This blog is devoted to providing free resources; my publishers own most of my academic books, however. But for those who are interested, this week Zondervan is selling my NIVAC commentary on Revelation at 50% off for the print edition here: http://bit.ly/2NiiOuq. The eBook is priced even better: for $5 here: https://amzn.to/33qD8zr.
Summary of Christobiography
Marked up paper
Panel discussion with Craig, Bart Ehrman, Mike Licona, Rob Bowman (1 hour)
Admittedly I write better than I speak, especially extemporaneously, but this was an engaging exchange of ideas regarding differences in the Gospels, in this one-hour discussion. Some of us regard the differences as less significant historically than what we have in many fairly comparable ancient works; Bart regards many of them as problematic errors. We all had a friendly, civil exchange, however. It should be noted that each of us also did separate plenary presentations, so some of us had already offered positive arguments for the overall reliability of the Gospels, but at this point we were focusing on the more conspicuous differences among them.
Reliability of the Gospels article (Influence magazine)
“As criticizing other people’s religion has become more acceptable in our culture, hostile critics of Christianity are stepping up their attacks against Jesus, with some radical popular skeptics denying even His existence.
“Of course, denying His existence, or even the main elements of His ministry, is historically implausible. We have more accounts about Jesus, from within living memory of His ministry, than for almost any other ancient teacher.”
The above are the first two paragraphs of my article recently published in Influence magazine (this article), which addresses the reliability of the Gospels, including some of the key arguments from my book Christobiography. You might find it useful for summarizing some points or sharing with others. (I know, I am writing a lot on this topic right now. I will probably be posting more on 1 Peter, etc., eventually … 🙂 If you are a recent subscriber and are getting just the new posts but want more Bible studies, see the menu bar on the side of the home page. The archives contain scores of Bible studies on various topics.)
Typo in dissertation
No need to scare my doctoral students …
Historical Jesus interview, conclusion (6 minutes)
Yeshaya Gruber from Israel interviews Craig. This is the final session of the interview: https://ibccourses.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Roundtable/Keener/Craig10.mp4
Reliability of the Gospels (Christianity Today interview)
Christianity Today kindly posted Chris Reese’s interview of me regarding my new book, Christobiography, here. (The following is a sample of my answer to his first question)
Given what we know about disciples in antiquity, and given the relatively brief span of time between Jesus’s public ministry and the first written accounts that we know about, historians should expect genuine reports of events and teachings of Jesus to dominate in the gospels.
As a Christian, I personally affirm more than that, but I believe that even on purely historical grounds, we should expect most accounts in the gospels to reflect genuine events in Jesus’s life or genuine teachings of his.
Global warming
