Here’s a request to those keen to see my next book: since I am nearing completion of my subject index for On the Historicity of Jesus (the scripture index is long since finished and submitted), and the publisher wants to release it in June (at that link you can also see the book’s description and a detailed table of contents), it occurred to me that it couldn’t hurt to ask everyone who is interested: what would you look up in the index to such a book? Don’t worry whether I’ve already thought of it. If you are keen to, just list anything in comments here that you would expect, or hope, or want, or need to be there. And if you know anyone interested in this book, let them know to come here and weigh in if they want to.
For the purposes of this post only, all I want in comments are words and names you’d like to see in the index (or attempts to describe such, if you aren’t sure how something would be indexed). No other questions or commentary, please. I have plenty of other posts on the subject where those can be submitted. Thanks!
Here are some of the names I would wish to see appear in the Index (and of course in the text of the book)
2 Maccabees
4 Maccabees
A. D. (Arthur Denner) Howell Smith – Jesus Not A Myth
Albert Kalthoff
Albert Schweitzer
Alfred Firmin Loisy
Alvar Ellegard
Ancient Wisdom in OT and NT
Archibald Robertson
Archibald Sayce
Arthur Drews – The Christ Myth; The Witnesses to the Historicity of Jesus
Baron d’Holbach
Bolingbroke, Henry St. John
Book of Baruch
Book of Daniel
Book of Enoch
Book of Ezra
Book of Job
Book of Koheleth
Book of Proverbs
Book of Psalms
Book of Sirach
Book of Tobit
Book of Wisdom of Solomon
Bruno Bauer
Burton L. Mack
Charles Guignebert
Charles-François Dupuis
Christopher Hitchens
Constantin F. Comte de Volney – Ruins or Meditations on the Revolutions of Empires and the Law of Nature
David Friedrich Strauss
Denial of Historicity of Jesus Christ
Dennis R. MacDonald
Dutch Radical School
Edward Carpenter – Pagan and Christian Creeds
Edwin Johnson
Elijah/Elisha – model for Mark
Emil Schürer
Ernst Haenchen
F.C. Bauer – Tübingen School
Foote & Wheeler
Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare
Georg Brandes – Jesus, A Myth
George Albert Wells – The Jesus of the Early Christians; Did Jesus Exist?; The Historical Evidence for Jesus; Who Was Jesus?; Belief & Make-Believe; The Jesus Legend; The Jesus Myth; Earliest Christianity; Can We Trust the New Testament?; Cutting Jesus Down to Size.
Gerd Lüdemann
Geza Vermes
Gilbert Murray
G.R.S. Mead/
Gnostic Society
Gustav van den Bergh van Eysinga
Harold Leidner
Heikki Räisänen
Herbert Cutner
Hermann Detering – Radikalkritik
Hermann Gunkel
Hermann Samuel Reimarus
Holy Spirit in Judaism
Hyam Maccoby
H.W.Ph. van den Bergh van Eysinga
Isaiah 53
Joachim Kahl
Johannes Weiss
John Frum/Cargo Cult
John G. Jackson
John McKinnon Robertson
John Marco Allegro
John E. Remsberg
John J. Collins – Jewish Wisdom in the Hellenistic Age
John P Meier – A Marginal Jew
John S. Kloppenborg
John Shelby Spong
Joseph Campbell
Joseph Klausner
Joseph McCabe
Joseph Wheless – Forgery in Christianity
Julian the Apostate
Justin Martyr – The First Apology; The Sons of Jupiter
Karl Kautsky
Ludwig Feuerbach
Luigi Cascioli – The Fable of Christ
Marcus Borg
Mark Goodacre
Martin Dibelius
Maurice Goguel
Michael Grant
Michael Douglas Goulder
Michael Martin
Michael V. Fox – Proverbs; Ecclesiastes
M. M. Mangasarian
Morna Hooker
Morton Smith
Names of God
Names of Savior – Joshua, Jeshua, Iesous, Jesus
Paul-Louis Couchoud – The Enigma of Jesus; the Mystery of Jesus; The Creation of Christ
Paul Wilhelm. Schmiedel
Peter Jensen
Psalm 22
R.E. Witt
R. Joseph Hoffmann-Historical Jesus
Randel Helms
Richard A. Burridge – Gospels & Greco-Roman biographies
Robert Eisenman
Robert Eisler
Robert Ingersoll
Robert M Price-The Christ Myth Theory & its Problems
Ronald L. Troxel – Hebrew & Semitic Studies
Rudolf Bultmann
Samuel G. F. Brandon
Savitri Devi – Incurable decadence
Shirley Jackson Case – The Historicity of Jesus
Talmud & Jesus
The “Branch” and the Messiah in OT
Thomas Brodie – The Birthing of the NT
Thomas Kelly Cheyne – Encyclopaedia Biblica
Thomas L. Thompson- Is This Not the Carpenter?
