Bill Pratt | December 31, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt Every once in a while, you may hear from hyper-skeptics that Jesus probably never existed, or that if he did exist, we cannot know anything about him because the historical evidence is so poor. Mike Licona, in his book The Resurrection of Jesus, provides a sampling of quotes from scholars who [...]
Bill Pratt | December 21, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt Historical scholar Mike Licona, in his book The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach, asks just this question. His answer is important to understand. A priority must be assigned to Paul because he is the earliest known author to mention the resurrection of Jesus, and there are numerous extant texts he wrote that [...]
Bill Pratt | October 29, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt In part 1 of the post series, we looked at three guidelines for historians who are attempting to limit the undue influence of their horizons. These guidelines are taken from Mike Licona’s book The Resurrection of Jesus. In part 2, we will review Licona’s next three guidelines. 4. Submitting ideas to unsympathetic [...]
Bill Pratt | October 26, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt Those who take on the task of interpreting the ancient accounts of Jesus’s life are faced with a difficult task. As we’ve seen from previous posts, the horizon of each individual must be faced and addressed before investigation begins. But does the horizon of an individual render objective study of history [...]
Bill Pratt | October 24, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt In the previous blog post, I cited Mike Licona’s analysis of horizons and their impact on historical interpretation. In this post, I will go back to Licona and review just a handful of the numerous examples he gives of horizons affecting particular scholars’ historical analysis. The scholars who Licona quotes are [...]
Bill Pratt | October 22, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt When it comes to a person interpreting historical texts, particularly where ultimate issues (e.g., heaven, hell, God, sin) are at stake, that person’s horizon often plays a critical role. What is involved in a person’s horizon? Historical scholar, Mike Licona, provides a useful explanation of horizon in his book The Resurrection [...]
Bill Pratt | August 1, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt I am aware that there are philosophers who employ Bayesian analysis to determine probabilities that historical events occurred, but I am becoming skeptical of the value of these analyses. A Bayesian analysis requires a calculation of the prior probability that a historical event occurred, without considering any of the evidence we [...]
Bill Pratt | July 11, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt A common complaint about the reliability of the letters and books contained in the New Testament is that we don’t know, for sure, who wrote all of these documents. In particular, the four Gospels are singled out as being anonymous since there is nothing in the text of the four Gospels [...]
Bill Pratt | July 9, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt If you are a Christian who is waiting for the day when most historical scholars, both Christian and non-Christian, affirm that the evidence does indeed indicate that Jesus was resurrected, I’m afraid you’ll be waiting until the Second Coming, when there will be no doubt. Why is that? If, as we [...]
Bill Pratt | July 6, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt If you are a Christian who is waiting for the day when most historical scholars, both Christian and non-Christian, affirm that the evidence does indeed indicate that Jesus was resurrected, I’m afraid you’ll be waiting until the Second Coming, when there will be no doubt. Why is that? If, as we [...]
