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About Me

I am a 'good faith editor' who is gradually evolving into what I hope will be a positive asset for our project. When I mess up, I take a break, carefully read WP, then resume editing. I do not take offense, and try to be polite in all circumstances.

WP Core policies

I believe in WP core policies! I do NOT believe they can be overruled by consensus, no matter how many user accounts brought to bear!

Update articles from a NPOV using reliable sources

When I retired from my academic position with a major university in 2008, I decided to make myself available as an editor at Misplaced Pages. My area of expertise is Biblical scholarship, particularly the historical roots of Christianity. A lot of new scholarship has been published in the past ten years. I plan to update articles from a NPOV using recently published reliable sources.

First Century Palestine

It has been the recent focus of Biblical Scholars. We know a great deal about this era, not only because of the Talmud, but also because of the three great histories that examine Palestine at time of Jesus.

• The Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus;
• Luke-Acts by the first-century disciple of the Apostle Paul &
• Church History (Eusebius) .

Last but not least, Jerome made an extensive catalogue of all the early historical documents describing the beginnings of Christianity. Therefore, although the Library of Caesarea was destroyed, the early history of Christianity has been preserved in De Viris Illustribus

List

The following is a list of Misplaced Pages articles I am updating with 21st Century scholarship.

I. ARCHAEOLOGY

Constantine the Great made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire and appointed his mother, Augusta Imperatrix. In the year 326, he gave her unlimited access to the Imperial Treasury in order she may travel to Jerusalem to locate holy sites and relics of Judeo-Christian tradition.

Most 19th Century scholars doubted the accuracy of her finds as well as the historicity of the Gospels. However modern archeology has cast new light on the origins of Christianity.

Pool of Bethesda and Jesus

The Pool of Bethesda is an area of water in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem, on the path to the Beth Zeta Valley. The Gospel of John describes such a natatorium in Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, which was surrounded by five covered colonnades and was associated with healing. Up until the 19th century, there was no evidence outside of John’s Gospel for the existence of this pool. Scholars argued that this Gospel was written later, probably by someone without first-hand knowledge of the city of Jerusalem, and that the ‘pool’ had only a metaphorical meaning, rather than historical, significance.

Then in the 19th Century, archaeologists discovered the remains of a pool exactly matching the description in John’s Gospel; confirming the historical accuracy of John’s account.

• See following link for my proposed edits to the Pool of Bethesda and Jesus article.

James Ossuary

The James Ossuary is a 2,000-year old limestone box used for containing the bones of the dead. Researchers uncovered it in Israel in 2002. The Aramaic inscription on the artifact read: Ya'akov bar-Yosef akhui DiYeshua, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." It is significant because this archaeological evidence establishes that there was a historical person named Jesus whose father was Joseph and brother was James; as written in the Bible and in the works of Jewish historian Josephus. However, the authenticity of this artifact has been contested and was the subject to heated scholarly debate. There has now been a ruling re the issue authenticity .

• See following link for my proposed edits to the James Ossuary article.

Caiaphas Ossuary

The Caiaphas Ossuary is a bone box that archaeologists believe may have belonged to Joseph, son of Caiaphas, known as the High Priest Caiaphas in the New Testament. According to both the Canonical Gospels and the ancient historian Josephus, Caiaphas was the major antagonist of the Rabbi Jesus and his brother James the Just. Scholars doubted the existence of Caiaphas, until an ossuary attributed to him was found in 1990.

• See following link for my proposed edits to the Caiaphas Ossuary article.

Pilate Stone

The Pilate Stone is the name given to a block of limestone with a carved inscription attributed to Pontius Pilate, a prefect of the Roman-controlled Judea from 26-36. It has been deemed important, because Biblical scholars once believed that Pilate was a mythical character. Then, in 1961 an inscription with his name was found, confirming the historicity of Pontius Pilate and much of what was written by Josephus.

• See following link for my proposed edits to the Pilate Stone article.

Nazareth at the time of Jesus

It is a small town in Galilee where Jesus lived as a child. Many scholars doubted its existence and argued that it was a mythical place...until archaeologists discovered it.

• See following link for my proposed edits to the article.

II. Major historical works about Jesus

JOSEPHUS ON JESUS

(Born 37 AD) Josephus, was a renowned first-century Jewish historian who recorded important details about Jesus and his followers. The Antiquities of the Jews, written by Josephus is the earliest and most extensive historical work on the Judeo-Christian Faith. He writes of a Jewish sect, whose leader was James the Just (the brother of Jesus). The Antiquities of the Jews also includes sections on John the Baptist, the High Priest Annas, Pontius Pilate, and Jesus called the Messiah. Furthermore, this history gives us valuable insight into the Sitz im Leben at the time of Jesus. The Antiquities of the Jews was written from a Jewish or possibly a Jewish Christian (Ebionite) perspective at the end of the First century.

