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Jesus The Magician
''Jesus the Magician'' is a 1978 book by Morton Smith arguing that the historical Jesus was a magician who "sprang from a Galilean strain of Semitic paganism" (p. 68). Background The idea that Jesus was a magician did not originate with Morton Smith. It was previously voiced by the philosopher and critic Celsus (''The True Word'' c. 200 CE) as we know from the rebuttal authored by the Christian apologist/scholar Origen: "It was by magic that he was able to do the miracles" (''Contra Celsum'' 1.6). Hans Dieter Betz (1994) observes that "from early on even Jesus of Nazareth was implicated in that he was said to be mad or a magician possessed by Satan" and R. Joseph Hoffmann writes (1987) that it is well attested that "the early Christian mission was advanced by the use of magic." Smith was featured discussing his theories in the controversial television documentary series, '' Jesus: The Evidence'' (1984: LWT for Channel 4). Reception Bart Ehrman referred to the book as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morton Smith
Morton Smith (May 28, 1915 – July 11, 1991)Neusner, Jacob, ''Christianity, Judaism, and other Greco-Roman Cults. Part 1: New Testament'', ed. J. Neusner, ''Studies for Morton Smith at Sixty, vol 1, New Testament'' (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1975), p. ix.Calder III, William M. “Smith, Morton”, in ''Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists'', Ward W. Briggs, Jr., (ed.) (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994), p. 600. was an American professor of ancient history at Columbia University. He is best known for his reported discovery of the Mar Saba letter, a letter attributed to Clement of Alexandria containing excerpts from a Secret Gospel of Mark, during a visit to the monastery at Mar Saba in 1958. This letter fragment has had many names, from ''The Secret Gospel'' through ''The Mar Saba Fragment'' and the ''Theodoros''. Biography Smith was born in Philadelphia on May 28, 1915. He received his bachelor's degrees from Harvard College and the Harvard Divinity School, a Docto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hans Dieter Betz
Hans Dieter Betz (born May 21, 1931) is an American scholar of the New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Chicago. He has made influential contributions to research on Paul's Letter to the Galatians, the Sermon on the Mount and the Greco-Roman context of Early Christianity. Biography Hans Dieter Betz was born and raised in Germany.Betz, Hans Dieter. ''The Sermon on the Mount. A Commentary''. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995. He received his theological education at Bethel and Mainz in Germany, and at Cambridge in England. Having studied with Herbert Braun, he graduated as Doctor of Theology and "Habilitation" at Mainz (1957, 1966); Dr. h.c. Erlangen. His list of scholarly publications includes New Testament literature, esp. on Paul's letters, as well as on Hellenistic history of religions, writing in English and German. He served also as editor of the lexica "Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart" (4th ed. 1998-2005) and "Religion Past and Present" (2007-2014) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1 million endowment in the hopes that his gift and the greater work of the university would help to heal the sectional wounds inflicted by the American Civil War. Vanderbilt is a founding member of the Southeastern Conference and has been the conference's only private school since 1966. The university comprises ten schools and enrolls nearly 13,800 students from the US and 70 foreign countries. Vanderbilt is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". Several research centers and institutes are affiliated with the university, including the Robert Penn Warren, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, the Freedom Foru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kirkus Reviews
''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, nonfiction, and young readers' literature. ''Kirkus Reviews'', published on the first and 15th of each month, previews books before their publication. ''Kirkus'' reviews over 10,000 titles per year. History Virginia Kirkus was hired by Harper & Brothers to establish a children's book department in 1926. In 1932, the department was eliminated as an economic measure. However, within a year, Louise Raymond, the secretary Kirkus hired, had the department running again. Kirkus, however, had left and soon established her own book review service. Initially, she arranged to get galley proofs of "20 or so" books in advance of their publication; almost 80 years later, the service was receiving hundreds of books weekly and reviewing about 100. Ini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bart Ehrman
Bart Denton Ehrman (born October 5, 1955) is an American New Testament scholar focusing on textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He has written and edited 30 books, including three college textbooks. He has also authored six ''New York Times'' bestsellers. He is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Biography Early life On October 5, 1955, Ehrman was born in Lawrence, Kansas, and subsequently grew up there before attending Lawrence High School, where he was on the state champion debate team in 1973. He began studying the Bible, biblical theology, and biblical languages at Moody Bible Institute, where he earned the school's three-year diploma in 1976.Ehrman, Bart D. '' Misquoting Jesus'', HarperSanFrancisco. 2005. He earned his BA from Wheaton College in Illinois in 1978. He later earned an MDiv from Princeton Theologic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Evidence
