A Christian Response by Stephen J. Bedard
I recently came across a post called The Gospels are Unreliable and the Gospel Jesus is Not a Historical Person on a blog named Naturalist Philosophy. The author of the blog does not provide their name but seems to be well educated. The author may be well read in philosophy but the post makes a … Read More “The Gospels Are Reliable and the Gospel Jesus is a Historical Person” »
Philo of Alexandria lived between 20 BC and 50 AD, meaning all of Jesus’ life was within his lifetime. Philo was also a Jewish writer who left behind more first century writings than any other Jew. So why didn’t Philo mention Jesus? For some Mythicists this is a major nail in the coffin of the … Read More “3 Reasons Why Philo Never Mentioned Jesus” »
One of the arguments by Mythicists against using the New Testament as historical evidence for Jesus is that is Scripture for a living religion. Scripture (of any religion) cannot be used as a historical source. Or can it? This is related to the idea of the New Testament being too biased. Ignatius and Clement of … Read More “Can Scripture Be a Valid Historical Source?” »
One of the disagreements between most scholars and Mythicists is about how appropriate it is to use the Gospels as evidence for the historical Jesus. The problem, according to Mythicists, is that the Gospels are obviously biased. They are not unbiased historians or biographers. John 20:31 makes it clear: “But these are written that you … Read More “Aren’t the Gospels Too Biased?” »
Are Christians even able to do historical Jesus studies? After all, Christians have a religious commitment to Jesus and so their scholarship will be “tainted” by their faith. Bias is a real thing and we should be aware of it. But let me turn this around. Can a Jesus Mythicist do historical Jesus studies? Aren’t … Read More “Can Christians Do Historical Jesus Studies?” »
