Friday, December 30, 2011

Interesting Post

Stumbled upon this blog post: Why I am Not a Christian over at dia pente blog that has some good information. My favorite line: “The Holiday Season is schizophrenic. Hanukkah celebrates the defeat of a guy who got rid of the laws of Moses, but Christmas celebrates the birth of a guy who got rid of the laws of Moses “

7 comments:

  1. Thanks for the link. It is some great reading!

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  2. I'm glad you linked to blog you mentioned. That was an interesting article. It made me decide to read more about the gospel of Mark as well as the development of the cannon. I had once read part of Lost Christianities. Is that what you would recommend for a starting point on the development of the cannon or some
    thing else? And do you have a good starting point for the reading about the gospel of Mark?

    I had never considered the fact that the gospels were written to replace each other. Is that your belief about the reason for multiple gospels? The author of the referenced blog speaks with more certitude on some issues than I think might be warranted, but I found the post I read to be a useful summary of the topics discussed. Oh, and Happy New Year!

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  3. Richard Carrier has a good article on The Formation of the New Testament Canon at infidels.org.

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  4. DoOrDoNot,

    Check out Michael Turton's blog in DagoodS blogroll. Happy reading. :-)

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  5. Lost Christianities is a great book, but from what I remember of it, it had nothing to say on the formation of the Canon. I recommend the Carrier article linked by Vinnie.

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  6. DoOrDoNot,

    That’s kinda funny. As soon as you mentioned articles on Mark and Canonization—I, too, thought of Dr. Carrier’s article and Michael Turton’s Commentary On Mark. I understand a Commentary is not normal reading material, normally one picks a section and just looks up the Commentary on that section. Turton takes notes from a number of Commentaries and includes it, as well as sections giving examples.

    A disclaimer: Michael Turton is my friend.

    For any question on any Synoptic, I (of course) always recommend Malina’s “Social Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels.” If you want a brief introduction to Mark (as well as any other book in the New Testament) I would always look at Udo Schnelle’s “History and Theology of the New Testament.”

    I also look at Dr. Wallace’s Commentary on Mark in his introduction to New Testament Documents. Although I tend to fall on the opposite side of the conclusions he makes, at least Dr. Wallace fairly presents controversies in dating, authorship, audience, etc.

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  7. Thanks everyone. I'll start with Carrier's article and work my way through your suggestions.

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