Yeah certainly not a 50-50, but in my earlier days as an atheist I would have probably been more sympathetic to mythicism as an ideologically driven polemic against Christianity. Nowadays, I just view it as a distraction from more interesting questions (like who Jesus of Nazareth was, what he...
I think that Matthew already had Jesus in Bethlehem. It was Luke that invented the bogus tax story and thus made his birth date later than that of the one in Matthew. In Matthew Herod was still alive and leader of Judea. That ended in 4 BCE. Luke has his specifically name...
I used to think the chances of a real historical Jesus were 50-50. Certainly there's no clincher either way, Two points in particular have changed my view to make it more likely, but by no means certain, that Jesus existed in history. The first is Ehrman's point that in the records we have, none...
So here is what I have learned: Quirinius was a well-known Roman official who lived ca. 51 BCE – 21 CE. He is mentioned by numerous ancient authors, including Josephus, Suetonius, Pliny the Elder, Cassius Dio, Tacitus, Strabo, and Caesar Augustus himself. Thus we see attestations beyond the...
“The Romans conducted censuses every five years, calling upon every man and his family to return to his place of birth to be counted in order to keep track of the population. Historians believe that it was started by the Roman king Servius Tullius in the 6th century BC, when the number of...
Aside from your other comments, are you saying that there are no non-biblical records of any census at all that Caesar Augustus took or asked for? I don't know yet, but I'd like to know what you mean by the above.
No, there is not.
Even more contentious, however, is the notion that "everyone went to his own town to register." That is complete nonsense. Historians have noted that there is no historical record of Emperor Augustus ever giving such an order, that Quirinius (Cyrenius) was not governor of...
Yep Gods Word is amazing but it is hidden from those who do not believe it.
For me personally I would disagree. The new testament comes from the old testament scriptures. Together they are the Word of God.
According to the scriptures, the name "Israel" is only a name given by God to all those...
Funny, that, hey?
My point is that we can safely ignore the NT if we want to understand the God of the Jewish nation.
Let me give you a well-known example of a contrived "prophecy", the virgin birth of Jesus in Matthew and Luke, based on Isaiah 7:14. The word in the Tanakh is ʿalmâ, young...
Didn't say it had nothing to do with the origins of Jesus - It does say that he would originate from the tribe of Judah to be ruler of Israel.
Yes, that is how OT Israelite believers understood it - the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, etc. - ONE God who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus...
So you are saying that Micah5:2 has nothing to do with the origins of Jesus or the goings forth of Jesus, but is saying that He was prophesied about a long time ago.
That is probably how a Jew might have understood it, that He could not be Yahweh who is His God, but that is not true if the...
I wasn't sure who was Matthew or why you were bringing him up at first, but then I read the rest of your post.
Matthew the disciple of Jesus, if he existed, was a Jew. Further than that, he practiced second Temple Judaism. That means he was keeping the Covenant between God and Israel. That's...
You are joking right?
David asks for Uriah to be sent to the front line to be killed. Do you think that Uriah knew the real reason why? Would you not agree that it s blatantly obvious to us as readers that Uriah was lied too at the behest of the king and that the entire affair was exactly...
Tyre still exists.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyre,_Lebanon#:~:text=The%20ancient%20city%20of%20Tyre,occupied%20since%20the%20Bronze%20Age.
Jeremiah 25:2
2 "So Jeremiah the prophet said to all the people of Judah and to all those living in Jerusalem:"
Jeremiah 25:9-11:
Should I not...
No, that was not the prophecy. It was a prophecy against the king of Tyre at that time. Not his innocent descendants. Nebuchadnezzar was supposed to be the instrument of that destruction. Read the whole thing. Even Ezekiel admitted that Nebuchadnezzar failed. And even Alexander the...
Sorry to interject, but let me say you are going to have to provide evidence that those prophecies were indeed written before the events happened.
and that evidence is lacking.
1.
In 332 B.C., Alexander the Great conquered the island fortress of Tyre by building a causeway from the ruins of the old city. This fulfilled the prophecy in Ezekiel 26:4-5, written hundreds of years before. At the time of Ezekiel, Tyre was the capital of Phoenicia and the island fortress had...
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature (ESV); who being the brightness of His glory and the exact image of His person (KJV): discussed many times - Jesus perfectly reflected the glory of God; Jesus was the exact imprint/image, marked likeness, precise...
Exact imprint of nature, shines with same glory, can do anything the Father does, has all power and authority in heaven and earth................ how is Jesus not exactly like YHWH. And remember that if He is exactly like YHWH then He is YHWH.
Heb 1:10. Yes it says that the Son laid (past...
Isn't that what you mean by Jesus's "pre-human existence"?
Not the Genesis creation but the creation of the world to come.
I do not deny the truth of many plain passages, I just do not read the idea of a trinity into the passages. Furthermore, I do not deny any passage of scripture. My...