Five myths about Jesus

[Still Waters]

Perhaps no historical figure is more deeply mired in legend and myth than Jesus of Nazareth. Outside of the Gospels — which are not so much factual accounts of Jesus but arguments about His religious significance — there is almost no trace of this simple Galilean peasant who inspired the world’s largest religion. But there’s enough biblical scholarship about the historical Jesus to raise questions about some of the myths that have formed around Him over the past 2,000 years.

http://articles.wash...david-s-jesus-s

http://articles.wash...vid-s-jesus-s/2

[eight bits]

Cool essay, but Reza Aslan isn't a Biblical scholar. He's a professor of creative writing, a commerical writer and media producer.

He's currently selling a book, giving his very own Real Story of Jesus®

Myth #6: Nobody has ever made a penny off of telling stories about Jesus.

[Keel M.]

Well let's just start a fire, shall we?

[scowl]

Cool essay, but Reza Aslan isn't a Biblical scholar. He's a professor of creative writing, a commerical writer and media producer.

He's currently selling a book, giving his very own Real Story of Jesus®

Who said he was a Biblical scholar? And what difference does that make if everything he writes is correct?

[eight bits]

scowl

Who said he was a Biblical scholar?

My words. Here's what he's said about his qualifications, and what they actually are.

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/07/29/scholarly-misrepresentation/

And what difference does that make if everything he writes is correct?

None at all, if everything he writes is correct, and you are confident that that is the case.

[Keel M.]

None at all, if everything he writes is correct, and you are confident that that is the case.

And yet we're supposed to accept that everything everyone else says/believes is the truth.

[eight bits]

And yet we're supposed to accept that everything everyone else says/believes is the truth.

Say what? Accept, reject or ignore whatever you like. Nobody here is going to stop you.

[ninjadude]

Cool essay, but Reza Aslan isn't a Biblical scholar.

It would appear that you are 100 percent wrong. Listening to fundy radio or faux news?

Reza Aslan (Persian: رضا اصلان‎, IPA: [ˈɾezɒː ɒːsˈlɒːn]; born May 3, 1972) is an Iranian-American writer and scholar of religions.

Aslan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in religions from Santa Clara University, a Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard Divinity School, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, where he was named the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction. Aslan also received a Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology, focusing in the history of religion, from the University of California, Santa Barbara

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reza_Aslan

[Mr Walker]

It would appear that you are 100 percent wrong. Listening to fundy radio or faux news?

https://en.wikipedia...wiki/Reza_Aslan

None of which of course necessarily makes him a biblical scholar. (except, some might argue with irony, the Truman Capote fellow in fiction.)

[eight bits]

Yes, ninja, as was presented in the link I gave back in post #5

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/07/29/scholarly-misrepresentation/

he has a PhD in sociology from UCSB. His dissertation was entitled “Global Jihadism as a Transnational Social Movement: A Theoretical Framework.”

http://gradworks.umi.com/33/85/3385753.html

Twentieth Century religious history.

Here's his Ph.D. adviser's biography

http://www.juergensmeyer.com/?q=node/11

Twentieth Century religious history is his adviser's area of expertise, too.

BTW, who wrote the Wikipedia article you cited?

[Leonardo]

Cool essay, but Reza Aslan isn't a Biblical scholar. He's a professor of creative writing, a commerical writer and media producer.

He's currently selling a book, giving his very own Real Story of Jesus®

Myth #6: Nobody has ever made a penny off of telling stories about Jesus.

I have a foot in both camps regarding the relevance of Aslan's qualifications to write about the life of the biblical Jesus. I can see your point, eb, that Aslan is obviously "bigging up" - if not plain misrepresenting - his credentials in order to grant himself some perceived authority to the lay-community, and this sort of behaviour lends itself to the premise he would not be averse to manipulating facts in his thesis to misrepresent what is known.

I also see the similarity between his situation and the boy who cried wolf. Sure, the boy was a liar and a trickster, but that doesn't make the sheep any less dead the one time he told the truth and the wolf was there.

[Almagest]

I think he makes a good point about Pilate. The historical Pilate probably wouldn't have bothered to listen to the Jews when they brought Christ before him. Of course, this is merely a dig at Biblical in-errancy, and doesn't do anything to disprove Christ's teachings - but it does suggest that the New Testament was manipulated in order to appeal to the Romans.

[Grandpa Greenman]

Rather than arguing whether the guys degree is what it is, why don't we look in whether or not the statements themselves are true by way of actual real, reviewed history.

Now off to do some research.

1 Roman Tax collection

[Grandpa Greenman]

What’s more, since the purpose of a census was taxation, Roman law assessed an individual’s property in the place of his residence, not his birthplace.

He got that one wrong. According to this site every one had to go back to their place of birth every five years to be counted.

The Romans conducted censuses every five years, calling upon every man and his family to return to his place of birth to be counted in order to keep track of the population.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/census/2011/how-our-census-works/about-censuses/census-history/census-taking-in-the-ancient-world/index.html

[Davros of Skaro]

Keep in mind that Reza Aslan is a Muslim.Muslims have to believe in a historical Jesus,but he was a Prophet for Allah,and did not die on the cross.