Thomas Paine
Thomas W. Doane – Bible Myths and their Parallels in Other Religions,
Thomas Whittaker
Tom Harpur – The Pagan Christ
Walter Richard Cassels – Supernatural Religion
Walter P. Weaver-The Historical Jesus in the Twentieth Century, 1900-1950
Walter Schmithals – The Theology of the First Christians
Wilhelm Bousset – Kyrios Christos
William Benjamin Smith
William R. Cooper – The Horus Myth
William Wrede
Off the top of my head… Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny, Pilate, Sarapion, Suetonius, Constantine, Nicaea, historical criteria: multiple independent attestation, dissimilarity/embarrassment, coherence/consistency/conformity.. silence, the oral tradition, exegesis: grammar, syntax, transliterations, semantics, redaction criticism, arrangement, editing, modification, additions, deletions, contradictions, apocalypticism, eschatology, Asceticism, charismatic healer, messiah, gnosticism, Price, Erhman, Murdock/Acharya, zeitgeist-myth-conspiracy, and the wiki list of notable biblical scholars, Jesus seminar, non-canonical, synoptic gospels, parallel reading, Pauline Epistles, baptised, supper, passion, crucified, resurrection, empty tomb, Galilean, census, Greek, Aramaic, Latin, Hebrew, Hellenistic, Semitic, archaeology, first-second-third quests. Can’t wait to read your book.
Biblical interpolations
first century Nazareth
Orphism: Orpheos Bakkikos amulet
Logia: Dominical …
Price, Robert M. …
MacDonald, Ronald …
Josephus: Testimonium Flavianum; Wars; Antiquities
Septuagint
Barker, Margaret
Bousset, Wilhelm
Detering, Hermann: Synoptic Apocalpse; Bar Kochba
Memoirs of the Apostles
Q (Quelle) …
Synoptic gospels: Synoptic problem
Mark (Gospel of): Homeric influences on
Without looking at what you already have so as to eliminate any bias on my part, the first thing I’d go for (because I hear it ALL the time) would be Josephus. Then I’d want to look up a list of scholars who deal with the historicity of Jesus and also a list of primary sources.
Hope this helps. 🙂
Birth of Jesus; Birth of John the Baptist; Temple service (dates) of John the Baptist’s father
Roman Law and especially Jewish Law.
Two items I’d like to see in the index:
Q, sources of
Contemporary documentation, importance of & lack of for the gospel
Miracles, Josephus, Nazareth, contradictions, Bethlehem, Q source, Paul, celestial Jesus, resurrection, John the Baptist
Here are some things I would index:
Josephus
Tacitus
James
“Brother of the Lord”
“seed of david”
“born of a woman”
Mystery Religion
Dying and Rising god
Ehrman, Bart
Make sure the index has references that cover all of the common objections to the Jesus myth theory.
Eisenman
Ehrman
Craig, William Lane
Ass, Pulled Right out of
Apologetics
Logical fallacy
Appeal to Authority
Prior probability
Consequent probability
A fortiori
Miracle
Canon of probabilities
Pseudoclementines
Homilies
Recognitions
Gospel Peter
Gospel of Thomas
Talmud
Nazareth
Nazarene
Bethlehem
Rome
Caesar
Cicero
Pilate
John the Baptist
James the Just
Epistemic probability
Argument from Silence
Pliny
Philo
Josephus
Irenaeus
Eclipse
Price, Robert M.
