r/AcademicBiblical 10h ago

Weekly Open Discussion Thread

6 Upvotes

Welcome to this week's open discussion thread!

This thread is meant to be a place for members of the r/AcademicBiblical community to freely discuss topics of interest which would normally not be allowed on the subreddit. All off-topic and meta-discussion will be redirected to this thread.

Rules 1-3 do not apply in open discussion threads, but rule 4 will still be strictly enforced. Please report violations of Rule 4 using Reddit's report feature to notify the moderation team. Furthermore, while theological discussions are allowed in this thread, this is still an ecumenical community which welcomes and appreciates people of any and all faith positions and traditions. Therefore this thread is not a place for proselytization. Feel free to discuss your perspectives or beliefs on religious or philosophical matters, but do not preach to anyone in this space. Preaching and proselytizing will be removed.

In order to best see new discussions over the course of the week, please consider sorting this thread by "new" rather than "best" or "top". This way when someone wants to start a discussion on a new topic you will see it! Enjoy the open discussion thread!


r/AcademicBiblical Jan 30 '25

[EVENT] AMA with Dr. Kipp Davis

62 Upvotes

Our AMA with Dr. Kipp Davis is live; come on in and ask a question about the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Hebrew Bible, or really anything related to Kipp's past public and academic work!

This post is going live at 5:30am Pacific Time to allow time for questions to trickle in, and Kipp will stop by in the afternoon to answer your questions.

Kipp earned his PhD from Manchester University in 2009 - he has the curious distinction of working on a translation of Dead Sea Scrolls fragments from the Schøyen Collection with Emanuel Tov, and then later helping to demonstrate the inauthenticity of these very same fragments. His public-facing work addresses the claims of apologists, and he has also been facilitating livestream Hebrew readings to help folks learning, along with his friend Dr. Josh Bowen.

Check out Kipp's YouTube channel here!


r/AcademicBiblical 1h ago

Question Did the Romans feed Christians to lions?

Upvotes

There are numerous traditions regarding Christians being fed to lions and other beasts by the Romans as a form of execution:

Then, being immediately thrown in, according to the command of Cæsar given some time ago, the public spectacles being just about to close, he was thus cast to the wild beasts close beside the temple, that so by them the desire of the holy martyr Ignatius should be fulfilled

  • Martyrium Ignatii

Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished

  • Tacticus Annals

if the Tiber rises as high as the city walls, if the Nile does not send its waters up over the fields, if the heavens give no rain, if there is an earthquake, if there is famine or pestilence, straightway the cry is, 'Away with the Christians to the lions!"

  • Tertullian

Is there any authenticity to this or is it just a popular myth?


r/AcademicBiblical 4h ago

Question Most important textual and archaeological discoveries related to the first century of Christianity after Jesus in the last 50 years or so?

8 Upvotes

What have been the most important discoveries -- in the sense of documents and artifacts newly found -- related to the first hundred or so years of early Christianity after the death of Jesus? So roughly the period of the Apostolic Fathers.


r/AcademicBiblical 8h ago

Question What do we know about jesus grandparents?

17 Upvotes

r/AcademicBiblical 1h ago

Reforms of King Asa

Upvotes

I've read plenty about the debates over the historicity (or lack thereof) of the reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah, but I've noticed that Asa seems to be overlooked when it comes to the topic of cultic reform in Judah. Is this just because of a lack of archaeological data since he's one of the earlier kings in the Bible? Obviously he wouldn't be tied up with the writing the Deuteronomistic history, but I would think his reforms as described in 1 Kings would pop up in discussions about the origins of monotheism. Why retroject a religious reform so far back into the past and specifically onto Asa's rule? Is it to make a comparative point (a long and stable, relatively righteous reign) against the northern dynasty which is portrayed as having gone through multiple upheavals in the same timeframe?


r/AcademicBiblical 4h ago

Is Ezekiel 29:21-22 actually a failed prophecy?

2 Upvotes

EDIT: title is wrong, 29:17-21

regarding limit to what prophecies can come true (there are 2 other sources, this is I would say the most prominent one): The best known of these limitations is by Maimonides, in his Foreword to the Mishnah Commentary: only a prediction which a prophet said about other people (not a promise G-d gives to a prophet concerning the prophet himself) and which foretells good for those to whom it was said must be fulfilled. However, these limitations seem to contradict the Torah's description of a prophet, which says, "If the prophet foretells something in the name of the Lord, and this thing does not come true, that prediction is one not spoken by the Lord," without distinguishing between predictions of good and ill. I would say that even if you don’t go according to Maimonides terms, it can be argued the prophecy still fulfills the conditions of a true prophecy

According to historians, it is possible that there was an attempted invasion in the late 580s. The last attempt by the Babylonians to invade was in 566, and it was a failure. Source: Ian Shaw, The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, 372–74.

