{"title":"Why Name Popularity is a Good Test of Historicity: A Goodness-of-Fit Test Analysis on Names in the Gospels and Acts","authors":"Luuk van de Weghe, Jason Wilson","doi":"10.1163/17455197-bja10035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455197-bja10035","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Are name statistics in the Gospels and Acts a good test of historicity? Kamil Gregor and Brian Blais, in a recent article of the <span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\"><em>jshj</em></span>, argue that the sample of name occurrences in the Gospels and Acts is too small to be determinative and that several statistical anomalies weigh against a positive verdict. Unfortunately, their conclusions result directly from improper testing and questionable data selection. Chi-squared goodness-of-fit testing establishes that name occurrences in the Gospels and Acts fit into their historical context at least as well as those in the works of Josephus. Additionally, they fit better than occurrences derived from ancient fictional sources and occurrences from modern, well-researched historical novels.</p>","PeriodicalId":51987,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141505798","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Teaching the Historical Jesus over Three Decades, from Waikato to London","authors":"Joan E. Taylor","doi":"10.1163/17455197-bja10034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455197-bja10034","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Having taught the subject of the historical Jesus for more than thirty years, from New Zealand to London, I review from a personal perspective what has changed, and how I have taught the course over the decades. Overall, it seems harder to teach now than ever before, for reasons explored here.</p>","PeriodicalId":51987,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141505799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Thoughts on Teaching Critical History Using the Historical Jesus","authors":"Daniel Ullucci","doi":"10.1163/17455197-bja10032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455197-bja10032","url":null,"abstract":"This article discusses the author’s experience of teaching historical Jesus courses at several institutions in the United States over a span of fourteen years. It outlines some observed pedagogical challenges in teaching these courses and some strategies the author has employed to address them.","PeriodicalId":51987,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus","volume":"228 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141167388","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"He’s No Spartacus: Jesus, Slavery, and the Utopian Imagination","authors":"Christopher B. Zeichmann","doi":"10.1163/17455197-bja10021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455197-bja10021","url":null,"abstract":"<p>James Crossley and Robert Myles’s <em>Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict</em> is a considerable accomplishment in its situation of Jesus as a figure inseparable from the material conditions of labor exploitation. The present review discusses two topics that the book touches upon only briefly, but linger under the surface of their analysis: Jesus’ treatment of enslaved laborers and utopian social experimentation. This article juxtaposes Jesus with the roughly contemporaneous figure of Spartacus to consider about the availability of social experimentation and the location of slaves within class-based analyses of Roman antiquity.</p>","PeriodicalId":51987,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140298718","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict","authors":"Louise J. Lawrence","doi":"10.1163/17455197-bja10030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455197-bja10030","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This is a review article of James Crossley’s and Robert Myle’s, Jesus in Class Conflict (2023). After a chapter by chapter summary, the review provides some assorted critical reflections on among other issues the ‘biographical’ approach still apparent here, despite a critical effort to distance from ‘great man’ approaches to history.</p>","PeriodicalId":51987,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus","volume":"83 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140107341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict","authors":"Megan Wines","doi":"10.1163/17455197-bja10028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455197-bja10028","url":null,"abstract":"This essay is a review of <jats:italic>Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict</jats:italic> by James Crossley and Robert J. Myles, a historical materialist exploration of what we know about the life of Jesus and the Jesus movement in first-century Roman Palestine. This review focuses particularly on the ways in which Crossley and Myles engage with considerations of gender and masculinity as part of their engagement with the historical materials.","PeriodicalId":51987,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus","volume":"82 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140075513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What Made the Jesus Movement Tick?","authors":"James Crossley, Robert J. Myles","doi":"10.1163/17455197-bja10027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455197-bja10027","url":null,"abstract":"This article offers a rejoinder to the five critical reviews appearing in <jats:sc><jats:italic>jshj</jats:italic></jats:sc> of the book by James Crossley and Robert J. Myles, <jats:italic>Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict</jats:italic> (Zer0 Books, 2023).","PeriodicalId":51987,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140056167","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Thoughts Turned to Jesus (or someone very probably, almost certainly, clearly somewhat like him) on Reading Crossley and Myles, Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict","authors":"Robert Paul Seesengood","doi":"10.1163/17455197-bja10031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455197-bja10031","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This essay is an extended review of, and engagement with, James Crossley and Robert J. Myles’s <em>Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict</em> (2023). The review particularly commends them for a work which addresses the difficult question of whether one is able to recover an ‘historical’ figure from tradition, and notes that effort, in many ways, becomes a compelling form of reception criticism. It notes, as well, some key places for future consideration (e.g., the implications of their work for masculinity studies).</p>","PeriodicalId":51987,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140056175","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Parapsychology, Hallucinations, Collective Delusions, and Jesus’ Post-Resurrection Appearances: A Response to Glenn Siniscalchi","authors":"Stephen H. Smith","doi":"10.1163/17455197-bja10024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455197-bja10024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract After a brief outline of Glenn Siniscalchi’s apology for the traditional approach to the post-resurrection appearances, I examine his particular view that any attempt to compare the appearances of Jesus with the various apparitions discussed by parapsychologists is doomed to failure. Siniscalchi states, correctly, that the only category of apparitions worthy of consideration at all is the ‘post-mortem apparition’. However, some of the suggested differences between these and the appearances of Jesus seem somewhat banal, and are not as significant as they are made out to be. My suggestion is that some form of hypothesis coupling hallucinations with collective delusions would explain both individual and collective post-resurrection appearances, and serve as a viable alternative to the traditional evangelical view.","PeriodicalId":51987,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135823451","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Is Name Popularity a Good Test of Historicity?","authors":"Kamil Gregor, Brian Blais","doi":"10.1163/17455197-bja10023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/17455197-bja10023","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In Jesus and the Eyewitnesses , Richard Bauckham argues that the popularity of personal names in Gospels-Acts corresponds remarkably well to name popularity among late ancient Palestinian Jews and that this can only be the case if Gospels-Acts characters are in most cases historical as opposed to invented in the process of ‘anonymous community transmission’. We re-examine Bauckham’s conclusions, asserted with a remarkably high level of confidence but almost entirely without an actual statistical evaluation of his onomastic data, and perform the appropriate statistical analysis on the most recent onomastic dataset. We show that Bauckham’s thesis offers no advantage in explaining the observed correspondence between name popularity in Gospels-Acts and in the contemporary Palestinian Jewish population over an alternative model of ‘anonymous community transmission’. Moreover, our statistical analysis identifies some, albeit weak, evidence against Bauckham’s thesis.","PeriodicalId":51987,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135425361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}