(1) The Sermon on the Mount — If I recall correctly, this story appears in two of the four Gospels, with substantial difference between the two accounts. In Mathew the preaching is done from a mount, in Luke from a plain (and it’s actually called “the sermon on the plains”). In both accounts, they take place at the same point in the story arc. Certainly, like a musician, a wandering preacher might have given similar but slightly different sermons, which some theologians suggest as the reason for the differences in the two accounts.
However, I find it curious that the form of these sermons more resembles some of the known later forgeries, the “lost sayings of Jesus” stuff which was apparently known to the authors of the KJV and rejected as inauthentic.
Does modern textual analysis suggest that these were inserted into these two gospels at a later time, from another source?
I think this question is important, because it’s one of the most widely known and referenced stories from the gospels. It’s often cited as the core of the moral authority of the gospels and the religion. It would be interesting to know if they appear to have been later inserts.
(Just FYI, there is a growing consensus that the Sermon on the Mount is a late invention and does not go back to Jesus. I effectively prove this is the case in my book, but it’s not a hard sell. Several leading scholars already agree. So it’s not even very controversial in the field, outside of fundamentalism.)
(2) Index by Dogma — The relevant portions of your book, indexed to important dogma, the symbolic icons for members of the Christian religion.
– the Virgin Birth
– the Trinity
– the Divinity of Jesus
– throwing the moneychangers from the Temple
– the Resurrection
– fulfillment of prophecy
Casey
Ehrman
Fisher, Stephanie
Evans , Craig
Josephus
Feldman , Louis
Tacitus
Mcullagh, CB
Clement of Rome
Osiris
Alexander Jannaeus
Tacitus fragment 2
netser (“branch”)
Simon Magus
Einhorn, Lena
Graves, Robert
Chrestus
Chrestiani
Stephen (martyr)
Talmud
Marcion
Hilgenfeld, Adolf Bernhard
Tübingen
Baur, Ferdinand Christian
O’Callaghan, Jose
Eisenman, Robert
Huller, Stephan
Elymas Bar-Jesus
Podro, Joshua
30C.E. Jewish Personified Wisdom
(Apologies if you’re not covering any of the following)
Gospels
Authorship
Chronology of Authorship
Official Chronology vs. Historical
In Historical Context
Language (i.e. Greek rather than Hebrew or Aramaic)
Retcons in
Jesus
Infancy Stories
Non-biblical References
Contemporary Messianic Figures and Mystery Cults
Comparable Mythic Figures
As Apocalyptic Prophet
Pontius Pilate
Historical Documentation
As Gospel Character
In Non-Canonical Gospels and Later Christian Literature
Peter
Historical Documentation
As Gospel Character
In Non-Canonical Gospels and Later Christian Literature
Son of Man
Temple in Jerusalem
History of
Gospel References
Temple Cult
Basilidians
Carpocratians
Cerinthians
Photius
* Earl Doherty’s “the Galilean Tradition (or movement) and Q document” hypothesis – your thoughts on the
subject.
* The original Christianity (that of the celestial Jesus) – an explanation to why and how did it vanish so fast without leaving evidence (except the epistles).
* When did people start believing that there were hidden clues about Jesus in the old testament?
I wouldn’t say any of these are essential but they are things I might look for. If they are already covered by related terms of slightly different word orders, I could find them that way.
archons
beloved disciple
brothers of Jesus
dating (of epistles) (of gospels)
interpolations (detection of?)(in Paul?)
James the Just
John the Baptist
Marcion
Nazareth/Nazarene
Simon Magus
temple (destruction of, knowledge of destruction of)
If you talk much about sources for Gospel stories,
Esther
Elijah/Elisha
Odyssey
Not sure if you even get into previous myth proposals much (perhaps just to contrast with or dismiss them) but if so. many readers might expect to see?
Dutch radicals
dying and rising god
Osiris
solar deity
Literary Styles/Forms
[sub-list of the terms that describe the story flow in the gospels that I can’t remember at the moment]
Miracles (Jesus-focused, natch)
[sub-list of specific miracles by “standard/common” name, if any]
Scotch & Whiskeys
[Sub-list of favorite spirits]
Gnostics
Josehpus
testimonium flavianum
Tacitus
Jesus’ date of birth
Date of crucifixion
G. A. Wells
Earl Doherty
Essenes
Talmud
Pauline Epistles
Accounts of resurrection
Chasing money lenders from the temple/ cleansing of the temple
Nazarene
Nazarite
Christ figures
Pagan deities like christ
Zalmoxis
Interpolations. Especially in Paul’s letters.