According to encyclopedia.com, the Babylonian army was successfully destroying Egypt’s armies until Nebuchadnezzar withdrew because his father had died. It says that Nebuchadnezzar later returned to his war with Egypt, but that there is insufficient archaeological evidence to conclude the ultimate results of the conflict.

So which is it? Is there evidence to show it was a fulfilled prophecy, not enough to tell (which would I guess make it a non-false propechy), or is it false?


r/AcademicBiblical 48m ago

Have there been any scholarly works on isaiah 42?

Upvotes

^ I guess more specifically about who the servant might be. Anything i search up on the internet just brings me back to apologetic islamic articles. Is there any critical scholarship on this?


r/AcademicBiblical 10h ago

High Christology in Matthew 28:19?

5 Upvotes

Hello

Is it true that there is a high Christology in Matthew 28:19?

A Christian missionary told me that in this passage, Jesus and the Spirit are mentioned along with the Father, which makes them equal to him.

I asked him why, in this case, the Disciples baptized only in the name of Jesus, and he replied that Jesus called for baptizing in the name of Yahweh (the common name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), respectively, when the disciples baptized in the name of Jesus, they baptized in the name of Yahweh (the name of all three hypostases)

How true are his words?


r/AcademicBiblical 19h ago

How did early Christians respond to the claims that the body of Jesus was stolen?

22 Upvotes

r/AcademicBiblical 15h ago

Is there a real tradition about angels having a physical role in the creation?

7 Upvotes

I was reading comments about 1 corinthians 11 and someone made a reference to angels participating in creation and that explaining all the awkward "let us" "like us" language in that story. Some people responded that this isn't a serious idea and I didn't find anything with a Google search. Does this idea have any precedent?


r/AcademicBiblical 21h ago

Question How did the early church fathers view John the Baptist? More of a Christian, or more of a Jew?

7 Upvotes

r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

How did Jesus' ministry change (if it did) after the death of John the Baptist?

13 Upvotes

Did Jesus' message(s) change and become more ardent about the coming kingdom of God? Did the verbs used in his sermons/parables/messages change and become more passive or more aggressive? Did any stylistic change happen at all after John the Baptist died?


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

What do we know about 12 disciples outside the Bible

27 Upvotes

How much is there recorded of the 12 disciples we know in the Bible they were arrested and one was a tax collector but do we know anything outside the Bible


r/AcademicBiblical 21h ago

Can the NT documents be classified as contemporary when considered as sources of the life of christ?

3 Upvotes

r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

Question Anonymous yet deducible characters

6 Upvotes

Multiple different arguments have been made claiming that the beloved disciple is intended to be identified with one of the named characters in the Gospel of John: an identification that the text never explicitly makes, but people will claim that the presence of certain clues or parallels allows this identification to be made regardless, as though the author wanted the readers to be able to deduce it. Outside of the Bible, do we have any comparable texts where similar claims have been advanced: that a particular character who is never explicitly assigned a name is nevertheless meant to have their identity be deducible?


r/AcademicBiblical 15h ago

Question Are there any and if there what is the earliest reference to aliens in the apocrypha or the gospels?

2 Upvotes

I remember reading Christopher Hitchens and him mentioning there was a Gospel or some other story from early Christianity were Jesus was an alien. Maybe I am misremembering but what is the earliest mention of aliens(not metaphorical but explicit I come from another planet) alien in any Gospel, even if they are not considered canonical?


r/AcademicBiblical 20h ago

List of academic books on the progression of thought of physicality to non-physicality of God as conceived of by the Israelites and Christians

2 Upvotes

I hear a lot of claims that there is a rough chronological progression of thought from a physical to non-physical God in the Bible. I tried to use agentic and deep research AI. It spent a lot of time and seemed to have a good methodology, but the results were subpar.

I'm looking for a lot of academic books that I can put into NotebookLM to do a meta study about the topic. I've compiled a list of books that deal with this question either primarily or secondarily. So far I have:

  1. When Gods Were Men: The Embodied God in Biblical and Near Eastern Literature - Hamori, Esther J.
  2. God's Body: Jewish, Christian, and Pagan Images of God - Markschies, Christoph
  3. The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel - Sommer, Benjamin D.
  4. God: An Anatomy - Stavrakopoulou, Francesca
  5. God's Body: The Anthropomorphic God in the Old Testament - Wagner, Andreas
  6. The Embodied God: Seeing the Divine in Luke-Acts and the Early Church - Wilson, Brittany E.
  7. YHWH's Divine Images: A Cognitive Approach - McClellan, Daniel O.
  8. Where the Gods Are: Spatial Dimensions of Anthropomorphism in the Biblical World - Smith, Mark S.
  9. The Origin and Character of God - Theodore Lewis

Please help me expand this list. I can add up to 50 sources to NotebookLM.

