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More technological terror

This afternoon I felt the pangs of true despair. I couldn't access any of the pages or files in my worldofsven.co.uk domain, and even as I type now the webserver is running so very, very slowly that I suspect something might be quite badly wrong. I checked the content of my server using my usual FTP programme and to my horror discovered that there was not a single directory or file on my server, it was all gone.

 I can only hope and pray that my web hosting company are running some unscheduled maintenance and that nothing is seriously wrong. Tune in later to see if this site is working again and/or see a grown man cry.

Manchester Passion

Rather, erm...interesting news this. The BBC have announced that come Good Friday there will be a live open-air performance of the Manchester Passion in the streets of Manchester city centre. Here's the blurb:

BBC Three will stage a live procession through the streets of Manchester on Good Friday in a bid to bring the story of the Passion to a new generation. 

Featuring songs by local bands, the Manchester Passion is a contemporary retelling of Jesus's final hours.

Songs include Jesus and Pontius Pilate duetting on Oasis hit Wonderwall, and Judas performing Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now by the Smiths.

No artists have been confirmed for the one-hour show, a BBC spokeswoman said.

The live event will be focused on Manchester's Albert Square, where the trial of Jesus and the crucifixion scene will take place.

Read the full article here. I think I might pop along and sneak a peek, it should be interesting to say the least. 

 

Why was Jesus baptised?

The Thinklings pose the question as to why exactly Jesus got baptised. It's a good question to ask. After all, John's baptism was for the forgiveness of sins, so why did Jesus need to undergo it if he was sinless? I posted my answer in the comments section:

I think we tend to forget that Jesus is the Messiah (sounds stupid I know) and that what he does it not for himself alone, but at every stage of his life he is acting on our behalf.

Reformed theology can struggle with questions like these because it tends to over-focus on the cross when considering how Christ’s work is atoning, to the neglect of other equally important aspects of Jesus’ saving work such as the incarnation or resurrection.

But if we consider that the whole of Jesus’ life is a) part of his atoning work and b) is not for himself alone, but for others and so we understand that Jesus undergoes a baptism for sins, not because he is a sinner, but because he is representing everyone else. We have gone astray from God but step by step, Christ brings us back to him. His baptism is part of this turning to God behalf of humanity.

Again, if we understand “righteousness” as covenantal-faithfulness, then Jesus’ baptism fulfils all righteousness because it is an act of supreme faithfulness to God. We are supposed to be faithful to God, but we are not and so need to repent. We do not even do this, so Jesus does it on our behalf, beginning with his baptism. The rest is salvation history.

Any thoughts? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Was Jesus really a myth?

Among some of the most interesting feedback I got from the heresy quiz was an expression of disappointment that believing that Jesus never existed as a historical figure and is a mythological fabriaction originating in the minds of early Christians and/or hellenistic Jews. Many sceptics have argued that Jesus was a man who by way of later Christian development, became regarded as a God and was then worshipped as Christianity spread. Some more modern sceptics such as Earl Doherty have argued the reverse; that Jesus was a mythical figure arising out of hellenised Jewish exegesis of the OT, and that Paul and the early Christians knew this to be true and that was only in later development of the myth that Christians actually claimed that he had been a real man in the flesh.

Claims like those of Doherty are based on extremely bad exegesis of the NT and contain very little reference to any historical sources. Unsurprisingly, the idea of Christ as a mythos has never really gotten out of the starting blocks in the academic world of Ancient History and New Testament studies, and there's a good reason for that. Historical claims that Jesus never existed as human being (note: not theological claims about him being the Son of God etc - these cannot be verified historically) sell lots of books and make good programmes on Discovery Channel, but you're not likely to find much Christ-myth historical argument in a peer-reviewed historical journal any time soon.

 Anyhow, Freethought Mom asked if I could show any evidence of a case for a historical Jesus outside of the New Testament. This coveniently leaves out using the NT as a historical source, but as we shall see there are other sources outside the NT that will attest the basic facts of the Gospels, and none of these sources actually make any sense whatsoever if indeed people in early times really did think that there had never been anyone called Jesus. I've deliberately left out Josephus' references to Jesus because I think that there is certainly an element of Christian interpolation in there, so maybe I'll save that for another time. Anyhow, here are some of the other sources:

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Biblical Studies Carnival

Things have been quiet for a few days on the blogging front as I'm attempting to get the first draft of my dissertation finished by Friday. I was pleased to find out over the weekend that there is now a blogging carnival specifically for Biblical Studies where amateurs like me get all intimidated by people who are a lot more sure about what they're talking about. You can find all the submission rules and dates here at Codex Blogspot.