Philo of Alexandria
Joseph of Arimathea
Tacitus
Josephus
Deuterocanonical
Wisdom of Sirach
Book of Wisdom
Logos
Papias
Eusebius
Origen
Pliny (the Elder and the Younger)
Suetonius
Inscription
stele
exegesis
Septuagint
John the Baptist
Apollonius of Tyrana
Heracles
Hagiography
What I would look up in the index would be things like:-
Josephus
Paul and his concept of Christ
Philo
Arianism
Origen
Tertullian
Gnosticism
Constantine
Theodosius
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
Primary source evidence
Evidence for Alexander and Socrates etc
Biblical Scholars who are mythicists
Anyway, can’t wait to get my hands on your book!
Regards, Rob
(Richard, can you please delete my first post?)
Earl Doherty
Q document
Galilean tradition
Galilean movement
Jerusalem tradition
Ascension of Isaiah
On the Confusion of Tongues
Peter
James brother of the Lord
The twelve
Nazareth
excess of “Mary”s in the NT
Book of Revelation
Gnostics
Demise of Paul’s Christianity
Vridar
Youtube
Psalms
Euhemerism
Paul’s persecution of Christians
America, Jesus in
What I’d like to see if you’re doing a significant amount on the Passion:
crucifixion
– lack of obvious linguistic evidence
– of Jesus, based on Psalm 22
– of Jesus, based on Roman Triumph
– of Jesus, based on funeral of Julius Caesar
cross, similarity with a Roman tropaeum
Samuelsson, Gunnar – Crucifixion in Antiquity
Carotta, Francesco – Jesus Was Caesar ( even if he is crank)
Julius Caesar
Augustus Caesar
Jesus Ben Ananius
Constantine
Given that I will be attempting to share this book with my fundamentalist family and friends, but will probably end up arguing from the text instead when they decline to read it, here are some subjects I would like to be able to look up quickly based on the objections and arguments I predict that they’ll raise. Thanks again for your awesome work; finding it really hard to wait for the book to launch!
Acts of the Apostles
Anna
Annas
Anointed One
anti-Christian
apologist
apostle
ascension
atheist
authority (argument from, nature of, trustworthiness of)
Barabbas
Bethlehem
bias
Biblical inerrancy
Caiaphas
Calvary
census
centurion
Chesterton, G. K.
Christ
claim(s)
Collins, Francis
conversion [particularly of “skeptics”]
Craig, William Lane
credentials / qualifications / resume [some quick link to Dr. Carrier’s bona fides]
crucifixion
Cyrenius / Quirinius
Daniel
darkness
demon(s)
denial (nature of) [looking for a link to a passage, if there is one, explaining why “denial” better describes the standard historicist position rather than the mythicist position]
Devil
divine nature / divinity
earthquake
eclipse
empty tomb
evidence (definition or nature of)
faith
false equivalence [especially “You have your (belief/faith/religion/etc.) and I have mine”]
Gehenna
Geisler, Norman
Genesis
God the Father
god-man
heaven
hell
Herod Agrippa
Herod the Great
Holy Spirit
Isaiah
Isaiah 7:14
Isaiah 9:6-7
Isaiah 53
Jerusalem
John (and his Gospel)
John the Baptist
Lamb of God
Lewis, C. S. (and his Trilemma)
Luke (and his Gospel)
McDowell, Josh
magi
Mark (and his Gospel)
martyr
Mary, mother of Jesus
Mary Magdalene
Massacre of the Innocents
Matthew (and his Gospel)
Messiah
Micah 5:2
miracle(s)
Nazarene
Nazareth
Pascal, Blaise (and his Wager)
Paul
perfection [as in, “perfect man and perfect God”]
Peter
Pilate, Pontius
prophecy / prophecies, esp. of Jesus
Psalm(s) [including entries for specific verses in the Book of Psalms that the NT writers identify as prophecies of Jesus]
purpose (of your book) [looking for a link to a passage in which you explain why you wrote it]
redemption
resurrection
sacrifice
saint
salvation
Satan
Schaeffer, Francis
seal (on the tomb)
Sheol
shepherds
Simeon
sin
soldiers (guarding the tomb)
Son of David
Son of God
Son of Man
Star of Bethlehem
stoning
Strobel, Lee
swoon theory
tax
temptation
trial
Trinity
veil (of the temple)
virgin
virgin birth
wise men
Zacharias, Ravi
Just FYI, that’s already easily gotten here, which is linked on my official About page, which is the first link on my official website front page.
