Richard Carrier – Page 4 – THE WEST'S DARKEST HOUR

The last few days I have been immersed in the videos and lectures of Richard Carrier about the Christ myth theory, to the extent that his views are shaking my previous point of view about the so-called historical Jesus (yesterday I ordered his latest book, On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt). In this lecture Carrier was younger than he is today but it is a good starting point for his work:

https://youtu.be/yzwS7BfRapw

Today I will be reading the article of another mythicist, Stephen Law, published in Faith and Philosophy 2011, Volume 28, Issue 2, April 2011, pages 129-151, which abstract says:

The vast majority of Biblical historians believe there is evidence sufficient to place Jesus’ existence beyond reasonable doubt. Many believe the New Testament documents alone suffice firmly to establish Jesus as an actual, historical figure. I question these views. In particular, I argue (i) that the three most popular criteria by which various non-miraculous New Testament claims made about Jesus are supposedly corroborated are not sufficient, either singly or jointly, to place his existence beyond reasonable doubt, and (ii) that a prima facie plausible principle concerning how evidence should be assessed—a principle I call the contamination principle—entails that, given the large proportion of uncorroborated miracle claims made about Jesus in the New Testament documents, we should, in the absence of independent evidence for an historical Jesus, remain sceptical about his existence.

Law’s full article, ‘Evidence, Miracles and the Existence of Jesus’ can be read: here.

Watching the video that a commenter recently suggested to me I made a discovery.

The atheist Richard Carrier (pic) is one of the foremost exponents of the Christ myth theory or mythicism. He has even responded to what I consider the strongest argument on the part of secular exegetes about the existence of the historical Jesus.

Remember that we have said that there are seven genuine epistles of Paul. In one of the oldest Paul speaks of the ‘brother of the Lord’. Based on what Paul says in Galatians 1:19 another atheist exegete, Bart Ehrman, believes that this is the strongest argument for thinking about the historicity of a historical Jesus (that is, a Jesus without miracles to distinguish him from the Christ of dogma). Before reading Carrier, I did not know that the mythicists had answers to this argument.

Regardless of who is right, Ehrman or Carrier regarding Galatians 1:19, what impressed me most about one of the conferences of Carrier was what he says about Luke the Evangelist.

From our point of view, it is essential to know if the writers of the New Testament were Hellenized Jews or not. We have already seen that it is highly suspicious that the first gospel from the point of view of chronology, that of Mark, was written right after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. In case Mark was a Hellenized Jew, this smells like a Jewish psyop or subtle revenge on the Hellenes (whites in the Roman Empire).

Yesterday that I watched Carrier’s YouTube lecture ‘Acts as Historical Fiction’, in 23:49 I came across this quote from Steve Mason, a specialist on Josephus, who wrote his history of Judea before Luke wrote his gospel. Mason tells us:

Almost every incident [of Judean history] that [Luke] mentions turns up somewhere in Josephus’ narratives… [And the] coincidence… of aims, themes and vocabulary… seems to suggest that Luke-Acts is building its case on the foundation of Josephus’ defense of Judaism.

Since the gospels claim that Holy Family were Jews, and Paul was a Jew, finding out the ethnicity of the evangelists ought to be fundamental for us (as is finding out the ethnicity of the bishops of Constantine and the bishops of the following Roman emperors that destroyed the Aryan culture).

For a single video of Carrier explaining his work, see: here.