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Category Archives: Classics
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
Authorial Third Person Narration–in Thucydides, Josephus, Xenophon, and Caesar–Versus the Gospel of Matthew
One of the issues that pops up frequently, when discussing the authorial anonymity of the Gospel of Matthew, is how a number of Classical authors refer to themselves in the third person, when narrating historical events in which they themselves … Continue reading
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
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
Guest Blog by Tyler Huson: Jotham’s Fable or Aesop’s Fable? A Discussion of Textual Relations
I’ve been pretty busy teaching in the UC Irvine Humanities Core this academic quarter, and so I have been soliciting a number of guest blogs from friends and scholars, in order to keep up regular posting activity on Κέλσος. If you … 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
Grammatiki Karla on Ancient Greek Popular Literature: Language and Style
Seeing that I will be comparing the NT Gospels to the genre of Greek popular-novelistic biography in my Ph.D. dissertation, a major component of this project will be identifying the features and characteristics of “popular literature.” Fortunately, a new academic book on … Continue reading
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