New Testament, Its Context and Origins—Chris Keith

Following up on a question that Ken asked a while back:

What would you recommend for the non-theology student with a hunger for a deeper knowledge and understanding of the history, interpretation and context of the New Testament and it's origins? I have read many of Ben Witherington's books with great satisfaction but some of them are way beyond me. I have added several of your recommendations to my Amazon wish list hoping they are good for the serious but uneducated believer.

Ken, I just saw this post several months later. If you don't get this, I certainly apologize. I would recommend as a first port of entry David Aune's fabulous The New Testament and Its Literary Environment.

Happy Patty's Day

May your day be filled with armless dancing!

-anthony

Review of Bart D. Ehrman and Michael W. Holmes

(Future) Dr. Brice C. Jones reviews The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research over at

The Quaternion

This the the first review I've seen of the book.

-anthony

Congrats to Bloomsbury's Academic and Professional Division!

Bloomsbury's Academic and Professional Division has won both the flagship prize for Independent Publisher of the Year and Academic & Professional Publisher of the Year at the 2013 Independent Publishers Guild Awards.

Chris and I extend our warmest congratulations!  This honor is well-deserved.  We couldn't have been more pleased with the process and the final product of our Jesus, Criteria and the Demise of Authenticity.  From proposal to marketing, Bloomsbury's Academic is first-rate.

Quarterly Quote of the Month about Jesus for this Week

"When we walk without the Cross, when we build without the Cross, and when we profess Christ without the Cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly, we are bishops, priests, cardinals, Popes, but not disciples of the Lord."

                                  ~Pope Francis

Jesus the Shape-Shifter?

Never a dull moment in this line of work.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/03/13/shape-shifting-jesus-described-in-ancient-egyptian-text/

-anthony

Francis is a Good Name - Le Donne

"Francis", of course, brings to mind St. Francis of Assisi.  That Bergoglio will be "Francis I" may simply denote that St. Francis was not a pope (contra CBS news).

Both St. Francis and Pope Francis are known for strong views about celibacy.  Let's hope that our new Francis will also remember the impetus for the "Third Way".

-anthony

Calaway talks Freud

I really enjoyed this reflection on Freud and nostalgia over at Antiquitopia.

-anthony

Secret Mark as Gay Advocacy (Part Four) - Le Donne

My previous posts on Morton Smiths's Secret Mark are here, here, and here.  In my last post, I argued that the Mar Saba document (the letter to Theodore that contains Secret Mark) is an example of "counter memory".  But while it looks to be an ineffective second-century counter memory, it functions very well as a twentieth-century counter memory.  And if counter memory, then the discussion of motive and agenda become paramount.

To this end, it is worth reiterating that very few scholars on either side of the forgery debate think that Secret Mark is a historical account.  The account was decidedly black by Jesus Seminar standards (if that does anything for you).  Smith wrote that Secret Mark was “an imitation [of Mark] of the simplest and most childish sort” (Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark [Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973], p.76).  And yet, Smith's historical portrait of Jesus was gay nonetheless.

Abrahamic Religions / Levenson over at Marginalia

One the scholars who has shaped my thinking about inter-religious dialogue is Harvard Professor, Jon D. Levenson. Marginalia interviews him here.

If you're not familiar with Marginalia, it was recently launched by a team of professional religious studies experts and promises to be a fantastic resource for top tier reviews, interviews, and original articles.

About: The Marginalia Review of Books is an international review of academic literature from a range of disciplines along the nexus of history, theology, and religion. We publish reviews and a variety of contributions to intellectual culture – including essays, interviews, and op-eds – throughout the month. MRB aims to enhance the quality of the academic book review, to explore the creative possibilities of the web, and to help authors make their work more easily discoverable than in some traditional journals.

Dibelius on Getting Behind the Earliest Tradition—Chris Keith

I have spent much effort in publications on detailing the ways in which the criteria of authenticity are outgrowths of form criticism.  In my contribution to Jesus, Criteria, and the Demise ofAuthenticity, however, I also pointed out a difference.  I noted how, although both the form critics and the criteria approach try to get “behind” the Gospel texts, what they sought was different.  The form critics sought the earliest oral tradition, which still reflected the interpretations of the Palestinian Christians.  The criteria approach sought something like uninterpreted tradition, raw access to the historical Jesus.  

Secret Mark as Counter-Memory (Part Three) - Le Donne

My first two posts can be found here and here.

As I argued in my last post, if this document reflects the pen of Clement of Alexandria, the text betrays a memory/counter-memory exchange.  The “memory” that best explains Clement’s counter-memory is the rumor that Jesus was known to have engaged his followers in “naked man with naked man” activity.  Of course, social memory is often self-correcting.  Sometimes the counter-memory reflects the best explanation (consider the “birthers” attack of Obama; it was the counter-memory that won the day).  In such cases, we might simply say that the rumors are not always the best explanations of the perceived past and sometimes they are crafted intentionally.

But here is the next question: is the rumor that the author passes to us a memory that he (a) betrays, or is it (b) something that he intends to pass on?  In other words, does the author of this document really want, as he claims, to keep this rumor a secret?  Everything about this document suggests otherwise.

The author of this document would have us believe that he is anxious to keep all of these rumors suppressed.  Theodore should deny the basis of these rumors even if it means denying a document that he knows to exist! He writes: “not all true things are to be said to all men”. This is not dissimilar to what Clement writes elsewhere, but the author (remarkably) instructs Theodore to deny it with an oath!  Does this lend credence to a conspiracy theory for Christian origins?  It seems so to me.

Memory Refraction and Secret Mark (Part Two) – Le Donne

In my first blog post on this topic, most honorable Theodorus, I laid the groundwork for Morton Smith’s famous publication Secret Mark. See here.  In that post, I provided a large part of the letter to “Theodore” and all of what is extant from the so-called “Secret Gospel according to Mark”.  I hinted that my fascination has more to do with the letter and less to do with the content of the gospel.

Let's attempt a little thought experiment.  Let’s assume that the entire three pages represent an ancient correspondence and draw from an ancient “longer” and “more spiritual” version of Mark.  Let’s imagine, for the sake of argument, that this longer gospel was known to Clement of Alexandria.  Let’s further imagine that (according to the tradition Clement inherited in the late second century) this version of Mark was associated with Peter’s “notes” and Mark’s visit to Alexandria.  In other words, let’s swallow the whole story put forth by the supposed “Clement” in this letter to “Theodore.”