Professor of Early Christianity - ask me (almost) anything!

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steve-b said:
So the answer is either

NO ?,

OR

maybe you don’t want ( a label ) what ever that label is, following you around, in your work?
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The answer is: I’m uncomfortable discussing my faith online.
 
Hi,
In Luther’s commentary on St. James, he says the “while the ancients rejected it…”.
I’ve always assumed he meant, specifically, Eusebius.
Could you discuss how Eusebius and others in the early Church evaluated some of the disputed (antilegomena) books?
 
steve-b said:
Your thoughts on
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Are you asking if I am a fundamentalist (that I believe the Bible is literally true)? If so, no I am not.

The Bible contains historical errors - Luke’s error over the date of Herod’s death is a good example.

How, and if, those errors contribute to or detract from, your faith is a question of theology, though. They don’t bother me, and they don’t bother the vast majority of Christians.

That is a very different question, then “is the Bible free of error in faith and morals?” That is a purely theological question. Each faith community has to answer it for themselves.
 
billsherman said:
There is, but generally this is only because some want to see Luke’s account as correct. The best historical evidence (and only evidence actually) is clear that Quirinius was governor of Syria after Herod was dead, and that the census did not count people in Galilee. Luke was just incorrect.
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Well no, there is evidence that the taxation situation was a cause for a number of problems for the Romans.

Josephus (chapter 8 of Wars of the Jews) points out that Judas the Galilean (6-7 CE) revolted against the taxation imposed by the Romans.
AND now Archelaus’s part of Judea was reduced into a province, and Coponius, one of the equestrian order among the Romans, was sent as a procurator, having the power of [life and] death put into his hands by Caesar. Under his administration it was that a certain Galilean, whose name was Judas, prevailed with his countrymen to revolt, and said they were cowards if they would endure to pay a tax to the Romans and would after God submit to mortal men as their lords. This man was a teacher of a peculiar sect of his own, and was not at all like the rest of those their leaders.
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The Jewish Encyclopedia claims that Quirinius was sent into Judea to “take account of the substance of the Jews” in 6-7 CE

Tertullian held that S. Sentius Saturninus, not Quirinius, was governor at the time of Jesus’ birth. Saturninus ruled from 9-6 B.C.E., the period most likely to be Jesus’ birth time.

It is entirely possible that Sentius ordered the census for taxation around the time of Jesus’ birth and that due to the instability of the region various attempts were made to begin taxation, but possibly interrupted from time to time by the Romans trusting that Herod, who showed great skill in managing his own finances, could manage the region financially. Some time after Herod’s the Great’s death in 4 BC, a tax began to be imposed, opposition mounted and Quirinius was sent in to “take account of the substance of the Jews”, i.e., impose the tax by force, triggering or in response to the revolt by Judas the Galilean.

In other words, the census for tax began by Sentius around the time of Jesus birth was “completed” or enforced by Quirinius later on. It would have been known as the tax of Quirinius but connected to the census begun earlier.

Acts makes reference to Judas…
After him Judas the Galilean rose up at the time of the census and got people to follow him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered. (Acts 5:37)
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This makes sense of Luke…
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. (Luke 2:1-2)
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The decree and registration (census) would have been earlier than the completed taxation that was “taken” at the time of Quirinius.
 
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billsherman said:
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steve-b:
Your thoughts on

Bible not infallible The Bible Is Not Infallible | Catholic Answers

AND

Is scripture inerrant Is Scripture Inerrant? | Catholic Answers

AND

An internal reference from that article on inerrancy

Providentissimus Deus On the Study of Holy Scripture
Pope Leo XIII - 1893 Providentissimus Deus - Papal Encyclicals
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Are you asking if I am a fundamentalist (that I believe the Bible is literally true)? If so, no I am not.
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OK

But for the record, I wasn’t asking if you were a fundamentalist.
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billsherman:
The Bible contains historical errors - Luke’s error over the date of Herod’s death is a good example.

How, and if, those errors contribute to or detract from, your faith is a question of theology, though. They don’t bother me, and they don’t bother the vast majority of Christians.
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OK, you’re saying the scriptures aren’t inerrant nor infallible historically
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billsherman:
That is a very different question, then “is the Bible free of error in faith and morals?” That is a purely theological question. Each faith community has to answer it for themselves.
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Ok,

looks like you’re not Catholic.

SO

Looks like You answered all my questions. Thanks

🙂
 
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By “bullying” I meant that the British museum rammed a spurious finding down the throats of academia by stipulating that anyone who still believed the Shroud to be authentic was comparable to the members of the flat earth society. Academics have careers and families to think of just as most people do and cannot afford to jeopardize those careers. Many academics dropped their research into the Shroud like a hot potato after hearing what the Museum had to say about it.

Historian Ian Wilson has put together a credible history of the Shroud, so it is not true that historians do not have the expertise to determine the authenticity of a relic such as the Shroud. . . .
 
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I sincerely hope that the people asking the OP if he’s Catholic aren’t doing so in the mindset of rejecting every (factual) thing he says that doesn’t square up with Catholic teaching.
 
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Bible translators and editors, including Catholic translators and editors, have long been aware of the chronological problem with this verse (Luke 2:2). Some of them have tried to get around it by adding words to the verse, writing something like “This census preceded that which was held when Quirinius was governor of Syria,” but that is adulterating Luke’s Greek.
 
Well, remember how far back the day is, and the fragility of my organ of memory…

But, no.

Full disclosure, which can’t be what you would be thinking of: in grad school I was a departmental assistant, a position with a small stipend, which required me to assist a couple of professors, in mundane duties, such as attendance, grading, and the occasional fill-in lecturing in a basic level course.

Alternate history might have had me with the terminal degree, and tenure. In fact, what I got was married and an Air Force career.

I hope this doesn’t detract from my general aura of omniscience, that I carry off so well.
 
undead_rat said:
Are you dodging the issue of the Shroud’s authenticity? If so, is it because you do not want to be seen as a member of the Flat Earth Society?
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Once again, @undead_rat, you are helping to convince me, and others like me, that you have no factual evidence to back up your assertion about the Shroud. You are reduced to hurling childish insults at anyone who doesn’t share your opinion. That’s all it is, an opinion.
 
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Did I ever tell you I met Martin Nodell?

On the academic track, might the fact that I selected my MA thesis topic, only to have it declared too good for the MA, save it for the PhD, and then found I didn’t have any ideas for the MA that interested me, so I took marriage/active duty, as a way out, have led you astray?
 
I got an MA. Stopped there.

My child has a couple. I think.

I salute you, in the paths of academe.

Met Irwin Hasen several times.
 
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billsherman said:
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steve-b:
So the answer is either

NO ?,

OR

maybe you don’t want ( a label ) what ever that label is, following you around, in your work?
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The answer is: I’m uncomfortable discussing my faith online.
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I can appreciate this. Though I am leery when you don’t answer. The reason is that in my class on the NT, we had to read Brad Pitre’s book “The Case for Jesus,” where he writes about how his faith was negatively impacted by Professors that seemed to all come from the perspective that Jesus was merely human, that miracles couldn’t possibly occur, and that prophesies can be explained away from natural events. The problem they came to conclusions that fit their biases (ie Gospels were originally anonymous, the Gospels must be dated after 70AD to allow for the prophesy of the destruction of Jerusalem, etc.). And, because of their confirmation bias, they ignored evidence to the contrary of their opinions.

Curious: any opinions of Dr. Pitre’s work?
 
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