Sunday, May 12, 2013

Interpolations in the Witnesses, Josephus Antiquities

I used to play the same game that christian scholars like to play, called find the part of the story Josephus wrote, when examining the passages containing information about the early Christians and the famous stories that Josephus might have been aware of. But I don't play that game anymore, because I know the answer.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Interpolations in the Witnesses, Justin Apology 1.26

Nothing is more annoying than having to deal with the interpolations of witnesses from pious scribes. These interpolations are in fact dangerous land mines left for scholars when undetected. And worse they are, even when found, often left unmarked, dare I say for political reasons, because they can be convenient obstacles  for defending the modern orthodox opinion, helping against criticisms - its saves the main body of ecclesiastical scholars from having to think hard about underlying premises of the message. But for the scholar who isn't worried about the theological conventions, looking at the text scientifically to uncover and understand the strands and threads that make up the development of Christianity, it is nothing but a hindrance to the truth. 

My tipping point for me was not with the at least somewhat understood interpolations in Josephus, but with

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Vocabulary of Luke and Marcion: Commentary on John Knox (1942)

One of the most important books that should have upended Synoptic Study, and yet largely ignored, is John Knox's Marcion and the New Testament (1942). Although the work is largely nothing more than a serious of comments on others work, especially Harnack, with Knox adding nothing more than his opinion of various positions from the sophistry of their words, there is however a unique and important section worth keeping.

For the Gospel of Luke and Marcion's Gospel, Knox has undertaken to to study the vocabulary and try to establish the relationship of Marcion's Gospel and the Gospel of Luke. He developed a table of verses to help illustrate that I provide a link to.

Chapter 4 Marcion's Gospel and the Gospel of Luke is a lot more interesting, when Knox actually gathers evidence and takes a critical eye - lacking in his analysis of the epistles - to the Gospel. In Part III he calls out Sanday's analysis which underpinned the opinions of Burkett and Plummer, as well as paralleled in some sense Harnack's, who held that Marcion's Gospel was not prior to Luke.