This blog updates, supplements, and builds outward from my 2019 book, The Two Gospels of Mark: Performance and Text.
Think-Blog
Review of Varieties of Jesus Mythicism: Did He Even Exist?
Varieties of Jesus Mythicism: Did He Even Exist? edited by John W. Loftus and Robert M. Price, is an anthology for the general reader. The subtitle indicates that the book is a response to Bart Ehrman’s 2012 book, Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth. Loftus and Price include chapters that respond…
“Jericho” in the Gospel of Mark: A new explanation
Summary Did Mark write a scene set in Jericho, now missing (Mk 10:46)? In my book, The Two Gospels of Mark: Performance and Text, I assumed that he did. I’ve changed my mind. There was never a scene set in Jericho in the Gospel of Mark. The audience saw a large crowd (the Chorus) carrying…
My scenario for Mark explains official orthodox history
I have previously written about the real history of Mark’s congregation in Rome. In my book, and here and here. Here I explain how that real history explains several assertions and silences in the official orthodox history of the early church. To review, my scenario is that Mark’s congregation in Rome was founded by Alexandrian…
Why I think Mark wrote a play
Here I will defend my theory that Mark wrote a play that was performed on a stage, and a narrative text that condensed the play, a text we know as the Gospel of Mark. This post supplements the (referenced) discussion in my book, The Two Gospels of Mark: Performance and Text. The genre of the…
Varieties of Jesus mythicism anthology is now published
Update November 19, 2021: Available now in paperback and e-book: Varieties of Jesus Mythicism: Did He Even Exist? edited by John W. Loftus and Robert M. Price. At your favorite bookstore. Update December 23, 2021: Review coming soon. Contents: Foreword by Richard C. Miller Preface “The Jesus of the Gospels Didn’t Exist” by John Loftus …
Flavia Domitilla donated the use of catacombs; Mark’s play enhanced the event
Executive Summary I begin in Flavia Domitilla’s world. I see the performance of Mark’s play from her point of view. In my book, The Two Gospels of Mark: Performance and Text, I proposed that Flavia Domitilla produced a play that was privately performed for Mark’s Roman congregation. Flavia and her husband Titus Flavius Clemens were…
Origin of the Catacombs of Domitilla
Flavia Domitilla donated the use of her family catacombs on her suburban property. It already hosted an above-ground cemetery. (Two of her household staff were buried above-ground.*) Although Flavia Domitilla’s nuclear and extended family disappears from history after 95 CE, the Roman congregation continued to use the donated Catacombs of Domitilla for many centuries, evolving…
Comments on Creating Christ, by James S. Valliant and Warren Fahy
Summary If you haven’t read Creating Christ: How Roman Emperors Invented Christianity, all you need to know is this: James S. Valliant and Warren Fahy correctly identify the Flavian court as an important locus of early Christianity. However, they incorrectly believe that a cabal of elite Judeans and sympathizers at the court wrote the four…
The Carmignac Challenge, Part III of III: Qumran Hebrew Letter Forms
Introduction In Part II, I reviewed Semitisms in the synoptic gospels that Jean Carmignac identified in his book, The Birth of the Synoptic Gospels (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1983). I focused on those Semitisms that involved the Gospel of Mark. In the process, I noticed a pattern in some of the “Semitisms of Transmission”: words…
The Carmignac Challenge, Part II of III: Semitisms in the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Matthew
Summary In the Abbé Jean Carmignac’s short book, The Birth of the Synoptic Gospels (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1983), he identifies and classifies Semitisms in the synoptic gospels. He evaluates the value of the listed Semitisms as supporting evidence for his theory that the synoptic gospels were originally written in a Semitic language (GMark and…