I find that they published or gave out their writings as such. And if they did not declare themselves inspired, what authority could any one else have to declare them so? On the contrary, it very evidently appears that there was no scriptures, no writings, deemed canonical in what is called the first ages of ......ianity [Christianity], but the Old Testament !.

  14. "Then the persona of Jesus in the Gospels has his fair share of moral quirks. He can be sectarian: 'Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel' ."

  15. Web site: Beyond Labels: What Comes Next? . Davies . Philip . Philip R. Davies . April 2010 . The Bible and Interpretation . 2016-05-31 . It has been accepted for decades that the Bible is not in principle either historically reliable or unreliable, but both: it contains both memories of real events and also fictions. . 2016-04-02 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160402023829/http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/moore1357926.shtml . live .
  16. Book: Nur Masalha. The Zionist Bible: Biblical Precedent, Colonialism and the Erasure of Memory. 20 October 2014. Routledge. 978-1-317-54465-4. 228. critical archaeology — which has become an independent professional discipline with its own conclusions and its observations — presents us with a picture of a reality of ancient Palestine completely different from the one that is described in the Hebrew Bible; Holy Land archaeology is no longer using the Hebrew Bible as a reference point or an historical source; the traditional biblical archaeology is no longer the ruling paradigm in Holy Land archaeology; for the critical archaeologists the Bible is read like other ancient texts: as literature which may or may not contain some historical information (Herzog, 2001: 72–93; 1999: 6–8).
  17. As J.A. Thompson concludes, 'it is perfectly true to say that biblical archaeology has done a great deal to correct the impression that was abroad at the close of the last century and in the early part of this century, that biblical history was of doubtful trustworthiness in many places. If one impression stands out more clearly than any other today, it is that on all hands the overall historicity of the Old Testament tradition is admitted." J. A. Thompson, The Bible and Archaeology, 3rd ed., fully rev. (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1982), 4; See also, W. F. Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel (Baltimore, 1955), p. 176.
  18. Book: Casey, Maurice. Maurice Casey. Jesus: Evidence and Argument or Mythicist Myths?. 16 January 2014. A&C Black. 978-0-567-59224-8. 24. Thomas L. Thompson was an American Catholic born in 1939 in Detroit. He was awarded a B.A. at Duquesne University, a Catholic university in Pittsburgh, USA, in 1962, and a Ph.D. at Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1976. ...[Thompson] refuted the attempts of Albright and others to defend the historicity of the most ancient parts of biblical literature history..
  19. Book: Moore. Megan Bishop. Kelle. Brad E.. Biblical History and Israel S Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History. 17 May 2011. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. 978-0-8028-6260-0. 33. The minimalists' first main claim, that the Bible could not be considered reliable evidence for what happened in ancient Israel, is based on a View of the text that was influenced by literary criticism and philosophical criticism of history writing. Philosophical and literary examinations of history writing are concerned with the literary shape of the text, often called history's poetics. Such study recognizes that historians chose data and put it into a narrative using preconceived notions of the meaning of the past. Thus, literary considerations of history blur the line between history writing and fiction. The events of history, like those of fiction, were seen as emplotted, or directed into a meaningful story line by an author. It is not difficult to see how the claim that history and fiction are quite similar can raise serious questions about the accuracy of a historical account..
  20. Book: results, search. The Mystery of Acts: Unraveling Its Story. 9 December 2008. Polebridge Press. 978-1598150124.
  21. Book: Graves, Kersey. Kersey Graves. The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors: Or, Christianity Before Christ, Containing New, Startling, and Extraordinary Revelations in Religious History, which Disclose the Oriental Origin of All the Doctrines, Principles, Precepts, and Miracles of the Christian New Testament, and Furnishing a Key for Unlocking Many of Its Sacred Mysteries, Besides Comprising the History of 16 Heathen Crucified Gods. 1875. Freethought Press. 22–https://books.google.com/books?id=JGAwAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA23&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U09kMRAbSr5gnl_qbkuwP98KCaS3g&ci=100%2C178%2C770%2C382&edge=023 . 3. Here I desire to impress upon the minds of my clerical brethren the important fact, that the gospel histories of Christ were written by men who had formerly been Jews (see Acts xxi. 20), and probably possessing the strong proclivity to imitate and borrow which their bible shows was characteristic of that nation ; and being written many years after Christ's death, according to that standard Christian author, Dr. Lardner, it was impossible, under such circumstances, for them to separate (if they had desired to) the real facts and events of his life from the innumerable fictions and fables then afloat everywhere relative to the heathen Gods who had pre-enacted a similar history. Two reasons are thus furnished for their constructing a history of Christ almost identical with that of other Gods, as shown in chapters XXX., XXXI. and XXXII. of this work..
