Just now I added a NET Bible scriptural reference thing. If you hover over the text a small popup should come up.

1 Corinthians 8:5
1 Cor. 8:6

Dan Wallace on the Historical Metzger

From this, Ehrman offered an analogy to the SBL crowd: getting to the truth of the historical Jesus is a tricky task, and legends about him would often spring up without any genuine historical base. In other words, Ehrman saw in the apocryphal story about Metzger a parallel with the stories about Jesus that are recorded in the Gospels.

An article by Daniel B. Wallace, a prominent Evangelical Textual Critic of Dallas Theological Seminar, recently wrote an article for Bible.org entitled The Historical Metzger. Here, he subtly turns Ehrman's argument against the reliability of the gospels on their head. It is well worth the read and can be found here.

I should also note that Dan was a guest on the AOMIN podcast The Dividing Line this Thursday which can be found here.

Rise of Orthodoxy

So, I was going to do a short research thesis on the rise of orthodox Christianity in the 2nd-4th century. Essentially, it was an evaluation of Walter Bauer's Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity (Rechtgläubigkeit u. Ketzerei im ältesten Christentum). Why I believed this was a good idea is that I know of a lot of scholarship that has challenged the openly accepted thesis to the core; secondly, Macquarie has great access to resources on the issue such as the Papyri from the Rise of Christianity in Egypt etc under the Documentary Research Centre. This scholarship is encapsulated in the works of Edwin Judge as well as the multiple volumes of the New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity. So, in short, I have a lot to work with.

Howerver....my subject supervisor wrote an entire book on the issues of using papyri for such an argument. Oh, the dilemma.

Me, Me, Me

So, every now and then I complain about wanting a book. Here I am, once again, to complain about wanting another book. I know - how selfish am I with all my wants, right?

First and foremost, I am still after Darrell Bock's Jesus According to Scripture. The book is not in stock anywhere - but I have found it at Koorong for $18 with a 6-8 week shipping waiting period. However, the fact that the book is well over twice the price everywhere else (including another listing of it on Koorong) I am not sure if the price is right. I hope it is - but I do also hope the shipping time isn't that long!

To the reason of this post - I want another book. Michael F. Bird, an Aussie scholar teaching in Scotland, has written a historical Jesus book on Jesus' self-identification as the Messiah. The text, pictured, is titled Are You the One Who is to Come: The Historical Jesus and the Messianic Question. Personally, from a purely naturalistic historical perspective I see it more than reasonable that Jesus may very well have seen himself as the Messiah, ushering in a new Messianic age. C'mon, he wouldn't have been the only one. We learn of a number of Messianic claimants towards the end of the Second Temple Period. Just like with writing off the predictions of the destruction of the temple despite Jesus not being the only person doing such pre-fall, when it comes to Jesus and the gospels - we apparently cannot know anything. I guess this sort of double-standard is why I admire the work of the IBR on the historical Jesus.

Anyway - back to obtaining the book. The price (~$30 seems reasonable), however, out of stock. Apparently 10 are on order at Koorong whilst Word lists it as not yet being published.

I hope to soon evaluate the thesis myself.

PS. Just before I go, I should plug Michael Bird's blog.

Resource Page (Under Construction)

I have decided to begin a hub for the numerous resources that I link to. The page is only under construction so deal with the scant content.


Websites:

• Centre for Public Christianity (CPX)
• Bible.org (Home of the NET Bible)

Blogs

• Ben Witherington on the Bible and Culture
• The Blog of Professor Darrell L. Bock
• Scot McKnight on Jesus and Orthodox Faith Today

Audio:

Darrell Bock Interview

Dr John Dickson of the Centre for Public Christianity interviewed Darrell L. Bock, Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. The interviews can be found here in two forms - 4 videos and one 27 minute audio interview. In my opinion the audio interview is best by far with Bock and Dickson touching some important issues in a, well, less rehearsed and more thorough sort of manner.

I have previously talked a bit about Dr Bock - however, just to reiterate he is one of the great evangelical New Testament scholars coming out of North America (probably along with Ben Witherington III and Craig A. Evans.)

The Most Interesting Debate of the Week

On the 28th and 29th of July Dr James R. White of Alpha and Omega Ministries and Harold Camping of Family Radio engaged in 'debate' on the radio show Iron Sharpens Iron. The topic intended for debate and discussion was "Has the Church Age Ended?" Harold Camping argues the affirmative with his only reference being selective eisegesis that he can undertake on the basis of special revelation. A revelation that seems to be revealed only to him. The vagueness of my understanding of Camping's position has to do with the fact that he barely discussed the issue. White, with sound exegesis, firmly defended against the idea that the Church age had ended.

I recommend that everyone download the podcast either from the AOMIN.ORG podcast 'The Dividing Line' or the Iron Sharpens Iron site above.

The first day of debate went well - there was some sort of interaction between White and Camping. However, when we get to the second day...I am speechless. As one would expect from the debate - Camping was to engage with White. However, Camping just used his three minutes each go to 'prove' his 2011 parousia through a one-way speech taking no note that White was even talking! It was amazing - White said some very great things and Camping, relying on premises thoroughly refuted by White earlier, would simply start where he left off with his little introduction. "As we have seen in Mark 4, Jesus spoke in parables" - Camping would then assume this meant everything was a parable which he, as the rightly ordained one, could interpret through the use of number games and other forms of eisegesis. Then throughout his three minute speeches he would repeat "This has been shown from the Bible" whilst making very little reference to the Bible or its context.

Furthermore, Camping employs a hermeneutic of - I don't know. How would one phrase this?
Exegesis requires that we take note of the context - firstly, the immediate context of the writing. However, Camping thoroughly rejects this man-made heresy (as we have established from Mark 4 Jesus spoke in parables) in order to uncover the true meaning. This means removing a word from the immediate context completely and placing the verse arbitrarily in the thematic context of an entirely different verse ANYWHERE in the Bible.

I was amazed that he does not see the folly in this. The Bible is turned into a contextless puzzle that one must reconstruct as they wish - postmodern eisegesis at its best!