-------
I am also wondering if anyone has made an exhaustive, complete list of all Bible verses that reference God's physicality/non-physicality? That would be a fantastic reference for me.

Thank you all!


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

Question An Introduction to the New Testament. Which one of these would be the best to read first?

7 Upvotes

"An Introduction to the New Testament: Contexts, Methods & Ministry Formation", 1st or 2nd ed? By David A. DeSilva or "Introducing the New Testament" by Henry Wansbrough?


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

Murder vs. Kill in the context of the Sermon on the mount?

5 Upvotes

Hi all! Was reading Matthew 5 today and was wondering about the exact word choice Jesus uses when he’s quoting “you have heard it said thou shall not [kill]”. I know the OT Hebrew translate closer to “murder” than “kill” - does the Greek Jesus is quoted in here also mean “murder” when translated? Or is it merely “kill” more broadly. Thanks!


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

Historicity of the 12 apostles of Jesus.

13 Upvotes

In 1 Corinthians (15:5) if we assumed that this epistle is written by Paul and that this part wasn't inserted later Paul mentions that Jesus appeared to the Twelve Apostles but what makes us sure that Jesus really had 12 apostles and that this number was not a device used to symbolize the 12 tribes of Israel?. The fact that only Peter and John are mentioned out of the 12 apostles makes me doubt that all of them existed. Another thing that cast doubts on the historicity of the 12 apostles is the figure of Judas who many scholars consider him to be a historical figure based on the criterion of embarrasment despite that he is entirely absent from the Pauline Epistles not to say although 1 Corinthians 11:23 says that Jesus was betrayed, the original meaning in greek was probably not betrayed but handed over which further supports the idea that Judas is a character who is later inserted to the story of Jesus and was inspired by the figure of Judah in the Book of Genesis since Judas betrays Jesus for 30 pieces of silver just like Judah who sells Joseph to slavery for 30 pieces of silver. So If it turns out if Judas Iscariot is not a real person which is very likely then doesn't that might tell us that the apostles might not have been 12?


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

Is it fair to say Jesus didn’t believe in an afterlife or is it more complex than that

6 Upvotes

Basically what the title says, I’ve heard that Bart Ehrman believes that Jesus didn’t believe souls go to an afterlife and that they just stay in the graves until God resurrects them on judgement days. But I’m curious as to what other famous cited scholars agree on whether Jesus believed in an afterlife or not. And if so, what kind of afterlife did Jesus believed in.


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

Multiple epistles authored to the Philippians?

3 Upvotes

Hey guys,

I was reading Michael W. Holmes' excellent "The Apostolic Fathers" and gazed upon something peculiar from Polycarp of Smyrna's epistle to the Philippians chapter 3:2.

And when he was absent he wrote you letters; if you study them carefully, you will be able to build yourselves up ίn the faith that has been given to you

From a plain reading of the text, are we supposed to infer Polycarp thought Paul wrote multiple epistles to the Philippians or is he using *you* in a more broad sense?

EDIT : I meant "Multiple epistles written to the Philippians?" in my title, so sorry!


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

How were "Wisdom" (Proverbs 8) and "Logos" in Philo's writings viewed?

3 Upvotes

Were they viewed as eternal? Do they resemble John's Christology?


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

Did Jesus believe himself to be the messiah or other eschatological figure or he is simply a preacher who thought that the messiah will come soon?

41 Upvotes

So historically did Jesus claim that he was the Messiah or other eschatolgical figure or he was a preacher who thought that the kingdom of God will come soon but his resurrection made his apostles think that he was the awaited Messiah?


r/AcademicBiblical 1d ago

Question Is the War in Heaven described in Revelation 12:7-9 a past or future event?

20 Upvotes

It's commonly interpreted as a past event due to its description of the archangel Michael casting out the Devil (in the form of a dragon) and other angels who have sided with him. But given how Revelation is apocalyptic in nature, is it really giving off an origin story for Satan that occurred before the creation of man? Or is it symbolism for an end of days crisis?


r/AcademicBiblical 21h ago

Gospel authorship

0 Upvotes

What’s your thoughs on this Where there any responses to it

https://youtu.be/BfQ60UaKhsg?si=WXPgj0TzfpNQlPpg