Two interesting posts

Here are links to two interesting posts in New Testament studies.

Ian Paul writes about the number of visits Jesus made to Jerusalem. It’s frequently suggested that the synoptic Gospels portray only one visit by Jesus as an adult, whereas John has Jesus visit for three passovers. In this post, Ian Paul argues cogently that the synoptics betray knowledge of other visits by Jesus to Jerusalem, so that the picture of only one visit in the synoptics is over-simple. Thoughtful and worth reading.

Craig Evans here critiques what he calls the ‘all or nothing’ approach to the reliability of the Bible which is widely recognised in some ‘fundamentalist’ Christian circles. Interestingly, he observes (as I’ve thought for some time) that this view of the Bible is destructive of faith, and shows that it is this view which underlies Bart Ehrman’s criticisms of orthodox, mainstream Christianity and its positive view of the Bible’s truth and authority. Ehrman, Evans argues, fails to see what the Gospels are actually doing, and attacks a view of what they should be doing according to the ‘all or nothing’ view.