Category Archives: Historical Jesus

Suetonius, Nero’s Dreams, and Biographical Memory

Posted on October 14, 2019 by Celsus

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

David Bryan on N.T. Wright and the Argument from “Anachronistic Anastasis” by Eric Bess

Posted on April 1, 2018 by Celsus

[Below is a guest blog by my friend Eric Bess, which deals appropriately with a topic pertaining to Easter and how to interpret the nature of the resurrection event.] General Problems of Reasoning and Rhetoric One of the most common … Continue reading →

Posted in Exegesis, Guest Blogs, Historical Jesus, History, Miracles, Resurrection | Tagged Dale Allison, Daniel Smith, David Bryan, James Charlesworth, Markus Bockmuehl, N.T. Wright, Richard Miller | 7 Comments

Bart Ehrman and Jodi Magness on the Burial of Jesus and the Empty Tomb

Posted on January 20, 2018 by Celsus

It’s been almost four years since Bart Ehrman’s How Jesus Became God was published, and one of the points of controversy that arose when the book was first released is the fact that Ehrman does not endorse the historicity of … Continue reading →

Posted in Exegesis, Historical Jesus, History, Resurrection | Tagged 1 Corinthians 15:3-7, Allegorical Characters, Bart Ehrman, Burial of Jesus, Empty Tomb, Greg Monette, How Jesus Became God, Jesus' Burial, Jesus' Resurrection, Jodi Magness, Joseph of Arimathea, Minimal Facts Apologetic, Natural explanations for Jesus' resurrection, Resurrection Apologetics, Resurrection Creed, Skepticism towards the Resurrection of Jesus | 90 Comments

Numismatic Evidence that Corroborates Suetonius’ Life of Otho and Contradicts the Gospels

Posted on January 12, 2018 by Celsus

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 →

Posted in Ancient Biography, Apologists, Classics, Historical Jesus, History | Tagged Ancient Biography, Authorship of Matthew, Craig Keener, Edward Watts, Fabian Udoh, Historical reliability of the Gospels, Numismatics, Otho, Render unto Caesar, Roman Denarius, Roman Taxation | 29 Comments

Nicholas Covington Reviews “The Case for Christ: The Movie”

Posted on January 7, 2018 by Celsus

Nicholas Covington, who blogs at Hume’s Apprentice, has recently written a review on Amazon of the new The Case for Christ movie edition. Covington’s review discusses issues such as the preponderance of post-mortem hallucinations in religious movements, the growing legendary … Continue reading →

Posted in Apologists, Historical Jesus, History, Miracles, Resurrection, Reviews | Tagged Historical Apologetics, Lee Strobel, Nicholas Covington, The Case for Christ | Leave a comment

More of the Same: Eric Bess Reviews Sean McDowell’s “The Fate of the Apostles”

Posted on September 22, 2017 by Celsus

Below is a guest post by my friend Eric Bess, in which he reviews Christian apologist Sean McDowell’s book The Fate of the Apostles: Examining the Martyrdom Accounts of the Closest Followers of Jesus. McDowell defends the apostolic martyrdom argument for the resurrection, … Continue reading →

Posted in Apologists, Christology, Guest Blogs, Historical Jesus, History, Miracles, Resurrection, Reviews | Tagged Accounts of the disciples' deaths, Argumentum Ad Martyrdom, Christian Persecution, Deaths of the Disciples, Disciples died for their beliefs, Disciples Martyrdom, Eric Bess, Resurrection of Jesus, Sean McDowell, The Fate of the Apostles, What happened to Jesus' disciples?, Would the disciples die for a lie? | 1 Comment

Bayesian Analysis of Craig Keener, “Otho: A Targeted Comparison”

Posted on September 22, 2017 by Celsus

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

Posted on September 2, 2017 by Celsus

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

Dialogue with Vincent Torley over the Probability of Jesus’ Resurrection

Posted on April 12, 2017 by Celsus

Yesterday I wrote an extended response to apologist Vincent Torley’s OP–“Evidence for the Resurrection”–which was discussed recently in a post on John Loftus’ blog. In his OP, Torley argues that there is about a 60-65% subjective probability that Jesus rose … Continue reading →

Posted in Apologists, Historical Jesus, Historical Paul, History, Philosophy, Replies to Critics, Resurrection | Tagged Apostle Paul, Bayes' Theorem, Cognitive Dissonance Theory and Christian Origins, Gospels, Hallucinations of Jesus, Historical Jesus, Jesus' Resurrection, Paul's Epistles, Post-Mortem Visions | 24 Comments

Eyewitness Recollections in Greco-Roman Biography versus the Anonymity of the Gospels

Posted on August 29, 2016 by Celsus

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 →

Posted in Ancient Biography, Ancient Novel, Classics, Historical Jesus | Tagged Anonymity of the Gospels, Authors of the Gospels, Cornelius Nepos, Lucian, Plutarch, Suetonius, Tacitus | 8 Comments