- Academic Conferences
- Ancient Biography
- Ancient Novel
- Announcements
- Apologists
- Bibliography
- Christology
- Classics
- Debates
- Dissertation
- Eschatology
- Exegesis
- Guest Blogs
- Higher Education
- Historical Jesus
- Historical Paul
- History
- Law
- Literary Theory
- Miracles
- Miscellaneous
- Musings
- Old Testament
- Patristics
- Philosophy
- Publications
- Reception
- Religious Studies
- Replies to Critics
- Resurrection
- Reviews
- Science
- Weird Stuff from Antiquity
Category Archives: Ancient Biography
Suetonius, Nero’s Dreams, and Biographical Memory
Several years ago, back in Spring 2011, I took a graduate course taught by prominent Classics scholar Marilyn Skinner on ancient biography and Suetonius’ Life of Nero. One of the most interesting sections of the biography is a series of … Continue reading
Posted in Ancient Biography, Classics, Dissertation, Exegesis, Historical Jesus, History, Literary Theory, Religious Studies, Weird Stuff from Antiquity
Tagged Ancient Biography, Dreams, Flight to Egypt, Gospel of Matthew, Herod the Great, Historical Jesus, Mimesis, Moses, Nero, Suetonius
6 Comments
Margaret Froelich on the Death of Aesop and Luke 4:16-30
Both teaching and dissertation work have been keeping me occupied of late. I have an exciting announcement about an important conference that I have been accepted to present at later this year, which I will discuss here at some point … Continue reading
Some New Peer-Reviewed Publications
I have been quite busy this quarter teaching as part of the Humanities Core at UC Irvine. So far we have covered the Incan Empire and Shakespeare’s Tempest, and we are now beginning to explore British colonialism in India. All … Continue reading
Numismatic Evidence that Corroborates Suetonius’ Life of Otho and Contradicts the Gospels
To follow up on my previous review of Christian scholar Craig Keener’s “Otho: A Targeted Comparison” in Biographies and Jesus, I’d like to briefly discuss the relevance of numismatic evidence in evaluating Suetonius’ Life of Otho in comparison to the NT Gospels. … Continue reading
Fictional Characters Who Appear Even in Historical Literature
This quarter I am busy teaching as part of the Humanities Core at UC Irvine. The course is inter-disciplinary, and covers literature, film, philosophy, history, and visual art. It’s a great teaching experience, especially since we have our students writing their … Continue reading
Bayesian Analysis of Craig Keener, “Otho: A Targeted Comparison”
Recently I received feedback from ancient historian Richard Carrier about my previous review of Craig Keener’s article–“Otho: A Targeted Comparison of Suetonius’ Biography and Tacitus’ History, with Implications for the Gospels’ Historical Reliability”–which is chapter 6 of Biographies and Jesus: What Does … Continue reading
Posted in Ancient Biography, Ancient Novel, Apologists, Classics, Guest Blogs, Historical Jesus, History, Philosophy, Reviews
Tagged Bayes' Theorem, Craig Keener, Richard Carrier
3 Comments
Review of Craig Keener, “Otho: A Targeted Comparison,” with Emphasis on the Citation of Eyewitness Sources and Textual Independence of Historical Biographers
While doing research on my dissertation, which works to situate the NT Gospels within the generic spectrum of Greco-Roman biography, one recent publication (October 2016) that has popped up on my radar is Craig Keener and Edward Wright’s new volume … Continue reading
Posted in Ancient Biography, Ancient Novel, Apologists, Classics, Historical Jesus, History, Reviews
Tagged Ancient Biography, Are the Gospels biographies?, Are the Gospels eyewitness accounts?, Are the Gospels historically reliable?, Are the Gospels like Plutarch?, Biographies of Jesus, Craig Keener, Historical reliability of the Gospels, Jesus
16 Comments
Eyewitness Recollections in Greco-Roman Biography versus the Anonymity of the Gospels
In the genre of Greco-Roman biography (as well as historiography) ancient authors did not always name all of their oral or written sources, and there were no footnotes in the literature of the period. Nevertheless, biographers from the early Roman Empire … Continue reading
Diegesis and Mimesis: A Very Brief Introduction
Another major part of working on a dissertation in the humanities is that you will usually incorporate some form of literary theory into the central thesis of your argument. I have discussed in a previous post some current theory of … Continue reading
Κέλσος 
[…] very good paper on how cults, aka religions, can invent nonsense and end up believing it to be true.“The…