  22. Book: Massey, Gerald. Gerald Massey. The Natural Genesis: Or, Second Part of A Book of the Beginnings, Containing an Attempt to Recover and Reconstitute the Lost Origines of the Myths and Mysteries, Types and Symbols, Religion and Language, with Egypt for the Mouthpiece and Africa as the Birthplace. https://books.google.com/books?id=MaI0AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA13. 1. 1883. Williams and Norgate. 13 . The Kamite Typology. The human mind has long suffered an eclipse and been darkened and dwarfed in the shadow of ideas, the real meaning of which has been lost to the moderns. Myths and allegories whose significance was once unfolded to initiates in the mysteries have been adopted in ignorance and re-issued as real truths directly and divinely vouchsafed to mankind for the first and only time: The earlier religions had their myths interpreted. We have ours mis-interpreted. And a great deal of what has been imposed on us as God's own true and sole revelation to man is a mass of inverted myth..
  23. Book: Massey, Gerald. Gerald Massey. Ancient Egypt, the Light of the World: A Work of Reclamation and Restitution in Twelve Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=t00XAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA752. 2. 1907. T. F. Unwin. 752. Child-Horus. Christian ignorance notwithstanding, the Gnostic Jesus is the Egyptian Horus who was continued by the various sects of gnostics under both the names of Horus and of Jesus. In the gnostic iconography of the Roman Catacombs child-Horus reappears as the mummy-babe who wears the solar disc. The royal Horus is represented in the cloak of royalty, and the phallic emblem found there witnesses to Jesus being Horus of the resurrection..
  24. Freke, Timothy and Gandy, Peter (1999) The Jesus Mysteries. London: Thorsons (Harper Collins)
  25. Freke, Timothy and Gandy, Peter (1999) The Jesus Mysteries. London: Thorsons (Harper Collins)
  26. Book: Barnes, Harry Elmer. Harry Elmer Barnes. The Twilight of Christianity. 1929. Vanguard Press. New York. 390–391. Among the more eminent scholars and critics who have contended that Jesus was not an actual historical figure we mention Bruno Bauer, Kaithoff, Drews, Stendel, Felder, Deye, Jensen, Lublinski, Bolland, Van der Berg, Virolleaud, Couchoud, Massey, Bossi, Niemojewski, Brandes, Robertson, Mead, Whittaker, Carpenter and W. B. Smith..
  27. Book: Drews, Arthur. Arthur Drews. The Witnesses to the Historicity of Jesus ... Translated by Joseph McCabe [from Die Christusmythe.].. https://books.google.com/books?id=2qAGMwEACAAJ. 1912. London. Part 4, Section 1. There is no other source of the belief in an historical Jesus but the gospels. The credibility of the historical documents of Christianity finds no support outside themselves. (Part 4, Section 1. at Wikisource).
  28. Book: Evans, Elizabeth E.. Edward Payson Evans#Elizabeth Evans. The Christ Myth: A Study. 1900. Truth Seeker Company. 17. There is evidence that all the Gospels were borrowed from an earlier source, but whether that source was history or romance, and whether the author or the later compilers dressed up foreign and ancient materials in local and contemporary attire, cannot be known. The earliest "Fathers" of the Christian church do not mention nor allude to any one of the Gospels, but they do quote from some other work or works in language similar to and in substance sometimes agreeing with sometimes differing from, the canonical Gospels..
  29. News: New Foe Of Religion Arises. 30 August 2015. Chicago Tribune. February 6, 1910. New Foe of Religion Arises—German Professor Maintains the Messiah Never Lived.—Big Debates in Public.—Women Overcome by Hysteria Interrupt Disputants.—[by cable to the ''Chicago Tribune''.]—Berlin. Feb. 5.—Berlin was this week the scene of one of the most remarkable theological discussions since the days of Martin Luther. It was provoked by Prof. Arthur Drews of Karlsruhe, who caused a public sensation by plastering the billboards of the town with posters propounding the startling question:—"Did Jesus Christ ever live?" ...Prof. Drews appeared in Berlin under the auspices of the League of Monists, whose position, as their name denotes, is akin to those who express their creed in the formula, 'There is no God but God; for hear, O Israel, the Lord, thy God, is the one God.'—The professor laid down his theories after the classic manner of old time university disputations. The gist of his position in large measure was like the mythical theory of David Strauss, which created a sensation fifty years ago. Strauss held there was verity in the historic Christ, but that the vast mass of miracle and supernatural wonders had been woven like wreaths around the head of Jesus. Drews goes further. He alleges there never was such a person as Jesus of Nazareth.. 6 September 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150906134704/http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1910/02/06/page/9/article/new-foe-of-religion-arises/. live.
