Dale C. Allison Jr. and Method (Video)

If you'd like a slice of the cutting edge of Jesus studies, you might pick up Dale Allison's Constructing Jesus. In 2012, Chris and I were honored to have had a chance to discuss his latest and last (so he tells me) book about Jesus, specifically concerning his historiographical method.  To see this conversation, scroll to the bottom of this page. I'd like to reiterate my thanks to United Theological Seminary for hosting.

Dale presents a 20-minute summation of his chapter in this book. Chris and I both respond (10 mins each). You'll notice in these responses a disagreement between Chris and I on the logic behind the criteria of Multiple Forms, Multiple Attestation, and Coherence. Chris is, of course, wrong; whereas I am both right and handsome. You'll also see an interesting interaction between Allison (Jesus scholar par excellence) and Barry Schwartz (Lincoln / Social Memory scholar par excellence).

enjoy!

                                                                            -anthony

What Happens After the PhD? - Le Donne

This is my once a month discouragement to all those who are considering PhDs. A few highlights:

Fact: "76 percent of teachers in colleges and universities are what the organization calls “contingent,” meaning full-time faculty members who are off the secure and relatively well-paid tenure track or part-timers (often known as adjuncts) and graduate students."

Truth: “There are PhD's working as adjuncts and living in poverty, on food stamps, etc.,”

My reaction: "That sounds about right."

-anthony

Oldest Known Text of Ethiopic Enoch - Le Donne

There has been a story I've been following with interest on Facebook.  My friend and mentor Loren Stuckenbruck (and crew) has been coming and going from Ethiopia. His wife Lois (who blogs here) has been posting on FB daily about their trip. Loren, you may know, is working on what promises to be the best commentary to date on The Book of Enoch.  Why do I think so?  Well, first of all, he's Loren Stuckenbruck. Second, and further to the first point, he does things like this:



They are at a monastery, photographing the oldest known text of Ethiopic Enoch.  Of course, the Ethiopic Church has held Enoch as sacred scripture since they set up camp a couple thousand years ago.  So these monks do not take kindly to outsiders handling their God-given relics.

Somehow, Loren and friends have wiggled their way into their good graces. Loren is the man in the electric-blue shirt with a mop of hair that would make Justin Bieber slap his stylist. The monkish looking fellow in the background has appointed himself the gatekeeper of these texts. According to Loren and Lois, getting access to these documents has been very tricky. Getting permission to photograph them has been altogether Herculean.

Talk about rolling up your sleeves on a project!

-anthony

Go Cards!

I want to congratulate my good friend Chris Keith on his Louisville Cardinals. If you know Chris at all, you'll know that he'd rather have a national championship more than almost anything else in the world.

It's just too bad that your daughter will be too young to remember this once-in-a-lifetime experience.


-anthony

Jesus against the Scribal Elite—Chris Keith

I’m happy to say that I’ve submitted the manuscript for a new book to Baker Academic entitled Jesus against the Scribal Elite: The Origins of the Conflict (due out in 2014). To my knowledge, it’s the first book-length study dedicated to answering the question of how Jesus got on the authorities’ radars in the first place.  I argue throughout the book that previous opinions on this issue that focus on Jesus’ different approach to the law or his exorcisms, miracles, and healings are not so much wrong as incomplete.  Jesus was not the only person in Second Temple Judaism who disagreed with Pharisees and others on the law.  He also was not the only performer of miraculous deeds.  I argue instead that a central component of the initial emergence of the conflict is that Jesus’ very status as a teacher was debated.  In other words, in addition to questioning the content of his teachings, they questioned whether he had the qualifications to be teaching in the first place.  To a certain extent, this book is an outgrowth of my argument in Jesus’ Literacy.  It takes that argument and applies it to the exegesis of the controversy narratives.  It further argues against a long history of research that attributes the creation of those narratives to the context of the early Church in its debates against non-Christian Jews, arguing that the types of debates over Scripture and authority that Jesus has with scribal-literate authorities in those narratives can be plausibly traced to the life of the historical Jesus.

Question on Apocalypse Commentaries - Le Donne

If you could only own one (modern) commentary on the Book of Revelation, what would it be?

Quarterly Quote of the Month about Jesus for this Week

Jesus was the first socialist, the first to seek a better life for mankind.

                                                         ~Mikhail Gorbachev

Was Jesus a Peasant? cont... - Le Donne

Yesterday Professor Keith addressed the question "Was Jesus a Peasant?"  He suggested a couple avenues toward an answer. On such matters I tend to defer to him.  Nobody is as conversant with the literature on social status in first-century Judea (his other specialty is late-80's WWF wrestling).  This is why I was a bit surprised when he appealed to Richard Bauckham's suggestion that Jesus' family owned farmland.  While the possibility shouldn't be ruled out, I find Bauckham's argument to be rather weak.

Was Jesus a Peasant?—Chris Keith

Anthony and I had an interesting email discussion on Jesus’ socio-economic status.  I can imagine that some readers of the Jesus Blog might want to contribute.  The question is whether Jesus was a peasant and, furthermore, whether that is a helpful way to describe him.  Some scholars, such as John Dominic Crossan, make a case that Jesus was among first-century Jewish peasants as a carpenter.

Memory and Moses

The brilliant Tyler Stewart discusses Philo on memory and Moses.

http://ahabhuman.blogspot.com/2013/04/philo-of-alexandria-on-remembering-moses.html

-anthony

Jesus Stomp cont...

In case anyone is still interested in this story, here is the latest.  For my part, academic freedom is a topic close to my heart.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/04/01/interview-professor-center-jesus-debate-florida-atlantic

-anthony

Gathercole and Goodacre on Thomas

Simon Gathercole and Mark Goodacre can be seen here via live feed discussing Thomas. My thanks to Marginalia for hosting.

-anthony

Byron's Window into Early African American Hermeneutics

My thanks to John Byron for posting this a while back. Completely new to me.

-anthony