The BLINDSPOT of New Testament Scholarship

This is the first in person interview with both scholars. I hope this discussion was helpful!

Love seeing these 2 speaking together! I love how Miller, in his book, points out that Justin Martyr's apologetic compares Jesus to all the other diefied figures of the mediterranean world and shows that Jesus isn't to far off from them.

The problem is your pastor doesn't know any of this. They preach the same old same old, the Bible colleges and seminaries teach the same old message devoid of critical content and they actively discourage critical thinking or reading outside of a very narrow band. I discovered the Epic of Gilgamesh and it accelerated my journey towards atheism because I understood I'd been lied to by well-meaning but ignorant paastors and teachers. I even wrote a book on Genesis 1-11 to help myself understand not just the what, but the why. Took two years and it was fun. This was a great episode. Thank you.

Absolutely a powerhouse of an interview. I studied koine Greek in college for a year and was able to do translation work. But what Dr. MacDonald Is talking about regarding Homeric Greek is nearly A new language to have to learn, and most academics already have full plates. It literally requires someone like Dennis McDonald to have specialized in what seems like an extremely niche line of antiquated History to be able to tease out how the logic and heuristic ways of thinking of the people of that era would have influenced the development of some oral stories about a Jewish apocalyptic, messianic rebel. I mean seriously, is it any wonder why the story of Jesus as told by the Greek born Hellenized Jewish authors of the Gospels would have caught on with people in the Greco Roman world?

I’m so grateful that folks like this are still out there. It’s refreshing to see responsible approaches to all scholarship.💯

Goatee GOATs. Thanks Derek for making these discussions accessible to everyone

This rivalry of the synoptics seems awful close to rewritten Bible within the bible, e.g. Chronicles copying/changing Samuel/Kings.

The good doctors talked about the very thing I have thought about. People like my brother, a retired pastor, would find it next to impossible to admit they were wrong about the reality of god, the multiple errors in the Bible and the manmade aspect of the entire mythology. His former career, reputation and ver identity hinge in god being real! Not to mention the pride factor. Makes me wonder how many pastors don’t actually believe it is true but, once they based their whole lives on that one thing they are basically unqualified for any other career. What can they do? I once heard Billy Graham didn’t believe god was real as far back as the 1970s but, his entire empire hinged on god being real so he was stuck with it. Intellectual integrity should override the pride and fear of starting over but, it doesn’t always.

"How is this not the obvious question on the table?" Eighteen or more centuries of apologetics and "scholarship" being taken as one and the same perhaps?

We Are MythVision!

Taking the supernatural out of ancient texts and viewing them as archetypes and mythology is true wisdom.

Thanks 👍

Love your pod bro!

This is amazing. I feel fulfilled and touched just looking at these two guys relate to each other.

🙌🏾 love these two.

So whoever wrote the New Testament meaning (the writer's) people have to remember that either the writer's would have had to had been ("witnesses",) to what was ("said",) and ("done,") or the writer's would have had to have had ("witnesses",) reporting on back to what they had ("seen,") and had ("heard.")

Nice chat.❤

I really like the parable of the vineyards mimesis idea. I think that’s one where it’s inarguable people would have connected that to the Odyssey.

The New Testament would have had to have had witnesses writing down everything that they ("saw and heard,") but also the Old Testament too

Truth!