  30. Book: Dawkins, Richard. Richard Dawkins. The God Delusion. The God Delusion. https://books.google.com/books?id=yq1xDpicghkC&pg=PA118. 16 January 2008. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 978-0-547-34866-7. 118. The Argument from Scripture. The Argument from Scripture: The fact that something is written down is persuasive to people not used to asking questions like: 'Who wrote it, and when?' 'How did they know what to write?' 'Did they, in their time, really mean what we, in our time, understand them to be saying?' 'Were they unbiased observers, or did they have an agenda that coloured their writing?' Ever since the nineteenth century, scholarly theologians have made an overwhelming case that the gospels are not reliable accounts of what happened in the history of the real world. All were written long after the death of Jesus, and also after the epistles of Paul, which mention almost none of the alleged facts of Jesus' life. All were then copied and recopied, through many different 'Chinese Whispers generations' (see Chapter 5) by fallible scribes who, in any case, had their own religious agendas..
  31. Book: Huxley, Thomas Henry. Thomas Henry Huxley. Essays Upon Some Controverted Questions. https://books.google.com/books?id=_b7aAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA364. 1892. Macmillan. 364. Agnosticism And Christianity. Agnosticism And Christianity: Therefore, although it be, as I believe, demonstrable that we have no real knowledge of the authorship, or of the date of composition of the Gospels, as they have come down to us, and that nothing better than more or less probable guesses can be arrived at on that subject..
  32. Book: Besant, Annie Wood. Annie Besant. Christianity, Its Evidences, Its Origin, Its Morality, Its History. 1893. R. Forder. 261. (D.) That before about A.D. 180 there is no trace of FOUR gospels among the Christians.  ...As it is not pretended by any that there is any mention of four Gospels before the time of Irenaeus, excepting this "harmony," pleaded by some as dated about A.D. 170 and by others as between 170 and 180, it would be sheer waste of time and space to prove further a point admitted on all hands. This step of our argument is, then on solid and unassailable ground —That before about A.D. 180 there is no trace of FOUR gospels among the Christians. (E.) That, before that date, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are not selected as the four evangelists. This position necessarily follows from the preceding one [D.], since four evangelists could not be selected until four Gospels were recognised. Here, again, Dr. Giles supports the argument we are building up. He says : "Justin Martyr never once mentions by name the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. This circumstance is of great importance ; for those who assert that our four canonical Gospels are contemporary records of our Saviour's ministry, ascribe them to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and to no other writers.".
  33. Book: Paine, Thomas. Thomas Paine. The Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology. 1898. Truth Seeker Company. 143. But exclusive of this the presumption is that the books called the Evangelists, and ascribed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, were not written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; and that they are impositions. The disordered state of the history in these four books, the silence of one book upon matters related in the others, and the disagreement that is to be found among them, implies that they are the production of some unconnected individuals, many years after the things they pretend to relate, each of whom made his own legend; and not the writings of men living intimately together, as the men called apostles are supposed to have done; in fine, that they have been manufactured, as the books of the Old Testament have been by other persons than those whose names they bear..
  34. Web site: Burridge . Richard A. . Gould . Graham . Jesus Now and Then . August 6, 2024 . 34 . 2004.
  35. Web site: Stanton . Graham . The Gospels and Jesus (Oxford Bible Series) (2nd ed.). . Oxford University Press . 145.
  36. Web site: Houlden . James Leslie . Jesus in History, Thought, and Culture [2 Volumes] ]. August 6, 2024 . 658, 660 . 2003.
  37. Web site: Contradictions from the Skeptic's Annotated Bible . Skepticsannotatedbible.com . 2009-04-11 . 2019-05-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190525214220/http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/by_name.html . live .
