Claims are not evidence re. Dale Allison episode
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“I share many of Dale Allison’s and Helen Bond’s positions regarding the historical accuracy of the NT gospels. They both honestly acknowledge the fictional/legendary aspects of the gospel accounts. They readily admit the four canonical gospels are anonymous and the original copies of these documents are probably lost forever. All we have are much later copies of copies of copies, and there are mountains of evidence that prove the copies were tampered with, edited, and often carelessly reproduced.
At the same time, Allison and Bond are so wedded to their religious beliefs that they cannot help but fall into all kinds of dubious historiography and illogical reasoning. While they frequently take fundamentalists to task for the same errors, they seem unable to set aside their own theological biases or to approach the gospel texts with objectivity and detachment.
A clear example of this is their mantra-like repetition of the word ‘evidence’ regarding the gospel accounts and Paul’s letters. (Co-host Dave Roos does this even more.) Claims are not evidence. The anonymous gospel writers/compilers and Paul make all kinds of claims about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. But claims are not evidence. Claiming an event happened in time and space is not the same thing as demonstrating that the event certainly happened or even demonstrating that it likely happened. This is an obvious fact of historical research which is widely acknowledged in every serious field except for biblical studies. Only in biblical studies do unverified (and unfalsifiable) claims count as evidence.
By analogy, tens of millions of Americans believe Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election and that Joe Biden and the Democratic Party engaged in a vast conspiracy to steal the election. Thousands and thousands of lawyers, politicians, journalists, podcasters, pundits, and ordinary citizens have repeated this claim over and over for the last 3 years. Thousands of ordinary, normally law-abiding Americans stormed the US Capital on January 6, 2021 based on these repeated claims.
But there is no evidence that the Democrats stole the 2020 election. Repeating a claim over and over again and convincing millions of people of its veracity does not mean there is any evidence to support the claim.
It seems reasonably certain that the earliest followers of Jesus and Paul claim to have seen/experienced the risen Jesus in some fashion, but we have no evidence he appeared to Peter or the twelve or the 500 or Paul. All we have are the personal claims that he did. These claims do tell us what those earliest Christians said and believed, but those claims are not evidence that what these Christians said and believed are empirically true.
In the final analysis, Dale Allison’s own words from his 1998 book ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ sum up the house of cards that constitutes the field of historical Jesus studies: “Appeals to shared criteria may, we can pray, assist us in being self-critical, but when all is said and done we look for the historical Jesus with our imaginations - and there, too, is where we find him, if we find him at all.”
Imagination indeed.”
kwf2011 via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
04/03/24
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“I recently discovered this podcast after a neighbor mentioned it to me and asked a few specific questions. She knows I have a Ph.D. in Classics from Princeton University and she often asks me questions related to ‘biblical history’ since I specialize in Hellenistic studies.
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WPS80 via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
07/25/24
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“Helen Bond is so knowledgeable about the topic of the New Testament. Wonderful podcast for anyone interested in early Christianity, ancient Judaism or just wanting to know more about the Bible.”
fizztop via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
02/24/23
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“Love this series! Very educational and informative. Love each episode. Can’t wait for each episode to come out.”
kamuishirou via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
06/16/23
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