All posts by Wintery Knight

https://winteryknight.com/

Peter J. Williams lectures on the historical reliability of the gospel narratives

Investigation in progress
Investigation in progress

Here’s the main lecture: (54 minutes)

And here’s the Q&A: (9 minutes)

About Peter Williams:

Peter J. Williams is the Warden (CEO) of Tyndale House and a member of the Faculty of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. He received his MA, MPhil and PhD, in the study of ancient languages related to the Bible from Cambridge University.

Summary of the lecture:

  • What if the stories about Jesus are legendary?
  • were the gospels transmitted accurately?
  • were the gospels written in the same place as where the events happened?
  • do the gospel authors know the customs and locations where the events happened?
  • do the gospels use the right names for the time and place where the events took place?
  • do the gospels disambiguate people’s names depending on how common those names were?
  • how do the New Testament gospels compare to the later gnostic gospels?
  • how do the gospels refer to the main character? How non-Biblical sources refer to Jesus?
  • how does Jesus refer to himself in the gospels? do the later Christians refer to him that way?
  • how does Jesus teach? do later Christians teach the same way?
  • why didn’t Jesus say anything about early conflicts in the church (the Gentiles, church services)?
  • did the writers of the gospels know the places where the events took place?
  • how many places are named in the gospels? how about in the later gnostic gospels?
  • are the botanical details mentioned in the gospels accurate? how about the later gnostic gospels?

And here are the questions from the audience:

  • how what about the discrepancies in the resurrection narratives that Bart Ehrman is obsessed with?
  • what do you think of the new 2011 NIV translation (Peter is on the ESV translation committee)?
  • how did untrained, ordinary men produce complex, sophisticated documents like the gospels?
  • is oral tradition a strong enough bridge between the events and the writers who interviewed the eyewitnesses?
  • what does the name John mean?
  • why did the gospel writers wait so long before writing their gospels?
  • do you think that Matthew and Luke used a hypothetical source which historians call “Q”?
  • which gospel do critical historians trust the least and why?

I really enjoyed watching this lecture. He’s getting some of this material from Richard Bauckham’s awesome book “Jesus and the Eyewitnesses”, so if you aren’t familiar with it, you can get an idea of what’s in it. Peter Williams is a lot of fun to listen to – an excellent speaker.

 

86-year-old Catholic priest murdered by Islamic State terrorist in northern France

Democrats think that the real threat to America is not radical Islamic terrorism
Democrats think that the real threat to America is not radical Islamic terrorism

The Stream reports on a horrific story from France:

A priest was killed in a hostage situation at a Catholic church in Normandy, France on Tuesday. The terrorist attack, which seriously wounded at least one other person, was done in the name of ISIS, according to French President Francois Hollande.

The two men cut 84-year-old Rev. Jacques Hamel’s throat after shouting “Daesh,” another name for ISIS. The Telegraph reported that five people were taken hostage during morning Mass in the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray. Two churchgoers and two nuns were taken hostage and one is seriously wounded.

Police shot the two men as they left the building, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Islamic State said the attack was made by two of its “soldiers.” Daily Express reported that one of the attackers was a convicted terrorist known to French authorities. The man was required to wear an electronic bracelet.

Hollande called the attack a “cowardly assassination,” CNN reported. “Daesh has declared war on us,” Hollande said. “We have to win that war.”

What is interesting about this is that it is following a continuous stream of attacks by Islamic terrorists and refugees in various countries. The Democrat National Convention is going on right now, maybe they are talking about the threat of radical Islam?

The Daily Wire can answer that:

While Democrats spent the night jabbering about abortion and $15 minimum wage and climate change, jihadists stormed a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in Normandy, France, and proceeded to behead an 86-year-old priest while shouting “Jesus Lives!”

Just joking. They were yelling “Allahu Akhbar.” But you guessed that already.

This is the fifth jihadist attack in Europe in 11 days.

So, how many times did Democrats mention ISIS last night and yesterday?

Zero.

That’s right – 61 speakers, zero mentions of ISIS. But the Democrats did find time to put an illegal immigrant on stage, as well as an irritating comedic actress who uses her spare time auctioning sanitary napkins. They found time to take down “offensive” Mississippi state flags and wave Palestinian ones on the floor of the convention. They found time for another actress who claimed that the “border crossed” her family, and a video from J.J. Abrams about that Queen of Mystery and Light, Hillary Clinton.

The Democrats know their priorities. And defeating ISIS isn’t one of them.

[…]Republicans worry about terrorism and crime, Democrats worry about whether men who think they’re women can go pee-pee next to the ladies.

If you’re watching the coverage of the Democrat convention, the media is busy fawning over the speeches. But the speeches don’t address any of the real problems that we are facing. It’s just the liberal elites preening themselves about how generous they are with other people’s money. The real problems like crime and terrorism are completely ignored. It takes a certain amount of intellectual capacity to be able to apprehend reality as it is in order to do a job. Democrats confuse their own felt needs with reality, and so prefer an illusion in which they can congratulate themselves for being better than others without having to actually solve any real problems by their own effort. Calling evil “good” feels good to a Democrat, it wins applause for Democrats. Democrats think: “who cares if a few innocent people have to suffer or die?” That’s how Democrats think.

Cambridge University professor Simon Gathercole lectures on geography in the Bible

BeThinking posted a new lecture featuring Dr. Simon Gathercole.

Here’s the speaker bio:

Dr Simon Gathercole is Senior Lecturer in New Testament Studies and Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, at the University of Cambridge. He is particularly fascinated by the connections between the New Testament and its contemporary literature.

Summary:

Simon Gathercole shows how the geographical information in the New Testament Gospels demonstrates their historical reliability and their basis in eyewitness sources. The illustrated lecture lasts about 60 minutes and is followed by about 20 minutes of Q&A.

BeThinking has a PDF containing all the slides used in the lecture.

The lecture is here:

Topics:

  • Detailed geography is difficult to fake, especially when it is far into the past
  • Bible authors would have to rely on eyewitness testimony if they wanted to get geographic details right
  • You can even cross-reference the geographic details mentioned in the New Testament with extra-Biblical sources of that time
  • Cities mentioned in the Bible are mentioned in other sources
  • Locations that are mentioned in Josephus, a Jewish historian
  • Locations that are mentioned in the Rabbis
  • 22 of 27 places mentioned in the gospels are attested
  • If you compare the gospels with Josephus they are as good

Example slide – he shows where these cities in orange are mentioned outside the Bible:

At the end of the lecture 22 out of 27 cities are attested in other sources
At the end of the lecture 22 out of 27 cities are attested in other sources

This lecture caught my eye because it was all about connecting the Bible to evidence outside the Bible. I like evidence. You should give it a listen.