• See following link for my proposed edits to the Josephus article.

LUKE–ACTS

The writer of Luke–Acts was the first-century physician of the Apostle Paul. Luke's extensive history of the Christianity was divided into two books. The first details the life of Jesus, while the second records the events in First Century Palestine that led to the formation of Christian faith.

Luke explains that he had at his disposal many accounts that had been drawn up by those who were the first were eyewitnesses and servants Jesus. He himself had carefully investigated everything from the beginning, and decided to write an orderly account of how Christianity came into being. He also records a number of important events to which he was an eyewitness.

• See following link for my proposed edits to the Luke–Acts article.

CHURCH HISTORY (EUSEBIUS)

The CHURCH HISTORY by Eusebius has great value to Biblical scholars because it preserved many of the early historical documents that described the formation of Christianity. Therefore, although the Library of Caesarea was destroyed, the early history of Christianity has been saved.

• See following link for my proposed edits to the Eusebius article.

DE VIRIS ILLUSTRIBUS (JEROME)

De Viris Illustribus (On Illustrious Men) is a collection of short biographies of 135 ancient authors who lived during the formative years of Christianity. It was composed in Latin, by the Church Father Jerome. Historians see this work as extensive catalogue or bibliography of the important early historical documents relating the birth of Christianity. Although the Library of Caesarea was lost, the early history of Christianity has been preserved in De Viris Illustribus.

• Formation of the GOSPELS according to Jerome
• See following link for my proposed edits to the article.

III. Other historical works about Jesus

Jesus in the Talmud

When the rabbi Jesus (and later his followers) put forward their interpretation of the Law of Moses; there were those who disagreed. (See Oral Gospel tradition). After the fall of the Temple in 70 CE, these oral disputes were recorded in the Talmud. The Talmud reflects the nature of the rabbinical debate between the "Christ" and those who opposed him. Although biased, it confirms much of what the gospels say about the historical Jesus.

• See following link for my proposed edits to the Jesus in the Talmud article.

Celsus

Celsus was a 2nd Century Greek philosopher and opponent of Early Christianity. He is known for his literary work, The True Word which is the earliest known comprehensive attack on Jesus.

Celsus explained that Jesus came from a Jewish village in the Holy Land. Jesus' mother was a poor Jewish girl. This girl's husband, who was a carpenter by trade, drove her away because of her adultery with a Roman soldier named Panthera. She gave birth to the bastard Jesus. In Egypt, Jesus became learned in sorcery and upon his return made himself out to be a god. Celsus confirmed the Historicity of Jesus but dispited the Virgin birth.

• See following link for my proposed edits to the Celsus article.

IV. Oral Gospel Tradition

The Oral Tradition (Logia) was not a Christian innovation but an established practice of Palestinian Judaism. Papias, explained that Matthew, who used to be a tax collector and later an Apostle, recorded in writing the Logia (sayings) of Jesus. It was published in Judea in Aramaic but with Hebrew script.

Over the years many scholar's believed this Hebrew Gospel of Matthew was the same as the Greek Gospel of Matthew found in the Bible. However, this year (2016) renowned Biblical scholar Bart Ehrman in his extensive work on the Oral Tradition has questioned this assumption. When Papias talks about a Gospel by Matthew; is he actually talking about the Gospel that 'we know' about by this name? At first this seems to be a strange question, but in fact what Papias says about the Matthew's gospel suggests he is referring to a book different from the one we have.

That is easy to demonstrate. Papias says basically "two things about the "Matthew" he is familiar with: it consists only of the sayings of Jesus and it was composed in Hebrew. Neither is true of our Matthew, which does not have sayings of Jesus, but is mainly composed of stories about Jesus. Moreover, it was not composed in Hebrew but in Greek, as virtually every critical scholar on the planet agrees." Therefore Matthew's written collection of sayings or logia is simply a rendering of the Christian Oral Tradition which is very different from the canonical Gospel of Matthew found in the Bible. (Ehrman, 2016 p 115.)

Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus Before the Gospels, HarperCollins, 2016 and James D.G. Dunn, The Oral Gospel Tradition, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2013 are two scholarly works that have reshaped our understanding of the the Oral Tradition and origins of the gospels.

• See following link for my proposed edits to the Oral Tradition article.

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