In this ninth of my series on” Death, Afterlife, and the Future,” I consider the thesis of the late great Oscar Cullmann who argued that Christianity–anciently and down into our own time–has largely lost the view of “resurrection of the dead” as declared by Jesus in our gospel sources and…
Please don’t laugh. This is in fact a serious question that I have never heard addressed, though it apparently occurred to Michelangelo! Tomorrow I am recording a Youtube segment in my ongoing series on ideas of “Death and Afterlife” in the ancient Western world that will deal with our early…
Okay…here it comes…This is the 7th in my ongoing series on ideas of “Death and Afterlife” in the ancient Western world.” BUT NOTE: In this one hour in-depth study I question many of the most common assumptions regarding what our earliest textual evidence in fact says about the idea of…
I only published this very informal lecture from last year three days ago but it quickly rose to the #1 spot of recent videos and already has nearly 7K views. I thought I would pass along the link to the video and also upload the notes, which you can access…
Millions of believing Christians, as well as theologians and historians, are convinced that the earliest faith in Jesus’ resurrection had to do with the assertion that his dead body was revived in a tomb–and that he walked out of that tomb on the third day after his death, as a…
Most readers of the New Testament Gospels focus on the well-known stories of Easter morning and the discovery of Jesus’ empty tomb with his subsequent “appearances” as a flesh and blood recusitated corpse to his followers–eating and proclaiming he is alive. However, sorting through all our sources together on what…
Someone just posted a comment on my article dealing with the forged ending of the Gospel of Mark, which most scholars take as a late addition to Mark’s otherwise masterful literary work. The traditional ending, now found in the King James Version, is one of three bogus endings, each of…
Late last night I uploaded a 12 minute video on Youtube and has had 12K views in less than 24 hours! It was nothing out of the ordinary, but the title says it all–and I think people just have not thought much about this. What do we know about Jesus’…
Over the decades I have heard dozens of interviews with John Crossan, listened to his lectures, read his books, and spent time together in Jerusalem in 2007 with him and his wife Sarah, in endless conversation, visiting some of the “off the beaten tourist paths” places with Shimon Gibson. He…
The “Last Days of Jesus,” that final week of his life, marked by billions of Christians from Palm Sunday to Easter, with contemplation, mourning, and celebration–is often called “Holy Week” in the “great” churches. It is narrated by Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John in the New Testament, along with fragments…