Just FYI, that will be in the Preface of the book.
I saw someone employ the Ancient Person Historicity Double Standard Defense lately who appears to favour a completely non-supernatural Nobody Jesus. He complained that no mythicist extensively reviews the evidence for the historicity of figures like Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Zoroaster, Confucius, Homer, Epicurus, Democritus, Leucippus, Spartacus, Zeno, Aesop (he called them “simple examples” so he may or may not have many more people in mind), and seriously seems to think that the evidence for most of them is as poor as that for Jesus (he appears to have backpedalled by essentially admitting that his list is basically taking random potshots and hoping that some will stick: he does not appear to have researched them all in detail, either). Of course I brought up Adversus Apologetica, but he complained that the comparison was unfair because Tiberius was a ruler. I also pointed out how neither of the cases is anything close to comparable, how RationalWiki already destroys many of his cases by showing they have far more reliable evidence in their favour (writings by followers or disciples, or otherwise credible witnesses), and how several entries on his list are figures whose historicity is not actually free of doubt. Finally, I noted that his obscure Nobody Jesus is unrecoverably generic, which bodes ill for the construction of a pro-historicity argument. So, can he rest assured that you will treat this issue in great detail in your upcoming book (which must presumably be expected of any serious book on the historicity of Jesus which tries to convince the reader that the case for historicity is extraordinarily poor, and that mythicism is a superior explanation), and that you will field the evidence in favour of the historicity of ancient personages often brought up by historicists and apologists? (Of course you cannot cover dozens and dozens of figures, but those brought up most frequently might do. If apologists seriously expect taken seriously when, after finding an initial list of examples debunked, they throw more and more examples at their opponents, they’re simply deluded, of course.)
Just FYI, most experts are historicity agnostics about Aesop and Zoroaster, and odds favor non-existence for both.
Meanwhile, many scholars are agnostic about Homer and Pythagoras (the latter is outside our ability to know, while every expert agrees no one author composed the works of Homer any more than one author composed Genesis, so the historicity of Homer is on the same level as “the author of Genesis”: obviously such an author existed, since the text didn’t write itself, but there was more than one of them over centuries, and we know nothing about them).
Similarly, all experts agree no one person lies behind the writings of “Hippocrates” and we know nothing reliable about “Democritus,” only that he wrote some things that were later quoted and talked about–which entails someone wrote those things, regardless of their name, so “Democritus” is as good a stand-in term for them as anything.
Likewise the evidence for Epicurus is a bit better than we have for Jesus (e.g., unlike Jesus, we have the actual writings of Epicurus himself.)
And so on.
So you really don’t get anywhere with an argument like this. Especially since no good case for the non-existence of Jesus rests on our merely not having records of him.
And though Tiberius was a ruler, Jesus was the Most Important Man in Human History, the One True Agent of God and Savior of the Whole Universe. That kind of outranks “ruler” in importance. Perhaps this guy is forgetting that not even the Christians themselves preserved any reliable historical documentation of Jesus. And that’s weird.
It is also problematic to claim Jesus was a nobody. I grant that’s an out. But it comes with consequences. Because if it’s so, you are conceding the Gospels are lying (egregiously…and evidently, successfully) and that Jesus never said or did anything in life that would inspire fanatical worshipers or warrant anyone considering him worth dying for–because nothing Jesus ever said or did in life is ever relevant to the gospel preached anywhere in the authentic letters of Paul…which begs the question how he convinced anyone he was the Messiah and Savior who would soon return on clouds of glory if he never said or did anything anyone thought impressive enough to ever discuss until a lifetime later.
In any event, these kinds of arguments are addressed in the book.
