Richard Bauckham on 'Brothers of the Lord'
Richard Bauckham recently won a prize for his book 'Jesus and the Eyewitness'
The Book of Jude quotes Richard Bauckham as writing :-
'Palestinian Jewish-Christian circles in the early church used the title ‘brother of the Lord’ not simply to identify the brothers, but as ascribing to them an authoritative status, and therefore the brothers themselves, not wishing to claim an authority based on mere blood-relationship to Jesus, avoided the term...'
It is amazing the insight Bauckham has into the minds of the brothers of Jesus.
He can sit down at his desk, think himself into their minds, and tell you their thought-processes regarding the pros and cons of using the phrase 'Brother of the Lord'
Bauckham can tell you , using only his psychic powers, that Jude, the brother of Jesus, would call himself the brother of James, but never mention that he was the brother of Jesus, presumably to avoid charges of 'name-dropping'
How can sceptics compete with the almost superhuman insight of mainstream Biblical scholars who have such gifts as being able to read minds of 2000 years ago?
Sceptics have to work with evidence and data, which puts them at a big disadvantage compared with mainstream Biblical scholars who can pull anything they like out of thin air..... and expect to be taken seriously.
posted by Steven Carr at 1:36 PM
10 Comments:
But consider the people that are taking him seriously...
Perhaps he provides evidence of his reasoning in the book?
Nope. There is no reasoning.
Have you read it? Is there anything to be said for it?
I lack the psychic skills of a Bauckham so cannot judge how well he managed to read the minds of people dead 2000 years ago.
So you haven't read it?
Enough to burst out laughing at the sheer audacity of Bauckham,and his amazing ability to claim that the brothers of Jesus would never say that they were brothers of Jesus, for reasons which only Bauckham knows.
So you haven't read it. Right.
Only on Google books.
Please don't pretend Bauckham makes any arguments for his position that I would find if I bought the book and scoured each line looking for this mythical evidence.
Give us Bauckham's evidence that the brothers of Jesus would never have claimed they were the brothers of Jesus.
Sorry, so you have read it? I am getting confused.
I'm not pretending anything. I haven't read a line beyond what you've quoted. I am trying to work out whether I can trust your judgement on Bauckham's thesis.
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