Last time we met up, we talked about how evangelicals destroy their witness online. That means they act in ways that decimate their credibility as Christians. Now, evangelicals have engaged with the internet from the beginning almost, so you might well think that they’d be able to behave themselves better Read more
Not long ago, we talked about the evangelical concept of a witness. This Christianese term describes the sum total of their knowledge of Christianity, their wisdom in communicating it, their effectiveness as evangelists, and their overall credibility as people. Evangelicals have never been great at maintaining their witness. In the decades Read more
Not long ago, we talked about a bunch of stuff—like apologetics arguments—that Christians mistakenly think is evidence supporting their various claims. Now, I want to zero in on one particular flavor of apologetics: the kind we encounter in Creationism. Yes, this sad, weird ideology still exists. Its leaders still cheerfully Read more
Hi and welcome back! Now, we come to the last 1st-Century Friday post for a while. After this, we may revisit my master list as time goes on, but I think we’ve finally hit the wall on writers who were even vaguely contemporaneous with Jesus. However, I’m taking us out Read more
When we checked out Josephus recently, a contemporary of his emerged from the shadows: Justus of Tiberias. We don’t know much about him, which is strange considering what he could have had to say about the earliest Christians. So today, let’s check out Justus of Tiberias — and marvel at the mystery surrounding his absence from the record.
I can easily see why 3rd-and-4th-century Christians felt an irresistible urge to edit Josephus’ work to better support their own claims. Around then, they were just starting to wonder why they lacked that kind of corroboration, and it bothered some of them a lot.
Needless to say, Tacitus is not even vaguely contemporary with Jesus. He wasn’t even born until 20+ years after Jesus supposedly died. By his adulthood, pretty much everyone contemporaneous with Jesus would have died already. Under that thinking, I, a Gen-Xer, could be considered contemporaneous with F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940).
Hi and welcome back! For a while now, we’ve been exploring the world of 1st-century writers in the Roman Empire. Our goal has been to see what those writers said — if anything at all — about Jesus, early Christians, or the goings-on in Judea during Jesus’ supposed lifetime. And Read more
Hi and welcome back! It’s Friday, and that means our attention turns to history. Specifically, we focus on a voice from the 1st century to see if they said anything about Jesus or Christianity during Jesus’ supposed lifetime. This time around, that voice is female. Pamphile of Epidaurus wrote some excellent Read more
Today, let’s look at what Thallus wrote — or rather, at what later Christians said Thallus wrote, and why it’s just not convincing as a source.