Moral Complacency and Guilt A discussion of the problem of guilt in human life. Most of us are driven by the delusion that we are in fact good people. The cold, harsh and daunting reality is that we are not. We similtaneously serve as active and passive participants in vast amounts of worldy injustice. Naturalism and modernity offer us shallow alternatives to the problem of guilt.

Must Christians Be Exclusive? A discussion of Jesus' famous saying in John, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me." Is Jesus the only way to heaven? What about those who lived before Christ? What about those who have never heard the good news?

The Passion Accounts of Mark and John Critical comparison of the posture of Jesus and those surrounding him in the narratives of Mark and Luke. It appears that two different images of Jesus are presented. Mark descibes the Son of God almost out of control, arrested in agony. fear, and abandonment. John describes the Son of God in total control, arrested in foreknowledge, triumph, and command." (BOC, p. 142)

Nazarene or Bethlehem The Gospels of Matthew and Luke appear to describe Jesus' Birth differently. Was Jesus born in Bethlehem or Nazareth? Can this apparent inconsistency be harmonized or does it look like an error?

Judas' Death According to Luke Judas died by bursting open in a field in the Book of Acts. According to the text of Matthew, Judas hung himself as did another Biblical character in the Old Testament. Can these accounts be reconciled or are they errors?

Food Laws in Mark Did Jesus declare all foods clean as Mark chapter 7 says? If so why did Jesus' later followers show no apparent knowledge of something so radical?

Is the Bible God's Word? pt.1 First part of an ongoing series that examines Christian exclusivity regarding the Bible in the modern world of religious pluralism. Can the Bible be held onto as the error free word of God in today's world?

Is the Bible God's Word? pt.2 The New Testament is witnessed by over 5,000 Greek manuscripts. In addition to this there are thousands of other New Testament manuscripts. When compared to other classical works, the number of surviving copies of the New Testament and their proximity to the actual time of writing is far superior. Despite the abundance of NT manuscripts, it must be admitted that we do not possess any original writings. Can the Bible be accepted as God's inerrant word for humanity despite the absence of autographical texts?

Is the Bible God's Word? pt.3 Why did God leave us with a Bible? Wouldn't other methods have been easier and more practical? THis article presents a short Reductio Ad Absurdom argument which posits a more useful method for determining right from wrong and the correct principles for behavior in place of a fallible holy book. Angel on the Left, Demon on the Right....

Harmonizing Your Holy Book This article lists 18 principles for dealing with errors in the Bible (or in more fancy prose, "Eight-teen Key Methodological Principles for Successful Exegesis". Guidelines are presented which summarize the various ways in which "Biblical errors" are harmonized by apologists.

Formal Debate on Biblical Inerrancy Here is the link to a page (on-site) hosting the formal debate I entere with Robertlw on the issue of Biblical Inerrancy. Robertlw was kind enough to allow me to reprint his installments as well as my own.

Practical Stance on Biblical Errancy
The Passion in Mark and John

Is God Evil? God is omni-benevolent (all-good). This view is posited by virtually all theists in existence today. God is often considered the standard by which "good" is measured. Long have theists taken this proposition for granted despite its untested and improvable nature. Can this position be demonstrated? Can the opposite be shown-- that God is evil? I argued precisely this, that God is evil. I do not believe this to be the case but this article shows the importance of "faith". Its not what you can prove. Thankfully this isn't the case since philosophers can't exhaustively prove that chairs exist, let alone God. The important point is how you live. Dress something up in intellectual jargon and it will sound convincing, but can you live by it?

 

The Gospel of Mark

Textual comments on Mark under the Two Document Hypothesis (2DH) The earliest copy of Mark occurs in the middle of the third century (p45). There is no other manuscript evidence for the text of GMark before the fourth century. Despite the absence of manuscript attestation the majority of modern scholars now believe Mark was the first Gospel to be written and that Matthew and Luke copied Mark when composing their own gospels. In addition to this, many scholars believe Matthew and Luke wrote independent of one another. Therefore, we can look at how both of them copied their "Markan" material and see how the overall pattern compared to the extant text of Mark that we now possess. Is their evidence that Mark was tampered with on a significant scale? Or does the evidence suggest scribal fidelity?

Mark // Q Overlap Q is the hypothetical sayings text used to explain the material common to Matthew and Luke not found in Mark. But it appears at times that Mark and this hypotehtical Q overlap. The existence of too many Mark--Q overlaps indicates a direct literary relationship between Mark and Q and this puts the Q hypothesis in jeapordy. THis article outlines an overlap and provides general information about these items.

Determining Dependence How do we determine if two texts are dependent upon one another somehow in history? This is an important issue because it is related to another question: Do thew gospels present four independent accounts of the last days of Jesus? Or is there only one account where Mark influuenced the other three texts? Or even two whereas Mark influenced Matthew and Luke but John wrote independently? Of course it wouldn't matter if they were all written by the traditional names they now don but traditional authorship is denied by most critical scholars today. Understanding the methods and pitfalls involved with determining literary dependence beteen texts is important.

 

Papias and Mark

The Disciples in Mark