  38. Knight, George William, Howard Marshall, and W. Ward Gasque. The Pastoral Epistles: A Commentary on the Greek Text (New International Greek Testament Commentary). William. B. Eerdmans, 1997. / 9780802823953
  39. Book: Brown, Raymond Edward . Raymond E. Brown . The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library) . limited . 1999-05-18 . Yale University Press . 978-0-300-14008-8 . 36.
  40. W.D Davies and E. P. Sanders, 'Jesus from the Jewish point of view', in The Cambridge History of Judaism ed William Horbury, vol 3: the Early Roman Period, 1984.
  41. Book: Sanders, E.P.. Jesus and Judaism. Fortress. 1985. Philadelphia. 2 (Kindle Edition).
  42. Book: Sanders, Ed Parish . E. P. Sanders . The Historical Figure of Jesus . 1993 . Allen Lane . London . 978-0-7139-9059-1 . 85.
  43. Book: Hurtado, Larry W. . Larry W. Hurtado . Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity . limited . June 2003 . W.B. Eerdmans . Grand Rapids, Mich. . 978-0-8028-6070-5 . 319.
  44. Book: Brown, Raymond Edward . Raymond E. Brown . The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in Matthew and Luke . 1977 . Doubleday . Garden City, N.Y. . 978-0-385-05907-7 . 104–121.
  45. Book: Guy D. Nave. The Role and Function of Repentance in Luke-Acts. 1 January 2002. BRILL. 90-04-12694-5. 194.
  46. The Continuing Christian Need for Judaism, by John Shelby Spong, Christian Century September 26, 1979, p. 918. see http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1256
  47. Book: Amy-Jill Levine. Marianne Blickenstaff. Feminist Companion to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings. 2001. A&C Black. 978-0-8264-6333-3. 175.
  48. Web site: 2 Chronicles 22 - Septuagint LXX Brenton Restored Names King James Version KJV Strong's Concordance Online Parallel Bible Study . 2024-03-09 . qbible.com.
  49. Web site: Riddle . Jeffrey . Textual Note: 2 Chronicles 22:2 . stylos . Blogger . 18 August 2024.
  50. "Bible." The Columbia Encyclopedia. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. Credo Reference. 29 July 2009
  51. The Bible in the Syriac tradition, Sebastian P. Brock, p. 13
  52. Book: Day, John. God's Conflict with the Dragon and the Sea: Echoes of a Canaanite Myth in the Old Testament. 24 January 1985. CUP Archive. Google Books. 9780521256001.
  53. https://books.google.com/books?id=AxH1j2ICKZsC&pg=PA62 Understanding Biblical Israel: a reexamination of the origins of monotheism, Stanley Ned Rosenbaum
  54. https://books.google.com/books?id=l1u-_VMDM80C&pg=PA251 The Jewish religion: a companion
  55. 7:14
  56. Eric Pement, Gimme the Bible that Paul used: A look at the King James Only debate online .
  57. Philip B. Harner, “Qualitative Anarthrous Predicate Nouns: Mark 15:39 and John 1:1,” Journal of Biblical Literature 92, 1 (March 1973),
  58. Web site: Answers to Creationist Attacks on Carbon-14 Dating. 19 November 2008. 4 January 2013. 11 January 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130111074125/http://ncse.com/cej/3/2/answers-to-creationist-attacks-carbon-14-dating. live.
  59. Web site: Cosmic Detectives. The European Space Agency (ESA). 2013-04-02. 2013-04-15. 2019-02-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20190211204726/http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cosmic_detectives. live.
  60. Web site: Evangelicals Question The Existence Of Adam And Eve . Barbara Bradley Hagerty . . August 9, 2011 . April 5, 2018 . April 7, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190407200856/https://www.npr.org/2011/08/09/138957812/evangelicals-question-the-existence-of-adam-and-eve . live .
  61. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bible/dever.html The Bible's Buried Secrets
  62. [William G. Dever]
  63. Book: Dever. William G.. What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It?. 2002. Eerdmans. Grand Rapids, Mich. [u.a.]. 9780802821263. 98–99. Paperback. What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It?.
  64. Web site: Senior Israeli archaeologist casts doubt on Jewish heritage of Jerusalem. https://web.archive.org/web/20110929142605/http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/2705-senior-israeli-archaeologist-casts-doubt-on-jewish-heritage-of-jerusalem. 2011-09-29. Middle East Monitor. 9 August 2011.

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