Let me add these (I couldn’t remember them yesterday):
crucifixion
– archaeological evidence
– in epigraphy (non-Christian depictions of a Roman crux, Alexamenos depicting a crucified god)
Ethelbert Stauffer – Jerusalem und Rom, Christ and the Caesars
I’m hoping you might have something to say about: Oral Tradition. 🙂
births, miraculous
Cynics (Greek philosophical school), presence and influence of in Roman Palestine
deaths, cosmic
Jeshua ben Ananias
messiahs, expectations of
Slightly OT: A clear timeline often helps greatly in historical studies; a glossary, ditto.
Chrestian
Chrest – the good
Chrest in early manuscripts (Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus, Vaticanus) and inscriptions
Changing of Chrest to Christ
Modern scholars not givinf correct translations
Normal methods of historians compared to methods used by NT scholars
Do NT scholars even do history
Hector Avalos, End of Biblical Studies
NT Minimalism
Applying Copenhagen school of thought to the NT
Thomas L Thompson
Palaeography pseudoscience?
Scientific testing of all manuscripts
NT Manuscript provenance revisited
Maurice Casey and Bart Ehrman failed cases for Jesus historicism
Translation, History of [biblical books/epistles]
…should include references to original language of authorship for different books as well as how books reached English (since that’s the language we’re reading in). Did the translation pass through Latin on the way? Is this a book that started in Aramaic or Greek? That sort of thing would be useful to be able to find.
Consensus
Consensus, argument from (see also, Authority, Argument from and Populum, Argumentum ad)
Zombie, Invasion of Jerusalem by (Not)
Geza Vermes was mentioned earlier, but I’d like a separate index citation to “Dead Sea Scrolls” [even if it redirects to a more appropriate entry, like “Bible, early manuscripts” or some such].
Essenes
“Teacher of Righteousness”
John Dominic Crossan (as a popularizer of the idea we can “know” the “historical Jesus” he might be in your book; alternatively “historical Jesuses, conflicts between” might be even better than simply listing the popularizers)
Masada
Second Temple, destruction of
…I’m rather hoping these events are mentioned in setting the stage for understanding what the political environment was, so that we can better understand the context in which people might feel motivation X or undertake action Y.
other things I wanted were already covered, but include things like Maccabees (the book and the family and revolution with which they are associated), John the Baptist, Q, Saul/Paul, Bart Ehrman, Avalos, Tacitus, Pliny, Josephus, etc.)
Ascension of Isaiah
Earl Doherty
Marcion
All the non-canonical gospels, acts, etc.
Enoch, Books of
Maccabees, Books of
Diatesseron (sp?)
Didache
Bart Ehrman–He’s a formidable biblical scholar and atheist whose recent book argues for the existence of Jesus the man.
Chronology of theologies and events between ~6bce – 100ce according to ahistoricity vs the chronology in the strongest version of the argument for historicity.
Theology ex: most historicists propose a low christology (Q) evolving to a high christology (John). Your model is I believe high christology (Paul) followed by lower (Mark) followed by higher (John). It would be helpful to see these models lined up in sequence to highlight their differences.
This is a bit late but “St. Paul and temporal lobe epilepsy” (he was thought to have it).
I’m reading the Richard Bauckham book “Jesus and the Eyewitnesses” to understand some of the apologist “arguments” in anticipation of OHJ. While there are some really ridiculous things in this, one thing that I’ve found useful is his division of the index into four separate sections, namely “Ancient Persons”, “Modern Authors”, “Places” and “Scriptures and Other Ancient Writings”. I know you’ve done a scripture index, but are you thinking of further breaking down the index along the lines mentioned above?
Not exactly. That would be too tedious (and not terribly useful). Ancient passages relating directly to historicity (e.g. in Josephus, Tacitus, etc.) are in the subject index. Everything else is in the NT, so covered by the scripture index. The only other things that matter are modern authors (for which there will be a separate index) and ancient authors and persons mentioned in the main body (and not just in notes), which are in the subject index (likewise places that matter).
Slightly off topic, but probably a question that many people are asking: Sheffield Phoenix are still saying on their website that “On the Historicity of Jesus” will be published in June. Can you give any indication of when electronic versions (Kindle and/or epub) will be available?
Much later than that. They haven’t even started discussing an e-edition contract with me, much less beginning production. I estimate (very roughly and out of the blue) that an e-version will arrive a year after print. Insofar as I ever have any ability to, I shall try to accelerate that outcome. But right now I am not optimistic.