Evidence is anything presented as proof of an assertion. Evidence may also refer to: * Scientific evidence * Evidence (law), which governs testimony and exhibits presented in a case Music Artists * Evidence (musician) (born 1976), a member of hip hop group Dilated Peoples * The Evidence (band), a progressive-punk power-trio from Canada Albums * ''Evidence'' (Steve Lacy album), 1962 * ''Evidence'' (Mal Waldron album), 1988 * ''Evidence'' (Vincent Herring album), 1991 * ''Evidence'' (The Angels album), 1994 * ''Evidence'', an album by Karmacoda, 2003 * ''Evidence'' (Prime Circle album), 2012 Songs * "Evidence" (Faith No More song), 1995 * "Evidence" (Josh Baldwin song), 2020 * "Evidence" (Mia Wray song), 2022 * "Evidence", a song by Everlife from the 2004 album ''Everlife'' * "Evidence", a song by Marilyn Manson from the 2007 album ''Eat Me, Drink Me'' * "Evidence", a song by Tara MacLean from the 1995 album ''Silence'' * "Evidence", a song by Thelonious Monk from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magic (paranormal)
Magic, sometimes spelled magick, is the application of beliefs, rituals or actions employed in the belief that they can manipulate natural or supernatural beings and forces. It is a category into which have been placed various beliefs and practices sometimes considered separate from both religion and science. Connotations have varied from positive to negative at times throughout history. Within Western culture, magic has been linked to ideas of the Other, foreignness, and primitivism; indicating that it is "a powerful marker of cultural difference" and likewise, a non-modern phenomenon. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Western intellectuals perceived the practice of magic to be a sign of a primitive mentality and also commonly attributed it to marginalised groups of people. Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), a British occultist, defined " magick" as "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will", adding a 'k' to distinguish c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jesus Of Nazareth
Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the central figure of Christianity, the world's largest religion. Most Christians consider Jesus to be the incarnation of God the Son and awaited messiah, or Christ, a descendant from the Davidic line that is prophesied in the Old Testament. Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically. Accounts of Jesus's life are contained in the Gospels, especially the four canonical Gospels in the New Testament. Since the Enlightenment, academic research has yielded various views on the historical reliability of the Gospels and how closely they reflect the historical Jesus. According to Christian tradition, as preserved in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, Jesus was circumcised at eight days old, was baptized by John the Baptist as a young adult, and after 40 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Origen
Origen of Alexandria (), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an Early Christianity, early Christian scholar, Asceticism#Christianity, ascetic, and Christian theology, theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Early centers of Christianity#Alexandria, Alexandria. He was a prolific writer who wrote roughly 2,000 treatises in multiple branches of theology, including textual criticism, exegesis, biblical exegesis and biblical hermeneutics, hermeneutics, homiletics, and spirituality. He was one of the most influential and controversial figures in early Christian theology, Christian apologetics, apologetics, and asceticism. He has been described by John Anthony McGuckin as "the greatest genius the early church ever produced". Overview Origen sought martyrdom with his father at a young age but was prevented from turning himself in to the authorities by his mother. When he was eighteen years old, Origen became a Catechesis, catechist at the or School of Alexand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Historical Jesus
The term ''historical Jesus'' refers to the life and teachings of Jesus as interpreted through critical historical methods, in contrast to what are traditionally religious interpretations. It also considers the historical and cultural contexts in which Jesus lived. Amy-Jill Levine in ''The Historical Jesus in Context'' edited by Amy-Jill Levine et al. 2006 Princeton Univ Press pp. 1–2 Virtually all scholars of antiquity accept that Jesus was a historical figure, and the idea that Jesus was a mythical figure has been consistently rejected by the scholarly consensus as a fringe theory.In a 2011 review of the state of modern scholarship, Bart Ehrman (a secular agnostic) wrote: "He certainly existed, as virtually every competent scholar of antiquity, Christian or non-Christian, agrees, based on certain and clear evidence." B. Ehrman, 2011 ''Forged: writing in the name of God'' . pp. 256–257 Robert M. Price (an atheist who denies the existence of Jesus) agrees that th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The True Word
''The True Word'' (or ''Discourse'', ''Account'', or ''Doctrine''; , ''Logos Alēthēs'') is a lost treatise in which the ancient Greek philosopher Celsus addressed many principal points of early Christianity and argued against their validity. In ''The True Word'', Celsus attacked Christianity in three ways: by attacking its philosophical claims, by marking it as a phenomenon associated with the uneducated and lower class, and by cautioning his audience that it was a danger to the Roman Empire. Information concerning the work exists only in the extensive quotations from it in the ''Contra Celsum'' ("Against Celsus"), written some seventy years later by the Christian Origen. These are believed to be accurate as far as they go, but may not give a fully comprehensive picture of the original work. Criticism of Christianity before Celsus Celsus was only one writer in a long tradition of Roman writers and philosophers who wrote and spoke out against Christianity, feeling that its doctrin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
